[K12OSN] "marketing" the K12LTSP desktop

[Rob Owens]

I showed K12LTSP to a Windows guy the other day and he
chuckled "looks like Windows 3.1".  I disagree with
that, but I do agree that the default background for
the desktop is not particularly nice looking.  It's
mostly black, giving the impression that there's no
desktop at all--just a couple of icons floating in
space.  I imagine that's the FC3 default.  Would it be
a big deal to come up with a K12LTSP background that
better suits the expectations of our target audience?

I know it seems kind of silly, because the background
can easily be changed by the user or the
administrator.  But K12LTSP is often brought into a
Windows world where many of the users don't know all
that much about computers.  Many users just want to
"get in and drive", and many users judge the quality
of their computer and operating system by how nice it
looks.

Personally, I thought the background that came with
the last version I tried out (I think it was K12LTSP
4.2.0) did a good job of making you feel like you had
a really nice monitor (and that's what people really
want, I think).  I don't remember much about it except
it was gray and it looked nice.  

If a K12LTSP-specific default background is chosen, it
should look nice on old hardware as well as new.  It
should make users feel like their 15" CRT is just
fine, and it should make admins feel glad that they
did not throw away those old trident video cards they
had laying around for the past 6 years.

I'm not much of a graphics designer, but I could try
out a few backgrounds on new and old equipment and
offer my opinions.

What does everybody think?

-Rob

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