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What Really Happened To Ubuntu's Edgy Artwork?

angrykeyboarder writes, "Many Ubuntu users expressed surprise, dismay, and disappointment when Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl) nixed the popular community-developed artwork during the beta phase of Ubuntu 6.10 ('The Edgy Eft'). Some Ubuntu community members were downright shocked, and many were ultimately dissatisfied with the final product. What exactly happened? Short answer: the Art Team was less disturbed than some other community members were. Linux.com has the scoop." Slashdot and Linux.com are both part of OSTG.

32 of 297 comments (clear)

  1. ok, I'm pissed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    this really pisses me off. Would it be so fucking hard to just fucking link to an example of "edgy art" Jesus. They have links that go to text, and links on the text pages go to more text. Hello? Don't waste my time with this. Just show me the art which is the subject of the article.

    1. Re:ok, I'm pissed by MustardMan · · Score: 4, Informative

      Digging around the wiki, this is what I could come up with...

      https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Specs/EdgyArtworkP lan/Polish/Incoming

      Now, assuming this is the art in question, which I wouldn't know for sure, not only is this a completely shitty non-article, it's also a terrible headline. The whole 'edgy' pun attempts to make it sound like they had naked women or something, when in fact it's plain old boring splash screens with round letters and glossy effects. Snore. I guess they had to do SOMETHING to attempt to make this look like it might be newsworthy, so why not throw a potentially sensational headline out there.

    2. Re:ok, I'm pissed by Mike89 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Edgy is the name of the distribution's version. The headline is a play on words.

    3. Re:ok, I'm pissed by Aqua+OS+X · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Maybe some day an ambitious junior college graphics design course will have "make a gdk theme" for a project instead of the silly fake things they do now (obviously this would be more online oriented than print oriented)."

      Aiming high huh? Let's get some Junior College kids to skin an OS in a semester.

      IHMO this is one of the major hurdle's facing Linux adoption outside of the IT arena. Very few people in the software development industry fully understand visual communication, interactive design, and or the design process. Interactive design is viewed as some sort of BS skinning process that can be pumped out by some peons in a few months.

      Interactive design for an OS should be conducted by a team of professional interactive designers. They should understand visual communication, cognitive psychology, quantitative / qualitative usability research, and at least a CS101 understanding of what a conditional statement, class, etc is. These people should be given 6 months to a year (if not longer) to do their work. They should be paid a salary which doesn't force them to live in their parent's basements. Furthermore, they should work with software engineering to build an interactive design specification that is adhered to religiously and implemented as closely as humanly possible.

      Themes are retarded. They almost always result in something spec'd by software engineers and turd-polished by a lame underpaid or inexperienced graphic designer.

      --
      "Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
  2. I found some... by FooAtWFU · · Score: 5, Informative

    Found some... with some digging. Peace, Tropic and Blubuntu.

    --
    The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
    1. Re:I found some... by kernelpanicked · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Of course Shuttleworth would hate the Blubuntu theme. My god, I mean, if that got out Ubuntu might actually look...good.

      --
      Ubuntu: If at first you don't succeed, blindly slap a sudo in front of it
    2. Re:I found some... by flyingsquid · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Yes I'm breaking the rules to reply to my own comment. Why was I modded flamebait? I'm a friggin ubuntu user (Xubuntu actually). I think I would know as well as anyone that Ubuntu, by default, may work beautifully but it looks like absolute shit.

      Welcome to Slashdot. I've been a loyal Apple user since the days of the IIe, but if I say anything negative about Apple, odds are good I'll get modded into oblivion. Likewise, I despise Microsoft, but if I suggest that perhaps they are not always pure evil, I better watch my ass. Go against groupthink and fanboys at your peril.

  3. Re:Screenshot? by sirnuke · · Score: 4, Informative

    I believe this was the last Edgy artwork.

    --
    Zing!
  4. I'm not surprised he turned it down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That stuff looks really amatuerish

  5. Re:Screenshots by kernelpanicked · · Score: 5, Informative

    Have any of you even seen Edgy installed? The artwork you keep linking to isn't what was turned down, it's the artwork for the damn release.

    --
    Ubuntu: If at first you don't succeed, blindly slap a sudo in front of it
  6. Edgy is the name of the release! by DragonHawk · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Edgy Eft" is the "nick-name" of the release of Ubuntu. Like "Woody" was a Debian release and "Zod" was a Fedora release.

    "Edgy art" does not refer to "provocative art", but "art for the 'Edge Eft' release".

    All Ubuntu releases are named with an adjective and an animal, and they have to alliterate. I have no idea why.

    Sheesh.

    --

    dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
    I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
    1. Re:Edgy is the name of the release! by digitalderbs · · Score: 4, Funny

      The next release will be the Fellatious Ferret.

