Ubuntu Manual

Spreadubuntu is a repository for marketing material by and for the community, with the goal of increasing the market share of Ubuntu. It will see a theme update soon, to match the new visual identity of Ubuntu. I have been kindly asked to help with ... [More] the logo. The current logo with tagline: Drafts. White on orange, as that’s how it will be used in the header area. Text has the same size as the one on ubuntu.com: Filed under: Logos, Planet Ubuntu, Ubuntu [Less]

Soundsoftware is an initiative to further the sustainable development and (re)use of software and data in the audio and music research community. I was hired to create the logo and in the process I also defined a color scheme and helped with choosing ... [More] a default font (Gillius ADF No2). Taken from the briefing that I developed with the client: Design of a either a logotype, or a symbol and logotype combination, for the Soundsoftware project. The artwork has to be in line with and ideally support the goal and strategy of the project: To encourage and further sustainability and reuse of software in audio and music research. To this end, the project will reach out to other institutions and will take part in events. Audience: Decision-makers at other institutions and individual researchers in music and audio. Members of the target audience should be made to: feel addressed, understand the project, understand the potential benefits for their own work, see the possibility of participation, deem the project trustworthy. The tone and posture should be: Open and inviting Modest Supporting, not leading or pushing Trustworthy Thoughtful We chose a shade of orange to be warm and energetic, but not agressive. The green doesn’t take away from the warmth and is associated with sustainability (environment protection) and reuse (recycling). I often start with very rough notes and sketches on paper, but this time I created this mind-map, using FreeMind. Drafts along the way, starting with an application of the idea of reuse to typography: Last set of color variations. From Chris Cannam, my point of contact: The thing I found most interesting about the process was the way that Thorsten’s work clarified the perceptions that we had about the purpose of the project itself. This is partly through dialogue (he asks me what the project is about and who it’s for, and so I have to find a sensible answer) but also through the experience of having someone accurately interpret the things you say and make them concrete. There’s an interesting sense in which, when working through his proposals, I’m also having to sift through the ideas that we have come up with about the purpose of our project, and decide which ones are most meaningful to us. Perhaps this is just the way things ought to work with any designer, but it certainly isn’t always the case. When we finally settled on a design, it was both more minimal than anything we had experimentally produced in-house (we made a number of alternatives ourselves before deciding to call in an expert!) and more satisfying – there was a funny degree of holding up the design sheets and going: “Is this it? This is all there is to show for two weeks work?” – which is the best consequence, as we have something simple that gives the right first impression, bears scrutiny from pedantic geeks, and sits well in the layouts. Thanks to Chris Cannam for arranging this job and being a great client and representative of the initiative! Filed under: Jobs, Logos, Planet Ubuntu [Less]

Jono Bacon announced today the Ubuntu Application Review Process, which is designed to get new and fresh applications into Ubuntu after it’s released. “Are you an application developer who would like to see your application appear in the Ubuntu ... [More] Software Center and available by millions of Ubuntu users? Today we are announcing a new process we are trialing which is easier and more accessible for application authors to get their apps in Ubuntu.” This is all well and good, but check out the requirements to getting your app into software center: “Importantly, only new applications that are not present in an existing official Ubuntu repository (such as main/universe) are eligible in this process (e.g a new version of an application in an existing official repository is not eligible). Also no other software can depend on the application being submitted (e.g. development libraries are not eligible), only executable applications (and content that is part of them) are eligible, and not stand-alone content, documentation or media, and applications must be Open Source and available under an OSI approved license.” So let’s just recap, in bullet point form: No new updates to existing apps are allowed No dependencies or libraries Only standalone executable applications No standalone content, documentation (ie, Ubuntu Manual) or media Applications must be open source, so nothing proprietary If you want to try and sell your app in the Software Center, it has to be simple, standalone, a one off with no updates, open source and it has to be packaged for /opt also. Oh, and you have to sign the CoC, create a PPA, submit it for review and then have it approved, also, during the process, Ubuntu developers reserve the right to make changes to your application. So basically, in summary, it’s damned near impossible for anyone to get their applications into Ubuntu after it’s released. I was quite excited about this idea when it first appeared at UDS-M last May, for two reasons: 1) I wanted to get the Ubuntu Manual into the Software Center and 2) Ohso was going to launch into game and application development with a mix of open source and proprietary licensing, depending on the application. Unfortunately, thanks to these ridiculous rules, looks like neither will be happening. Ubuntu has this wicked content delivery system built into the operating system, something that Apple and Microsoft don’t have on their desktops. It’s obvious that having a lot of fresh applications constantly landing is a boon for platforms, and this would be the perfect area for Ubuntu to whip out a feature that its competitors lack. So what do Canonical do? Make it as hard as possible for developers to get content into the system, of course. Once again Ubuntu proves that it’s way behind the 8-ball in utilizing the power of the repositories and getting quality content to the end user. For the meantime, I guess I’ll continue installing quality apps like pornview – which is available in the repositories. You want to become mainstream Ubuntu? Yeah, keep dreaming. [Less]

