I just wish I could see half of it.
Ahhh, "a whiter shade of pale"?
Form and function, I say.
Function and form, say I. My main gripes are about functionality and readability--user friendliness, if you will. I mentioned them before. I'll speak my piece one more time--for the record, and then I'll forever keep my peace.
1. Navigation. When I log on, I do three things--check my Inbox, my Alerts and then go to my Watched Threads. All three are there on my old toolbar, clearly visible, one simple click or a hover takes me to the content I want. Not so in Aluminum, which I find a lot less convenient. What used to be one click, now is two or three clicks away.
2. Visibility and readability. ECF skin is tighter, the shading provides more contrast, quoted posts stand out (even though I was never a fan of that pumpkin hue

), the font is darker and thus easier to read, there are no large grayish empty spaces everywhere, the size of members' info (left) and the text box are just right, my personal info (on the right side) is properly sized and provides the information about me that is rather useful, etc. Somehow, in Aluminum, everything still seems to be floating in that vast, pale space, without a focus, not really anchored properly, for lack of better description.
3. The blinking green dot is just mildly annoying. Sorry. Why does it have to blink? I can live with that.
4. Round avatars are not my cup of tea... I'll live...