openSUSE 12.2!!!!

Hey friends!

Here is a quick way to promote openSUSE's release at your own website. This is taken from Yaloki's website.

If you have a website/blog, here is the HTML markup to add in order to include the openSUSE release countdown image:  The markup above will add a 256x256 pixel image. If you prefer to have the smaller (130x130) one:  And in case you prefer the huge one (400x400px) for maximum visibility: 

Enjoy :D

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openSUSE Release and openSUSE Summit

Once again our team meets for another release of our distribution of choice, openSUSE 12.2. As part of the artwork team, we focused on this release on going back to the strong greens that identify our distribution. We also added a few wallpapers with images of chameleons so that our mascot would be part of our distribution again.
On the subject of chameleons, I have been pondering recently about the variety of designs that can come from this reptile. It is one that changes colors to adapt to its environment, it also has a tongue that extends sometimes longer than its own body and it lives in trees eating insects. I own a chameleon myself and as I have lived with it, I have realized that it is a great design inspiration. Recently also, I found these images from Igor Siwanowics

These images are beautiful. Igor really knows how to get people closer to these chameleons, which are so small. I think they go along very well with our mascot and as part of a collection of wallpapers for openSUSE. That is why I contacted Igor to see if he would donate a chameleon image to our project. We are still working on something for us, but I am positive that he will be happy to contribute to our project. Stay tuned.

12.2 is now ad portas and we are working hard to finish working with the marketing materials.

openSUSE Summit 2012 is also coming up soon. We are all very excited in the US to have a mini openSUSE conference. I have now confirmed my participation to the gathering and also my presentation on openSUSE's contributions. I intend to gather more possible contributors to our artwork team. We are still lacking good coders that can make some of our ideas transpire from within the distribution. We want to have a stronger influence than simply selecting wallpapers. Stronger branding and stronger image for our users and new users. We have asked some of our community members to share their ideas about social apps on the desktop and also how they use their desktop environment. If you know someone who can code C++, please let us know. We will be eager to talk to him/her.

Thank you for reading.

Anditosan

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openSUSE and Identity

Ever since the conception of graphical environments for the computer, designers have had to make specific decisions about the way we interact with elements on a screen. However, to say that "designers" made all the decisions on how we interact with the computer is somewhat far fetched. 

There are many other factors that make up our computer interactions. In a sense, the word "designers" also involves people who are not directly related to the graphical world. Those could be - a sales manager who also decides what elements we see on the computer screen; a contracted hardware company that would like you to have a certain software on by default; and many others may also have a part in the user interface designing process. The computer GUI has a varied influence in its identity.


The multi-influence, or “multi-graphical input” for devicces’ GUI has come under particular focus in recent years. Mass adoption of mobile devices has spread the graphical competition to all new heights. It has become much harder for companies and their products to stand out on the current market, or to make a difference. Differentiation is the call for each of them. Making their devices different graphically has called for stronger branding, and each of the market players now steeres in different direction. The objective being - attracting new client and retaining the existing ones. The drive for graphical differentiation makes it clear that stringer branding will help them sing a different song.

This changes have also made it into many of our Linux environments. KDE, for example, decided to make a radical jump with KDE 4. While recently Gnome released their 3rd series other environments, prefer to keep the same idea of what a GUI should look like. 


Currently Linux, as a worldwide community, faces strong fragmentation. Not all of us use KDE, or Gnome, or a graphical interface at all. At the end of the day these communities are the ones creating new software, new widgets, and new graphics. Eventually these fragmentation or macro-collaboration environment is unable to achieve "collective individuality." This means that because of the different influences that happen in a Linux environment, collectively we cannot achieve a strong branding and differentiation. We cannot stand out because all of us want to stand out. Our software or contributions speak the language and mind of its creator, except in a Linux environment, anyone can be a creator.


These changes raise a question from our own group of contributors. Is openSUSE at the height of this weave of stylistic changes? This question is not about code or software integration, but exclusively about the end user experience. Reasoning carefully, the answer would be "partially." openSUSE has not taken full advantage of the branding capabilities provided by both KDE 4 and Gnome 3. This trend is more so surprising considering that openSUSE is the first to integrate and use many new Linux technologies through its unique OBS service, yet brand-wise we remain stagnant. Early adoption and fast integration in our distribution makes it harder to work on and maintain distribution specific styling.









