Wallpaper

[Paul W. Frields]

On Thu, May 07, 2009 at 07:09:35PM +0200, Max Spevack wrote:
> On Wed, 6 May 2009, Máirín Duffy wrote:
>
>> This is an extremely open design team. We openly discuss our methods  
>> and our decisions, and we make our source artwork available in open  
>> formats using open licenses so anyone who wants to participate, extend, 
>> or build on our work can easily. If you been participating in the list 
>> when we received complaints on this particular issue and when we made 
>> the final call on how to handle it, you could have spoken up just as 
>> anyone else could have. Even if you were not paying attention to the 
>> list at the time, it doesn't mean the issue wasn't discussed openly.
>
> Rodrigo, I recognize your passion, but I must disagree with you.
>
> Mo has said it correctly.
>
> The purpose of Fedora is not to vote on all sorts of things.  The purpose 
> of Fedora is to provide a leadership model for individual teams to take 
> ownership of tasks, and work those tasks to completion in an open, 
> inclusive way.

And I think it's worth pointing out that the whole reason we have a
different theme now, as opposed to the landscape originally being
worked for F11, is precisely *because* the open process allowed
someone to bring in a new idea.  Did it occur late in the process?
Yes.  But people committed to working on many of the design pieces
needed, which created a clear consensus.

> Discussing which of several options is "most right" is perfectly fine,  
> but in the end decisions are made by the people in the teams who are  
> directly doing the work, or those who are active participants.
>
> To speak directly: I am a lurker on fedora-art-list.  Sometimes I say "I  
> like this one!" but I don't expect that my voice will have any more than  
> a minor impact, because I'm not the one designing the artwork.
>
> I think the fact that the lion is being shipped as an alternative and is  
> default in dual-monitor settings is a good compromise of all the various  
> ideas.

Absolutely.  As someone who observed for himself the issues with
interaction between desktop icons and the lion design, I think it was
the correct decision.

I would also like everyone here to remember that the decisions we make
always have ramifications.  It is impossible to lead, in any pursuit,
and expect to make every single person happy all the time, no matter
how much we'd like it if that was the case.  I try to expect that
reaction, listen thoughtfully, and do the best I can to at least
achieve understanding.  Where that isn't possible, I leave the
conversation knowing that I've done the best I can, and accept that I
cannot provide perfect happiness to everyone -- it's out of my
control.

Mo, Nicu, Samuele, Paolo, and many other people (please forgive me if
I didn't list all names, it's only because of my imperfect, human,
aging brain) continue to do an exceptional job making Fedora look
BEAUTIFUL, working as a team.  Art never pleases everyone, and we can
continue to look for ways to improve while peacefully accepting that.

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
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