I have been asked to design a logo for ITIS Linux (Italian site). ITIS stands for Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale (National Technical/Industrial Institute), a secondary school offering vocational training in areas such as system administration ... [More] , software or electronics engineering. Students are between 15 to 19 years of age. The target audience encompasses decision makers in education, teachers, but also students. Because of this, I decided to go for a rather restrained design, aiming for an impression of being a reliable partner, offering a solid platform (based on Ubuntu, btw). I took inspiration from seals as found on certificates and architecture of modern educational facilities. The I and L in the symbol build the beams of a ladder. It stands for the climbing up of learning. The spokes also quite simply connect the I of ITIS to the L of Linux. The typography is build from scratch. The dark red or maroon color is inspired by wax seals. It supports the necessary confidence of the logo, without being loud like a brighter tone might be. To provide some assistance with making the most of the new logo, I created a palette based on it, also including the red and green of the flag of Italy. The green and blue tones should be used as accents only, if a need arises. Filed under: Logos, Planet Ubuntu, Ubuntu [Less]

Some people who care are not happy about the state of the Ubuntu Artwork team and mailing list. Saleel’s take on the Ayatana list (good read, as off-topic as it might be, there). Vish’s take on the Artwork list (you can see a lot of thought went into ... [More] this. Seems like a good opportunity to offer some reflection on how things developed and how at least one particular contributor ticks. First post My first post to the Artwork list happened towards the end of 2007, in roughly my fourth year of creating logos and mockups in the FLOSS-realm. After switching to Ubuntu, it seemed just natural to get involved there. I just loved the Circle of Friends symbol, though I never thought much of any other part of the official presentation. Motivation I have to admit that increasing my chances of being hired by Canonical was part of my early motivation. Well, that didn’t work out. A constant part of my motivation, besides quite simply enjoying the creative process, is gaining experience, training and getting portfolio pieces out of it. Note that this can complicate cooperation, because under this aspect, it may hurt me if my work is altered outside of my control, or if it becomes unclear what exactly has been my part in a larger effort. Of course, experience with teamwork and having examples of it, is valuable, too. Discussions Back then we had long discussions on the list. Many opinions, many words, not many results. There have been phases where we saw many theme mockups, but only ever a few theme implementations. Can’t fault anyone there; I also only created mockups and no themes. It’s just so frustrating, a lack of control coupled with hard to understand gtkrc files. But thanks to only few people, a community-themes package happened. Nothing new there, for this cycle … The mailing list used to be noisy at times, but has been rather dead as of late. Though we will likely see some live now thanks to Vish’s post. Direction There was a lack of direction. I once tried to address this issue, by writing about design methods, target audience, desired tone and message on the wiki. There was some interest, but after a while it became clear there was no one else to work on that level and I didn’t have the energy to pull it through to results on my own. Design Team Later on, the formation of the Design Team at Canonical made all of that pretty much pointless. That’s also when I really buried the hope of having chance of creating a default wallpaper. It had been dwindling before already. Used to be motivating for a quite a number of people. The Hardy heron wallpaper was a success. The Ibex not so much. The author wasn’t happy with the result, his vision had been perverted by forcing it into another direction. Might be part of the reason why he ceased to be active. Though maybe he’s just to damn busy as a freelance designer, like I should be, too, if only I had my priorities straight . I wouldn’t hand it to a bunch of hobbyists either, if there’s a trained full-time designer in direct contact with decision makers. Sorry, I mean it would be embarrassing if that was a competition. Though the outcome is full of things that leave me puzzled. Once in a while someone shows up with the assumption that the artwork-team is responsible for Ubuntu’s default look, still. Wallpapers For Karmic, I took care of the wiki and put a lot of effort into organizing wallpaper submissions. Still proved to be hard for some people. The wiki “surge protection” kicked in, because of to many images on a single page, refusing to load. Complaining about that often enough led to ticket in tracker that predates Launchpad, but that’s all. Then the Flickr group took off. So I created the policy that we would not accept wallpaper submissions on the wiki anymore, knowing that they wouldn’t make it into the selection, anyway. All this also highlighted that the wiki is just not suitable to collect work from contributors. Too hard to edit, too much management effort required, doesn’t scale. Mockups People used to add mockups to the wiki that went beyond theming into interface and interaction design territory. Usually unrealistic, never possible within a release cycle, even if there would ever have been developers to implement it. To not have those mixed up with things that could work for the upcoming release, I created a place that is basically a concept graveyard :/. There are a few other things I could mention, but I better wrap up for now. What works? First what doesn’t work: Unguided discussion on the list Creating themes without iron willpower Artwork submissions on the wiki What does work: Collecting wallpapers on Flickr and selecting a few per cycle Countdown banner contest Why do these work? Likely because of: visibility of what’s going on. low barrier to entry on Flickr. clear mission and deadline for the countdown banner. What else? 54 active Members in the Artwork team, according to Launchpad. One can really wonder what most them actually do, regarding artwork. There’s an Art & Design forum. Currently it doesn’t look too bad when compared with the list, but I think like all forums, it encourages useless single line statements, terrible quoting habits and costs even more time because you have to actively go there, instead of just pulling messages. The need for email notifications in forums should tell you something … Oh, and then there’s ubuntu-artists on Deviantart. Deviantart doesn’t even do email notifications, because going there to check your messages in addition to your regular email is so much fun. Filed under: Planet Ubuntu, Thoughts, Ubuntu [Less]

