IBM KDE Theme Contest

frknfrk writes "i stumbled across the IBM developerWorks KDE theme contest. apparently there are three prizes, $3000, $2000, and $1000 which entrants can win for the non-profit OSS group of their choice. and Sam Lantinga (SDL, Loki) is one of the judges. they also have a tutorial on building KDE themes for Linux." I've been running KDE on my laptop since I melted the old hard drive, and have been disappointed by the existing choice of themes. Hopefully this contest will change that, as well as hook up an open source group with some cash. Get gimpin' people!

Comments

Re:Packaging systems and dependencies

[dangermouse]

Well, it may be true that Slackware has one of the last remaining packaging systems that doesn't include a dependency-checking system, but to call dependencies integral to packaging ignores decades of packaging systems that never had dependencies. (Let's see how many times I can use those two words, here. ;)

Look at it this way... in Slackware:

1. The installed software/docs/whatever is rolled into a single file
2. Installation scripts are generated and embedded
3. Information on what files on the system came from which of those distribution files is stored in a database
4. Tools exist for installing, upgrading, and removing components of the system using those distribution files

That sounds like a system of packaging software, to me. :)

It lacks the dependency-checking subsystem that many other packagers use, but consider that (A) that has yet to prove itself necessary, given the way we split our system into packages, (B) it adds complexity and brings new problems (note that most, if not all, of the packaging systems you refer to cannot have the same file exist in two different packages, without making a mess), (C) most dependancy systems force the user's hand in ways we don't approve of, and (D) if the need does arise, and the issues with current dependancy systems are worked out, that subsystem could be added with fairly little effort to our existing system.

Re:Alpha channel?

[spitzak]

Transparency is only supported for rendering into existing windows, as far as I know. The windows themselves do not have transparency.

Supporting this nicely requires a good deal of changes to the X interface. I believe it will require all windows to be stored with off-screen backing stores. This requires changes to Xlib because there is no "update the screen" command in the current X protocol, Xlib would have to send this when the appliation waits for events (plus there should be interface to turn off the automatic update and let the program control it).

Double buffering would vastly change the internals of the X server. It would also defeat the hardware acceleration on most systems.

Any alternative to double buffering would require transparency to be seperate from the drawing and very difficult to alter. This is not nice because you cannot animate the transparent edge, or it will not animate cleanly with respect to the interior. For this reason I would rather have a complete solution or none at all, not some half-way and hard to program arrangement.

However making half-way and hard-to-program interfaces seems to match the current X design!

IBM Frisco Theme

[sharkey]

Where can I get this theme? It's supposed to scrawl graffitti across the desktop, in what looks to be bio-degradeable but non-water-soluble chalk.

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Re:Irony Alert

[abelsson]

No, it just teaches us that choosing a window manager isn't a life altering decision. Use the best app for the job, and don't discard one set of apps just because it's written using the wrong widgetset. No one is going to come and arrest you if you use Konqueror and KMail together with the Gimp and abiword.

-henrik

All your Themese are Belong to IBM

[phunhippy]

hey kids,

If you read the fine print(always fun i know) under the terms, you'll see that the themese you create become property of IBM.... intersting... contest to win money for your favorite OSS and you create a theme for an OSS program and you don't even get to keep rights to it..... nifty eh?

Good,

[V50]

This is really a Good Thing(tm). My biggest reason for keeping GNOME on my drive is that it has the better themes. I like KDE as it seem more polished (no flamewar, please)... But the themes suck, generally. The only really original KDE2 theme are Aqua ones which I don't like much...

Anyway hopefully this will at least bring some good KWM themes, I don't like the default ones much and there are no other ones that I can find... Come to think of it does anyone know how to run other WMs in KDE? I must be possible...

But lastly it's good for IBM as the charity part in peticular makes the look quite nice, despite the fact that $6000 is pocket change for them... Combine this with the grafitti bit and I've come to the conclusion that:

IBM IS RUN BY HIPPIES!!!

--Volrath50

This could mean something else...

[MSBob]

This could mean that IBM will be promoting KDE as their default (standard?) Linux desktop for IBM systems. Now that's interesting because that would mean that IBM would be going up against Sun's choice of GNOME as the default Linux WM. Is IBM onto something here?