In the recent years we have become quite passive in developing our own identity, other than using green as a base color openSUSE. Subtle color changes however do little with styling KDE or Gnome for the releases.


In earlier years this was a much stronger effort. Back then both KDE and Gnome had their own distribution specific themes within openSUSE. But recent changes in both environments have made it harder to keep up with distribution styling, and we have fallen behind. Even now openSUSE’s artwork team has not diminished in its efforts to work on styling, however the technical aspects of styling KDE and Gnome has become much harder to keep up with.


There are no simple way of creating interfaces for  KDE to create a window style without knowing C++, for example. We have to rely on the technical knowledge of developers with strong knowledge and understanding of C++and GTK/Qt core technologies. In gnome changes with GTK 3 have been taxing on developers since they now need to migrate their themes to work with the new widget styles present in GTK 3. For openSUSE, this all means that is has become harder to create our own styling therefore we adopt KDE and Gnome’s default styling.


Adopting the defaults provided by KDE and Gnome will eventually move openSUSE to a state of visual stagnation. Not because these integrated window environments will stop moving forward with GUI developments on their own, but simply because we will have traded our visual identity to their definition of a default. While the rest of the technology world moves ahead with change, openSUSE will remain unnoticed for its outdated visuals.


Styling matters more than what we give it credit for. Styling is the first impression any users gets as they install our distribution. Styling can be provocative and generate interest, contribution and a larger reach with users. openSUSE will collectively speak to a wider audience given its “new suit.” openSUSE’s identity will speak for the project as people download the ISO. The unknown new user that is willing to try Linux for the first time will be impressed with the power of openSUSE and the cleanness of its desktop, the boldness of our green geecko will secure another happy user and a possible contributor. Even our current users will see how their distribution of choice changes to fit their daily work routine.


Recent work on styling from openSUSE’s artwork team has yielded great results for the distribution. With the help of a few contributors to the artwork team, we have been able to include new wallpapers, splash screens, boot screens, marketing materials and a few other things to the distribution. However, this is no different than it has been for a few years. We style the same elements with every release. To have a bigger effect and support with the community, we launched image contests, updated wiki pages, pushed sources to git, created new scripts for the automated wallpaper sizing, and have integrated more contributors than in previous years. Our channel user base is looking to expand.


As a result of this push for work there has been great integration in the team. We have been able to identify each other's strengths and have used them smartly as we integrate artwork into the distribution. Good attitude, willingness and enthusiasm to participate has been our idea since we reorganized ourselves. A sense of belonging and an akin interest in making opensuse a sleek distribution graphically is our intention. Getting help and comments from our team is easier than ever.

Through our team's interaction, we have determined a desire to make our distribution a stronger player in the linux graphical environment. We must jump into the wagon where the trend is going. We cannot be passive about our identity anymore. This is not to say that we want to be graphically similar to others and borrow their styles, but rather our aim to have openSUSE be recognized beyond the color green and the geecko. We imagine a time where icons, window styles, colors, wallpapers, desktop organization, specific desktop widgets are all integrated with a strong presence in the Linux world.


If we stay the same we will remain there as well for prospective users. We need to make a strong impressions to those people who are deciding between Windows, Mac and Linux. Those who hear of the power that Linux has and through the power of each community. We have the resources, now we need to move the mountains in order to achieve these goals.


We would also be much more ahead in styling than most. Take for example Ubuntu. They have created a style of their own with their human and name coded releases. They have persisted and perfected their styling beyond even what most would think or like. We do not mean to have this type of interface for openSUSE but definitively make a stronger impression much like Ubuntu has. 

Additionally, we would provide a much less attacked interface by staying within the regular styling standards that the majority of users have on their desktop. We don’t mean to be radical with changes, but include our community in speaking about what they think should be allowed as a stylistic change in the distribution. We understand that the behind-the-doors changes are not particularly supported and also having the input of our community will add for great thinking and clever organization on the desktop. We could well be the most cooperative distribution when it comes to style.

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openSUSE Summit

it is now official, the USA is going to have an openSUSE party all of its own. It is the first time that there is a conference of this type in the U.S. and I am happy to report that I have already asked my boss to give me some time off around the dates of this conference.

