Redesigning Ubuntu – behind the scenes on 10.04
One of the key design choices was to improve the link between Canonical and Ubuntu. There has always had an overlap of logo and theme, utilising the same colours and clearly based on the “circle of friends” logo that has come to be an identity of Ubuntu. The proposed new Canonical logo removes this distinct link, but attempts to re-create it through colour and font symbolism, but does still maintain a circle for legacy identity.
One criticism that I don’t think was known before the proposed changes was the distinction of user abilities in documentation and other stationary. The design team have crafted a method of making technical or developer centric documents identifiable, by proposing a ‘technical drawing paper’ background. Whilst this is a superb move in a good direction, I do have concerns how this will scale and perhaps introduce a technical class system, where the middle class don’t quite know which side they should be reading.
Interestingly, it would seem that many of the artists that created this new design were using Apple Macs and proprietary software as their developing platform. I’m a big believer in using the best tool for a job which leads to an important question. Is it that Ubuntu is lacking as an art and design platform and is not up to the task or is it, there aren’t any pedigree artists that are well skilled in using the Ubuntu desktop. The design team were keen to stress that they wanted to move towards using the Ubuntu desktop for their creations, but didn’t have enough familiarity at this point.
In summary, I’m really positive about the changes and I’m greatly motivated with Canonical extended effort with requesting non-employee influence. It really helps reinforce Canonical’s stance of community empowerment. Particularly, as they made it clear they wanted to increase community involvement in this area which hasn’t traditionally had a massive community commitment.
I feel reasonably certain that the majority of changes have been widely approved by the masses, but this release is mostly the first step in re-identifying the brand. I think it’s a fair assumption that the full fruit of labour will be uncovered in 10.10, due October 2010.
Dave Walker
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EPIC !
I don’t like the buttons being on the left of the window when it should stay on the right.
I personally think that ubuntu is a great leaping board for Linux on the whole and it has already done sooo much.
I am a kubuntu user purely because I prefer the KDE GUI over the Gnome one, but since kubuntu can draw from the ubuntu repositories they it is all good.
I just cannot wait for 10.04 and 10.10.. and hope that the attention to detail will be carried over to the other variants of ubuntu, which it has done as yet
You meant October 2010 right?
I loved the new logo, but didn’t like the new theme.
One of my pet peeves about GTK themes is the inclusion of low contrast scroll buttons. I was disappointed to see that Canonical has spent so much time on their theme redesign and turned out another theme with the vertical scroll button that blends into the background. Maybe nearly everyone uses a scroll wheel mouse these days. I consider it a usability problems if you have trouble finding the scroll buttons because they are the same color as the background. Just about everything else can be easily changed in a theme.
I like the new theme, but the buttons on the left is lame. I keep going to the wrong side of the titlebar. They also switch the spots of the minimize and maximize buttons, keep hitting the wrong one. I know you can change all this, but it’s strange that they would change the default like that, it’s gonna screw up a lot of people.
A large number of features and details changed with v9.10 and will continue to change with v10.04. Sadly, documentation for the various consumers has not kept up.
Now that almost every aspect of workstation configuration is event-driven and dynamic — think large room filled with mouse traps and ping-pong balls — everyone from grandma to guru needs different sorts of documentation. I hope that the Long Term Support (LTS) edition pays adequate attention there as well.
Concerning artists and Ubuntu:
Artists want to do artwork and not tinker with config file details. Their digital-medium of preference involves specific devices which are difficult or impossible to attach and use optimally under Ubuntu or linux in general. Given Inkscape, Blender, Gimp and others, there is wonderful software available on linux.
However,configuration and integration of tablets, pointing devices, and displays requires X11 setting manipulation and has long been an arcane practice. Now that this is event-driven dynamic, the incantations have become even more obscure. [See separate remarks about "documentation."] My son is a digital artist and I am a long time linux hacker. It took minutes to add his digitizer and display to various win-dose (XP, Vista, 7) workstations. We have not summoned the right spirits (sic) after weeks of effort under v8.10, v9.04, v9.10. We only hope that v10.04 LTS slays many of the X11 configuration and deployment demons.
