Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[john biles]

Hello Everyone,
Being the developer of Legacy OS you get court up in your own little world and from time to time download and have a quick look at what the latest releases of Puppy are doing and then get back to your thing.

For unimportant reasons here, I booted up Puppy 5.2.8 did what I had to do and then decided OK lets spent some time here and see what version 5.2.8 has to offer. The team that worked and I mean WORKED! on all the series 5 releases have done an amazing job. The more time you dig deeper in to whats been done the more you realize what a creative / talented team we have here on the forum.

Now to why I'm posting this here.

The average Computer User is a visual user with no interest in what makes a Computer tick.

I'm proposing we imagine we all work for the this Software company called Puppy Linux Inc and see Puppy as a professional Operating System that costs $200 what would it look like?

What does a Wallpaper in a $200 Operating System look like? (Nude Girls, Machine Guns? Don't think so)
Same with GTK Theme, Icons, Application Icons, Menu Bar again what would you expect to see in a $200 OS?

I propose forum members wanting to join in post their interest and ideas here.
More importantly you get your hands dirty and spend hours creating drop in icon themes (A tar.gz or pet package that overwrites the default icons in Puppy with a set you'd expect to see in our imaginary $200 OS)

Got a $200 GPL Wallpaper? Post it here!
Created a $$$ Gtktheme? Post it Here!

Lastly integration, how everything interacts together. I'll tested Dream Linux 5 released last week. You boot up to this nice desktop and think "this looks promising". Only when you start using it do you realize how small things let Dream Linux down. Textmaker by all accounts in a good Application. The problem is upon opening it, your presented with a Application that looks out of place, dated. A reviewer dismissed it's inclusion without even testing it. I bet it all had to do with the fact it looked different and didn't integrate well into the system as a whole.

My point is Puppy Linux must seduce new users by offering them something that looks inviting and more importantly continue that feel right through the menu right down to the icons used in each Application.

What we create here should benefit Puppy. If we're lucky some of it might find its way in to a Puppy release itself.

I'll leave you with these screen shots from forum user battleshooter

If you were showing Linux and Puppy to someone for the first time would you show them default 5.2.8 or one of these?

[RSH]

Hello, John Biles.

[john biles]

Hello RSH,
I should have said "Look is Everything once you've got the system right". In Puppy 5.2.8 the systems right, but the look while good, could be better.

This is not about dumping KDE 4.7.4 in to Puppy. It's about refining what's already there. Forum member "battleshooter" screen shots showed what could be achieved using Fluxbox not KDE or Gnome.

Kubuntu 10.04 through to 11.10 show a progress and improvements but is let down in so many ways. I tried to use Kubuntu but am left disappointed.
The only usable version of Ubuntu 11.10 series is xubuntu.

[jemimah]

No matter what you pick it seems two thirds of users will think it's ugly.

Anyway I agree with John Biles - look and feel is of primary importance.

I'm definitely interested in design and usability help with Saluki.

[john biles]

Hello jemimah,
I've just been reading your "Saluki" thread my God you've been busy, thanks for taking the time to reply to this thread.

[stu90]

Hi John Biles,
While i dont agree that looks are everything - they are a major part of one's first and ongoing impressions.

A real bug-bear for me is:
Desktop icons - they clutter up the desktop, easy alternatives are available to tidy things up.
Volume icon - why is the default volume icons like something from 1980 - easily fixed
Submenu pixmap icons - these are hideously ugly, why do we even need them - several windows managers don't have icons at all, i also remove them via fixmenus for JWM.
Rox-filer icons - again the defaults are ugly - i made a theme switcher for these, while it doesn't work with every windows manager it does in my opinion improve the icons.
For wallpapers i get them daily from National Geographic and Nasa - more often than not these are stunning and interesting images and work great as desktop wallpapers.

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and you are never going to please all people all of the time but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try - there is a visual middle of the road out there and we need to find it then apply it to puppy.

My current desktop - still room for improvement but several applications following the same icon theme.

http://i.imgur.com/WrOnc.jpg

[nooby]

The in word is "ugly". Sure I do agree 100% but the crazy
thing is that what looks okay for me can be totally or absolutely ugly for you. Totally unpredictable I guess.