So far, the openSUSE Facebook page reports only a handful of attendants. Hopefully as the time nears, more and more people sign up for this summit.

There is always a good thing to note about online communities and software efforts like the ones we are part of. Most of the times we are far apart from each other and our only methods of communication are email and IRC. Our gatherings are on the net and rarely do we get to see everyone that is a participant in this project in person. Surely a lot of misunderstanding would be done away with if somehow we were to see each other face to face. There is always a sense of empathy that rises above the online encounters that we have as we try to work on a new release of openSUSE.

A new sense of friendship and collaboration is something we always strive for. This is something that makes me think that it is always a great idea to get together and work on the projects we love. Also, the location is wonderful. Orlando is a very fun city with a lot of things to do. Surely our weekend there will not be wasted. I am actually planning to have my vacation time while I am there!

The idea is simple, tell your friends about this meeting. Even if they are not part of the community, they can still come and see what this is all about. After all, it is the first time that people from these latitudes get to be together. Most of the times, the community has to travel far into Europe to gather as a team. Now we are promoting a time for people who can't travel overseas and can make it to Florida.

Good luck, and the best wishes for an awesome conference.

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New Contest

Here is the new contest put out by the openSUSE artwork team. Please read carfully and ready your best skills for it. Good luck!

Hello artists and enthusiasts. We have been hard at working with our artwork for 12.2 and now it is the time to style the distribution a little more. Since the most of artwork that we have now is a derivative of the official wallpaper created by Richard Brown and Marcus Moeller there is a big portion of our styling done for the distribution. However, there are a few other elements that need your creative collaboration. Splash screens for a few programs that we use can be greatly enhanced by your artistic inspiration.

Libre Office
GIMP
Scribus
Amarok
Calligra
Krita
Blender

The idea of this contest is that we can integrate the new chosen wallpaper into these splash screens for the release of 12.2.

Guidelines
1. Use the default wallpaper as part of the image.  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32600284/test3.xcf.zip
2. Refer to the official artwork guidelines in how to use logos for these different applications.
3. Restrict your creation to the sizes specified.
4. Provide the sources of your work if chosen.
5. Present/submit your artwork to http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Splashscreen

Sizes (please use a standard resolution of 75 dpi)
LibreOffice
    440x480
    http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design
GIMP
    320x480
    http://www.gimp.org/
Scribus
    391x295
    http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Promotion_material
Amarok
    550x412
    http://amarok.kde.org/wiki/File:Amarok_logo.svg
Calligra
    440x286
    http://community.kde.org/Calligra/Logos
Krita
    440x286
    http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Krita_Application_Logo.svg
Blender
    501x282

https://svn.blender.org/svnroot/bf-blender/trunk/blender/release/datafiles/splash.png

    Only work the area at the bottom. Leave top as is.

Please click “Upload” to the left of the wiki page and then select your files. As you finish the upload, please copy the “File:image-title.png” since this is the name of the file to be entered as you showcase your pictures in the wiki.

Submission Dealine
Thursday, 26 April 2012: openSUSE 12.2 Milestone 4

For more information about the current release roadmap, please visit:
http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Roadmap

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Two More Banners for the Website

Here are two last minute banners that I had to make for the summit website.

Enjoy!

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One Click Install Icon

Hello, I know I am posting a lot today but I was thinking the other day about how openSUSE has this really cool utility called "One Click Install." I love it. Although it is not just "one" click per se, it is a lot simpler than hunting for dependencies for RPM packages. They currently have an icon that has been used for a while

Recently I have seen this other one

Overall they do come up with the idea of one-click-install. Surely people's eyes are drawn to this icon. However, I do think that there is some visual complexity the deviates from the main purpose of the icon. Probably text can be done away with and create something more like a logo for one-click-install. I have been trying to come up with something good as a replacement and I came up with these two ideas

This was my first try. But the problem with this one is that it was too long (don't worry about the colors yet). It lacked strength and presence so I looked around looking for good inspiration and remembered these BeOS icons

They look more blocky. So here is my rendition of what came next

I am still working on this guy. Surely there is more to do with it. But as of right now, I like it!