I have been using Ubuntu since Warty. I feel other things deserve more focus … changing monitors and upgrading without breaking the system for instance. These are more important than color schemes and boot times to me. I will probably stick with Ubuntu despite all of it’s flaws though because it mostly works.
Earl
I have to agree with Harold. The UI design change moving the window buttons is not only a huge change for the vast majority of us (that is, those of us without the Apple hardware/software bundle), but I feel has happened very suddenly and without warning. It’s not like the community was up in arms wanting this feature.
For me, the UI change interferes with my productivity and makes setting up Ubuntu “my way” that much more of a pain. If Canonical wants to make this change and still be user and enterprise friendly, I feel they really should make the change something simple for the user to edit in the standard ‘themes’ window, not in gconf.
Correction.
Apologies, we’ve corrected the ETA for 10.10 to October 2010.
Thanks
Russell
I don’t like the colour and I don’t like the theme. They say that Lucid will be better looking than Mac. I don’t see it. That colour is disgasting. The theme is not glossy and 3d!
I seriously oppose the very idea of this new theme which totally looks like an Apple Mac OS X ditto. I found this article online which does a comparision of the new Ubuntu theme and Mac OS X desktop – http://digitizor.com/2010/03/06/is-ubuntu-having-an-identity-crisis/
I have to add my voice to the choir of those complaining about the new close-window-buttons position. A mistake, really.
Apart of that, grat job. But this change alone is a show stopper.
I don’t like two things in the new design:
1. The mac-like buttons on the left of the title bar. It’s clear almost no one likes it. Please make it an option for former mac-users!
2. Please get rid of the orange. I think it’s a cheap colour.
I feel cheated.
Some things I love about Ubuntu are the childish font, the circle of friends, and the mud-brown theme. These features give it a character of it’s own.
Looking at the screenshots, it’s obvious that the people who did the design are TOO influenced by their current workstation. They’re basically trying to morph ubuntu into a mac – like interface. The purple especially – hate.
The first thing I’ll do on my new Lucid Install (when it finally comes out) is change the theme, and try to ressurect my ubuntu-title font.
Or maybe it’s time I switched to Debian…
Not to say that the new design isn’t slick… It lacks the open source character that the old design has. It is / will be beautiful, but it will sorely miss the quirks and bits and pieces that make ubuntu homey.
I wouldn’t have a problem using it, only because I’ve ceased being too concerned with the window deco… as long as everything functions and is in the right place… which brings me to the window buttons. PLEASE just make the positioning customizable via the appearance settings! That would be so much more mature than shifting it on everyone.
The new position of window buttons kind of makes sense to me, as it’s easier to move the cursor there. That’s also where other most often used window items are, like menus, back and forward buttons, sidebar etc. I also like the general colour of the new wallpaper, but some how it doesn’t look quite finished. It’s a little rough (in the lack of a better word) in my eyes.
I can’t say I’m really fussed either way when it comes to the theme. What frustrates me is the lack of progress on the interface of the apps. Take a look at the screenshot in the post that shows the File Browser – this is not a good interface for what should be a very simple app.
I know this isn’t the direct responsibility of Canonical and that they are relying on the Gnome / KDE projects for these elements, but this is what makes a difference to people – not the “decoration” at the top and bottom of the screen.
I really do not care about the position of the minimize/maximize/close buttons, because I always close windows with CTRL+Q, minimize with double click over the top window bar and almost never maximize windows. The power of the linux desktop is the great flexibility in personal configuration. If I install Lucid and i do not like the dfault theme, I easily will change it. I really like and, in fact, was waiting for year for a minimal art for desktop bar icons, so i love the new ones Mac-like. I like the dark themes, but always come back to clear themes because they let the shadows to be shown, and that makes my desktop to look more 3D, icons look better 3D when they are over a clear surface. That is the reason I do not like the default background/wallpaper, because it is dark (easy to change, in fact, I use to change wallpapers almost daily, like buying the newspaper).
I am really more interested about the other new features that Lucid will bring for me, usability, user friendly and bug fixes.
I love the way Mac OS X looks, I respect a lot to Mac art developers. So, if Ubuntu learn about Mac I would be glad for it. You can take the best of the world and learn, right?
I hate the close/minimize/maximize buttons on the left side. Move them back or make it an option to select where you want yours positioned…..
What's your opinion?