On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 2:16 PM, Paul W. Frields <stickster@gmail.com> wrote:

Can we cool down the rhetoric just a bit?  That would really help this
discussion be more constructive, so thanks in advance Fab.

That implies that there actually *is* a discussion. From what I've read so far, this "special request" wasn't a request at all and didn't sound like something that was really negotiable.
 

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that sketching had just
begun for F15 wallpaper.  Is this request undoing a really huge amount
of work?  For instance, I don't see any entries yet here:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/F15_Artwork

I think all who worked on this so far were under the impression that we were working on the default wallpaper. Of course, this isn't undoing any work but I think it's a huge disappointment for the people who were working on this. I couldn't make the actual meeting but I was prepared to put a lot of effort into a wallpaper proposal, I'm not sure the arrangement that we have now warrants that.
 
 
According to the schedule, the "Design wallpaper" task just started
three days ago.  So it seems to me this request comes at a pretty good
time, seeing as how that task lasts about three weeks.  We just don't
want to take all three weeks to debate and decide, then, right?

OK, let me put this bluntly: This "request", if it goes through, will take away maybe 80% of what the team actually influences in a release for the F15 cycle. At least that's my impression (keep in mind that I haven't been with the team all that long). You are basically asking us to put aside all previously established pratices on voting for the final default wallpaper among several wallpaper candidates prepared by the team and third parties. And who knows if this isn't going to be the way we'll do it from here on out? As much as I like Fedora's upstream policy, applying that to artwork is silly IMHO. Either that or having a Design Team at all is. 
 

Personally, I really like the idea that Fedora is being asked to be
the tip of the spear showing off the new GNOME 3.  A lot of work has
gone into it, and not just by people inside Red Hat, but by a wide
community of free software contributors.

Nobody is doubting that. But does that mean we have to ship the default wallpaper? If we had known this earlier, maybe we could've been involved in the creation of that default wallpaper then.... I have been saying for ages that having a kickass Gnome 3 setup could be a really huge step in setting Fedora apart visually (something that is badly needed IMO) and I can't really see how shipping the default wallpaper in Fedora is helping Gnome Shell. If Gnome Shell is really defined by their wallpaper, we have a lot bigger problems than I though...

 

On top of that, I seem to recall that the Desktop Live image for F-15
was slated to be larger than CD-sized.  If that's the case, with
proper coordination between teams, why not look into having an entire
set of supplemental wallpapers created by the Fedora Design team
included in the Desktop Live image?  I'm not sure we've ever included
those by default before, but it would be a great way to let people
further customize their Fedora desktop, out of the box and in a Fedora
specific way if they want.


That sounds great, but it sure sounds to me like you're trying to appease the Design Team for having its biggest responsibility taken away. As I said, I have no clue when the idea to ship the default Gnome art came up or where exactly it originated but I think the whole Design Team should have been included in the discussion right then and there.

Fab