[smokey01]

Consider this:

You go to a motor show and there are 10 cars to view. Nine are dull, small and unattractive, however the 10th is a shiny red Ferrari.

Which one catches your eye?

Now the sales person says you can have one for free (same price as Puppy)

Which one do you choose?

Are you able to drive it?

Does it have the features you like?

There are many analogies I could have used, but yes, looks is the first thing that catches your eye unless you are blind.

Priority

1. Looks
2. Ease of use
3. Features

[postfs1]

[battleshooter]

Hi John, thanks for the kudos

I'm all for a nice looking Puppy. Puppy has plenty of functionality, I don't see why the default theme can't be updated a little. I rather liked smokey01's analogy with the cars. Puppy certainly has the goods under the hood, but maybe could do with a paint job. (I hesitate to comment negatively on Puppy's looks, because there's no doubt someone loves it )

Here's a package that will turn the default Puppy theme into Faenza.

http://www.datafilehost.com/download-042b36db.html

It doesn't change pixmaps and some icons here and there, that'll take more work, but this is just a basic quick change up.

What it changes
Changes existing mimetype icons to Faenza

Adds a powerapplet_tray recompiled with a Faenza theme
Adds a freememapplet_tray recompiled with a Faenza theme
Gives Retrovol a Faenza theme
Adds 2 extra themes for network_tray, one for dark panels, one for light panels (Needs to be manually selected)

Adds Faenza icon theme for desktop

gtkrc.mine changes the default GTK icons to Faenza-This will change the icons in various GTK applications, for example:

Changes ROX's default icon


If you have your own custom gtkrc.mine, Retrovol, freememapplet_tray, or powerapplet_tray you'll want to back them up as the pet will overwrite them. The pet pretty much overrides everything it changes.

As stated before, it's just an example of how Pup can be updated. It doesn't have to be Faenza, I just like it and it's fairly complete. It could be Elementary, Oxygen, or really any complete icon set.



Edit: I don't particularly think this is a $200 wallpaper, it's just what I have up right now!

[john biles]

Hello battleshooter,
Perfect

Lets imagine Puppy users were asked to submit icons sets, Wallpapers, gtktkemes, Desktop Managers (JWM, ICEWM, FLUXBOX etc).

Once a sizable collection was reach, the community would be asked to vote on what Wallpaper, icon set, Desktop Manager etc should be default.

There's a number of ways to create a final iso.

This idea got full backing from the Official Puppy team.
A Puplet originating from this post
A Pet package to update the official Version.

battleshooter, one question? How much extra MB's did you creations in the 2 example desktops add roughly. I think most Puppy users could live with a 10MB increase in iso size for the right User experience.

[battleshooter]

[RSH]

Found older thread, "Puppy 4.2 - Desktop and Artwork"
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=34331
There are several desktop icon themes to download.

[jemimah]

The next release of saluki will include:

every major gtk theme engine

a large number of fonts

cursor themes

full size icons throughout entire menu - no mini icons

complete gnome icon set - this can be swapped out, (and an easy switcher is included) but gnome is the only one i know for sure is complete

compositing and true transparency out of the box

highly customizable and integrated xfce desktop environment

every useful xfce panel applet that I could find - I prefer this over conky and docks because my desktop is usually covered with windows

community contributed wallpapers

There are no applications yet because I'm really trying to get core usability issues sorted first. I'm attempting to improve most of the basic puppy utilities that still look they belong in the 90s.

For people who care about user experience, Saluki is the puplet to contribute to. If you make artwork you think I should include just let me know!

With no apps, complete kernel, and full Xorg Saluki is still under 85MB.

[john biles]

Hello battleshooter,
Not bad at all 11Mb's

Iwent back to your original posts in "My Puppy is more gorgeous than yours!"
and followed the links to how your created those looks.

Question is "Have you created pets already for those packages and if not would you?". I think a lot of Puppy users would enjoy a desktop that looked like those in the screenshots.

jemimah,
Thanks for starting the "Saluki" project am looking forward to your next development release.