Ubiquity Slideshow Get New Design

The folks at Canonical's design team have been working on a new design for Ubuntu's installer slideshow that matches with the new branding. This means that the design I created for Ubuntu 9.10 will be dropped. The kickass community contributer Dylan McCall who maintains the Ubiquity slideshow (also behind Day of Ubuntu as I've mentioned earlier) has already implemented most of the code for the new design. The reason I say most of the code, is because of a few technical impossibilities in the mockup created by the Canonical design team.
You can see the current progress here: http://people.ubuntu.com/~dylanmccall/ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu/redesign-lucid/ubuntu-transitions/slides/index.html

It makes perfect sense to change the design to fit the new branding, but at the moment it still needs some work in my opinion. Of course I'm sad to see my work being dropped, but hopefully it will live on in other distributions. I'm sure when it all comes together the new design will look amazing.


Read more: http://dylanmccall.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-stuff-for-ubiquity-slideshow.html

"Dawn of Ubuntu" Returns

This beautiful artwork by Armin Ronacher, have been brought back to life by Dylan McCall (the workhorse behind the new Ubiquity slideshow). In case you don't know, "Dawn of Ubuntu" is a desktop background that has been around since Feisty Fawn. It exists in various remixes, which makes it perfect for a really elegant day / night transition, that reflects the outside world.
Dylan McCall announced his little project as early as May 2008, but about a week ago, he picked up the project again. This time with the hope of bringing "Dawn of Ubuntu" back to Ubuntu.
On the ubuntu-artwork mailinglist he wrote:

Hi,
A while ago, I made a slideshow wallpaper out of Dawn of Ubuntu and its
various remixes. It crossfades between them throughout the day. The
result is a really elegant day / night transition that reflects the
outside world.

I finally got around to making a Debian package for the thing (since
people had trouble installing it themselves), and I uploaded it to my
PPA. No need to add the PPA to install the package, since there probably
won't be any super exciting updates. (Just browse through its files and
grab the appropriate .deb).

Unless I'm really mixed up, I believe there has been discussion about
bringing back Dawn of Ubuntu since the licensing stuff has been cleaned
up; it's simply cc-by-3.0 now. Perhaps this package - or something like
it - would be a stylish way to do so.

Enjoy :)
(And feedback is always appreciated)

Dylan McCall

On the mailinglist, the idea of changing images regard to the climate was also brought up.
I've always felt that "Dawn of Ubuntu" captures some of that African spirit that surrounds Ubuntu. I know there's millions of beautiful wallpapers out there and I'm sure my feelings for this one is purely sentimental.

- PPA: https://edge.launchpad.net/~dylanmccall/+archive/ppa
- Source: http://code.launchpad.net/~dylanmccall/+junk/day-of-ubuntu-wallpaper
- PPA (with a build package): http://dylanmccall.googlepages.com/day-of-ubuntu-wallpaper_1_all.deb
- Grab the wallpaper here: http://the-mitsuhiko.deviantart.com/

Ubiquity Slideshow for Ubuntu

I've been working on graphics for a slideshow in ubiquity. Actually, I've done that before, but this time it isn't just mockups.

Dylan McCall has been working very hard on this project and after posting my mockups on the mailinglist, he created a Bazaar branch titled madsrh-layout.

Steve Dodier (SiDi) help me with the code for my mockup and took on the two complex tasks of rewriting the code and explaining it all to me - thanks.

This project will have to be ready before feature-freeze. If it gets approved hopefully it will land in Ubuntu 9.10. Of course this work will also have to match the look and feel the design team at Canonical is working towards.


More mockups here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=7712965&postcount=46

Wallpaper slideshow mockup

There's a lot of focus on usability, accessibility and user experience going on. I recently wrote about the clutted Nautilus sidebar and how categorize items displayed with headings would make it easier to navigate, providing a better user experience.

I also wrote about the new notification feature in the upcoming Ubuntu 9.04 and how, the new plasmoid, the KNetworkManager component recived a very slick and refreshed look for KDE 4.
It seems there's a lot of good stuff coming, that will make many tasks easier.

Today I created a Ubuntu Brainstorm idea and added the mockup you see below:

As you can see above, a new option has been added to the Appearance Preferences menu. You can choose between different background as you always could, but now you can multi-select pictures. Multi-select works by CTRL-clicking each item you wish to include. Multi-selecting pictures will create a slideshow on your desktop background. I hope this will provide a better user experience, though this feature is something most of us can live without. I have no idea how this can be combined with my expanded wallpaper for multiple desktops idea.

The idea is awaiting moderator approval before going to the popular ideas area, but when it does, cast a vote here:

Ubiquity

Ubiquity (the Ubuntu installer) was going to get a new look for 8.10, but due too more crucial issues this has been postponed and that is of course very understandable.
Work has already started on the installer slideshow. You can browse the (.glade and SVG) files on Launchpad.

I really really hope the look and feel or the slickness of Ubuntu will change dramatically for 9.04 (slideshow installer, new theme, new sounds...)


In the style of OpenSUSE here is another of my PS creations :-)