edubuntu desktop

[Jane Weideman]

Hi all,

The original wallpaper which Oliver 'put together in 10 minutes' is the
mustard coloured one. [1]. It was generally felt that this was too dull
and 'boring' for this distro and as our target market is the 6-18 year
old age group.

We decided to take, fun, young and vibrant as our theme for Edubuntu,
and to give it a younger and brighter edge than Ubuntu or Kubuntu. 

I agree that grown adults don't always like the BRIGHT look, but
children (and people who know children) consistently do.

Our community contributer Steve Torrefranca (Javacide) has produced most
of our wallpapers. [2] Including the 'Edubuntu Girl' [3].

Note that the Edubuntu Girl and Edubuntu Breezy Installation wallpapers
are both contributions by Steve and are our highest rated wallpapers to
date, each with 4-stars. [4]

An added issue with the artwork was severe space constraints as the
Edubuntu CD images are filled to capacity (and beyond with some of the
builds), and Oli has battled to shrink them down leaving little room for
artwork.

I discussed this with our powers that be and we have come to an
agreement that the Edubuntu Girl wall paper will be staying on our 5.10
release. We can obviously change this and make it more 'professional'
for 6.04.

Note that we have gone with the young, fun and vibrant theme for our
website and wiki skin as well. It is scheduled to go live today. [5] &
[6].

 

Regards,
JaneW


[1] http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/434_or/4.png
[2]  http://art.ubuntu.com/backgrounds/edubuntu/?page=1
[3] http://art.ubuntu.com/images/backgrounds/EdubuntuGirl_1024x768.jpg
[4]
http://art.ubuntu.com/backgrounds/edubuntu/?sort_by=rating&thumbnails_per_page=12&view=list&order=DESC&resolution=%25
[5] http://www.omma.org.uk/files/temp/Edubunt-site-layout.png
[6] http://www.jonathancarter.co.za/wikiskin.png


On Tue, 2005-10-11 at 23:34 +0200, Philipp Schröder wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I must say I agree 100% with Tom.
> 
> I was reluctant to speak up as well, for similar reasons.
> 
> However, the new default desktop is very distracting. And I agree in
> Tom's judgement that it won't win over older students... :-(
> 
> + 1 for Jonathan Carter's "Waves" (it's only 1024x768 pixels, though)
> 
> Love, Philipp
> 
> 
> P.S.: I went looking for different desktop backgrounds on the
> art.ubuntu.com and wiki.edubuntu.org sites. I couldn't find the
> "original" background at all. I really liked it. Has it been withdrawn?
> Is there a copyright issue with it?
> 
> 
> Tom Hoffman wrote:
> > Hi All,
> > 
> > I'm very reluctant to bring up issues at this late date or to
> > criticize volunteer contributions, but when I had to reboot my
> > edubuntu desktop for the first time in a while, I was taken aback by
> > the new Edubuntu Default desktop.
> > 
> > The retouched drawing of a girl with a superimposed smiley face
> > staring at me off my desktop is just creepy, and while it is
> > impossible to please everyone, I think one of the top priorities of a
> > default deskop image is to be not disturbing to any potential users.
> > 
> > Also, I don't understand what the stripes at the bottom of the screen
> > are supposed to be doing graphically, and I don't even want to start
> > with the politics of a perfectly white girl on the desktop of a
> > distribution aimed in part at the developing world.  Nor do I really
> > understand why she's reclining.
> > 
> > Beyond that, it is my understanding that Edubuntu is aimed at primary
> > and secondary schools.  My other objections notwithstanding, this
> > desktop would be completely inappropriate for older students.
> > 
> > I keep an artist with an MFA in digital media living in my parlour for
> > circumstances like this one, and I've tasked her with cranking
> > something out by tomorrow, so perhaps I'll have a last minute
> > submission.  Otherwise, I would strongly urge the project to play it
> > safe and use Jonathan Carter's "Waves" background on the
> > art.ubuntu.com site.  It is important to remember that this desktop
> > pattern will often be repeated over 20 or 30 displays in a lab.  It
> > ought not to be overly loud or busy.
> > 
> > --Tom
> > 
> 
> -- 
> 
> 
> :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::.
> 
> Philipp Schroeder
> DIN15 / Information Architecture & Interaction Design
> www.din15.org, philipp at din15.org
> 
-- 
JaneW
_____________
Jane Weideman
mobile: +27 83 779 7800
Canonical Ltd.