Anditosan :D

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openSUSE GSOC Poster Idea

This is one I worked on recently to promot GSOC and openSUSE's participation in it. Just an idea inspired by one of our artists in #opensuse-artwork Victor :D Kudos to him!

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openSUSE Summit Website

I just wanted to share with you some of the little artwork I made for an upcoming website that promotes the openSUSE Summit in Florida this year. Can I say that I am just so excited about this conference! First time in the USA and it should be a blast.

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openSUSE Summit Logo

Recently we found out that we will have openSUSE's first community meeting in the US. I am so excited, I can't help it. The location could not have been better either, Orlando, FL. September will be a great month for me as part of the community because I will be able to enjoy the company of my online friends and openSUSE contributors. I do not get a lot of chances to go see them so it will be an awesome time.

I was also asked to create a logo for the event. I thought of something very wearable, that you could see on t-shirts, hats or any other piece of clothing. I was also inspired by pop art coming from sports teams. Surely you will get the idea when you see the logo. Enjoy!

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I Commit! openSUSE T-Shirt Design

Hey everyone!

I was just working on a little t-shirt design that Manu Gupta and Subhashish worked on and I thought, why not make the message even stronger. I got inspired by recent elements that appear on our clothing that use military shapes. So here is my rendition of "I commit to openSUSE" for our t-shirts. See if the message comes across. I think though that it would look a lot better and stronger on a blue t-shirt.

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Dream openSUSE Initiative

Hello there

It has been an interesting journey working with artwork on openSUSE this time. I am happy to report that Marcus Moeller's "Lightray" design received the most votes on our poll and his design will be the default wallpaper on the next openSUSE 12.2. At the same time two of my own designs will also be part of the release Chameleon 2 and Chameleon 3. Also, one of our new artists, Lars Gardmo who contributed a few wallpapers will have one of his designs added to the distribution. I am so happy for the response we received from our members and people who love openSUSE. To all of them thank you.

I am here today to discuss a new initiative from the artwork team. We call it the "Dream openSUSE" initiative. The idea behind it being to collect information from our users as to how they interact with the desktop environments that openSUSE provides. It is not a matter of "I like KDE or Gnome better than others," but rather it is a way for our team to understand how much we tweak and change our desktop environments to meet our needs. You can find the submission page here. Some of us also have a vision of what we would like openSUSE to look or behave like. In those cases you can create a desktop mockup and then turn it in, explaining why you want a particular change on the desktop. If you want to create mockups, a good tool is cacoo.com. They can sign you in with your Google account and you can also export your designs.

For the most part, our friends have posted screenshots of their desktops highlighting the little changes they have made to make their desktops work better for them. There are a couple of good tools that can help you achieve this, ksnapshot and shutter.

Either way, we are calling everyone who want to collaborate in this research proposal to submit mockups or screenshots to show us the way they interact with their graphical interfaces. Show us the changes you make, show us the system settings on KDE or Gnome if necessary, but the more we receive, the more we understand about how we can make openSUSE's graphical environments better for everyone.

In the mean time, enjoy a picture of Camy, my chameleon.

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Two More Wallpapers

I worked on these two wallpapers along with another friend who does photography and Camy. If you want to check out my friend's pictures, feel free to drop in here.

Enjoy my friends :D

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SOPA/PIPA Blackout!

It is time again that this question of cernsorship is revisited by the Internet. It has been a long battle between the MPAA and the Internet and it feels as if this time the Internet has taken the lead as a moving force for change.

I would like to adhere my opinion to that of many about the over-the-limit idea that SOPA and PIPA propose to the American Congress. The Internet is a copy-based environment. Every use of video, images or sounds represent the creation of a new copy for the personal use of an Internet user. However, the problem lies in the usage of such material. MPAA still seems to be in the past where the control over creative material was simple. It was either printed or placed on a physical medium for others to use. MPAA does not understand the world we live in. They simply want to maximize return on investment. They would also like to police people like you and me for having access to copyrighted material. This is wrong and it goes against all ethical views on free speech. The Internet is public domain. If the MPAA does not want to have their copyrighted material be used in different ways, they ought no to use the Internet as a medium of advertisement, see how far that goes before artists, creators, and businesses start plummeting in their profits. We are not China, we do not have a private network controlled, not even by government, but by a for-profit entity. It is the height of an old-fashioned system.