Review of Youtube channel: Thisweekinlinux (Image considered used under fair use) This week in linux (thisweekinlinux) is a well established channel on youtube that is run by a guy called Jodan. There is usually a weekly news update plus some ... [More] reviews and how-tos. The videos from this guy appears very well planned and professional. Hes news are about linux in general and very much of it is Ubuntu relevant. On the how-to’s side he currently has a very good section on kdenlive video editing that is very well executed and explained. This channel is especially useful as entertainment as a news source and also has high educational value. Youtube – http://www.youtube.com/user/thisweekinlinux Website – http://www.thisweekinlinux.com Filed under: Reviews [Less]

Lifrea a RSS feed reader A RSS feed is a collection of summary files that websites can publish from their site. A RSS feed normally contains a small description of a post, but can also contain the entire text and images. Using a RSS feed reader can ... [More] be quite similar to using twitter where you ad feeders(a link to a directory that contains feeds) to your list. Then you can update your feed reader which in this case is Lifrea to see all the latest posts from different sites. To install Lifrea open the software center and type Lifrea. Click install and wait for the install to finish. You can find Lifrea in Applications -> Internet -> Liferea. When you open Lifrea you can see that it already contains some sample feeds. Most these feeds are feeds about Linux or Ubuntu. To remove feeds you don’t want, use the folder navigation as a normal file manager. Right click and select delete. To find feeds you have to look around on the website you want to have the feed from. Some feeds are easy to guess. Example wordpress feeds which is url/feed which makes this blogs feed http://ubuntuper.wordpress.com/feed and another worpress blog will be http://<THE USER>.wordpress.com/feed. Normally on public sites the feed is linked in the bottom of the page, then it usually says RSS, one example of a site that does this (at the time i wrote this) is OMGUbuntu. When you have found your feed and want to add it to Lifrea all you need to do is copy the link. Go in Lifrea and click new subscription-> paste the feed link and click ok. ———————— Tip: as booklover206 said in the comments below: “you can also have services like google reader feed into your liferea.” Filed under: 08 Howto's, 09 Other recomended [Less]

Kdenlive 0.7.8 (Image considered used under fair use) Kdenlive 0.7.8 The newest version of kdenlive. New features and bug fixes. Next release will most likely be a bug fix release(probably related to the all the new features). To read more about ... [More] the new changes read the official post. To install open a terminal and paste the line below(terminal= ‘ctrl+alt+t’ OR Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal): sudo apt-get install python-software-properties && sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sunab/kdenlive-release && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install kdenlive If prompted (y/n) type y and hit the enter key. Filed under: Ubuntu news [Less]

Kdenlive video tutorial by the guy behind Thisweekinlinux. This is a very good video tutorial, it goes over the basics and a bit beyond. Showing the power of kdenlive and answering some questions from the crowd. Definitely worth taking a look at. Filed under: 08 Howto's

Kdenlive vs Openshot – Video editing Ubuntu I think it’s time to take another look at the video editing battle in Linux. I recently got a feeling of trying out my old favorite video editor for Linux after watching a clip on the youtube channel ... [More] Thisweeklinux. Openshot stole my favorite state of video editor early 2010 when i was having a lot of issues with it. And i found Openshot which is a very good video editor as well. The main differences then came down to. Openshot Looks better. Has better presets for rendering. No irritating bugs. And was more intuitive.(easy to navigate, logical) Kdenlive More and better effects. Better workflow. Better (automatic) time line control. Not the best presets, but good customization of export settings. Recent conclusion: After trying kdenlive lately, I found the bugs I to be gone. That makes me currently a Kdenlive fan. But i also have a lot of love for Openshot. If i was going to recommend a editor for a person that does not grasp technology very fast I would recommend Openshot right of the bat. But for me and many others i believe that even Openshot is more intuitive getting used to openshot is not a difficult task. Also the planed features for kdenlive is interesting. I will keep an eye on Openshot, its still a very interesting project as well. Filed under: Ubuntu news [Less]