Ubuntu Gets a New Visual Identity

buntcake writes "Canonical has launched a new visual identity for the Ubuntu Linux distribution. Ubuntu is shedding its previous brown look and adopting a more professional color scheme with purple and orange. The colors will be used in a new GNOME theme and boot splash for Ubuntu 10.04. According to updated design documents that were published in the Ubuntu wiki, 'light' is the underlying concept behind the new visual identity. It displaces the 'human' concept that has been part of Ubuntu's theming and brand vernacular for the past five years. Ubuntu community manager Jono Bacon has posted a screenshot and additional information."

Comments

Dear Ubuntu

[pinkj]

Don't change all the time like Windows seems to do. Be yourself and we'll accept you. Rebranding almost never helps. Consistency does.

Re:Dear Ubuntu

[SilverHatHacker]

As sentimental as that is, for the last five years I've heard nothing but complaints about the color scheme. No one accepts others for who they are unless they already like who they are.

Re:Dear Ubuntu

[GF678]

You might have heard nothing but complaints about the color scheme because the theme is UNPOPULAR.

Sometimes it's just that simple - the majority of people find the shit-stained brownness of Ubuntu uninviting. So Canonical are trying something different, for better or worse.

Re:Dear Ubuntu

[bondsbw]

I don't care so much about the color scheme as the general UI. Windows has come a long way since 2002. Gnome hasn't.

Not complaining... the Windows guys get more money. But still... competition is competition, and money or not, Gnome isn't competing with Windows 7 like it could with Windows XP.

Re:Dear Ubuntu

[linhares]

PERHAPS because you actually know how to change it? Fine with me; but all these folks saying that it's a great visual really want to keep as away from the masses as possible. AND the effing irony is that there an immense amount of actually good artwork done by the community, and Canonical just ignores it. Mod me flamebait if you will, but the most popular linux distro seriously looks like its "Made for losers".

Re:Dear Ubuntu

[linhares]

The ironic thing is that Mint and some other distros would go the way of the Dodo if only canonical actually stood down from their pedestal and listened to, hmm, basically everybody in the linux world?

Re:Dear Ubuntu

[bondsbw]

KDE doesn't look/behave like Windows either.

Agreed that you can choose the UI, but when there's not much to choose from... I guess I would have to write my own. But I'd rather pay Microsoft a couple hundred instead of doing that.

I like Linux. I'm on the LFS list. Been through most of the distros over the years. But I give credit where it is due... Microsoft has an edge in the UI world. Apple had an edge over Microsoft for years (not as much any more). Personally... I think the Ubuntu Netbook Remix UI is the direction of the future that could take it past both Microsoft and Apple.

Re:Dear Ubuntu

[GF678]

If you're marked flamebait, it's because Slashdotters do not understand the concept of a "good first impression".

Image is everything these days, and it's human nature so people need to understand that if they wonder why Ubuntu is continually criticized so much for its default theme. Doesn't matter that it can be changed; default matter. The default theme becomes an iconic part of the OS (whenever people think XP they always think of the blue Luna theme for example). Having said that, we might find the blue Luna theme ugly but evidently most people didn't mind the default, so Microsoft didn't do that badly in the theme stakes.

Re:Dear Ubuntu

[pjbgravely]

Of course don't forget everyone is different. One of the things that I liked about Ubuntu when it first came out was the pleasant brown theme. Lately the default theme is too bright for me so I use dark room now.

When ever I use a desktop environment with a blue theme I cringe. It must remind me of the first GUI OS I used, Microsoft windows 98.

Re:Dear Ubuntu

[Alex Belits]

Those are actually functions that X window managers had for decades. They ended up being removed from the default Gnome configuration because Windows users complained about them.

Now, that Microsoft itself had approved 20 years of X window managers' development, can we put them back into default configuration, or will you just start complaining about some other superior interface feature?

Orange and purple are more professional?

[JustinFreid]

Is professionalism a virtue? I like the notion of Ubuntu as being warm and fuzzy, especially with the adjective+animal names for the releases.

Re:Orange and purple are more professional?

[FallinWithStyle]

I agree. The biggest problem I have with the default theme in the pictures, though, is the movement of the window-control buttons from right to left.

Re:Orange and purple are more professional?

[caffeinemessiah]

Never mind the use of 'professional orange and purple'. From TFA:

"We're drawn to Light because it denotes both warmth and clarity, and intrigued by the idea that 'light' is a good value in software. Good software is 'light' in the sense that it uses your resources efficiently, runs quickly, and can easily be reshaped as needed," the design documentation says. "Visually, light is beautiful, light is ethereal, light brings clarity and comfort."

