tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44479202006923520232024-03-13T21:58:16.799+01:00Martin's ChroniclesMartinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.comBlogger166125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-56178656430209876282017-06-21T15:52:00.000+02:002017-06-21T17:43:16.416+02:00Eight years since first release and still no usable theme?Well, let me be frank. Ever since gtk-3.0 I've been skeptical of it, especially of the theming aspect. In gtk-2 we had (and still have) many themes ranging from trash to excellent, almost every kind of taste could have been satisfied. Not so in gtk-3. First issue is constant changes to theming API, meaning that despite there being hundreds of themes, only handful of them actually work right :( And among them, I still have yet to find one that would work on my fairly usual 15,6″ laptop screen with 1366×768 px resolution. Basicaly I have two issues.<br />
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<ol>
<li>Almost every possible gtk-3 theme has huge (no, not just big, I really mean the word huge) paddings and there are no working compact variants. Yes there are minwaita and adwaita-slim, but they kinda break Thunar's and Whisker menu's entry boxes, and they also aren't very slick (yes, I don't like proper adwaita either, it does not look very proffessional to me). <br /><br />So far it meant I had to expand side pane in libreoffice and had less usable screen estate left for editing (the first two pics, notice how in the gtk-3 version the sidepane is not only wider, but also needs a scrollbar!), but now inkscape is getting ported as well, I'd need twice the screen resolution I have now for it to be usable (the second two pics, notice how in the gtk-3 version much more buttons and entries are not directly accessible, and the sidebar is sooo huge and cannot be made smaller) :(</li>
<li>Scrollbars. They're small, they're ugly, they're hiding and hiding badly, meaning sometimes it's almost impossible to select either last column or last row in a list or both.</li>
</ol>
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*Sigh* You at gnome/gtk – why do you try to fix something that ain't broken? Why there isn't a single proffessional looking compact theme that I could use with inkscape on my laptop much like I could with its gtk-2 releases? Are low-end machine users nothing to you? Why gtk-2 themes worked actually better at gtk-2.8+ (and probably in any version sans the very first or second) than gtk-3 themes in any version you choose?<br />
<br />
Do you still wonder why people are complaining?<br />
<br />
Oh, and to end on a positive note: if someone points me to really working really compact theme that does not break xfce-gtk3/libreoffice-gtk3/inkscape-gtk3 a is good looking (no, not adwaita, but something along the lines of numix, greybird, menta, zuki*, etc.) I'd be very happy to change my mind about gtk3 ;-)</div>
Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-1274719069362693672014-08-07T14:30:00.000+02:002014-08-07T14:30:20.583+02:00Ripping DVD with FFMPEG<p>This more a post to myself than to others, but even so, others might find it useful as well. Because sometimes having a DVD is inconvenient compared to your usual Matroska file saved on a HDD, I was looking for a simple way to encode the DVD. I have it decrypted and copied in a folder, but there are a bunch of 1 GiB VOB files, which is a) big, b) inconvenient. So the idea is, join the VOBs and transcode it into h264 (substitute theora, vp8 or dirac if you are more radical FLOSS supporter than me) and FLAC for audio. Actually simple search on the net presented me with an easy solution using FFMPEG (I kinda had problems with using the GUI ripping software), but it took some more research (reading the ffmpeg man pages) to find out how to rip more than one audio stream into the final file (I used a JAP/ENG DVD about Aikido).</p>
<p>So, without further ado, here's the command:</p>
<pre>ffmpeg -i concat:VTS_01_1.VOB\|VTS_01_2.VOB\|VTS_01_3.VOB -map 0:v -map 0:a -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -vf yadif -c:a flac aikido.mkv</pre>
<p>And some info:</p> <ul>
<li>The <code>ffmpeg</code> command is in ffmpeg package, from <a href="http://rpmfusion.org/">rpmfusion</a> free. It's not in Fedora proper because of patent issues, I believe.</li>
<li><code>-i concat:VTS_01_1.VOB\|VTS_01_2.VOB\|VTS_01_3.VOB</code> marks that input file is a direct join of the three VOB files listed, the backslash is to escape the "|" so that it's seen by ffmpeg instead of bash.</li>
<li><code>-map 0:v</code> tells that ALL video streams are to be copied/transcoded.</li>
<li><code>-map 0:a</code> tells that ALL audio streams are to be copied/transcoded.</li>
<li><code>-c:v libx264</code> tells that for video streams we'll use libx264 codec (i. e. we'll transcode to h264).</li>
<li><code>-crf 18</code> tells that we want to use Constant Rate Factor, value 18 (which might be a bit of overkill, but I don't want to sacrifice quality for space and I don't have the time tune it).</li>
<li><code>-vf yadif</code> use YADIF deinterlacing, because I don't wanna keep interlacing in the video – I'll be playing it on a computer, after all.</li>
<li><code>-c:a flac</code> tells we'll be using FLAC for audio streams. It's free and lossless. Again, it might be overkill, but I like to keep the original sound without using nonfree codec like AAC or AC3.</li>
</ul>
<p>When I originally omitted the <code>-map</code> parameters, only single video and single audio stream were transcoded, so it's necessary if you want to transcode more audio streams or different stream than the first one.</p>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-19711787544282767702014-06-26T17:05:00.000+02:002014-08-07T14:51:36.908+02:00Connecting Linux machine to windows AD and mounting remote user dirs automagically ‒ how? <p>Dear lazy web,</p>
<p>I've been working for the last year as an informatics teacher at high school and I'm playing with the idea of trying to migrate a couple of machines (mine for the start, I still need to connect to remote win desktop for certain tasks :-D) fully to Linux which would work as well as the windows machines WRT network shares which are on a windows AD server that I don't have admin access to. There are couple of problems, some of which I was able to solve, some of which I have an idea how to solve and some of which I don't now at all how to solve, any pointers appreciated! I'm testing this on Fedora 20 by the way.</p>
<h2>Joining the domain</h2>
<p>This one took me a lot time to solve and I had a couple of times when I gave up. Mostly because I didn't know the AD server hostname and even when I found it, I still couldn't get it to work via the system-config-authentication, nor the config files in /etc. By chance I was lucky to run across a <a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Testcase_realmd_join_sssd">QA test case for joining the AD domain</a>! Well, and that worked like a charm. So the trick is to run:</p>
<code>$ realm join --user=User ad.example.com</code>
<h2>Logging in</h2>
