The annoying part of the effect is that it worked on the whole screen, all the time. Frankly, the other way would make you nauseous and disoriented after using it for a while. But that is what good interface is all about. If all these details are improved, and it looks like they will be, then Aqua really will be an improvement. This is all really good interface.
Sheets are a very nice improvement to the interface, and are long overdue.
So Aqua gives us another interface win. But to let user know that it is the default, it throbs or sort of pulsates in an animated and somewhat annoying way. But, I, and the other interface weenies complaining about this, may be jumping the gun. Concerns So far, many of the Mac faithful have given Aqua positive reviews, generally outweighing the negative voices. In fact, most people seemed to like what they saw.