About Xubuntu Artwork

Sat Mar 24 18:55:30 UTC 2012

Hey Ernesto!

On 03/24/2012 08:22 PM, Ernesto Acosta wrote:
> Hi everybody:
>
> # About Artwork
>
> I am writing to offer some suggestions and ideas for Xubuntu 12.04.
>
> First of all, I think the Xubuntu Artwork is very separate from the
> original design of Ubuntu. I think it would be a good idea, that include
> Xubuntu also Ambiance & Radiance by default. It would also be positive
> default Xfwm buttons were left default, as in OS X and Unity.
>
> Thus, a user wishing to leave Unity and want to try Xubuntu, you'll find
> a similar interface. I do not know what the idea of the design team
> Xubuntu, but it would be good to rate the possibility of a similar
> appearance to that of Ubuntu. Just a suggestion. In fact, the job of
> carrying Ambiance & Radiance is already done for Xfce.
>
> http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Ambiance+% 26 + Radiance + Themes
> + for + Xfce% 26LXDE? content = 146674

I personally think variety is good. I think it's an important and wise
move from Canonical to let derivatives define their own individual
appearance and more generally speaking, let them define their own image.

I don't know if the Xfce-versions of Ambiance and Radiance are in the
repositories already. If they aren't, I'm not against including them
there. However, that's where I would leave it; we cut down the amount of
themes to be installed to the default Xubuntu installation, and I see no
reason to treat the Ambiance and Radiance themes differently.
Ultimately, the user can select what to install and remove anyway.

> # About logo
>
> Another topic I wanted to talk, is about the new logo for Xubuntu. I'm
> no designer, but when I look I do not really show anything related to
> Xfce. The previous logo gave us more or less a better idea. I made a
> proposal, which leave them below.
>
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu/Artwork/Proposed/Precise_Xubuntu_Logo

I don't think why the new logo should have a strong association with
Xfce. Xubuntu is not in any kind of offical association with Xfce and
thus it is not obliged to use any Xfce logo element in its logo. Having
some kind of reference is good, and;
1) there still is some reference to the Xfce mouse, though a more
abstract element; the change being a logical step towards less
complexity, if you look at the previous logo change too; but
2) generally, from my point of view, the Xfce mouse is becoming less
mainstream; it's not even used in the Xfce website frontpage [1] anymore

> # About Applications
>
> There are some applications which I think can be replaced with more
> light and thus do not depend on Gnome.
>
> Gcalctool can be replaced with Galculator
> Evince can be replaced with ePDFView
> Ristretto has greatly improved but may be replaced by Mirage.

Is there some performance comparisons for these applications?

The fact is that it is more work to replace than keep an application, so
there needs to be good rationale to change an application. That being
said, it is not completely unlikely that an application will be replaced
by another application, as long as there is somebody to write
comparisons, test the applications, willing to report bugs and follow-up
on getting them fixed and eventually, taking all this into account when
rationalizing the application change to the team.

> # About Issues
>
> Problems encountered in Beta 1:
>
> I guess for being a Beta, all problems will comment below normal. I
> should also clarify that he had the option to upgrade approximately 300
> Mb of packages, updating that maybe some of them managed, but my
> connection would not let me check.
>
> Something I did not like is that I went out anywhere the network icon,
> and you have to configure the menu "Preferences. The icons and desktop
> items are not updated automatically when added or deleted, so we must
> update them manually with F5. The menu does not have the option to run,
> and the application that is responsible for this action, sometimes left
> by pressing [Alt] + [F2] or delayed more than 10 seconds to run.
>
> Changing the keyboard layout, I had to close several applications for
> changes to take effect. The context menu includes an entry for Search in
> the folder in which we are but just does not work that option. Trying to
> remove drivers from NVidia (and I use Intel) these drag Xubuntu Desktop.

Can you file bugs for these issues? Thanks.

> Xubuntu also includes too many language packs, you do not understand if
> you end the LiveCD runs in English. Sure, I guess when you are
> installing, and using another language, English and Spanish are not the
> only ones on our planet, but I think there should be an option for you,
> after installing, removal of unnecessary language as our preferences

The idea behind this is to provide desktops in preferred languages even
for those, who do not have access to internet. As far as I know, no
language packs should be left installed unless you selected them. (Can
somebody confirm this? Lionel?) If this is not true, can you file a bug
for this issue too? Thanks again.

> # End
> Let me clarify two things:
>
> 1 - All these suggestions are based on my personal taste.
> 2 - My English is not very good, so I had to use a translator.
>
> Best regards.

Thanks once again, the feedback is much appreciated.

Cheers,
Pasi

[1] http://xfce.org/

-- 
Pasi Lallinaho (knome)                      » http://open.knome.fi/
Leader of Xubuntu and Shimmer Project       » http://shimmerproject.org/
Graphic artist, webdesigner, Ubuntu member  » http://xubuntu.org/