[ubuntu-art] New Boot Experience in Karmic

[Dylan McCall]

> I think that what we are looking for is something fluid yet solid and
> complete. No flickering, no jumping...simple movements which show the flow
> of the river, so to speak ;)

Speaking of the flow, do we know yet if there will be a black screen
between usplash and GDM? Or will it be magically instantaneous, or a
cross fade like Plymouth does? If it's a cross-fade, it needs to make
sense for the animation to stop animating for the crossfade, which is
where Fedora 10's Solar animation stumbled and where Fedora 11's
simpler one does really well.
If it's a black screen, then I guess non-black backgrounds would need
to be a bit cleverer. (I suggest fading out to full black at the end,
if it's technically feasible).

I like these for different reasons, but I think they generally feel
harsh with the fancy colours and the huge razor-sharp logo against a
solid background (and no, I am certainly not suggesting a crazy
complex background). I really love Daniel's submission since it has
nice, fancy graphics but isn't unnecessarily loud about it. That makes
sense, since the boot process isn't meant to be loud; the visual
feedback should really just exist to say "something is happening." If
some important text appears, let's say "taking up precious time by
fschking /dev/sda4 when you really need to boot quickly," that text
immediately has centre stage.

On the other hand, a giant floating orb that spans an entire screen
(think 24" screens, just as a horrifying example) carries a rather
different message: "SOMETHING IS HAPPENING AND I NEED YOU TO STARE AT
THIS GLOWING RED RING."

Different strokes for different folks, of course, so kudos to the
doers. If I have time after this crazy translation stuff, I'll see
about adding another mockup to that pot :)



Dylan