So, as a means of protest, I will add my blog to the blackout of Wednesday 18, 2012.

This is what happens when corporations impose on people's creativity.

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New Green Wallpaper

Here is another green wallpaper I created trying to work with noise and emboss effects and a few others. I will create a zip file with a few additional resolutions. Enjoy friends :D

Thanks!

Link to additional resolutions here!



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Yast Graphical Installation GUI Revision

There are some graphical inconsistencies in the Yast installation program as written by
openSUSE programmers. Currently, these inconsistencies are easy to work out if one
only limits himself to work with the graphical user interface.
This report intends to show some of these graphical user interface inconsistencies as
well as to show some possible improvements. Additionally, the report will attempt to
show other GUI options to what Yast currently does with it’s installation method.
There are a few ways that an openSUSE installation is accomplished. They all
eventually rely on the use of Graphical Yast to be installed. For this particular analysis
the report will use a downloaded ISO image of openSUSE 12.1 with a typical KDE as
the window manager.

Please bear in mind that this is a critical GUI analysis of Yast. The contents of this article may only be treated that way and in no wise as an attack to the wonderful contributors who have created the powerful tool Yast.

The first step is to locate the “Install” icon on the desktop of the live CD image. The icon is descriptive of its function. To copy the contents of the CD into the computer as represented by the back screen. However, there could be a different conception of its function because of the differences in screen design by the icon just next of the Install icon. It reads “My Computer” and the screen is radically different from the one with the installation icon.
There is an inconsistency with screen design. There should be a decision taken to determine which screen design will be the default for our icons on the shipped distribution.

Next in this process is a packed set of options that deal with language and a license
agreement for the product. Additionally, this next screen shows a selection of
translations in different languages in case a user would like to read the license in a
different language, other than the default. Areas of improvement on this screen
would be the separation of this license screen from the language choices. The
openSUSE license agreement and the language settings are important enough that it
could be daunting trying to work out these two on the same screen. Another idea
would be to have a keyboard layout tester module added to the keyboard screen.
That way, users can determine if the keyboard layout of choice actually corresponds
to their keyboard and the layout that they expect. It is also noticeable that while the
fields of the top where layout and keyboard are selected have icons preceding them.
A trend that is not uniform throughout the installation screens. The majority of
drop-down menus do not have icons preceding them. There needs to be a decision
as to keep or delete these icons.

Next is the selection of time and date. It seems appropriate to have the clock and the
zone time settings on the same screen. There could be changes made to the map and
the way the mouse pointer actually locates the cities to which the time zone is
selected. There are currently very small dots that represent the city for a particular
time zone. The map can be made different by simply selecting a better contrasted
map image with only time zones for selection rather than a myriad of small dots. There
is also a discrepancy about the clock settings. While the tittle of the page reads “Clock
and Time Zone” the organization of the screen is rather “Time Zone and Clock” since
the map image, the region selection, and the time zone selection occupy the whole
screen, leaving the “Clock” settings at the very bottom right with a button that only
says “Change” for a hint as to what to do with the clock itself.

 If the "Change" button is clicked. This next screen appears. There is ample spaces
where the clock can be changed to set the appropriate time and additionally, the user
has the ability to synchronize the time with a web server.
There are a couple of settings here that may seem daunting to new users. The prior
naming of "UTC" and in the clock screen "NTP" server have no hints as to what they
entail. Synchronizing with an NTP server may be simple but the settings shown here
do not recognize that learning curve. They simply show the user all of the possibilities
for configuring the time from a web server. I would suggest placing these settings
under an "Advanced" button. Then change the NTP tag line to something more
welcoming, such as "Synchronize your time with a web server." Then choose yes or no.
Further configuration can be done once the system is installed. Also recognize the
time format depending on the area one has chosen.

