Slashdot Mirror
Linux on a Magazine Cover?
romney wrote in to give us the scoop on an interesting opportunity: "I've been asked to design a cover for a high-end graphics magazine that shows Linux. I'm looking for suggestions on how you would graphically illustrate the ideas that are the basis for Linux. I really want the reader to get a visual understanding of Linux just by looking at the cover. What would you do? " Hint: It needs a penguin.
"Well, Captain, it would be logical for the artwork to depict the strengths of Linux, in a way that was clear to the reader."
"What would you define as the strengths?"
"The strengths are - ease-of-use, support for a wide range of systems, hot-loadable drivers, stability, speed, rapid maintenance, flexibility and control."
"That's a lot to put on one cover picture. What would you suggest?"
"A surreal picture, of a person replacing a clock part with something from the engine of an old car, with the caption of 'this'll be good for another fifty years."
"Hmmmm.... That would be.... logical."
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Ho ho ho. I can guess that you're not a designer. I am, though.
Am I ignorant? No, I don't think so. I know a crapload about how my computer works, and I use windows and linux on a pretty regular basis, though not for work.
I, like most designers, am extremely technical. I _HAVE_ to be. Programming is mostly conceptual work - get a clear idea of what you're doing and then type a lot. But programmers can use a tty if they have to and so IMHO they have it lucky.
I have to pay attention to my color calibration; the mess of original files that have to get into the computer or adjusted so as to work well with others (slides, transparencies, photos, recreating lost originals, screened art...); font issues up the wazoo (I've probably memorized the appearance of a few thousand different faces by now); intercompatability between my software - Quark, PageMaker, Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand - which is not just by vendor (Illustrator and Freehand HATE each other) but also version; maintain strict version control over the various files; preserve projects that can easily sit at a few hundred megs each for years and be able to get them working later, without pickled hardware or software; and output.
It's output that's a real killer. Changing from RGB to Lab to CYMK and Pantone colorspaces. Screening. Going over the films, by hand, with a lupe to make sure everything's perfect. Making the fscking imagesetter and RIP are working, which is easily the most annoying thing I have ever had to do - I could kill a certian imagesetter company's employees without remorse. Dealing with film processing, which is not quite as automated as I'd like. Thank god I don't have to strip or make plates though.
On top of all of this I have to be a good designer with an excellent sense of color, design, know the ins and outs of typography (like why Adobe deserves their status) as well as traditional paste up for comps and such.
And, because stuck up people like you tend to work as admins, I have to keep all the hardware running perfectly by myself, keep track of viruses, bugs in the many many programs we use, administer LANs and learn enough about AppleScript programming to automate what I can.
If I'm working in a print house (presently I am not) then 90% of the business of the company goes through me. Multimillion dollar presses sit idle if I'm not on time. Fortunately we have weeded out a lot of the PHBs in print, though the web is full of 'em.
So I end up doing three jobs: Designer, Computer Operator and Sysadmin.
I'm thanking god for MacOS X completely because it's based on BSD. I desperately want unix underpinnings for the Mac so that it won't be crash prone (which has more to do with flakey but unique software or a lack of maintenance than it does anything else). DPS will be very sweet.
Linux, while also attractive, simply doesn't have the kind of software I need (Gimp is not usable for print yet, and there are a lot of patents so it probably won't ever be AFAIK) or else I'd be happy to switch.
USB of course, other than for mickey mouse crap (keyboards, mice, tablets) is useless. Serious periperhals (scanners, some printers, disks) are SCSI. Firewire's nice, especially since it's hot-swappable (the biggest attraction for me) but I won't be using it for years, I'm sure.
So please don't go thinking that Mac users - particularly graphic designers are stupid. We're not. Having to deal with people like you, we can't be.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Actually it's only true if I were: 1. A programmer, which I am not (try as I might, I'm just not good at it) 2. A really damn good programmer (even rarer than #1) 3. Could access all of the proprietary information required for good graphics software (like patented color matching systems)
The point of my post was that designers are using Macs not because we're stupid - though there are always stupid people in every profession - but because Windows and Linux systems usually either don't offer what we want or offer too little to make changing systems attractive.
