idea for Fedora boot screen

[Nicu Buculei]

On 04/10/2009 11:05 AM, William Jon McCann wrote:
>
> Seems to me that while you may prefer someone to use the tools you
> favor we are not in and should not be in a position to turn away high
> quality work that is licensed properly and in a format everyone can
> read (GIF).  You may pride yourself as a Free Software purist but keep
> in mind that not everyone feels the same way.  Now, if the

The problem is like this: if I want to make an improvement on Mike's 
work, I am unable to do so by using the provided sources. The only thing 
I can do is to edit the final GIFs, which is sub-optimal, after a loss 
of image quality.

> contribution (in this case a mock up) was made using a problematic
> file format - like the mockup done using MPEG earlier this week - I
> think someone has a valid complaint.

I think Charlie did it properly by implementing the animation as a 
Plymouth plugin and used MPEG only to capture the screen output (a minor 
bad choice, he could have used Ogg Theora instead) - note the clip show 
a virtual machine window.

> I think it is safe to say that a vast majority of the good designers
> in the world are using software that you may not like.  People use

We got burned hard in the past, a notable example is the Bluecurve icon 
set, which was freely licensed but captive in a proprietary format, 
making impossible to contribute without spending an important sum of 
money. As a result, the set stagnated for *years* and ultimately died.

> whatever they feel makes them more productive.  Perhaps a better
> question may be (if you are really interested in changing the status
> quo): "what could we do to Fedora to make you enjoy using it and make
> you more productive?".  Many of us are working tirelessly on this
> problem but we just aren't there yet.

We are not talking about some state of the art graphics but about some 
basic effects which can be put together with GIMP in about 10 minutes by 
a newbie. For something like this we are "there" for more than 10 years...

> Think about it this way... would an upstream project give me grief if
> I wrote code in, say, Microsoft Word?  As long as the contribution was
> high quality, in an acceptable format, and licensed properly - no,
> they wouldn't and shouldn't.  Sure, they may roll their eyes if they
> knew.  Now, why don't I use some proprietary tool for writing code?
> Well, as it turns out the tools that make me feel more productive (for
> now - though I swear at them everyday) are open source.  Why is that?
> Well, someone went through the trouble of making it so.

And what if gcc would not be able to understand and compile your code? I 
am quite positive it would be rejected from Fedora.

> Frankly, we need all the help we can get in making our Desktop more
> beautiful and enjoyable.  Arguments such as this will discourage
> contributors - guaranteed.  We need more - not less - and especially
> those as meritorious as Mike.

Yes, some of Mike's works are astounding but let me show the mission 
statement from http://fedoraproject.org/

"Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that showcases the latest in 
free and open source software. Fedora is always free for anyone to use, 
modify, and distribute. It is built by people across the globe who work 
together as a community: the Fedora Project. The Fedora Project is open 
and anyone is welcome to join.

The Fedora Project is out front for you, leading the advancement of 
free, open software and content."

> I think it is best if the Fedora art community remains relevant, open,
> and focused on the merit of the work.


-- 
nicu :: http://nicubunu.ro :: http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/
photography: http://photoblog.nicubunu.ro/
my Fedora stuff: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/