What would it take to add a preference/option to keep old UI?

[Daniel Do Binau]

While I acknowledge that some people - inexplicably! - actually like the new UI, it should be evident to anyone that there is a very large group of users (a majority in my estimation, although I admit to being biased) who hate it fervently.

Personally I feel very frustrated at the choice between sticking to a legacy version of SourceTree or having the new UI crammed down my throat. Don't get me wrong, I'll choose the former any day of the week - but I will miss the actual functionality of the new updates. I believe a very large group of users feel the same way.

The obvious solution is to make it a personal preference in the SourceTree application so that you have the ability to keep the old look'n'feel if you want. I imagine it shouldn't be too major of a change since you don't need to invent something that didn't already exist at some point. You just need the app to support both looks instead of forcing the new one.

My question is, how do we go about making this a formal request to the dev team? And how to best raise awareness of the suggestion to both the devs and all the users who would support such a feature?
I'm not well acquainted with the process for this kind of thing. But I guess a lot of upvotes on this question would be a good first step  

EDIT: I have created https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SRCTREEWIN-4841 and encourage everyone to upvote it. 

[Seth · Accepted solution]

A well-upvoted question is a good start. Probably the best option is to use jira.atlassian.com. Users can vote those up as well, and JIRA provides some transparency into Atlassian's progress.

Here are some relevant bug reports I found that (as of this posting) are open and haven't been closed as duplicates:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SRCTREEWIN-4306

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SRCTREEWIN-4240

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SRCTREEWIN-4196

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SRCTREEWIN-4297

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SRCTREEWIN-4766

EDIT: Link to feature request that was created by OP: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SRCTREEWIN-4841

[Daniel Do Binau]

Thanks Seth. I have created https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SRCTREEWIN-4841 and encourage everyone to upvote it.

[bgannin]

There are two things in discussion here:

1. Skinning (applying new layouts or flows)
2. Theming (swapping color palettes on an existing layout)

The latter is much more feasible and should be upvoted for each platform. The former isn't in the cards - there are substantial under the hood improvements for the architecture of SourceTree and ressurrecting the prior UI and wiring it up.

Please continue delivering feedback (especially via tickets and votes) about what elements of the new design are not working for you. We are keeping an eye on all channels and do our best to incorporate improvements in each release.

Brian Ganninger
Senior Mac Developer, SourceTree

[Martín Currao]

As the new version also strips functionality (tree view, why good old tree view?), I will consider legacy SourceTree the last stable release, and just assume anything newer is just an unlabeled beta.

Still, many programs have been offering themes for ages. It should not be that complicated to add some simple theme picker, with at least those two choices.