В 21:01 -0700 на 04.06.2008 (ср), Dylan McCall написа: > Hello art team! > > It's been a while since I blabbered about this, and it's come some way > since then. I am working on a slideshow system for Ubuntu to work > alongside the installation progress bar in Ubiquity (the Live CD > installer). My goal is to unobtrusively give users an introduction to > Ubuntu. Something I have noticed with a lot of issues people have is > that people have simply not noticed the way things are done in Ubuntu. > Case in point, installing software, for which a shocking number of > people seem to try downloading source code /before/ noticing Add / > Remove Applications. I think having a slideshow that goes over all the > bits and pieces Ubuntu has available will do very good things for the > user experience. In addition, many of the most unique and powerful > features we have, such as custom fonts for applications, are hidden away > in very modest little corners. They have the potential to delight > people, but may never be noticed. > > To put it simply, I have been browsing Ubuntu's support forums and > taking mental notes (should have been hard notes, in retrospect) about > all the great things people miss without being pushed in the right > direction first. The goal here is to give those people the right > pointers from the start in a way that does not stink. Obviously, I can't > do this without help, so contributions of any form are welcome. > > The project itself is still very quiet, however I have set up the > necessary stuff in Launchpad and I have rearranged how this is done. > Most importantly, I dropped that horror of an idea that was using Glade > for slides. Instead, I am using SVGs! This means it's going to be very > nice for people to contribute to, assuming said people can work their > heads around Inkscape. (More on that later :o [1]) > > So now that I have decided on a decent file format, and said format is > (-should be-) dead easy, I may as well bring this up as something people > can contribute to Right Now! > > At the moment, there is no solid plan for the slideshow itself other > than slide dimensions: 700x420 pixels. In terms of the software for > displaying the slideshow, it is coming along. (I over-engineered it 5 > times. How many of me does it take to change a light bulb? Believe it or > not, at least 2; I would probably create a clone of myself for the > task). Nothing visible on that end at the present time, but since these > slides are just simple graphics, said program doesn't really have to be > played with anyway. It should be sufficient to consider that the slides > will be displayed one by one, without user interaction, switching on a > timer. A slide should be readable in a very short time. They should also > all be consistent in general design. > > The project for the slideshow is, as mentioned, > ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu on Launchpad. Just head over to > https://launchpad.net/ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu for the working files, > blueprints, etc. > As a quick example to get thoughts moving, I have some example slides up > there now. Two versions: One with a bland brownish background, one with > the Hardy Heron simple wallpaper... which actually does not seem a bad > effect. Those are in bzr as SVGs, and I have also uploaded an archive of > raster images > at http://dylanmccall.googlepages.com/Ubuntu_Slideshow_Example.tar.gz > > The ideal situation is that lots of ideas get invented and one of them > gets so much love that the slideshow magically builds itself. In other > words, turn on your brains, start inventing slideshow templates and some > slides to go with them. and then get posting! > > Sounds like fun! > If you somehow need an extra push of encouragement, consider that doing > this is roughly the same task as creating mockups for GTK themes, > without the work involved in implementing them. (Please don't stop > making themes, though). > > If you still need more encouragement, take a look at the design I made > myself. Awful, eh? > Now, if you want to see that horrific artwork razed from the universe, > get cracking! > > > Bye for now, > -Dylan > > [1] One issue while I am here: The SVGs I have rolled out work only in > Inkscape. The thumbnailer, Eye of GNOME, and even Mozilla render them > completely wrong. > > PS: Be aware that this is not a normal artwork task; I just know all the > best artists are here! Indeed, there is no telling whether this can > actually make it into Intrepid... so nobody let your hopes up. I want to > make that a stronger possibility by having some good artists help out > here and by having some more hands poking at it so that time is less of > an issue.
Very nice work Dylan! I think that this way of showcaseing Ubuntu features is the best way to introduce the user to Linux/Gnu and optionally to show him what's new (if he's familiar). I am going to take part though not very active until my exams are over in late July say it August :). Keep up the good work! Anton -- ubuntu-art mailing list ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
