Community response of new ubuntu artwork

[Bryan Pizzuti]

This illustrates one of the best points in this whole discussion.  People
who like this new theme and want to keep it as default are asking others to
respect their values, but in doing so, they are disrespecting the values of
those who do not wish to have it around, whether for liability issues,
religious issues, cultural issues, whatever.  That is, honestly, a childish
attitude, more like "I deserve to be respected, but I don't have to respect
you because I'm cooler" or something.  This kind of devisiveness is a bad
thing...which is why most OSes stay clear of this sort of thing. ;) 

I think it's very important for Ubuntu to choose a default theme that will
be acceptable to as many as possible, and ALSO offend as few as possible
(Note the two are not always the same..you can gain the acceptane of many
but still offend a large portion of people).  This is why people use
pictures of fields or starscapes, or drawn logos in their graphics. You may
think it's dull and boring because everyone does it, but there's a GOOD
REASON WHY, as we are all discovering now. 

-----Original Message-----
From: ubuntu-users-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com
[mailto:ubuntu-users-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com] On Behalf Of John Harvey
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2004 7:25 PM
To: ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
Subject: Re: Community response of new ubuntu artwork

Look i understand some of what you are saying and agree with it, but there
are other less controversial ways to make this statement

Simply put if this image theme remains the default in the final release i
will have to cancel the 20Cd's i was going to distribute and change the
linux pilot at work to Red Hat or Fedora (and i really do not want to do
that but my employer will not accept the splash screen and desktop and i can
trust they wont be back without some sort of guarantee from the devs). I
will continue to use ubuntu myself no matter what but the support from many
enthusiastic people wanting to build the userbase for ubuntu in business
will be lost for no reason at all.

Im sorry but even understanding the arguments for the imagery and
sympathising some what i still cannot see what people hope to gain from
alienating large amounts of the potential user base.  Do people truly think
that good intentions can get around the cultural and religious taboos
against such imagery in non european and US countries.  if ubuntu is linux
for humanity we need to be mindfull of the sensitivities of different
cultures and not just being cool and liberal to suit our own beliefs.

On Sun, 2004-10-17 at 13:05 -0700, Ubuntu Forums Post wrote:
> The attitudes exposed by this innocuous Human Art issue are interesting,
to say the least.
> 
> If the objective of the UbuntuLinux project is to maximize profit and
appeal to the lowest common denominator, perhaps keeping it bland and
cutting out all the "humanistic nonsense" is the way to go.
> 
> But if Ubuntu is about making a statement while helping grow a community
around ideals such as humanity and tolerance, it might have to face up to
the opposition by certain types with more restrictive moral attitudes.
> 
> Perhaps one way to bandage the tolerance gash that clearly exists, let's
say, between the conservative american and liberal european schools of
thought, would be to make the presented artwork dependent on one's
geographical location. Maybe "work" installations could also be separated
from "home" installations; I mean, shouldn't the app selection also differ
tiny little bit there?
> 
> Not so long ago one expatriate (mainland) Chinese open-source developer
dumped a project he had been participating in, simply because other folks
felt like allowing the Taiwanese users to *optionally* pick their national
flag to denote their island instead of the imposing the People's Republic of
China's flag upon them. Should the project have imposed this man's political
views upon the people living in Taiwan, instead of making the choosing of
one's preferred symbols simply optional? What if a hundred million
"conservative" mainland Chinese had descended upon this project to demand
that their political(-ly correct?) views must prevail, or else...?
> 
> If the image of a few human beings holding hands in celebration of human
fraternity is really capable of actually offending some people's moral view
of the world, and if Ubuntu team wishes to appeal to the largest possible
variety of people, surely the humanistic artwork and other items "offensive"
to people with very strong views could be made optional.
> 
> Then again I'm sure that religious, political or nationalistic groups are
fully capable of catering to their own followers exactly what they have
grown to expect, but hey, there isn't necessarily much "ubuntu" left to
celebrate... although then again all those groups can simply take the
produce of the Ubuntu community (which is already a shared creation
with/through innumerable other open-source projects) and slap their own
symbols on it.
> 
--
John Harvey
http://www.monkeyc.net
email : linux at monkeyc.net

Using ubuntu linux - http://www.ubuntulinux.org



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