Gentoo branding on Desktop Environments and Applications

energyman76b · Advocate Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 2048 Location: Germany

I don't like 'branding' at all.

I want to use KDE and not some chimaera.

I want to use firefox (ok, I don't want to, but I have to sometimes), and I want it as close as possible to the 'real' one.

Some distros change the software in ways, that they don't bear any resemblance with the stuff released by upstream. And that sucks. With each change, something is introduced that make 'generic' instructions/themes/whatever harder to apply. And at the end, it is like (k)ubuntu, who are crippling apps and turn them into something else.

Please, don't let that happen. Branding is evil (it was evil with RedHATs 'lets turn KDE into a bad gnome clone' bluecurve branding, it is evil with kubuntu, it will be evil in the feature). If someone really wants to have 'branding' - fine. But let them jump to loops to get it, and not force the 'vanilla' users jump to loops to get rid of it.

IMHO branding is very close to disrespecting upstream... and that is the last thing I want.
_________________
Study finds stunning lack of racial, gender, and economic diversity among middle-class white males

I identify as a dirty penismensch.

timeBandit · Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 4:03 am Post subject:

I voted "no and no" because I differentiate the applications from the platform. My bootsplash has a Gentoo theme, GDM has a Gentoo theme--and that's where it ends. I admit that I formed this position in part because Gentoo artwork has been spotty, though much improved lately. For instance, I use the bubble icons sparingly--they're pretty, but as UI elements they're dreadful at small sizes (too hard to differentiate). The 2006.1 LiveCD color scheme is somewhat putrid, yet many older splash screens are quite nice (I especially liked the 2005 series).

I have no objection to theming a default desktop to look Gentoo-ish, but branding all the little pieces rapidly leads to something like Sun's Java Desktop System, which almost completely hides that it's composed of things I already know. It always feels just slightly unfamiliar because all the apps are heavily rebranded.

Uniquely for Gentoo, I think branding creates a bit of a no-win image conflict. Say you develop a beautiful brand and build the LiveCD system with it. A new user builds a system from scratch from that, but branding is off by default--oops: "why doesn't my new system look like the one on the CD?!" To address that, you'd have to turn on branding by default--oops, now you've startled the current users: "why does Firefox look so different after a minor update OMG WTF BBQ?!"

Appearance options shouldn't go further than themes and artwork. Recompiling/reinstalling to change visual elements is evil. :evil:

_________________
Plants are pithy, brooks tend to babble--I'm content to lie between them.
Super-short f.g.o checklist: Search first, strip comments, mark solved, help others.

nesl247 · Veteran Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 1614 Location: Florida

I don't see the issue here. Every application that the maintainer wants to gentooize should do so. I find the lack of support from some users who pretty wierd.. If it's off by default, and enabled only through a USE flag, just don't enable it, you'll have nothing to worry about..

Xake · Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 1:17 pm Post subject:

Deathwing00 · Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:36 pm Post subject:

In reply to the above post, I also needed to know if there would be users using it or not. Thus the extra options in the poll.

Xake · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:46 pm Post subject:

christel · Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 5:35 pm Post subject:

I see a few people comment as to how they feel this would be a waste of time and that people should use their time differently, I'd just like to point out that more likely than not this will allow people to contribute on something they can do and not eat into development time elsewhere, iow, allow more/new people to contribute. And surely, that's a good thing?

As for the yay/nay thing, I am not particularly bothered but I'd vote for off by default if implemented.
_________________
--
I admit it: I'm a shameless flirt... I'd flirt with a lamppost if no one else stood still for long enough..

Naib · Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 7:33 pm Post subject:

Great Idea!!!
OO 1.2 emerge yesterday and not only was I plesantly supprised in the extreamly fast starttime, but it is gentoo-branded!!! love it!

off by default or on by default, either way the relevant USE flag will be added to my make.conf
_________________

sonicbhoc · Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 7:37 pm Post subject:

RoundsToZero · Guru Joined: 17 Nov 2003 Posts: 478 Location: New York, NY

Instead of a new USE flag, maybe a new BRANDING flag:

Deathwing00 · Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 11:22 pm Post subject:

We're evaluating our choices. The purpose of this poll was to check whether there was acceptance or not. Looks like it does. I'll close the poll.

Comments and contributions are still welcome. We'll keep you updated!

juniper · l33t Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 942 Location: we the north

it appears the polls have closed so i will just post.

i am for branding, turn it off by default and have a "branding" use flag.

I don't see what the controversy is (maybe there isn't any). this way people who want can have it and vice versa.

metwo · n00b Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Posts: 69

No, no no. Personally I like that gentoo is as close to upstream as possiible, without branding. It's one of the things that first brought me to gentoo.

I personally hate the branding that ubuntu/suse etc put into kde in particular.

juniper · l33t Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 942 Location: we the north

Xake · Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 10:08 pm Post subject:

gimpel

http://gentoo-portage.com/x11-wm/compiz

Is it just me who thinks that a screenshot of compiz with a debian logo wallpaper, running on an ubuntu desktop, does somewhat not fit on gentoo-portage.com?

That makes me think, that we could also need some freshening up for our branding, e.g. a nice gentoo button for default Gnome menu and things like that.

First attempts: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-523351.html - though some might think that lila as color is a bit girl'ish.
_________________
http://proaudio.tuxfamily.org/wiki - pro-audio software overlay

AllenJB · Veteran Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 1285

gentoo-portage.com is not an official site (as it states in its footer), so Gentoo has no control over its content.

gimpel · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 3:07 pm Post subject:

BlackEdder · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 3:19 pm Post subject:

Set branding as a useflag and you will het some gentoo specific artwork.

AllenJB · Veteran Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 1285

There's several gentoo artwork packages you can install if you want Gentoo branding. Personally I suspect most Gentoo users aren't that bothered. These packages include:

gentoo-artwork
gentoo-artwork-livecd (in wolf32o2's overlay)
gentoo-xcursors
splash-themes-gentoo

Gentoo doesn't and, in my opinion, shouldn't install any of these packages by default or mess with the users settings when they install these packages.

Ubuntu is a "newbie" distro. It's designed so that users don't have to touch configuration options. Gentoo on the other hand is a distro that is basically designed with more experienced users in mind and is all about control - that is, letting the administrator set their system up how they like it and not have packages change settings (without good reason) and without notifying the user (via the config management tools).

Because of this, and the fact that Gentoo is a source based distro, the developers and package maintainers will tend to leave all settings as the upstream developers set them - this makes life easier on both the users (by maintaining their settings) and the developers (because they don't have to fiddle with config files during package installation or removal).

theneb · n00b Joined: 07 Jan 2005 Posts: 38 Location: UK

I'd certainly echo opinions within this thread already, whilst distro's such as Ubuntu have very nice artwork. You have to consider Gentoo's real audience and that is the sysadmins, personally I deploy Gentoo on all my servers and on any public pc's I need to lockdown.

Since portage gives me a lot of control over it all, it would be nice to have better branding throughout and a fresh look but that just depends if anyone arty wants to take the challenge and contribute.

nixnut · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:48 pm Post subject:

merged above six posts here.
_________________
Please add [solved] to the initial post's subject line if you feel your problem is resolved. Help answer the unanswered

talk is cheap. supply exceeds demand

gimpel · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 7:04 pm Post subject:

whoops. sorry for not seeing this one, and thx for merging.
_________________
http://proaudio.tuxfamily.org/wiki - pro-audio software overlay

defenderBG · l33t Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 817

so... what happened???

i am not the best of artist, but still i would like to comtribute, and since programming is not something i want to do, means that this is one of the few places left

user118696 · Apprentice Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 276