    2. Re:Edgy is the name of the release! by realmolo · · Score: 3, Funny

      Grossly gargantuan. Hauntingly hilarious. Incredibly interesting. Jarringly jolly. Keenly killer. Ludicrously lovely. Mostly malarkey. Nearly necessary. Obviously odorous. Positively pitiful. Queerly quick. Ridiculously rotten. Stupidly sexy. Totally tacky. Unbelievably ugly. Viciously viscous. Weirdly wooley. Xenophobically xeroxed. Yearningly yellow. Zoologically zippy.

  7. is this irrelevant or what by daniel23 · · Score: 4, Insightful


    sorry, this is a part of OSS culture I entirely fail to understand. Like, when there is a new version of distro X and some OS News sites have nothing better to report than a 15 pages of hires screenshots of the default desktop etc.

    You mean you install a new distro and then judge its worth by the look of the default theme? You don't change the theme first thing? You don't know how to install a custom theme if you don't like the preconfigured choices?

    But then again, my boxen run headless 98% of the time, so why should I care...

    --
    605413? Yes, it's a prime.
    1. Re:is this irrelevant or what by Doctor+Crumb · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ubuntu is billed as "linux for human beings". In practice, this means "usable and welcoming to non-geeks"; those same non-geeks who purchase a new windows OS because it has a new default desktop background and shinier buttons. So, while you may not judge a distro by its art, there are plenty of people who *do*, and those are the people ubuntu is trying to reach.

    2. Re:is this irrelevant or what by Shados · · Score: 3, Insightful

      When I have this monitor in front of my face as much as 80 hours a week, I really DO care what my desktop looks like. While I'll change stuff like themes, etc, fonts and icons tend to me part of the "I have better things to do with my time" department, so if it doesn't look nice out of the box, and its not packaged with my theme somehow, it has to look semi-decent.

    3. Re:is this irrelevant or what by mollymoo · · Score: 3, Insightful
      When I have this monitor in front of my face as much as 80 hours a week, I really DO care what my desktop looks like.

      I use my computer 80+ hours a week too. But mostly, I'm looking at what's in the windows, not what's around the edges of them.

      --
      Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
  8. Ooohhh, Shiny... by tymbow · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't know what direction was required for the art, but the samples have that "ooohhh shiny" web 2.0 feel to them so they just must be better :p

    Meeehhh, it will all change again anyway when everyone jumps on the Web 3.0 graphic design bandwagon or whatever the next hot trend will be.

  9. Re:Sex Bad Violence Good by kfg · · Score: 4, Funny

    . . .showing pictures of the human body is taboo.

    It wasn't even intended. It was just a GUI malfunction.

    KFG

  10. Re:Ending life good, creating life bad. by arthurpaliden · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The reason is quite simple. It takes more money to raise a child than to bury a person.

  11. Re:What? I'm shocked too! by kfg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Open Source implies that the source is open; it does not imply that nobody is in charge of a project.

    KFG

  12. Reminds me of a certain CSS redesign contest... by dantheman82 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Chief artist head honcho summed it up: "We set out to start from scratch and to top Dapper, while Dapper was arguably very close to what Mark had in mind."

    Hmm...sort of reminds me of the Slashdot CSS Redesign Contest. Need the Slashdot "Shade of Green" and Coliseo font. Basically it has to be very similar to the old one, but better. Sometimes it fades into the background once the hubbub dies down...as people realize that visual continuity and product branding do count for something...

    --
    This sig donated to Pater. Long live /.
  13. Ever wonder why the icons look nice? by Chief+Typist · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The icons were professionally designed:

    http://iconfactory.com/design/detail/ubuntu

    By one guy. Working directly with Mark.

    My suggestion for the art team would be to establish someone as an art director. Someone that Mark trusts to implement his vision. And then have that art director give specific tasks to the designers that report to him.

    It sounds like they're heading in that direction by giving Frank Stroep the title of "Artist in Chief". His task now is to tell people what he wants. And if you think it's easy being a hard ass when it comes to design & the people who do it, let me assure you IT IS NOT.

    If this doesn't happen, they'll end up taking the "design by committee" approach. The result of this kind of process is something that no one loves -- a lowest common denominator. Sort of like when software is designed by a committee :-)

    For what it's worth, I'm a principal in the company that did the Ubuntu work -- so I speak from experience about this stuff :-)

    -ch

  14. Re:porn? by Ignis+Flatus · · Score: 4, Funny

    well, speaking as a guy that really appreciates his porn, i'm finding this a little hard to masturbate to. a little "edgier", please.

  15. Re:Sex Bad Violence Good by Eideewt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why wouldn't someone want naked people on their desktop? When I consider all the stupid wallpapers I've seen (anime characters, eggs, tiny photos stretched out of proportion, and so on), naked people seems like a big step in the right direction.

  16. Re:Incremental improvement, no revolution by Ankur+Dave · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I am happy that they got rid of all the boot up messages on start-up, which was just distracting crud.

