[ubuntu-art] Idea regarding themes

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On 6/22/06, Andreas Nilsson <nisses.mail at home.se> wrote:
> Michiel Sikma wrote:
> >
> > Op 22-jun-2006, om 15:21 heeft Mark Shuttleworth het volgende geschreven:
> >>> It would seem that you're okay with this idea as long as the themes
> >>> adhere to the criteria you listed, but I'm not sure. :)
> >>
> >> No, I'm not OK with the idea, because the way it was phrased
> >> suggested that we should "make them look consistent". They have the
> >> right to be independent, to make the decisions that are best for
> >> THEM, and we should not be enforcing "consistency" over their wish to
> >> be independent. We should propose good ideas, but let the individual
> >> brands / distros choose the ideas they want to integrate.
> >>
> >> Mark
> >
> > They definitely should have their own identities. You're right, we
> > should drop the idea of "making the themes look as similar as
> > possible", although I do think it might be a good idea to have all
> > different Ubuntu flavors share color schemes. Ubuntu would have its

I think we are not defining use cases clearly enough:

If all the environments look the same that is really sad - but if all
the apps a user chooses to run look like the the environment they are
_currently_ in that's really great - isn't it?

For a person who has chosen to use just _U_buntu_ the fact that
_Ku_buntu has it's own unique identity reduces how good their
experience of _U_buntu is if they run Amarok or Kopete. In this case
the issue is not about the themeing of the environment but about the
applications. I totally support Kubuntu having a great look that is
different from Ubuntu, but users should only see it if they choose to
use Kubuntu.

We already seem to accept this :

We don't make Ubuntu's applications orange in Xubuntu - we theme them
to match their host environment. I think we should also do this this
for KDE apps when they are running under Gnome/XFCE - I don't see that
it can damage the Kubuntu identity any more than what we do with
Xubuntu damages Ubuntu's identity (which, for the record, I don't
think it does at all).

Thus, I guess it's up to the individual teams to create great,
original work for their DE - while also considering and working on how
to make apps that use other toolkits look just as great - if _we_ want
KDE apps to look nice _we_ make the themes (working with the
kubuntu-art team if necessary)  but we don't 'water down' the
indivduality of Kubuntu's default theme to do it. Is that possible?

> What we do need to do though is to make sure that if I for example
> choose to use kopete under GNOME it should blend in nice with the rest
> of the desktop.

I definitely agree, but I would extend the idea as far as themes, so
they can blend too.

What does official Ubuntu line say on this? Should we just focus on
making GTK apps look good?

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