I'm not on a power trip (although design has many practical applications - like forgery ;), at least I don't think so. But I don't like it when people tell me that I and my bretheren are dumbasses for using a practical solution, especially if the person saying that is unfamiliar with what we do in the first place.
I'll tell you this, and this is a FACT, not opinion. Gimp, and Linux in general are really not useful for graphic designers.
Really this is less important for Linux because the underlying OS is just a thing for us. It's not important, because we're really concerned with the applications. If Linux could run my software I'd switch.
But the Gimp... non-graphic designers always wonder why we stick to Photoshop. The reason is because the Gimp is lacking in a number of key areas. Chief among these is that it has lousy color support.
Sure it can display RGB color. That's about the last thing I need. Lab is a very good color space and last I heard it wasn't supported. This may have changed but it's not the really critical one. CYMK is totally absent from the Gimp AFAIK, as well as support for Pantone. Nothing in this country gets printed, in color, professionally without being in either CYMK (or a subset thereof) or in Pantone or once in a jillion years Hexachrome. NOTHING. That's just how things are for little reasons like chemistry and the color spectrum.
This means that suddenly the Gimp is only useful for people making RGB or greyscale images. Very few people deal exclusively in those colorspaces. Web designers, while only concerned with RGB or greyscale output often have to convert other people's more complicated files and so there's little reason to adopt an incomplete solution just because it's there. Would you switch from Emacs (assuming you use it) to an editor without support for capital letters? Only if you're e. e. cummings.
Since the Gimp is not sufficiently attractive to draw people to Linux all by itself, let's look at what else Linux is lacking:
Most shops have a really large investment in typefaces. Thousands of dollars of typefaces. Typically in Mac PostScript format, which may not lend itself to conversion to something Linux can use. If not, that's bad because it's of critical importance that everyone have the same fonts (or be able to use them) for about the same reasons that it's good for people writing software to rely on standard libraries and APIs. Only more so.
The only layout program I know of for Unix is Framemaker, which is commercial and no longer being updated AFAIK. Plus it's more suitable towards books than single-page design, and is heavily weighted towards typesetting. TeX is for typesetting, not layout and while I'm told LaTeX has some simple layout functions it's probably not a good replacement for Quark.
Is there a good illo program for Linux? Something like Illustrator? I don't do vector when I can avoid it so I have not looked into this much. Still a vector program is an essential part of the desktop publisher's toolkit.
All of that stuff is critical. All of it is a problem for the designer who wants to use Linux exclusively. Since designers tend to not give a crap about the OS and just want tools that work (as I mentioned, I knew one shop that had been using a customized PDP-11 for ~15 years because that's what worked - at least until it couldn't be fixed) the Mac is a really attractive option. If standard commercial apps get ported over that will be much more of an inducement than the current offerings on Linux are.
Me, I like Linux, BeOS, Mac... but only one is good for work right now. I'm painfully aware of how old the MacOS is which is why I'm looking forwards to MacOS X (which is based on BSD). Get my stuff working on Linux and I'll use that. It's not even a matter of preference right now.
Mostly though I'm vocal on this subject because I just don't like ignorant bozos, no matter what OS they use, telling me that I'm an idiot even though I know what's up with the state of DTP and they don't. Non-designers have no right to talk to me that way.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
You should have a hundred people standing together, wearing different coloured clothes, so that from a distance it looks like a picture of Tux. In other words, a crowd of people formed into the shape of a penguin.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Have a cover of the GIMP Mascot drawing a target on Adobe's Logo. Even better when Paired w/ a Gimp article. If you don't think a target is shocking enough, you could have him doing a very unclean act to it.
Another Idea - A Tux penguin with a Rocket Launcher from Quake III: Arena. Nothing yells 'HIGH END GRAPHICS' like Quake3.
Kagenin
"All warfare is based on deception."
Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
A million penguins typing on a million networked computers.
A garland, around the shield, of woven coaxial and 10BaseT cable with connectors dangling down?
Put Linus' Doctorate mortarboard on his head?
Then there are some twists -- like throwing in how this is pulling away from the corporate philosophy of profit, and moving towards the philanthropic philosophy of most members of this community
The penguin is an idol -- it's a nice single-symbol entity that Linux is reflected in. But it does not portray much real information about what Linux is.