<p>Kinda superfluous for me, but a real need when there would be more users to use the computer. That was what I was originally trying to achieve. After joining the domain with the above example, it started to work magically. I don't remember if there was anything else that I needed to set up, probably not. But you definitely need oddjob-mkhomedir that sets up the environment when a new user (unknown to the local computer) logs in for the first time. I believe it should be installed automagically during the join. I've tried it in CLI and in LightDM, both worked by the time I successfully joined.</p>
<h2>Mounting remote locations</h2>
<p>Well, this is the last thing I was able to do. It does not require logging in, it does require joining the domain. You must fill your login credentials, though, if you don't have a guest share. I've run across a <a href="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1039841">bug in gvfs-samba</a> ‒ when I'm copying multiple files over the network, it hangs. So for the network shares I'm using Dolphin at the moment. The GUI managers I've tried work both in the same way, just go to the location bar, type smb://username@domain/share, you're asked for a password, then it mounts and you can use it. In Thunar, which uses gvfs, you need gvfs-samba package. You can also mount it in CLI:</p>
<code>gvfs-mount smb://username@domain/share</code>
<p>On my old notebook which was essentially multiple times upgraded old fedoras this also created a mount point in the filesystem (somewhere under /run/user/gvfs), in my new computer (which has fresh Fedora 20), this does not create a mount point in the filesystem. Quick search on the internet showed, I need gvfs-fuse package and its daemon running. Then it appears under /run/user/⟨uid⟩/gvfs/* which then can be easily symlinked for wine to appear as a drive if needed.</p>
<h2>Mounting the shared network shares on login</h2>
<p>Now, here's where I have vague idea that I could probably call something like gvfs-mount on login, the problem is that it needs password. Is there a way to pass the credentials from login credentials to the mount data? Or ask for them only for the first time and in gui (meaning the mount point is created automatically, the user is asked for login credentials which are then saved in his default keyring)? The path to network share should be same for all users.</p>
<h2>Mounting user specific network shares on login</h2>
<p>Now, the same as above, but the network path depends on the user, i.e. something like smb://username@domain/share/username.</p>
<h2>Doing the above two for new users as well</h2>
<p>How do I run a custom script when a local user is created during first remote login?</p>
<h2>"Mounting" the network shares as drives in wine</h2>
<p>Now, here I have an idea that some simple symlinking should do the trick, the network shares names should stay the same (even the directories they appear in the filesystem), so it shouldn't be a problem.</p>
<p>So, once again, any help, pointers, suggestions are very welcome, I'll try to keep this post updated with new information and new solutions.</p>
<h2>UPDATE: Solution to user automount problem</h2>
<p>So, with the help of people that commented in the comments section, I found a solution that's called pam_mount. I'm not sure how to do it the right way (TM), but here's what made it work for me:</p>
<ul>
<li>Add <code>auth optional pam_mount.so</code> before <code>auth sufficient pam_winbind.so cached use_first_pass</code>, so that the credentials are shared between pam mount and login to AD. I added it to <code>/etc/pam.d/system-auth</code>, I'm not sure that's the correct way though.</li>
<li>Add <code>session optional pam_mount.so</code> so that pam_mount is executed at the start of the session. I added it to the end of the same file as above.</li>
<li>Edit <code>/etc/security/pam_mount.conf.xml</code>. Typical line would look like <code><volume user="*" sgrp="DOMAIN\domain users" fstype="cifs" server="domain.server.org" path="Shares/Usr_home/%(DOMAIN_USER)" mountpoint="/home/DOMAIN/%(DOMAIN_USER)/.ad/%(DOMAIN_USER)" /></code></li>
</ul>
<p>And voila, it works. I only have one still unsolved issue with this, and that's I cannot get it not to use <code>forceuid</code>, <code>forcegid</code> and <code>nounix</code> mount options. I haven't tried yet, if it's a problem with pam_mount, or mount.cifs (i. e. if the server/client combination support cifs unix extensions like POSIX acls)...</p>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-23448659231022487252014-02-09T22:58:00.003+01:002014-02-09T22:58:30.972+01:00Why I don't like new UIs<p>I've recently had two experiences with UIs that are designed to be streamlined and user-friendly. And, frankly, to me they're anything but that.</p>
<h2>Windows 8</h2>
<p>For some reason I had to use it and well, it took me <b>several minutes</b> to figure out that the loading...-like screen is actually a log in screen and I need to click a nearly invisible single-coloured button to actually allow me to select (or write) a username and log in. Then it took me another several minutes to figure out how to find Desktop. During my work I was several times greeted with IE instead of Start menu (who the hell did have the idea to put an IE icon next to a sensitive corner that gets you to the start <strike>menu</strike>screen?) and found out how to log out by sheer luck. Didn't figure how to shut down from logged user. Ugh, I have to tell, GNOME Shell is <i>heaven compared to that</i>.</p>
<h2>Fedora 20 Installation</h2>
<p>Everything is parallel. I have to say, I prefer the linearity of the old Anaconda. Just clicking next, next, next and nothing gets missed... Now, well, that's another question. The icons being single coloured didn't help much either. I just hate these new symbolic icons that the PC world of nowadays is plagued with. E. g. here on blogger I always confuse pencil with label. *Sigh* </p>
<p>But well, having to spend 30 mins on custom partitioning and only figuring the problem after reading a manual, when it was actually a something the installed could have told me itself, is a completely another story :( Why does the new anaconda tells me the partition is not correct, but does not tell me why. Why? Why? If it knows it's not correct, it should tell me the reason, not just pop up a bubble telling me something is wrong, that Fedora needs 5 Gigs of space (which was perfectly satisfied by the configured layout) but <b>not</b> telling me, that the problem is missing /boot/efi partition?! Something that's was obvious to the installer but not to the human encountering UEFI for the first time... Why it cannot tell me the error it encounters? Why? Why are all the new UIs pretending human is a brain-dead idiot with less intelligence than a well-trained monkey?</p>
<p>But to end it on positive note, F20 on Live USB is freakishly fast as well as the actual installation :-p</p>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-59984358866777249062013-11-19T17:08:00.001+01:002013-11-19T23:27:35.936+01:00Fedora 20 Supplemental WallpapersSo, because I'm kinda busy with my $ job and aikido training, it took me a while to get it done, but supplemental wallpapers for Fedora 20 are packaged and <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2013-21575/heisenbug-backgrounds-20.0.0-1.fc20">update submitted</a>. Please test and karma :) They're prepared for use with xfce, kde, gnome/cinnamon and mate. If there's a way to make them available via bg selector in other DEs in Fedora, let me know how, I'd be happy to expand the portfolio ;-)
