[ubuntu-art] Dear <diety> in <mythological place>.

[Sean McNamara]

Hi,

On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 8:32 AM, Saleel Velankar <svelanka at gmail.com> wrote:
> Omg!Ubuntu! is reporting that this is one of the new default wallpapers
> :http://i.imgur.com/8v7rv.jpg
>
> Is this a render flaw or is it actually supposed to look like that? Did
> someone get hit with temporary blindness or what?

IANAA (I am not an artist) but I don't like that image either, for
reasons stated by others already. It is too "busy".

That said, I spend about 10 seconds per year with my actual desktop
showing. I always have a maximized window on all my monitors, usually
a web browser or terminal. So I could have the worst image in the
world as my desktop wallpaper and I wouldn't know it until I reboot my
system, which is quite infrequently. And then I would just hastily
cover it up with some maximized windows rather than waste time
changing it.

IMHO you might as well make the background as eye-catching as humanly
possible (no pun intended), because retail stores keep their computers
on display at the default desktop wallpaper 99% of the time, clearing
out windows that customers create to keep it clean (or preventing them
from creating windows at all). So if the wallpaper looks interesting
or catches the user's eye, they will look at the computer more and try
to evaluate it as a potential purchase. Just my 2 cents as to what
type of practical use this background could have, at least in
principle.

I don't think actual users tend to just sit there and stare at their
desktop; they maximize windows to take advantage of screen real
estate. And with web browsers taking up the entire screen with Unity,
"maximize" takes on a whole new meaning -- literally nothing remains
of the trappings of the desktop except for the top panel while a
browser session or other window is active and maximized. So maybe the
choice of wallpaper is less significant these days for most users.

One final comment: the wallpaper featured here <
http://linuxblog.pansapiens.com/2008/04/24/ubuntu-hardy-heron-804-is-officially-out-a-pre-review/#
> has a striking resemblance to the image Saleel linked in the OP. I
really, really, dislike this image of the heron as well; the stylized
portrayal of a bird just doesn't resonate with me as something that
has any relation to Ubuntu or computing. So at least Canonical is
consistently bad with their choice of having strange animals in their
desktop theme, with abstract shapes and brush strokes (I don't know
what else to call them!) in the background.

At some point, I'll probably get annoyed enough at the narwhal theme
that I'll find one of the generic brown wallpapers with the Ubuntu
logo and replace the default wallpaper with that, and my ability to
care about it will have been exhausted...


Sean

>
> I dont even know.
>
> --
> Saleel
>
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