Edubuntu 10.04 Wallpaper

A few days ago Stephane Graber posted a screenshot of the current Edubuntu desktop and I was very pleased to see that one of my wallpaper suggestion is being used.

UPDATE:  I sincerely apologize for not adding the well deserved credit for the original photo to marxicoli.

Edubuntu desktop - daily build Feb 17, 2010

The screenshot also shows the new Edubuntu Menu Editor.

Wallpaper Artwork

I've been trying to create a wallpaper for Edubuntu. So far I have a few suggestions, but nothing that is good enough to be used as default wallpaper. Anyway, I just wanted to share my four current suggestion with you.

You can grab the .JPG versions in 2560x1600 px here:

• ...dark-glow.jpg
• ...gray.jpg
• ...rainbow.jpg
• ...tree.jpg

Karmic Koala Artwork

There's a lot of high expectations regarding the artwork for Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10). Both the Login experience (aka face browser) and Plymouth is planed to land in this release.
Mark Shuttleworth has been talking about moving away from the brown color (which everyone currently associates with Ubuntu). UDS should revival more information on the subject and hopefully also news regarding a new theme (or at least the initial work for it).

Recently Kenneth Wimer posted a message to the Ubuntu-art mailinglist about an extra wallpaper package for Ubuntu 9.10. Although November is still far away, the incoming artwork wiki is already starting to take shape. I submitted some photos from my "Ubuntu Wallpaper Photo Pack" to the Extra-Wallpaper-Package. I hope at least one of them will make it in.

Today I also stumbled across the great artwork by Adrien Pilleboue titled meditating koala.

Extra Wallpaper Package for Karmic

Today Kenneth Wimer posted a message to the Ubuntu-art mailinglist about an extra wallpaper package for Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala).

Other operating systems offer an extra selection of desktop backgrounds to their users. Often they are based on different "themes" typically applied to photography (nature, for instance).

For Karmic we would like to include a set of high quality desktop backgrounds which are organized according to a predefined set of adjectives which describe emotional atmospheres, slogans (so to speak) for the way an image makes you feel.

In order to accomplish this we call on anyone and everyone to submit images which are freely licensed and follow the guidelines for inclusion.

Let me know if you have any ideas for improving this idea, or if you'd like to help coordinate things, etc.

As you might remember I posted a small collection of photos titled the "Ubuntu Wallpaper Photo Pack” earlier. I really do hope this will land in 9.10 with success.

Microsoft included a very large package of wallpapers in the Widndows 7 release candidate, which was recently released. Although it includes some very beautiful photos, I find a lot of the wallpapers too distracting to be used as desktop background - great artwork, but bad desktop backgrounds. I'm sure Ubuntu won't make such a mistake.
You can find the Windows 7 RC wallpapers here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/embee/sets/72157617274401628/


Source: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-art/2009-May/010360.html

60 Beautiful Ubuntu Desktop Wallpapers

If you didn't discover the "60 Beautiful Ubuntu Desktop Wallpapers" link in my "Imagine Ubuntu 9.10" post, here the link again. This is truly a great collection - lot's of good stuff!

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/60-most-execellent-ubuntu-wallpapers/

If you're looking for a new wallpaper, you might also want to check out my post "Ubuntu Wallpaper Photo Pack"

Ubuntu Wallpaper Photo Pack

You might remember Kenneth Wimer published some background guidelines for Jaunty back in February. This was a great move because of the lack of organized effort in the artwork. I know that Canonical will be publishing more artwork guidelines within the next cycle, which I'm looking forward to and which I really think will help shape the look and feel of Ubuntu.
This is all fine and dandy, however I don't agree with all the guidelines published back in February. In the .PDF it says:

Design:
- Abstract imagery
- No strong logo usage (recommended)
- No other recognizable/readable text
- No mascots preferred (prove me wrong)
- Avoid parallel lines due to moire problems when scaling
- Be aware of how shapes relate within the whole desktop layout with panels, icons on the desktop, etc.
- No photography, unless heavily edited, stylized. No pictures of recognizable people/places/popular items

I would say that with both Hardy and Intrepid the way mascots was included in the artwork was truly art and worked out fantastic.
As for no strong logo usage I do agree, but I remember seeing some beautiful 3D Ubuntu logo images that worked very well as wallpaper.

Anyway... The last one is the one I actually want to talk about; "No photography, unless heavily edited, stylized. No pictures of recognizable people/places/popular items". I would love to see this included in Ubuntu. I've actually been using some of the Vista photos on my Intrepid desktop (don't tell anyone!) and loved the absence of abstract brown imagery. That's why I've created the "Ubuntu Wallpaper Photo Pack"

In my Easter holiday, I've taken some pictures that I would use as desktop wallpaper on my new Samsung SyncMaster 2343NW 23" (2048x1152 px). I decided to make a small collection which others might also enjoy.
The pack is titled "Ubuntu Wallpaper Photo Pack" and I've included ten photos (of varying quality).

The photos was taken with a PENTAX K10D camera and haven't been edited or manipulated in any way. Some photos are a little blurry, but I think they all make good (some even great) desktop backgrounds. I should mention that the images are mostly flowers and plants (no landscapes or similar included - yet).

