Hi to All : This is my first reply to the list, as I am a new (er) member, so I will try to follow the format as best as possible. The reason for my response, is in regards to the criticism given to the Ubuntu4girls project. I was excited to join the ubuntu-women mailing list as I have often been discouraged from participating in other forums because of the "locker room" atmosphere. Unfortunately, in some of these replies, I felt that same tone was apparent in the discussions of gender and the color pink. That being said, after looking at the additional emails, with clarification of the project, I think it is clear that an audience has been identified. >- All my female students said to me that Windows is uglly, so > I show the Ubuntu, all customized for girls, and she like very much. >For all: >I'm sorry if my project upset/ofend you. >I'm a Ubuntu fan, and my intention is just introduce "girls" in > wonderful world that Ubuntu have. >It's more than a "pink" Ubuntu, is a new concept, recentlly I >ready that in my country the girls are half of computers user. >Ubuntu alread have all softwares, just click one button and >was done. My students love this feature. I do not think it should be necessary to apologize. After all, creating an operating system that is appealing to "girls", and showing them the customizable features is empowering in a lot of ways, whether pink is a popular color or not. I think a lot of good could be done by making many programs more aesthetically pleasing. There are many people who are very visually oriented in learning styles, and place a lot of value in the aesthetics of their programs. The last thing on this is that gender and sex are culturally defined terms. The negative connotations associated with the color pink, are really defined by your own lives and not universal in their meanings and influence. Basically, I think this project has a lot of potential, making computers accessible to a group of children regardless of the how that is achieved. In terms of making Ubuntu accessible to all children it is my understanding that edubuntu has already started along that path. >Those are my ideas, but I agree with everyone else who said >we should talk to some actual youngins. They could tell you >their favorite cartoons,favorite colors, and favorite hobbies >which would help in the creation of themes. I am a visual artist, so my opinions are not unbiased, that I understand.I work with a lot of grassroots economic development projects, in the US and Afghanistan. I also assist in projects to bring communication solutions and educational information to under-served rural areas in the US. I think knowing a little bit more about me, probably helps to understand my comments a little better. best, Molly Crowley