Why do "design documents" always have to be so banal? I mean, "visually, light is beautiful"?!!? Seriously?

Anonymous

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone actually ever use the default Ubuntu theme? I know whenever I install Gnome the first thing I do is set it to clearlooks.

this is going to suck

[meow27]

now im going to have to spend extra time getting the window tools to the right side of the window?
ugh this blows

cmon everyone knows the left side is the wrong one![/pun]

  in other news they really should be using the technix theme. it could use some tweaking with the font colors, but other than that, its excellent imho

Re:this is going to suck

[kjart]

So, your first point is that the right corner is way out of the way compared to where you are most often clicking (menus) and the second point is you are always clicking in that corner? In any case, I'd think the far more common missclick would be someone hitting the window controls if they were right above the menus.

Also, in case you didn't know, you can resize the window from any corner - though I must say that I don't think I've ever seen anyone resize with that corner. Seems like the kind of nonsense someone who likes window controls in the top left would do.

Re:this is going to suck

[curveclimber]

Nah, I use OS X at work and Ubuntu at home: right side is the right side. You spend most of your time in a GUI opening, scrolling and closing windows. Putting controls on the left side means you have to cross the screen every time you want to work with a window. How do you accidently close a maximised window? I suppose your argument would make sense if a lot of what people did with windows was drag them all over their screen. Maybe people do. I certainly don't.

About Time

[honkycat]

This is long overdue. The brown theme was a major turnoff for me. It seems silly, I know, but the first impression is an important one. This was at least part of the reason I preferred Kubuntu. The quick screenshot looks a lot better to me.

And yes, of course you can change the colors, but there's a lot of value of a nice out-of-the-box experience. Developing your own color scheme is trickier than you'd think to get "right."

Re:About Time

[h4rr4r]

Around here it is known as the "fisher-price" interface.

Re:About Time

[shutdown -p now]

Guess what, it's still brown. Just a different shade of it. Oh, but the default wallpaper is now whitish-purple. How exciting!

And just so it helps your aunt Tilly switch from XP, it also tucks those window close/restore/minimize buttons to the left. "Oh, great, like OS X!", I hear you thinking? Well, no, not really - to prevent further confusion, the buttons are still in the same relative order as on Windows (that is, Close is rightmost, not leftmost). I imagine it is done for the sake of fairness, so that users moving from either platform are in for a pleasant surprise.

It's truly going to be a top-notch out-of-the-box experience, I'm sure.

Window control buttons on the left? Bad.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't like that the Window control buttons (maximize, close, etc.) are moved to the top left of the window, instead of the top right where they used to be.

1. I'm used to them being on the right in both current Ubuntu and Windows. I know Mac has them on the left, but I never liked that.
2. If the window is partially dragged off-screen, I can click either the X on the right side, or File -> Close on the left side. With both being on one side, I need to or drag the window back (if it works, which often doesn't if its dragged so much to the extreme that it's hard to grab the title bar with your mouse).

I know the problem usually has trivial workarounds (such as a keyboard shortcut to close), but meh. Why not leave it the way it worked before.

Wait, what?

[geminidomino]

"Purple and orange" is a professional color scheme?

I don't even know what color tie goes with a blue shirt, but even I know that's awful.

It might look nicer but

[dtbw]

I would be happier if things like mounting digital cameras worked consistently from one release to the next without scouring the web looking for the latest hoop to jump through. Yes I can find the answer and make it work but a lot of potential converts will give up and pop the Windows 7 install disk in.

New theme

[ianare]

Ubuntu gets a new theme and ./ STILL uses the Debian icon?

Bad window frame button choice

[LighterShadeOfBlack]

They've moved the window frame buttons to a place that's counter-intuitive for most people but they've also cocked that up in a way that doesn't even make sense for people used to OSX (the buttons are still laid out in the same order as if right-aligned). So now you've got buttons in places nobody is used to, the X button no longer benefits from the 'infinite-dimension' effect of being in a corner, and plus you've got the window frame buttons directly above the menubar - instantly making 10% of attempts to open the Edit menu into accidental window closes. I guess they never stopped to think why most WMs have them on the right and OSX has them on the left.

Brilliant.

The default GNOME theme

[pseudonomous]

I think if anybody ever bothered to use the default GNOME theme, the one the upstream developers ship, they would appreciate much of an improvement every Ubuntu theme has been over the default.