Posted by
CmdrTaco
on from the new-and-improved dept.
Joseph writes "Red Hat looks like it put those Atomic Vision folks to work with a new site design. More hype before their IPO?" I'm just glad to see a simpler, more elegant
design.
RedHat: capitalist pig-dogs
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 2
With this latest manuver, those guys have completely SOLD OUT. DEATH TO RED HAT!!! We must fight them at the FTP servers, we must confront them in the mailing lists, we will never surrender!!!!
Of course, my anger at RedHat might have something to do with my having missed out on the IPO. Dammit.
I can understand using a relatively smaller font for the subcategories, but the proper way to do that is not SIZE=2. It should be SIZE=-1. That way, someone who has limited vision or a high-resolution display can set their fonts to a large size, and the subcategories will still be relatively smaller, but remain large enough to see.
Absolute font sizing is a Bad Thing. Unfortunately, it is still done quite often.
It looks like other site because its a simple design. Making a site more useful is not selling out, not that a commercial company can sell out... By definition they have already sold out. This redhat bashing is senseless. What have they ever done that is wrong or is against the community. They pay programmers to work on Free Software projects. Those Bastards! They GPL their code. Corporate Sellouts! Oh wait, I know what their fault is.. They're sucessful, and are gaining mainstream acceptance. gasp! So Linux is loosing alitle bit of its mystery and your elitism is being threatened. So sad, you'll have to go find another counterculture OS to identify with. Me, I use it because it works. An OS is not a lifestyle, its a tool.
I thought the Slashdot feed was kind of corny actually. I mean, if I want Slashdot, I'll just go here. But it seems like a real sign that they're gearing up to be a competitor with Slashdot as a "portal site." The thing is, I don't see anything interesting on their site that would make them a portal. Everything seems to be internal information. If this is what their final portal is going to be, it really stinks.
What is a portal, anyway? A site that gets a lot of people visit, or a site that a lot of people visit regularly? I mean, if millions of people go there one time, it's not going to be a portal. They'll need to add some news or something that actually changes on a daily/hourly basis if they want to attract hits. I mean, I don't think Microsoft.com or Apple.com is a portal.
Why does everyone designing these so-called portal sites insist on setting all their table widths to 600 pixels? It's really annoying on those of us who have monitors 17 inches and bigger. I mean, it's stupid to run my SGI monitor in anything less than 1280x1024, so i get to see this itty-bitty table in a massive browser window.
Folks, the trick is to do then specify everything else in percentages as well. It'll look the same on browsers with windows limited to 600 pixels, but those of us with bigger monitors won't think you're idiots. (Well, at least not as much.)
It really doesn't matter what design rules you follow and how well you follow them, the only thing that matters is this: does it look good or crappy? The redhat site (and all its look-alikes) looks real crappy on my browser, and it seems like it looks crappy on other people's browsers too. You can say that it follows some set of design rules 'till you're blue in the face, it doesn't change the fact that it looks crappy on my browser (and many others).
A site like slashdot looks great whether I access it on my laptop at 1280x1024 or on the library PC at 800x600. There is a simple reason why it works: don't hardcode anything. If I like to read text with 30 characters per line or 132 characters per line, I'd like to be the one to make that decision, and I'd like to be the one to configure my browser to display sites in that way, not some pompous old designer who can't see the difference between designing for a glossy magazine and a website.
I'm intelligent enough to configure my browser with the proper font and window sizes, please don't insult my intelligence by imposing your own standards on me!
Seems like Red Hat is trying to cut their moorings from the open source/geek/Linux community at large. What's this? No more headlines from Slashdot? Huh?
I also think the new site is one great big yawn. CmdrTaco may think that it's more simple and elegant, but to me it just looks cheap (sloppy design here and there IMO--what's with the cheesy flags?--and there is such a thing as TOO simple).
Only advantage I can see to the new site is that it loads hellaciously faster, but I'd like at least a _little_ eye candy.
Wow. That site really is bad. I suggest that folks all mail their webmaster about it. I can only read their site via lynx. I don't think they've read the site design guidelines. Alas.
Guys, our only hope is to send Redhat mail about this nastiness. Right now, I can't read their site except using lynx, unless I use my hand-written proxy that strips out all the font changes and width stuff. I just sent webmaster@redhat.com mail explaining why I couldn't read their site. I also posted them at the admittedly Spartan but functional html design guidlines. I encourage you to do likewise, after your own fashion, of course.
REDHAT Get a DESIGNER, an ARTIST I say
by
Flak
·
· Score: 3
Ok, I am a bias fool, (I am a designer) but the design is not engaging. You get lost very fast as there is no central navigation design. Granted you have the top bar that takes you to the top of the specific section, but it is not effective It really looks to me that Redhat is trying to do a portal of sorts.