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGTR_axusSmJTY3I0dW5juVh8sEHY3urgUKmghWm9a4_og1VxtvIgUnJpCh87J8EJjcTtb5esL32VpW-_M7vdpLdrFTwKGdmx20dtF-zh-1Knc_tLCOBCL-URkIIYyHutus5o-KkPpPhs/s1600/f20-wallpapers-supplemental.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGTR_axusSmJTY3I0dW5juVh8sEHY3urgUKmghWm9a4_og1VxtvIgUnJpCh87J8EJjcTtb5esL32VpW-_M7vdpLdrFTwKGdmx20dtF-zh-1Knc_tLCOBCL-URkIIYyHutus5o-KkPpPhs/s400/f20-wallpapers-supplemental.png" /></a></div>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-36910679143738418402013-03-03T15:27:00.000+01:002013-03-03T15:48:45.446+01:00My Impression of Gnome Situation<p>To me it seems, and with the Gnome Shell release this has become even more pronounced, that the situation around Gnome is like the situation around political parties in Czech Republic. They mostly lost touch with reality and majority of people either lost their interest in them, became their haters or their (almost) unconditional adorers. Pointing out an issue equals hating now (and yes there are some exceptions). <i>I</i> have lost faith. Sadly. In both. Does it need to happen to Fedora as well? If we gnomeifficate anaconda, we might end-up like this as well. Users aren't as dumb as we tend to make them. People don't want grey lives with nothing to look forward to, with nothing to choose from. With computers treating them as monkeys. I don't want an environment where I cannot choose between grey two-colour symbolic icons and colorful normal ones. Is reaching out specifically to women making them feel equal?</p>
<p>No, I'm not promoting choice in general. Linux is <i>not</i> about choice. I realize there are lines you should not cross. <a href="http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg00861.html">We cannot sensibly support two parallel audio stacks</a> in Fedora. We cannot sensibly support Hurd or BSD kernel in Fedora. We cannot sensibly support any random combination of system libraries. But we can let user customize their HDD layout when installing. We can show them nice professional looking installer (don't get me wrong, I agree that the installer needed rewrite of its internals, I just don't agree with many of the UI changes that went along with the code redesign). We can show them KDE quality design. We can promote open standards while <a href="http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2013/02/how-to-shoot-yourself-in-foot-story-on.html">not setting the hurdle too high for using proprietary or patent encumbered</a>. We can let them choose desktop background by clicking on desktop. We can let them turn off their computer. We can let them install OpenOffice without breaking LibreOffice. Are we?</p>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-42610303175093199342013-03-03T14:47:00.000+01:002013-03-03T14:47:00.572+01:00Fedora Desktops – Quick Look<p>Hello to all.</p>
<p>Yesterday and today I've been working on packaging the wallpapers for Fedora 19. Since we have a couple of new desktops in Fedora, I thought it would be good to expand our coverage to them as well. In short – since Fedora 19, new wallpapers will be visible in backgrounds selectors of Gnome, KDE, Mate and Xfce. LXDE does not show any pictures and has a plain file chooser for that, Cinnamon uses Gnome stack, but has a bug in its backgrounds selector (read on), so the background is usable but not visible.</p>
<p>I've had various experiences with testing the packages in the desktops and as a couple of these were driving me mad, I thought I'd write a quick showcase. I needed precisely two things – terminal to install/remove the WIP packages and means to set the background. So, up to some initial word or two, this will be about how to run a terminal and how to change a background in these desktops. Also, even though I did it in new user account, widget themes might not reflect fedora defaults as I changed them at one point and I also didn't reset configuration between switching the DEs. Maybe someday I'll test default config and do a quick review of look'n'feel.</p>
<p>For convenience I'll review the desktops alphabetically.</p>
<h2>Cinnamon</h2>
<p>On first look I thought this might be good – it had panel, menu and looked almost fine. First problem was the symbolic icons in system-tray. I had no idea what half of them meant, but at least there were bubbles popping out that clarified things a bit. Desktop wasn't clickable. Menu got me mad the more I tried to work with it. I could say, from my point of view (POV), this desktop is a wasted effort. If I wanted Gnome 3 I would use Gnome Shell, if not, I don't see the point of choosing this over Mate or XFCE. For me this was even more painful experience than Gnome Shell. It was like choosing the worst features from all the desktops I tried and putting them together.</p>
<p>So let's look how I start terminal. First I open a menu. Ugh. A bunch of icons, three columns, the first one without any text. Huge padding. The third column changes contents on hoover in the second column. I always hated dynamic menus on web and this is not an exception. Scrollbars everywhere because of the padding and fixed height. As I rarely start apps by typing their names, actually rather dislike doing it that way, this is absolute pain for me.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSzq83RtvOxIIWrHTuXcLeJ20hbanyKbIHaujLXKGKRh-Vyfsl-JBHrIuat1l_ZKbFk76ORxzYwpvXB1V8c0CjqnOgtPVZ9Vp_SGZD3guOjNmQin0gS0gMzlPvNIZzznNiy_TDJMgne_M/s1600/cinnamon-start-terminal.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSzq83RtvOxIIWrHTuXcLeJ20hbanyKbIHaujLXKGKRh-Vyfsl-JBHrIuat1l_ZKbFk76ORxzYwpvXB1V8c0CjqnOgtPVZ9Vp_SGZD3guOjNmQin0gS0gMzlPvNIZzznNiy_TDJMgne_M/s320/cinnamon-start-terminal.png" /></a>
<p>Now for the desktop background. As I noted earlier, desktop is not clickable. So I had to figure out how to change it. So, let's find settings. Oh, it's one of those icons without text…</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3eoQzhNvju6wFYFzN0VwKru_CbkEepsaxwneHnWSW_DFy6SSVhEgBJp6Y6xEedAbj0yLm0MrxzCNts8YqqJYzr_qxP1k_fkEDZRlONpWcsK3t23E0oF5vCvKKHj1yPx0TTBnkxZO-QUo/s1600/cinnamon-desktop-settings-1.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3eoQzhNvju6wFYFzN0VwKru_CbkEepsaxwneHnWSW_DFy6SSVhEgBJp6Y6xEedAbj0yLm0MrxzCNts8YqqJYzr_qxP1k_fkEDZRlONpWcsK3t23E0oF5vCvKKHj1yPx0TTBnkxZO-QUo/s320/cinnamon-desktop-settings-1.png" /></a>
<p>This gets me into a common interface that I know from other desktops as well. This is good. No big issue here. One tiny complaint might be that theme, desktop and background are three separate tools. Also I wonder, why it uses different icons than the rest of the desktop?</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwq6-RVUdApfYKhwRsHSUZRZ4oA_5lYldLcIwC3nD78blR1sp64EeXvSuAbXqXBXyCuYgHji2A3NhW1Y5tiqrzfFfH_waCgRi5Xtw_sBnI1ZCGM_LlRSJo6PBZ8oddMCsPHm-8DpXosEc/s1600/cinnamon-desktop-settings-2.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwq6-RVUdApfYKhwRsHSUZRZ4oA_5lYldLcIwC3nD78blR1sp64EeXvSuAbXqXBXyCuYgHji2A3NhW1Y5tiqrzfFfH_waCgRi5Xtw_sBnI1ZCGM_LlRSJo6PBZ8oddMCsPHm-8DpXosEc/s320/cinnamon-desktop-settings-2.png" /></a>
