Community response of new ubuntu artwork

Petri Pennanen suvarin at home.se
Thu Oct 14 11:22:59 UTC 2004


On Thu, 2004-10-14 at 00:09 +0100, Mark Shuttleworth wrote:
> Ryan's hit the nail on the head by asking for community discussion - 
> that's exactly what this list is for, and so far I think we've seen a 
> very healthy discussion on the topic.

I agree about the healthy discussion. This could have detoriated into a
regular flamefest. Instead the civil tone has allowed me to appreciate
some points that others have made.

> The background to the theme is the idea of "spirit of humanity". Most 
> people think of computers as machinery, but today they are far more a 
> tool of sharing and communication. My computer is how I keep in touch 
> with my family and friends, as much as the place I do my work. It's not 
> a cold, plastic thing, it's my connection to the world of the people I 
> care about. 

This was my first (very positive) reaction; The computer felt friendly. 

Some have argued that these images disqualifies Ubuntu from beeing fit
for buisness use, or any use at all in some countries. I don't dispute
that there will be problems in some places where behviour codes forbids
'skin'. The solution, however, should not be to resort to completly
neutral images. Themes with logos and color blends are dime a dozen and
do not convey the idea of ubuntu at all. 

Some might say that the very thought of a 'message' won't fly with
buisness, and that the theme therefore should be bland and boring. I
disagree. There are already lots of operating systems that look
'professional'. They also feel intimidating to a great deal of users. If
a big company decides to use Ubuntu they will rebrand it, or pay
Canonical to do it. The companies that will use the default are the
mom-and-pops-shops of the world. I belive they will appreciate a
friendly face, even the one of a stranger. 

A very personal opinion is that the dichtonomy between feeling
responsible humans and enterpries that (should) only care about profit,
is responsible for a great deal of the misery we see in the world today.
Making computers look more friendly is a tiny step, but it is in the
direction to a more humane world. 

As others have pointed out, images of humans that are not so... Young,
nude and beutiful might still get the message across without rising as
much ire. The idea of using images of kids (with clothes on, of course)
is a good one. I think that children convey hope regrdless of culture.
It might make people think of Ubuntu as the UNICEF distro, but I think
that is a image we could live with :) 

Maybe the GDM screen could be a picture from above of three kids running
in a ring, perhaps with a little motion blur?

Someone pointed out that images of humans are to value-laden and
distract too much in regular computer use. I agree about distraction,
but I still think that the underlying values of Ubuntu should be
communicated on first boot. The users who are distracted (note that I do
not say upset or disturbed), can change the images easily. The point is
that it requires an concious effort wich also causes the user to think
about what the message seems to be. I think that is a good thing.

In the spirit of compromise, the gnome splash screen should be handled
differently. The greatest reason is that it is a bit tricky to change.
Make it more neutral. I think a image of a old tree would be nice, not
too distracting, not too neutral (thinking about the enviroment is
important for the future of humanity).

> It would be great to see community-contributed themes that also capture 
> the ideas we are trying to communicate. There may be a much, much better 
> way of doing so. I'm a little nervous to call for contributions for the 
> Calendar image :-), but go ahead and publish themes that YOU think 
> communicate the "spirit of humanity" clearly and warmly. We'll host a 
> repository of those themes in due course, or support one of the 
> excellent repositories that already exist, to create a forum for that 
> artwork. I know there's great talent amongst our community because I've 
> already seen a few contributed themes that were excellent, and may even 
> be of sufficient quality to be considered for a future Ubuntu release.

This is a great idea! It will make it possible to contribute for users
who (like me) lack the programming skills to do the heavy work.


- Petri (Got a bit long winded, didn't I ;)






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