 The following screen requests users to choose their favorite partition method. Again,
there are lines and phrases that may seem hard to understand for most adopters but
there is yet to exist a simple method of explaining partitioning to people. By default
openSUSE will create 3 partitions, one for root, one for home, and one for swap (if
necessary). This means that the user will have to determine how to work out these
partitions from that perspective, yet there are no indications about this process on
this screen.
The top screen shows a summary of the default settings that will be used for the
partitions that openSUSE requires. The second part asks users to choose a "Proposal
Setting" that will enable an LVM-based proposal, Separate Home Partition, or use the
new BTRFS as a default file system. All of which that belong to an "Advanced Setting"
rather than a default. Other "Advanced Settings" are the ones represented by the
buttons below. Users can "Create a Partition Setup," "Import Partition Setup," or "Edit
Partition Setup." All of which may be redundant since the screen that will appear for
the three options is the same partition table for experts that will be shown next.
Maybe the most prevalent button here is the "Edit Partition Table" since the changes
of any kind to the disk will be an edit of it.

 On this screen is probably the best opportunity to make a difference with the
"Advanced Settings" button and a good read as part of the help. There are many
options here that the majority of users will not ever touch, yet they are very present
on this screen giving, probably, too many options to choose from. Work could be done
in developing an interface that has well-set defaults and buttons that can choose
them. Additionally, the disks names and tags can be made more descriptive. /dev?sda,
RAID, Volume Management, etc. Seem to belong to a different kind of installation.
Maybe an early suggestion of "Server" and "Desktop" installation could do the trick.
Users installing a "Server" openSUSE would understand the most of these advanced
options. Whereas, "Desktop" users might just need configuring simple partitions
without the rest of these options.
Suggestions: Create early option of Installing as "Server," "Desktop," "Novice," or
"Advanced" user.

 The "Create New User" screen is simple and direct. It has options that determine how
a user will login to his newly installed openSUSE. Only a couple of things here can be
done to improve directness. Use and "Advanced Settings" button in order to move the
summary to an advanced setting. Also, the different underlining of the buttons
throughout the installation are to be key presses. They add visual clutter to the
reading of the text. Making these optional at the beginning of the installation is an
option, or simply doing away with it is a recommendable default setting.

 One the "Change" button is clicked on the summary this screen appears. The title
changed to "Expert Settings" and the authentication methods and the encryption
method is also shown here.
Suggestion: Revise all of the "Change" buttons throughout the installation and use
more descriptive names. Also, correlate screen names to a standard making "Expert
Settings," "Advanced Settings," etc all be the same.

 The installation process then asks for yor confirmation to your current password.
Hinting at the possibility that your current password is unsecured. It only says that you
have "lowercase letters" for the password but it does not suggest appropriate
changes to it.
Suggestions: Make suggestions for passwords. Also add a password generator button
for easy password creation.

 This screen shows a summary of the different settings that the user has chosen for his/
her system. Again the disply resembles a note taking organization with green links as
their headers. This summary deviates from the look of other summaries that present
the text and colors of the screen and use a "Change" button in order to modify the
settings. Likely this makes users pay more attention to the screen but it also deviates
from the work flow which could be hard to understand for new users. Again, a
mismatch in design preferences and guidelines.

 A last confirmation screen asks the user to confirm his settings and "Install" the
system. The tittle "Confirm Installation" is highlighted in light blue giving it more
importance to the message that follows. The color is again different than most of the
highlight colors in the installation process. While green seems to be the color of
choice, this confirmation uses light blue.

 The installation screen shows two progress bars for the installation of the system. The
top one is for one-by-one installation and the bottom one shows the overall
installation progress. Moreover, the top section of this screen shows the output of
each of the processes of the installation. Likely this is something that only some will
find of interest whereas the majority will only worry about the bottom progress bar
showing the overall installation progress.
Suggestion: Make actions performed and top progress bar an "Advanced View Mode"
for experts. Eliminate visual clutter.

 Once the installation process is over this screen will ask users to reboot the system
without the Live CD. A question that I have asked myself about this screen is why do
we need an "Abort" button. The installation process is now over, the files have actually
been written on the disk and there is no real turning back, unless the user actually
wants to reinstall the system. Maybe this option could be removed since it may give
the impression that you can actually revert all of the changes made. If a user installs
the system and they replaced a different OS with openSUSE, clicking "Abort" will not
bring back the former OS.

 Once back from the reboot, this screen appears to configure what is left from the
installation process. It will also ready for the first window manager launch.

Please post your suggestions in the comments section.

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