<p> So, let's click background.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2RVJiOxjAcPj2qWN92DD-JffXDLIhxT16PGwioq8Ll1PnmgyUSWSMgxBJXctpeDPBx9-DGCloIbyCIJ9iacxVMkxUQwLrZVHWgQa0R4nzZ_1hWWbkYi_gYD-CuaWUTikqCSn5PiDJcQ/s1600/cinnamon-desktop-settings-3.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2RVJiOxjAcPj2qWN92DD-JffXDLIhxT16PGwioq8Ll1PnmgyUSWSMgxBJXctpeDPBx9-DGCloIbyCIJ9iacxVMkxUQwLrZVHWgQa0R4nzZ_1hWWbkYi_gYD-CuaWUTikqCSn5PiDJcQ/s320/cinnamon-desktop-settings-3.png" /></a>
<p>Huge. What a huge waste of space. The images are neatly small, probably the ideal size, with a nice shading to boost, but that huge white-space totally kills it. Plus point for showing image name, minus for not showing image author. Furthermore, our background is missing. Because it's XML. It's supported (as evident by it being actually used as background), but not selectable. Someone who actually uses Cinnamon should fill bug about it. The background changes on click. Space waste is common with Gnome. The All Settings button could have been on the same row with the Close one. There is no single reason why one should be at the top and the other at the bottom.</p>
<h2>GNOME</h2>
<p>First impression terrible. Black theme, grey washed-out symbolic icons, no pop-up bubbles, no menu. Animation everywhere. Second impression better than Cinnamon, still not usable for me. Inexplicable removing/hiding of useful features, re-adding some of them three releases later, sometimes adding unneeded steps in-between (read on for more info on this). However it's actually usable desktop. It would be a pain for me, but it would probably be easy to use for my grandma, for kids used to touch interfaces on iPads, for game console or for browsing the internet (after all, it basically behaves like something between the web and modern Android-powered phones and it uses web technologies like javascript and css *ugh*).</p>
<p>Now on to the terminal. First go to top-left to open activities. Empty. As its primary task is probably switching between windows, I haven't entered any menu yet. First I have to click on the icon that looks like grid nodes (what's the idea? It does not even remotely suggest that this will get me app list).</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu_a6avcdtfTf9iHioHBCgdg7I0-FIu249WIyU_3c8gSLqu79LEKnLYSoYAxefPCRBXudtXIkuOYVvJg4rKDxYCBTkaIxhWV_fkAvzzSD4tJX_bJablI2651VdlNBnSa1U3nFDMDBxM_c/s1600/gnome-start-terminal-1.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu_a6avcdtfTf9iHioHBCgdg7I0-FIu249WIyU_3c8gSLqu79LEKnLYSoYAxefPCRBXudtXIkuOYVvJg4rKDxYCBTkaIxhWV_fkAvzzSD4tJX_bJablI2651VdlNBnSa1U3nFDMDBxM_c/s320/gnome-start-terminal-1.png" /></a>
<p>Huge. So I finally got into the menu. With huge icons and (when compared to the icon size) small text. Weird looking scroll-bars everywhere. So next step is select category (you don't expect me to find Terminal among zillions of uncategorized apps, right?) and find terminal. Animations everywhere.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_HQorlLR75go3AA0A7xfMrTGnn9PJm5MenCWikKMUJs6UZFp0pi3OnYC-WEZJtXi0lv9FA8G0hltI-_hPQMqw0x3_jwPEAsmlsQ0Jr5NBxsYpSgLdgcNNM6tmyKSyqh7sztPJzUETok/s1600/gnome-start-terminal-2.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_HQorlLR75go3AA0A7xfMrTGnn9PJm5MenCWikKMUJs6UZFp0pi3OnYC-WEZJtXi0lv9FA8G0hltI-_hPQMqw0x3_jwPEAsmlsQ0Jr5NBxsYpSgLdgcNNM6tmyKSyqh7sztPJzUETok/s320/gnome-start-terminal-2.png" /></a>
<p>It's better than cinnamon, but the two steps to get into menu are strange and ineffective. Gnome Shell isn't optimized for using mouse. But lets continue to background selection. This is the worst background selection I've ever seen. I think the following <i>four</i> pictures speak for themselves, but let's explain a little bit first. So again, desktop is not clickable so I need to go through control center. Let's skip for now the fact that I don't see Theme or Appearance there (maybe I forgot to install something), the control center is categorized (like in XFCE) and Background is there. No issue from me. Kudos for the categorization. But then, after selecting Background, a completely useless window appears. It just shows the desktop. Whoa. Does that mean there are no pictures to select from? No. The desktop is actually clickable. I don't understand why this single step is included. It obviously extraneous, unneeded, confusing. Then the selection itself normal. I can select from installed backgrounds, pictures from XDG_PICTURES or plain color. The UI could be better, it could be worse, but it serves its purpose. The pictures are big, but there isn't too much of white space in between them, so no issue. However. Neither picture name, nor its author is present. Fail. The background does not change until I click Select.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ddObncZmPU8OSYzCMpxQXdgqQY7h6aWdIf49xFvK2p-GhFX9ro-A4vG6ENA2gcw7d_h24jCZmsYjZeGNJfEEH6C5bSYK0bEuJKzvPeciHENDn3hzm_BN8aoO3c9YQGzgnkMC4Wh-f8k/s1600/gnome-desktop-settings-1.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ddObncZmPU8OSYzCMpxQXdgqQY7h6aWdIf49xFvK2p-GhFX9ro-A4vG6ENA2gcw7d_h24jCZmsYjZeGNJfEEH6C5bSYK0bEuJKzvPeciHENDn3hzm_BN8aoO3c9YQGzgnkMC4Wh-f8k/s320/gnome-desktop-settings-1.png" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMfYOeivFkFVyJn0MkDRxa_XAd8UZkhv6N1qRde3d8I6EMzzEML1HK5XenK7XHvpLmWZqB1Eq_WSokRd_woWhecdSY5cfVg955_N5DTsVGgd1nNP0Mm7Svx3R2f9tGZVDQM6Ek6AL3Otw/s1600/gnome-desktop-settings-2.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMfYOeivFkFVyJn0MkDRxa_XAd8UZkhv6N1qRde3d8I6EMzzEML1HK5XenK7XHvpLmWZqB1Eq_WSokRd_woWhecdSY5cfVg955_N5DTsVGgd1nNP0Mm7Svx3R2f9tGZVDQM6Ek6AL3Otw/s320/gnome-desktop-settings-2.png" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaATmDQxhGkOfcB52TIe0oKARUII1NI_H8kMD-eWpeP7DUH0H4upzpei0ozrALehyphenhyphenzMqpHeJluuTQ2XqL9xtuOZn4lNIIx113OH-DfVkSp4ggVDt93AnDxNq_sTF1SgPsyPy9kbkwD9QU/s1600/gnome-desktop-settings-3.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaATmDQxhGkOfcB52TIe0oKARUII1NI_H8kMD-eWpeP7DUH0H4upzpei0ozrALehyphenhyphenzMqpHeJluuTQ2XqL9xtuOZn4lNIIx113OH-DfVkSp4ggVDt93AnDxNq_sTF1SgPsyPy9kbkwD9QU/s320/gnome-desktop-settings-3.png" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpCXgaP4hIVlBbMduK4bKoIqaSKKKWK_3Fabu8ilOAqytRp_tJVz-U_8XlmBiqixlc9uT2-MTOPnvxuZzn_8r4klmttS8SnBz-6_O7YSXzV64zHBRP0rG09isSoJV6AaNTqfl-2HctlX4/s1600/gnome-desktop-settings-4.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpCXgaP4hIVlBbMduK4bKoIqaSKKKWK_3Fabu8ilOAqytRp_tJVz-U_8XlmBiqixlc9uT2-MTOPnvxuZzn_8r4klmttS8SnBz-6_O7YSXzV64zHBRP0rG09isSoJV6AaNTqfl-2HctlX4/s320/gnome-desktop-settings-4.png" /></a>
<p>One common thing about gnome and cinnamon is it's use of awful flat grey everywhere. No single hint of colour or shaded gradient. In sheer contrast to the next DE.</p>
<h2>KDE</h2>
