I can only say that a colored icon set for OO is the second
most wanted feature in the usenet Italian community. ...
[...]
And, considering the flamewars we have seen on the issue on other lists,
being able to restore the colored icons back without too much discussion or
formality would be an even better sign.
I have no idea about the history of this. I don't really care about
the political side of this. But can someone explain why the icons
were changed in the first place? Surely, someone had an argument for
this at the time?
Please see http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/ODF_icons_i-team
for a start.
I think the idea was to emphasize the unifying nature of ODF by
minimizing the difference between the icons.
My personal opinion is that I prefer distinguishable colored icons.
Herbert