Think about what a portal does. You go to once place and you find links to deep level pages on other sites or with the same network(think go.com or msn.com or Netcenter). My big gripe is that if Redhat wants to be the leader in the whole Linux/open source movement, well the should look the part. Blazing fast the site maybe, but will anyone stick around to find the info they want without a little eye candy? I doubt it.
Return visitors will be hard pressed to see a change in the content within the golden 5 second window. after complete load) My two cents to Redhat buy the services of a company that can take there corporate image and turn it into something that is engaging and meets the basic rules of (web)design.
Slashdot Mirror
With this latest manuver, those guys have completely SOLD OUT. DEATH TO RED HAT!!! We must fight them at the FTP servers, we must confront them in the mailing lists, we will never surrender!!!!
Of course, my anger at RedHat might have something to do with my having missed out on the IPO. Dammit.
I can understand using a relatively smaller font for the subcategories, but the proper way to do that is not SIZE=2. It should be SIZE=-1. That way, someone who has limited vision or a high-resolution display can set their fonts to a large size, and the subcategories will still be relatively smaller, but remain large enough to see.
Absolute font sizing is a Bad Thing. Unfortunately, it is still done quite often.
--
It looks like other site because its a simple design. Making a site more useful is not selling out, not that a commercial company can sell out... By definition they have already sold out. This redhat bashing is senseless. What have they ever done that is wrong or is against the community. They pay programmers to work on Free Software projects. Those Bastards! They GPL their code. Corporate Sellouts! Oh wait, I know what their fault is.. They're sucessful, and are gaining mainstream acceptance. gasp! So Linux is loosing alitle bit of its mystery and your elitism is being threatened. So sad, you'll have to go find another counterculture OS to identify with. Me, I use it because it works. An OS is not a lifestyle, its a tool.
I thought the Slashdot feed was kind of corny actually. I mean, if I want Slashdot, I'll just go here. But it seems like a real sign that they're gearing up to be a competitor with Slashdot as a "portal site." The thing is, I don't see anything interesting on their site that would make them a portal. Everything seems to be internal information. If this is what their final portal is going to be, it really stinks.
What is a portal, anyway? A site that gets a lot of people visit, or a site that a lot of people visit regularly? I mean, if millions of people go there one time, it's not going to be a portal. They'll need to add some news or something that actually changes on a daily/hourly basis if they want to attract hits. I mean, I don't think Microsoft.com or Apple.com is a portal.
rooooar
Folks, the trick is to do then specify everything else in percentages as well. It'll look the same on browsers with windows limited to 600 pixels, but those of us with bigger monitors won't think you're idiots. (Well, at least not as much.)
>/rant off
Seems like Red Hat is trying to cut their moorings from the open source/geek/Linux community at large. What's this? No more headlines from Slashdot? Huh?
I also think the new site is one great big yawn. CmdrTaco may think that it's more simple and elegant, but to me it just looks cheap (sloppy design here and there IMO--what's with the cheesy flags?--and there is such a thing as TOO simple).
Only advantage I can see to the new site is that it loads hellaciously faster, but I'd like at least a _little_ eye candy.
Yawn...
Ethelred
Everyone wants to be Ethelred. Even I want to be Ethelred.
Wow. That site really is bad. I suggest that folks all mail their webmaster about it. I can only read their site via lynx. I don't think they've read the site design guidelines. Alas.
Guys, our only hope is to send Redhat mail about this nastiness. Right now, I can't read their site except using lynx, unless I use my hand-written proxy that strips out all the font changes and width stuff. I just sent webmaster@redhat.com mail explaining why I couldn't read their site. I also posted them at the admittedly Spartan but functional html design guidlines. I encourage you to do likewise, after your own fashion, of course.
Ok, I am a bias fool, (I am a designer) but the design is not engaging. You get lost very fast as there is no central navigation design. Granted you have the top bar that takes you to the top of the specific section, but it is not effective It really looks to me that Redhat is trying to do a portal of sorts.
Think about what a portal does. You go to once place and you find links to deep level pages on other sites or with the same network(think go.com or msn.com or Netcenter). My big gripe is that if Redhat wants to be the leader in the whole Linux/open source movement, well the should look the part. Blazing fast the site maybe, but will anyone stick around to find the info they want without a little eye candy? I doubt it.
Return visitors will be hard pressed to see a change in the content within the golden 5 second window. after complete load) My two cents to Redhat buy the services of a company that can take there corporate image and turn it into something that is engaging and meets the basic rules of (web)design.