<p>This takes a lot of time to actually start, but then you are finally welcomed by a desktop that looks like designed by an artist. Yes. This is the <i>only</i> Fedora desktop that looks great and consistent. It can be clearly seen the theme has been designed by professionals and lots of time has been invested in it. For my taste it has too much animations, but knowing KDE it can be probably turned off. UI is another story though. Not my cup of tea, but about half of linux users like this, so I'll say it's good and detailed but for me it offers too much detail, it easily becomes overwhelming. It does not usually waste space. This is a desktop I could use after a bit of customizing.</p>
<p>Now let's start terminal. Like many people are used to from file managers, right-click on desktop offers you to start terminal in KDE. So +1 from me.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj40yaoZL1vXsDdwp60GiCxpBT4UhughUCEpaUO06n3mfzdm8qUt-TuOHmtYvmxySitItSxR3Ji3CeY4xySEafuMo_DjsbI_kL6Jzqu0SLgyuQc9gxkNEL3RRAhlL6vmMFhqo-ye4jFJXM/s1600/kde-start-terminal-desktop.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj40yaoZL1vXsDdwp60GiCxpBT4UhughUCEpaUO06n3mfzdm8qUt-TuOHmtYvmxySitItSxR3Ji3CeY4xySEafuMo_DjsbI_kL6Jzqu0SLgyuQc9gxkNEL3RRAhlL6vmMFhqo-ye4jFJXM/s320/kde-start-terminal-desktop.png" /></a>
<p>Another way is through menu. The design is similar to cinnamon, but works better. It looks like cinnamon took the idea from KDE, kept its worst parts (fixed size, scrollbars anywhere, change menus on hoover) and made it even worse by adding gnome-like bits. While it behaves menu like, it's still in the same place, things get replaced, and due to fixed size, scrollbar is not uncommon. This is one of the worst parts of KDE, from my POV, but unlike Cinnamon or GNOME it does <i>not</i> get on my nerves.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicZjmkIIgTWrW926nXQFbwbxXjjKq1oPXsmoSTLrfqhPUegvO1_v8U-7ljzY9rFkPXDajwtjtTLdfnrMEzn4dZZNeg9JPhfXBB5n5tHGemIL6Th04bkjV-n18jedYm4ro1aVpiJhBaD2E/s1600/kde-start-terminal.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicZjmkIIgTWrW926nXQFbwbxXjjKq1oPXsmoSTLrfqhPUegvO1_v8U-7ljzY9rFkPXDajwtjtTLdfnrMEzn4dZZNeg9JPhfXBB5n5tHGemIL6Th04bkjV-n18jedYm4ro1aVpiJhBaD2E/s320/kde-start-terminal.png" /></a>
<p>To change desktop wallpaper, right-click on it and select Default Desktop Settings. I don't fathom the word Default in the name, but other then then all cool. What comes up is finally something that has done things right.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2O9XF-NgKcHFwI_pLvL2AkN6FPUmrYK1vIBEbN0dLcwDVLP7NXTCg68RuJP3QtzlAId5_XpbQ39L6f08UmaMAzseRMh-Hnq3LVbOIyhL0QwL-YiGZDhmlVztQ0uB1sn7Q4TseNTQ7RtU/s1600/kde-wallpaper-selection.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2O9XF-NgKcHFwI_pLvL2AkN6FPUmrYK1vIBEbN0dLcwDVLP7NXTCg68RuJP3QtzlAId5_XpbQ39L6f08UmaMAzseRMh-Hnq3LVbOIyhL0QwL-YiGZDhmlVztQ0uB1sn7Q4TseNTQ7RtU/s320/kde-wallpaper-selection.png" /></a>
<p>The image sizes are reasonable, white space is neither too big nor too small and most importantly, it <i>shows both name and author of the wallpaper</i>. Let's repeat it because it's important. KDE is the only Fedora desktop environment that shows both wallpaper name and its author in its Desktop Background selection app. This is how it should be done. The only thing that would make it even better would be to also show the license. You need to click Apply to change the background.</p>
<h2>LXDE</h2>
<p>Lightweight desktop with all it takes. It's fast, it works, but it's simple. Configuration might take longer than in other DEs but it looks like highly usable desktop if you don't mind less features. Now let's start terminal. Finally a sensible categorized menu without scroll-bars. As expected, terminal is quickly found.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbQfIw9CJOdoYTqCnlsZU7gFUbrQDYBeaYxhpW9H3l13J854AShd6HjPNkaB_6ZFDanSiMuwFu-E0M1e2id5WmKx0NVflMAiMkfZXzjcf2q5vgFkZBgHAwk9vvNo2fnvA_rEO-NR42GhY/s1600/lxde-start-terminal.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbQfIw9CJOdoYTqCnlsZU7gFUbrQDYBeaYxhpW9H3l13J854AShd6HjPNkaB_6ZFDanSiMuwFu-E0M1e2id5WmKx0NVflMAiMkfZXzjcf2q5vgFkZBgHAwk9vvNo2fnvA_rEO-NR42GhY/s320/lxde-start-terminal.png" /></a>
<p>Changing the wallpaper is also standard. Right-click on desktop and select Desktop Preferences.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1zs0VUrSm229mfcnFbtjZsQsA4YayZgTYoWY0qEzb41rqEuw-TkVgWWsUGUw0KCKVELkQUnuaKpGWLcBi9lIM9ZGrlSkkY1ERvwOqTvBdbNf-MyHczKxMs7NCC8nSKk8g8F8fSx-6YWU/s1600/lxde-desktop-settings.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1zs0VUrSm229mfcnFbtjZsQsA4YayZgTYoWY0qEzb41rqEuw-TkVgWWsUGUw0KCKVELkQUnuaKpGWLcBi9lIM9ZGrlSkkY1ERvwOqTvBdbNf-MyHczKxMs7NCC8nSKk8g8F8fSx-6YWU/s320/lxde-desktop-settings.png" /></a>
<p>The selector itself is light weight. No previews, just a file chooser and a few more options. Cannot probably expect much more from a lightweight desktop, right? And it does it's work without any unnecessary steps.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBn_kvKIFYrfUFrkbDCHsTMk9BxtoRagxxhJCKYRT4K_w_35_4mXbVyfBxAyiDAargR1Uuhvl_t72Ddy4idtPwqRx0cC4OmjYuyU8u287veu4ai3yzvXjOUiMP80W1RECHCLoc5VRmad0/s1600/lxde-wallpaper-selection.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBn_kvKIFYrfUFrkbDCHsTMk9BxtoRagxxhJCKYRT4K_w_35_4mXbVyfBxAyiDAargR1Uuhvl_t72Ddy4idtPwqRx0cC4OmjYuyU8u287veu4ai3yzvXjOUiMP80W1RECHCLoc5VRmad0/s320/lxde-wallpaper-selection.png" /></a>
<h2>Mate</h2>
<p>A direct continuation of a desktop I used to use. This is fork of Gnome 2 with the intention to provide and upgrade Gnome 2 experience and as such it behaves. Nothing unexpected. Menus work as usual, icons have colour, things are usually efficient. I still could use this, but nowadays I prefer XFCE. So let's start terminal. It's almost the same as in LXDE.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7FSpqY1k_WdhVIBQ-r9uO1G4LULyRdSmwylezxp4kcnb4WwZjlHAYbbGm6BQxunkfvgRZtO7K2Gf15dfVqFuLaTIbv5zkeTgg6YB1N3Kxazi7KiMJeH8xma69Wbs5lJQ37NsmzhW5Imo/s1600/mate-start-terminal.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7FSpqY1k_WdhVIBQ-r9uO1G4LULyRdSmwylezxp4kcnb4WwZjlHAYbbGm6BQxunkfvgRZtO7K2Gf15dfVqFuLaTIbv5zkeTgg6YB1N3Kxazi7KiMJeH8xma69Wbs5lJQ37NsmzhW5Imo/s320/mate-start-terminal.png" /></a>
<p>Nothing really wrong here, but too big icons and too much padding. If you have small screen or many apps, scrollbars appear. There's an option to start it from desktop context menu like in KDE as well.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJRsN0H5zkXj2J9tlABVmbMZYCwd4M6BRcPqLZNsRNO0OIB1LAha8OlnVMpZherJbRnbaFnydcDb-QUhkbFa3cEs9PAGmsgg0nTpAxgBG8h5XUDiNZUzZYck9hwWJ7brzBFpfINQsOku8/s1600/mate-desktop-settings.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJRsN0H5zkXj2J9tlABVmbMZYCwd4M6BRcPqLZNsRNO0OIB1LAha8OlnVMpZherJbRnbaFnydcDb-QUhkbFa3cEs9PAGmsgg0nTpAxgBG8h5XUDiNZUzZYck9hwWJ7brzBFpfINQsOku8/s320/mate-desktop-settings.png" /></a>
<p>Same goes with desktop settings. Directly accessible from desktop context menu. This is what we get.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUi1Z83zT_Q0P6iyhvrbVXE5FIe9KhntqjFA8ytfcJ1KvcJRGZYwB1UcHUMoXXs5XIuRUmWGTGHmAs_Evr6U4EjWjN2wp-DO-OKHzsrnAymDksiifpU2rTzgU3pDEVgoREfRyBC0_IgRY/s1600/mate-wallpaper-selection.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUi1Z83zT_Q0P6iyhvrbVXE5FIe9KhntqjFA8ytfcJ1KvcJRGZYwB1UcHUMoXXs5XIuRUmWGTGHmAs_Evr6U4EjWjN2wp-DO-OKHzsrnAymDksiifpU2rTzgU3pDEVgoREfRyBC0_IgRY/s320/mate-wallpaper-selection.png" /></a>
