On 02/07/2018 09:07 AM, Bastien Nocera wrote:
Note that I think the current default background is really nice,
it's just
not appropriate I don't think.
I don't think critiquing Fedora's art direction is the right conversation
to be having here. It's not the core issue.
The conversation that I think would be more productive and is more at the root of the
conflict here is understanding how we balance the very important principle of
'upstream first' with the also very important principle of differentiation. I
think the disagreement being expressed in this thread is at what level should the
differentiation be taking place. Should the differentiation be taking place upstream at
the GNOME level, or should it be taking place downstream at the distro level?
I think (please correct if wrong) the conflict here is between differentiation takes place
at the GNOME level vs at the Fedora level. If you believe differentiation should take
place at the GNOME level, then the patches / changes made to accommodate Fedora's
branding requests feel like a tough compromise that in part undermines the GNOME design
decisions. For those who believe differentiation should take place at the Fedora level, it
feels that enough allowance is given for Fedora to express a visual identity in order to
compete against other desktops *including other open source desktops that share the same
upstream,* so there's a big concern about ability to compete there, to have a
narrative to put out in the market to help convince desktop users to give Fedora a try.
Regardless of the level that the differentiation is placed at, our desktop is so crucial
and serves as the backbone of all core platform development, whether or not that is
recognized as widely and as fully as it should be. All of the cloud / container / new
shiny to me seems to get all of the attention, but our desktop helps enable all of it. So
it's really important that we figure this out in a way that doesn't compromise the
GNOME design but also helps enable Fedora to compete and bring more developers and users
to our ecosystem as well.
Critiquing Fedora's visual direction doesn't really get at that core problem.
Whether Fedora is cold and desolate or hot and aggressive (or cool and calming, or warm
and exciting) doesn't really change the top-level strategy here. I think that
particular tug of war needs to be sorted first. And I think upstream-downstream conflicts
are something we have a long history of solving, so I wonder if there are case studies /
examples of solutions that could be applied here to help alleviate this ongoing issue?
Bottom line: I that you disagree with Fedora's art direction, but if it was perfectly
to your taste, this problem would still be unresolved.
~m