Readers are commenting on ubuntu's intrepid look and feel

[Jelle de Jong]

jmak wrote:
> The look and feel of Ubuntu Intrepid invoked very strong opinions
> among digg.com (http://digg.com/linux_unix/Ubuntu_8_10_Intrepid_Ibex_Alpha_1_Screenshots)
> readership. Here are some of them.
> ------
> 
> "What a hideous theme, what really, really worries me is that they
> even remotely considered something like this let alone made it
> available.
> 
> Whoever designed it should be shot."
> 
> ---------
> 
> "I have to agree."
> 
> ----
> 
> "While I hope nobody will be *shot*, I have to agree that this theme is poor.
> It's unappealing to look at, looks worse when apps are running in it
> (OpenOffice is hideous) and its colour scheme is particularly ugly."
> 
> -----
> 
> WTF ..Is this for real ??
> 
> ------
> 
> "The theme literally looks like ***** was smeared all over the
> monitor. Not that I could do any better, but this theme gives me a
> feeling less like "human" and more like "sewer"."
> 
> -------
> 
> "Ugg...I thought the color scheme was supposed to include BLACK. Not
> ugly mud-crap-brown..."
> 
> -----
> "The theme is not what I was expecting... I was hoping for something a
> little less... dark brown, like the color of my *****."
> 
> ------
> "Video Conferencing with Nelson Mandela on Ubuntu?"
> 
> -----
> 
> Up until sunday night, not a single positve comment. Amazing.
> 
> jmak
> 

I have to agree with the comments, the theming of ubuntu and xubuntu has 
been getting worser and worser with the last releases: there are a few 
good guidelines:
- KiSS (keep it Simple Stupid)
- Less is More
- If it works don't change it to much

If you look at Fedora theming, things are getting cleaner and cleaner 
every release they improve what they have and don't switch every release.

As i sad before in other messages, if you change the looks and feels, 
make this an option. Keep the normal behavior as default, make it easy 
to switch to a new look and feel, let users vote and comment on the best 
layout, and if the majority accepts the new looks and feels, switch the 
new and default behavior but make it easy to revert back. So backwards 
compatibility!

Meaning all artwork should be packaged correctly with sub-packages, so 
changing looks and feels,can be done by installing and removing artwork 
packages.

Just some of my thoughts on sustainable artwork management,

Kind regards,

Jelle