<p>Image size good, padding could be smaller, but just like with GNOME – no name, no author. Fail. Wallpaper changes on click.</p>
<h2>Xfce</h2>
<p>I'm not sure in which category this falls. It's not lightweight like LXDE, it's similar to gnome 2, but it's not gnome 2 ;-) Currently my desktop of choice so I skip on praising this time, only one note – the default config looks "bleh", but its actually highly tweakable and after some time it can be made look really good (although partly due to the lack of really professional looking GTK2/3 themes not as good as KDE). Starting terminal in XFCE is quickest of all the DEs I've tried thanks to special launchers to "Preferred Applications" that are also included in default bottom panel.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4hpyJZrVVDK9XRT8VRHKPhjqVXYquBaDJxkxtLqZnVn5aakR_3QgZtzXV1LNlcjqNEsH6IohmbiPWmiZsNlO1WIBVc_fm_KbR-Rl5RCuGYTs1DX0Lia7w9OF5h8goBmlSxL5oERUY_ic/s1600/xfce-start-terminal.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4hpyJZrVVDK9XRT8VRHKPhjqVXYquBaDJxkxtLqZnVn5aakR_3QgZtzXV1LNlcjqNEsH6IohmbiPWmiZsNlO1WIBVc_fm_KbR-Rl5RCuGYTs1DX0Lia7w9OF5h8goBmlSxL5oERUY_ic/s320/xfce-start-terminal.png" /></a>
<p>It can be also started from menu. It's similar to Mate, but it's all-in-one solution. There isn't separate menu for Settings and Administration. The icons are smaller, there's less padding so it takes much longer for scrollbars to appear. This is what I like the most.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMUx-4ndbcaBB1FHUaifQk-KCkfifaxrIxI4rrEG88ABJCX72PlljZl0MbJP2QD_f-UZDp6wHKlaizj1iUt-arX2Z1MffaP-Tbev-SZVjU-yVrcW8rzdO_O1FmQP6tZ6INy-M4Ws_oiiE/s1600/xfce-start-terminal-menu.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMUx-4ndbcaBB1FHUaifQk-KCkfifaxrIxI4rrEG88ABJCX72PlljZl0MbJP2QD_f-UZDp6wHKlaizj1iUt-arX2Z1MffaP-Tbev-SZVjU-yVrcW8rzdO_O1FmQP6tZ6INy-M4Ws_oiiE/s320/xfce-start-terminal-menu.png" /></a>
<p>Terminal can also be stared from desktop context menu.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz1QxF2znnOpL8RoIpxd7FMwOQPcWn7NQ0xqHePZqK08NSK3d-MOA5Bvtyr302xxNltpXQhyphenhyphenLh4idpgNQMAnJ7XduTOhfUweRWuLvN6UIlQkf_t0ssf5krdkLJL920Lg0iyMaMO68diIw/s1600/xfce-desktop-settings.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz1QxF2znnOpL8RoIpxd7FMwOQPcWn7NQ0xqHePZqK08NSK3d-MOA5Bvtyr302xxNltpXQhyphenhyphenLh4idpgNQMAnJ7XduTOhfUweRWuLvN6UIlQkf_t0ssf5krdkLJL920Lg0iyMaMO68diIw/s320/xfce-desktop-settings.png" /></a>
<p>Background selector can be run from the same place as well. This is what it looks like.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqefrQDP9jjQlOV_fEBNAmQQ2T98158SgugTDizxAb0i4few6kHC09YhkgCHWpMKAXKPv9o3ECrIeAUmiPpVsp89Q21kgzSYM_zAr0naV16ARooMmCj6X_U6cDKJUjzRanbb5V5V_LN4I/s1600/xfce-select-background.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqefrQDP9jjQlOV_fEBNAmQQ2T98158SgugTDizxAb0i4few6kHC09YhkgCHWpMKAXKPv9o3ECrIeAUmiPpVsp89Q21kgzSYM_zAr0naV16ARooMmCj6X_U6cDKJUjzRanbb5V5V_LN4I/s320/xfce-select-background.png" /></a>
<p>No waste of space, preview included, simple selector. No name, no author, but filename is present, so while it isn't fail, there's still lots of room to improve. Wallpaper changes on select.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>While I was writing this, I realized that even though I write it alphabetically, it also reflects how I like the DE I write about – the first one least, the last one most. Interesting coincidence. If I had to draw some conclusion I'd say that traditional desktops are very good for starting applications, terminal especially, KDE is midway and GNOME and Cinnamon lag behind. I think the change from menu to something else is making things worse rather than better (this counts for Windows 7 as well, I find it very hard to find an app I want to start there without using keyboard). When selecting background, KDE is the obvious winner with both being quick and easy and providing most of important information. Gnome and Cinnamon both fail tremendously in this. Last, when it comes to design, KDE is the obvious winner with a very professional polished look, traditional GTK2 based desktops are so-so with lots of room for improvement, Cinnamon and GNOME are terrible and very amateurish from my POV.</p>
<p>So in short, while I use Xfce, and will continue doing so, from this short comparison, KDE comes out as the winner.</p>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-6614070287713319792013-02-27T18:30:00.000+01:002013-02-27T18:43:48.293+01:00Consistent Perspective in a Group of Icons – How To<p>I've been creating a bunch of Echo icons lately and one thing I wondered how to do properly is perspective. It's easy to do thinks consistently if you're using some kind of metric projection (e.g. isometric), because you have simple linear transformations from (X, Y, Z) to (x, y). That's not true for perspective. How the 3D projects to 2D depends on the shape, on the position, on the size and many more factors when projecting with perspective. Because I was creating many icons at once, all flat ones with constant thickness, I wanted to do this not only consistently, but also quickly. I've came up with the following workflow.</p>
<p>Start with drawing the front face of the icon on the canvas, just like if you were drawing pure 2D.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt-zWcxmNhhxyVZ0GPbtgHIoPv4b7Hqk2iE-XoulAqdsSw6xA4v5UWjOA0AR3ProlxmVLrSVT8huK9P5SvvAhkiXhhexYG7_2J5j5ZFXXahot9ZFKREgtTwL4g3KxlMwjGgnTtyOk87e4/s1600/echo-perspective-1.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt-zWcxmNhhxyVZ0GPbtgHIoPv4b7Hqk2iE-XoulAqdsSw6xA4v5UWjOA0AR3ProlxmVLrSVT8huK9P5SvvAhkiXhhexYG7_2J5j5ZFXXahot9ZFKREgtTwL4g3KxlMwjGgnTtyOk87e4/s320/echo-perspective-1.png" /></a>
<p>Then duplicate the canvas as well as the icon shape. Don't forget to change colours so that you can easily tell them apart.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV4d-sZ4ylI9yFjBXbhHh1QD_ioOGIhWbX_9U49uJRQxQdExnEYRueBXvk3szsmnMdOq7syLvK6OGeqoQopbBTjS-UG8CAVNUCxfEgdsqq0x2NGzifMyp27AsLvRX-werJsyGb-hgmRpA/s1600/echo-perspective-2.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV4d-sZ4ylI9yFjBXbhHh1QD_ioOGIhWbX_9U49uJRQxQdExnEYRueBXvk3szsmnMdOq7syLvK6OGeqoQopbBTjS-UG8CAVNUCxfEgdsqq0x2NGzifMyp27AsLvRX-werJsyGb-hgmRpA/s320/echo-perspective-2.png" /></a>
<p>Next change the size of them by some factor and use the same factor for every icon you create and is supposed to have the same thickness. The resize should be done to both canvas and the icon shape at the same time so that it scales properly, keeping the ratios and position of the icon on canvas.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM_y6EuB_6FaFb0hH_VaEOq_Owvb9loMBVK2R2LJZRx-isVqwbX48meX6a_Q-FU_0hLx9UHlTTjHqLXyUExq3dPtuclkd24oUVcBm5MatcR7mjIbFDwtPH6i6DL9Jr34kyKVtsyZe9hfk/s1600/echo-perspective-3.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM_y6EuB_6FaFb0hH_VaEOq_Owvb9loMBVK2R2LJZRx-isVqwbX48meX6a_Q-FU_0hLx9UHlTTjHqLXyUExq3dPtuclkd24oUVcBm5MatcR7mjIbFDwtPH6i6DL9Jr34kyKVtsyZe9hfk/s320/echo-perspective-3.png" /></a>