It's all about people. Not to get wierd on you :), but I believe that Linux is about giving power to people. Linux is about rebellion and defiance, an anathema to corruption (speak not of it getting corrupted itself) and a way to perpetuate good technology, in the face of technological and economic and marketing forces working against it.
It's a philosophy. It is poetic justice.
or walking out of it. Make the house be your typical suburbia image. Illustrate graphically that Linux has come from the Virtual Garages of thousands of worldwide developers. "The Next Big Thing" is overused but text to that effect would be nice. "The Ensuing Large Object" or sum such.
+&x
This is going to be labeled flamebait, but the Gimp is not superior to Photoshop--nonexistant/poor support for process color, color calibration, pantone, etc. Don't get me wrong--Gimp is a great image editor, but before I can use it for production, it needs to be more pre-press friendly.
(The reminds me, wasn't someone porting Gimp to Be? I haven't used Be in so long, I've lost touch...)
Just my 2px...
----
Am I the only one who thinks Microsoft is a misnomer? Perhaps Macrosoft would be a better fit?
Focus on that. Thousands of people all working together, no giants. Maybe an aerial shot of a LOT of people in a field, collectively in the shape of a penguin.
Shouldn't be too hard to do with graphics composition, should it?
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
While Sheriff Adobe, Microsoft and Apple hold up a struggling graphic artist.
"Arghh, take from the poor graphic artists and give to King Gates!"
George
You mean that old claymation cartoon with the dog and the boy.
"Hey Goliath, do you think we should write a competitor to Windows?"
"Aw gee, Davey, I don't know, is that right?"
George
To me, and for people unfamiliar with Linux, I don't think Linux's strengths is adquately described by a penguin or any other anecdotal picture. What I would like to show people about linux is that it is amazingly sound, and stable, but at the same time has a humongous bevy of fervent supporters, programmers/coders, contributers, debuggers...a rich community. I think the community needs to be stressed. People don't USE Linux, the community GAINS people.
I don't know maybe a slide-procession showing a sheet of paper with some diagrams, code, cookie crumbles and coffee. The next slide is a PC with a console prompt. The next slide is a depiction of a vast global network superimposed with Q3 screenshots, productivity apps, web browser, etc.
Sort of cartoon like, showing the community culture and how it made Linux come to fruition.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
But WAIT. Off in the distance, near that daark and forboding mountain. . . the RED MOUND. . . thousands of evil Denizens pouring out of the DREAD GATES of HELL, er, I mean, BILL!
But WAIT AGAIN! The good GNUs are taking up arms! The PENGUIN RALLIETH THEM FORTH! Armageddon? Is this the FINAL BATTLE? Is that the VOICE of the ELDER GOD DOJ raining from the HEAVENS?
The DENIZENS RUSH FORWARD, to CRUSH the lowly ones! But see how their kludgey swords BREAK! See how they CRASH! Our Stalwart Heroes Fight On!
The battle RAGETH STILL!
Put that on the cover. :-)-~
-Omar
A giant Tux, in space, sitting on the Earth, like its a penguin egg ready to hatch. Ooo, I like that one. Maybe you can use one of those famous 'whole earth' photos.
Tux and the Gates and Jobs holding up three identical pictures with their respective computers in the background. Under the photos you can list out Labor cost, Software cost, OS costs,etc...
Bah, If I had my way it would be Tux taking a flamethrower to Redmond, which is why I'd make a terrible graphic designer.
The penguin is nice, but it doesn't really tell you anything about Linux. (Does linux need a cold room to work?) You need something that illustrates it's features and or it's versatility.
:)
Show something somewhat abstract looking, like a small network diagram, with an overlapped screen shot of the GIMP working on a colorful photo. Throw in some command line stuff showing server configuring and it's Un*x like style, then show some clips of a word processor and a browser displaying a nice web page. Then top it off with a tad of 3D images, in a freely available modeller, or some such, and throw all that together into a beautiful peice of artwork. Show off features, rather than just a penguin. (If you put Tux in, throw him one of the screen shots, like an embedded graphic in the word processor or something.)
Well, those are my ideas. If you need any help, don't hesitate to e-mail me.
If you can get your hands on the rights to http://rio.dhs.org/penguin.html, I think that would be great. You can't argue that it doesn't "Show Linux".
-=Best Viewed Using [INLINE]=-