Man, it seems like everyone's talking about Aqua. Mac OS X's "refined" Mac interface may be lickable, sure, but it's also controversial as all get-out. We ourselves were embroiled in the debate over the new "Finder," and even that one isolated topic generated a torrent of email from opinionated X-watchers. With all the discussion about Aqua's new button layout, minimizing behavior, giant icons, lack of true Desktop behavior, etc., talking about Aqua is a full-time job. And you couldn't pay us enough to get dragged into the unending debates about the Dock-- even combat pay wouldn't be worth the risk to life, limb, and sanity.

That said, if you'd like to read as much as possible about Aqua's perceived pros and cons without necessarily getting involved in the arguments yourself, there are plenty of resources to visit. If you haven't seen it yet, Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini (Apple's former human interface guru) has a point-by-point critique that is essential reading. David K. Every has an excellent three-part interface dissection at MacWEEK. Faithful viewer Helen Balasny notes that the Aqua debate is entering the semi-mainstream with a new Salon article. (Will Aqua be Apple's "New Coke?" Uh-oh, they've already renamed the Blue Box "Classic"!) And faithful viewer Chris Tipton-King provides a more youthful perspective; we wish we had had that kind of focus when we were sixteen. Heck, we don't even have that kind of focus now.

That's a lot of Aqua-talk, and yet it's positively dwarfed by the fiesty debates raging over email lists and Usenet. Of course, being the suspicious little fiends we are, we can't help but wonder if Steve's keynote demo was specifically engineered to generate all this free publicity through arguments over what does what and how. Remember, he's the master showman and he plays the press like a fiddle. What better way to generate buzz for Aqua than via an hour-long demo that conceals as much as it reveals? Personally, we're keeping hope alive that several of Aqua's less-friendly aspects, such as the cool-looking but confusing Dock, are going to be a lot more manageable when Mac OS X finally ships.