    I always found it annoying that Windows by default shows nothing but a little green/blue thingy scrolling around -- that doesn't even show boot progress.

    Before Edgy, Ubuntu has always showed nonverbose messages about which services it's starting, etc. I couldn't understand these messages when I first started using Linux (I started with Ubuntu Breezy) but after 6 months they were informative and useful to me -- it's always nice to know what service is taking a long time and things like that.

    That's why I was dismayed when Edgy replaced the old boot screen with one that mimics Windows's boot screen. It's only marginally more helpful by showing boot progress (not that that's very accurate).

    Now I have to resort to remove the "quiet splash" option in the Grub menu. The disadvantage to this is it's too verbose -- it shows all sort of output, causing messages to scroll by faster than I can read them.

    I never thought that it was overly confusing/distracting to have the messages...I wonder what percentage of Ubuntu users share your opinion.

  17. Re:Why not include them by Grey+Ninja · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How the hell did this crap get modded insightful?

    1) Shuttleworth is the CREATOR of Ubuntu. Head honcho. What he did was to roll back the artwork to a Dapper variant, CHANGING the DEFAULT theme that was to be in Edgy.

    2) Blubuntu is in the repositories. If you want to use it, then install it and use it. Like you said, Linux is about choice. But at least know what you are bitching about.

  18. Re:Sex Bad Violence Good by LordLucless · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Oooh, so you're not talking about actual sex or violence, you're talking about simulated sex and violence. Because it's bloody obvious that most societies disapprove ov violence more than sex - even in the US, I think you're birth rate is still higher than your murder-rate. I'd say the reason people are more okay with violence on the screen than sex is that they consider it unlikely that little Johnnie is going to go out and blow up a city block with a bazooka from a commandeered humvee no matter how many action flicks he sees. If he watches a lot of skin flicks though, it's probably going to give him ideas next time he's alone with little Sally.

    Violence is obviously wrong, and you can usually rely on that as enough of a disincentive to discourage it. Even if you can't, the availability of bazookas also limits it. Sex, on the other hand isn't obviously wrong like violence, but it can lead to unwanted and unconsidered consequences - pregnancy, disease, etc, as well as increasing the complexity and intensity of a relationship. It has to be discouraged because it's so available - whereas violence of the action-movie sort remains remote; the viewer is rarely going to be in a situation where they could emulate it.

    --
    Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
  19. Re:Sex Bad Violence Good by LordLucless · · Score: 3, Funny

    Let me know next time your sandwich knocks you up.

    --
    Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
  20. Re:Sex Bad Violence Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    EXACTLY! If society tells you sex is dirty and wrong and should be hidden, is it really any surprise it becomes such? Thanks for providing a PERFECT argument against your own.

    More talk of sex, I say! Fewer young people learning about it through rumor, innuendo, porno mags passed around, and spam email that lead them to believe every woman is a "slut in heat" and that "every man has a horse cock." Treat and address sex in a healthy manner, shown in a contextually appropriate setting where potential consequences are considered and you may not have children having babies because they are driven by their hormones with no information.

    Put it this way, if the only people you ever see having sex are in a plastic, promiscuous, consequence free world with crappy disco music, what examples do you have of healthy sex life between monogamous, loving adults that RESPECT each other. If all our other behavior patterns are learned by observation and emulation of parents and other role-models, why is sex the single exception? People have no idea of what role sex should play in their lives in the real world and are left with only basic hormonal urges and porno movies for guidance. That makes no sense to me. I mean, that kind of plan worked so well with prohibition and all....

  21. Re:Sex Bad Violence Good by iamacat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    state-organized executions in North Korea

    Not saying that's a wonderful place to live, but shouldn't we focus on state-organized executions in Texas first?

  22. Re:Sex Bad Violence Good by Zonk+(troll) · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Nobody wants a picture of a bunch of nudists on their desktop.


    Hmm, I watch Naked News every afternoon. On my desktop I have a picture of Jessica Alba laying on a bed naked. My wallpaper usually alternates between a random naked girl and any good Jessica Alba wallpaper I can find.

    And in what society is killing people fine?


    Just about any if they're different from the mainstream. Ie, not white and "Christian"*.

    * Read the link to see why I put Christian in quotes. Here's a quote:

    How did the Amish react to this atrocity?

    That evening they gathered together and organised a horse and buggy to visit the family of Charles Carl Roberts with food and sympathy. They invited the killer's widow to the family funerals. They bought a lock for their schoolroom door. Now they aim to establish two funds, one for the families of the dead girls, one to provide for the killers family.

    Out of a horrific incident, the Amish showed what faith in God really was, turning even that horror into a demonstration of the highest principles of their faith.

    --
    "The Federal Reserve is a fraudulent system."--Lew Rockwell
    End The FED. -