You can download the files here (22 MB):
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/175241/wanted/Ubuntu_wallpaper_photo_pack.tar.gz


Ubuntu wallpaper photo pack is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

New Default Wallpaper In Jaunty

Just one hour ago, there's finally a new wallpaper in Jaunty. So far the Alpha releases have been using the Intrepid wallpaper. https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+source/ubuntu-wallpapers/0.28.2

ubuntu-wallpapers (0.28.2) jaunty; urgency=low

[ Kenneth Wimer ]
* New wallpapers for Jaunty release. (LP: #34492

[ Daniel Holbach ]
* debian/control:
- update description,
- add ${miscepends},
- updated Standards-Version,
- move python-distutils-extra, xsltproc to Build-Depends-Indep,
- use Vcs-Bzr instead of XS-*.
* debian/copyright: updated.

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:31:54 +0100
Changed-By: Daniel Holbach
Maintainer: Ubuntu Artwork Team
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/...lpapers/0.28.2

Personally I feel that this is a step down from the two previous wallpaper (Intrepid, Hardy) - let's hope Koala will be beautiful. You'll also notice that the GDM changed today too. The Ubuntu logo is bigger and there are lines above and below the login box. Jaunty is still a work in progress.

Wallpaper update

Just made some minor changes to the wallpaper background. There's now a dark 1920x1200 version with a discreet incorporated jackalope on the wiki.

Can you spot the jackalope(s)? here...

Creating Artwork

It's been a while since I've created any artwork (wallpapers from 2008!!), but this week I've actually been very productive. Besides creating countdown banners and a shiny new LDM login screen for Jaunty (more about this later), I've been creating a desktop wallpaper.


As you can see there's a light and a dark version. Available in 1920x1200 (16:9) and 1280x1024 (4:3). Licensed under CC BY AS

Grab all four images here: http://madsrh.googlepages.com/Colors_of_Ubuntu_Wallpaper.zip

Create a wallpaper for Ubuntu 9.04

Today Kenneth Wimer posted a message to the ubuntu-art mailinglist about the lack of organized effort for Jaunty. He also announced that the current status for Jaunty is as follows:

a) a decision concerning an alpha wallpaper using some form of one of the
mascot pics from the wiki is coming soon.

b) we need your help with a wallpaper.

More information can be found in the this .PDF. A lot of great information was used from the Kyudo project (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/KyudoGuidelines).

The goal is to create a wide variety of wallpaper designs for Ubuntu 9.04 which express a message to the target audience and follow the design framework defined in this document.

Submission deadline March 1st, 2009.

Grab the Create a wallpaper for Ubuntu 9.04.PDF

Tiled wallpaper

I had to create a tiled wallpaper to use on my new layout for the Ubuntu Wanted site. I've added a very small Ubuntu logo. You can see the current site layout here...

I thought I would share my work with you. So if you are looking for a new background for your website or desktop grab the images below:


Here you can see what it looks like on the desktop, though it works better on websites.

Gnome Adds Fading Between Backgrounds

In Nautilus, gnome-desktop and gnome-settings-daemon, patches from Ray Strode landed, adding support for fading between backgrounds.

Kurros uploaded a video of the fade effect: http://ezri.org/nautilusfade.ogv (1360x768 Ogg Theora, 3.6 MB)

Wallpaper artwork for Jaunty alphas

Back in december 2008 Kenneth Wimer posted a message on the ubuntu-art maillinglist asking people to submit wallpaper artwork for the Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) Alpha releases.

Kenneth wrote:

Wouldn't it be nice to offer a wallpaper for the Jaunty alphas? People working
on a test system would immediately know it and it might spur interest as well
(or rants, etc). I don't want to put any restrictions on the design, the
point is just to get something different in. If it helps to test out any
ideas or work towards some goal that is an added bonus. All entries should go
on the wiki.

There's already a few proposals uploaded to the wiki. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Jaunty/AlphaBackgrounds.
So far, this one is my favorite

Expand wallpaper for multiple desktops

I would love to see the default Ubuntu wallpaper expand over two/three/four desktops (or monitors).

I suggest that the wallpaper included default in Ubuntu should come in four versions - one for each desktop (or monitor). So if you don't have, or use, more than one desktop, your wallpaper will look as it does now - just fine using wallpaper #1. But if you use more than one desktop the wallpaper will expand and view different wallpapers on each desktop (as we know it from Compiz - see the screenshot).

I hope you understand the meaning of this idea, if not please post your questions below and PLEASE CAST A VOTE AT BRIANSTORM :-)

Example screenshot: (perhaps not the best example)

Ibex wallpaper

If you were one of the people voting on Brainstorm for animal wallpapers for Ubuntu, you might been hoping for an ibex to appear on the Ubuntu 8.10 wallpaper.
However, this isn't very likely to happen as the current wallpaper for the BEAT release doesn't.
Softpedia wrote:

...there's a brand new wallpaper and like it or not, this will be the default one for the final release of Ubuntu 8.10.

Personally I will really miss the ibex. Especially since there's some great ibex artwork on the Art-maillist. Rico Sta. Cruz have made his ibex artwork available for anyone who wants to do their own remix. Here are a few of the remix's I like - take a look below:

Wallpaper artwork

I want to share with you some of my wallpaper artwork for Ubuntu.

Wood Wall


Ubuntu Sky

Black Hardy Heron

Kubuntu Waves