<p>Then move the resized canvas together with the icon shape to it's new position. Again this has to be done consistently for all icons with the same thickness. You can imagine that the original and edited canvas create together some kind of cuboid whose front and back faces are squares, even in the 2D projected image its thickness regulates thickness of the icons and the relative position of its back side to the front side controls your point of view.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOuHHpeL-AxQSs5nmeixMC63ySEsq47Ca3y4XmvbpfbKOzD29hqPrUHW6FvkxIT7C5l1XK3LGA-vfG-5L1SdnI7iSqPXtl85pjyIqjAyf8B0j2eZADVz_6xYi7cOi3VoxvlxMINjwTmQs/s1600/echo-perspective-4.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOuHHpeL-AxQSs5nmeixMC63ySEsq47Ca3y4XmvbpfbKOzD29hqPrUHW6FvkxIT7C5l1XK3LGA-vfG-5L1SdnI7iSqPXtl85pjyIqjAyf8B0j2eZADVz_6xYi7cOi3VoxvlxMINjwTmQs/s320/echo-perspective-4.png" /></a>
<p>Next delete the changed canvas (we don't need it anymore) and put the back side of the icon behind the front one.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQIB61csVp9liPrvAJy_1kewDcWdgu8C5hlcROzJFnm096_Mjk5t2tI0Ar6Sa0K329tLSlLeYrxnq51dODphnlMDLxM3xox3ZRsY-dn7P1d0TPzo9T-SBI5qkUtZgx9KxqxDbVu1ci1qs/s1600/echo-perspective-5.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQIB61csVp9liPrvAJy_1kewDcWdgu8C5hlcROzJFnm096_Mjk5t2tI0Ar6Sa0K329tLSlLeYrxnq51dODphnlMDLxM3xox3ZRsY-dn7P1d0TPzo9T-SBI5qkUtZgx9KxqxDbVu1ci1qs/s320/echo-perspective-5.png" /></a>
<p>Next you should remember that you're doing an icon so it should be properly aligned to pixel grid in order to look crisp. This can be done quickly with the help of inkscape grid feature.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEY9kdls10mwb_4EEEShPa19MRIzo9Xrh-_eiL04tuj1smGLj9Zih5mwTFMR5gcWmhWi_W-ngTAuorsLdBMNjjPDilrLNoW2tks1ud5Xg6fDN2eDZp95V-vCvJkYM4nrecySTzcaQsoYg/s1600/echo-perspective-6.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEY9kdls10mwb_4EEEShPa19MRIzo9Xrh-_eiL04tuj1smGLj9Zih5mwTFMR5gcWmhWi_W-ngTAuorsLdBMNjjPDilrLNoW2tks1ud5Xg6fDN2eDZp95V-vCvJkYM4nrecySTzcaQsoYg/s320/echo-perspective-6.png" /></a>
<p>Now we have front and back side of the icon, but we still don't have it's sides, as can be seen on the next picture.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDUm7J1OezmxVyqPQm_2YaDQXT3Lfuiol8jgI6C8NNWS0PC24jqORD25baQ3za9YrhbnozcgeUxhy2TPFKVoimmHxDnKdBpxfylufiiR7rKZ084bsoE27SnAeutzgNGHrB6lpSmfGfFjY/s1600/echo-perspective-7.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDUm7J1OezmxVyqPQm_2YaDQXT3Lfuiol8jgI6C8NNWS0PC24jqORD25baQ3za9YrhbnozcgeUxhy2TPFKVoimmHxDnKdBpxfylufiiR7rKZ084bsoE27SnAeutzgNGHrB6lpSmfGfFjY/s320/echo-perspective-7.png" /></a>
<p>The easiest and for simple icons also the best way to do them is to duplicate the front side again, merge it with the back side and fix those bumpy parts to look as you'd expect them using the node tool.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjChitG9HKgn6V4aC7he7Ed6PH2Y6n8pdlKYmU142OH5MSnhmH3zYlRnh1t0poMwRYNSW5LvHVD2Jckdh3K4-ROs9V0j-9zYa9bhMQM8jR2HJTKJPKgSzBE5Lf2kxbIv7U-bLghdetRFBo/s1600/echo-perspective-8.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjChitG9HKgn6V4aC7he7Ed6PH2Y6n8pdlKYmU142OH5MSnhmH3zYlRnh1t0poMwRYNSW5LvHVD2Jckdh3K4-ROs9V0j-9zYa9bhMQM8jR2HJTKJPKgSzBE5Lf2kxbIv7U-bLghdetRFBo/s320/echo-perspective-8.png" /></a>
<p>Now the icon is only missing some shading and outline.</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNWUbBiPH_BG8ar1gI9pZtE5L0e4MpzQjpRxUzSxVgdga7CELDGeJSr8nGR0DoJdSVMtLQBuxTT9hCFVXAuNsGYNfmP-Z0wCxQeTgoaG9a6HTjWZPg7XQqJ4YcAgy6UyHpCyZ2B_PDwDA/s1600/echo-perspective-9.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNWUbBiPH_BG8ar1gI9pZtE5L0e4MpzQjpRxUzSxVgdga7CELDGeJSr8nGR0DoJdSVMtLQBuxTT9hCFVXAuNsGYNfmP-Z0wCxQeTgoaG9a6HTjWZPg7XQqJ4YcAgy6UyHpCyZ2B_PDwDA/s320/echo-perspective-9.png" /></a>
<p>So next we add some gradients to make it look as we wish – this can be a tedious task, depending on how realistic we want the icon to look. On small size like this one it can be greatly simplified though. And finally we add an outline. This can be done by duplicating the edited shape again, adding an outline that is twice as wide as we want it to be (because half of it will be hidden) and push it bellow the whole icon. The result looks like this:</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuivIJ8Z8j2x8JnT57XlkL-fkKusfS4HwG_YsxeEpS4izjlRWYqcWI_Waep-6Sgdqa4PPLhZpIih_mZHk11vf-uaIvIHiHA38ZAYEi1i_3dsJQeG2Kx6bpDkKDrgvSVZ3vKAGDjanITL8/s1600/echo-perspective-10.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuivIJ8Z8j2x8JnT57XlkL-fkKusfS4HwG_YsxeEpS4izjlRWYqcWI_Waep-6Sgdqa4PPLhZpIih_mZHk11vf-uaIvIHiHA38ZAYEi1i_3dsJQeG2Kx6bpDkKDrgvSVZ3vKAGDjanITL8/s320/echo-perspective-10.png" /></a>
<p>Finally we render the icon in desired size with transparent canvas and it looks like this:</p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-tvuDpP9jsum3leaKlPxcfQ57bM-dz30T5BMyU17gnPaH6ghnxfHJOCzinVDaQT7KmYlt8TCPSzJbxtZd6PqtiWsmGFTKYfUJSA6vmsLTyg3MuCWT2Vis6-tyH3q4bu_dx-Keb1DvzC0/s1600/go-bottom.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-tvuDpP9jsum3leaKlPxcfQ57bM-dz30T5BMyU17gnPaH6ghnxfHJOCzinVDaQT7KmYlt8TCPSzJbxtZd6PqtiWsmGFTKYfUJSA6vmsLTyg3MuCWT2Vis6-tyH3q4bu_dx-Keb1DvzC0/s320/go-bottom.png" /></a>
<p>I hope you like my today's how-to :-) Also, bear in mind that this is greatly simplified perspective projection as we use it in icons, if you were going for fully realistic painting you'd quickly find this workflow isn't suited for such task.</p>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-28313305877530542612013-02-11T13:15:00.000+01:002013-02-21T16:10:42.471+01:00[New Fedora Package] Tagaini Jisho – A Japanese dictionary and study assistant<p>Dear fellow Japanese language students, rejoice. I've been using the app in title for a while, but I finally got around to do a proper Fedora package and push it to Fedora ;-) So installing is now super easy.</p>
<ul>
<li>For Rawhide: <br/>
<code>su -c 'yum install tagainijisho'</code></li>
<li>For Fedora 17 and Fedora 18 (I decided not to support Fedora 16 as it's going to be EOLed shortly): <br/>
<code>su -c 'yum install tagainijisho'</code></li>
</ul>
<p>Tagaini Jisho is a cool piece of software, an irreplaceable tool for anyone learning Japanese. You can use it not only as a Japanese-%{your-language} dictionary/kanji search tool, you can also use it to learn the words, and to learn the Japanese characters. Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji – all included, and with animated stroke order diagrams! More info on <a href="http://www.tagaini.net/">www.tagaini.net</a>. Some screenshots bellow:</p>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim0dHbwQMEDrBJ94f-HcngXauzSjZRhj1SDY_CYLQ-FS1ngvLoDiOfSVYODwRmbfcxKQZdOrZ3UoxN4RsnF3bl84Lu9UiTMDFPvgE6YOOS6F1OicN11TZa4wNK8SGqpLTuCdfNZ0T9hkc/s1600/jisho-radical-search.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="325" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim0dHbwQMEDrBJ94f-HcngXauzSjZRhj1SDY_CYLQ-FS1ngvLoDiOfSVYODwRmbfcxKQZdOrZ3UoxN4RsnF3bl84Lu9UiTMDFPvgE6YOOS6F1OicN11TZa4wNK8SGqpLTuCdfNZ0T9hkc/s400/jisho-radical-search.png" /></a></div>
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<p><b>Update 2013/02/21</b>: Tagaini Jisho has been tagged to stable repos for Fedora 17 onward. The issue with dictionaries mentioned in comments is also fixed in that push. Enjoy!</p>
Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-10081096774562652013-02-07T21:14:00.000+01:002013-08-08T13:10:35.053+02:00(XFCE) Terminal and XChat Colour Scheme<p>I'm a regular terminal user and with F18 I switched back from Sakura to XFCE Terminal, because for some reason sakura refused to get configured as before (I think I wasn't able to remove window borders anymore)—I prefer terminal in some kind of semi-full-screen mode, i.e. maximized (but with DE panel[s] still visible), without menu, without window borders, without scrollbars. And while I was at the configuring, I decided to change the default colour scheme. It's not like I particularly dislike it, but as a regular mc (midnight-commander—there isn't a better file manager out there) user, I kinda grew to dislike the blueness of the default blue and some kind of colour combinations weren't exactly easy to read (hinted fonts are partially to blame for that though, by design). So first I searched a bit over the net, but didn't find anything satisfactory, so I decided to adapt Echo Icon Theme Palette for terminal use (black terminal, I've also prepared a bright/inverse version for xchat). First how it looks:</p>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYmZj2I-u0oy9-vqjDEC-8Hp7iZIY9Fp-P4SJc-XmN-I35m09ZXQa7eDELwtPM2VtXgPTYWoTzplG_UJcGBnonSGn0UyEhQvzIfH4PZuEucDg0HrGSHm0p-kwUrMqxfmJTGDQFPTABbIM/s1600/xchat-echo-palette.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="261" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYmZj2I-u0oy9-vqjDEC-8Hp7iZIY9Fp-P4SJc-XmN-I35m09ZXQa7eDELwtPM2VtXgPTYWoTzplG_UJcGBnonSGn0UyEhQvzIfH4PZuEucDg0HrGSHm0p-kwUrMqxfmJTGDQFPTABbIM/s400/xchat-echo-palette.png" /></a></div>
<p>And now for the actual colours. Here's an excerpt from <code>~/.config/Terminal/terminalrc</code>:</p>
<pre>
BackgroundMode=TERMINAL_BACKGROUND_TRANSPARENT
BackgroundDarkness=0.950000
ColorPalette1=#000000000000
ColorPalette2=#b4b400000000
ColorPalette3=#0000aaaa0000
ColorPalette4=#cbcb7c7c0000
ColorPalette5=#00003f3f6868
ColorPalette6=#bfbf0000efef
ColorPalette7=#0000a61dd074
ColorPalette8=#c6c6c6c6c6c6
ColorPalette9=#5ef75ef75ef7
ColorPalette10=#ffff52990000
ColorPalette11=#9393dada0000
ColorPalette12=#ffffe1e13939
ColorPalette13=#00007373a2a2
ColorPalette14=#dbdb8181ffff
ColorPalette15=#8181e3e3ffff
ColorPalette16=#ffffffffffff
ColorForeground=#c6c6c6c6c6c6
ColorCursor=#c6c6c6c6c6c6
TabActivityColor=#00003f3f6868
ScrollingSingleLine=FALSE
</pre>
<p>You can notice I also included <code>ScrollingSingleLine=FALSE</code>—that makes shift+arrows work in mc to select items ;-)</p>
<p>And now from <code>~/.xchat2/colors.conf</code></p>
<pre>
color_0 = 0000 0000 0000
color_1 = ffff ffff ffff
color_2 = 5050 d8d8 ffff
color_3 = 5b5b b5b5 0000
color_4 = ecec 2828 0000
color_5 = d7d7 a1a1 3c3c
color_6 = d4d4 6767 ffff
color_7 = b4b4 0000 0000
color_8 = 6666 3c3c 0000
color_9 = 0606 9090 0000
color_10 = 0000 7373 a2a2
color_11 = 0000 3f3f 6868
color_12 = 0000 adad dbdb
color_13 = bfbf 0000 efef
color_14 = 5e5e 5e5e 5e5e
color_15 = 3030 3030 3030
color_16 = 0000 0000 0000
color_17 = ffff ffff ffff
color_18 = 5050 d8d8 ffff
color_19 = 5b5b b5b5 0000
color_20 = ecec 2828 0000
color_21 = d7d7 a1a1 3c3c
color_22 = d4d4 6767 ffff
color_23 = b4b4 0000 0000
color_24 = 6666 3c3c 0000
color_25 = 0606 9090 0000
color_26 = 0000 7373 a2a2
color_27 = 0000 3f3f 6868
color_28 = 0000 adad dbdb
color_29 = bfbf 0000 efef
color_30 = 5e5e 5e5e 5e5e
color_31 = 3030 3030 3030
color_256 = ffff ffff ffff
color_257 = 0000 7373 a2a2
color_258 = 0000 0000 0000
color_259 = ffff ffff ffff
color_260 = cccc 1010 1010
color_261 = 0606 9090 0000
color_262 = 0000 7373 a2a2
color_263 = 5b5b b5b5 0000
color_264 = 5e5e 5e5e 5e5e
</pre>
<p>Hope it's useful to other people than me as well. I find it both easier on eyes, and having better readability (with the font I'm using, it seems this one is important too).</p>
<p>PS: For those wondering about some differences of my desktop compared to previous screenshots—when trying out CentOS 6, I got addicted to analog clock ;-) And a little while before I decided to hide the bottom panel automagically to have more space for apps.</p>
<p>PPS: My apologies for having some comments in my moderation queue for too long, somehow I wasn't notified via mail, or missed them. I definitely don't censor, the moderation is for spam purposes only (or for cases were people post the same reaction multiple times).</p>
<p><b>Update (2013/08/08): </b>In Fedora 19 (and newer), the xfce terminal config is in different place and colours are specified slightly different. Here's excerpt from <code>~/.config/xfce4/terminal/terminalrc</code>:</p>
<pre>
ColorPalette=#000000;#b40000;#00aa00;#cb7c00;#003f68;#bf00ef;#00a6d0;#c6c6c6;#5e5e5e;#ff5200;#93da00;#ffe139;#0073a2;#db81ff;#81e3ff;#ffffff
ColorCursor=#c6c6c6c6c6c6
TabActivityColor=#00003f3f6868
ColorForeground=#c6c6c6c6c6c6
</pre>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-10040359759440048532013-01-16T12:18:00.001+01:002013-01-17T13:19:08.855+01:00[Solved] Fedora 18 Troubles – terribly slowSo, I upgraded to Fedora 18 over the night using the yum method (yea, I know it's not recommended but for Fedora 18 I deemed it fastest and safest, I'm not sure if the new installer can do upgrades fine yet). The result was pleasant, a couple of local packages needed rebuild (ffmpegsource, mplayer2, aegisub) due to new ffmpeg, but other than that it seemed fine. I even logged out to load most of the upgraded gui-related stuff and so far so good.<br />
<br />
However, after restart, everything login related is slow. The display manager takes 50s to start (with next to no CPU and HDD usage!), the same goes to XFCE start up, the same happens after hitting logout, it takes a really long time for the logout dialog to appear, only to see that I cannot restart, I cannot reboot (these two are greyed out), I cannot sleep nor hibernate (these two buttons aren't preset at all!). The same happens with lightdm as well as kdm, I haven't tried the others yet. Pointers to what might be wrong appreciated, as of now I have no idea whether it could be a config option or a bug and where :(<br />
<br />
Thanks to all my kind readers' suggestions in advance. Most of other things (I tried claws and midori so far), works normal, so the system is at least usable when finally loaded.<br />
<br />
<b>Solution:</b><br />
After some more digging, I learned that polkit and upower services weren't running (they failed to start). Reinstalling the relevant packages fixed the issue:<br />
<code>
# yum reinstall polkit\* upower <br />
# restart
</code>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-81740960005290273652012-12-31T15:34:00.000+01:002012-12-31T15:34:15.618+01:00Designing Echo icons again<p>It's been a while since I designed my last icon but for one reason or another I decided I need to make some progress with Echo Perspective Icon Theme again… The final push was me playing with colours—when I had started writing code for Nodoka, I begun with a colour representation. Since we use gradients and shades a lot, I decided to go colour managed and started researching about colour representations and ended up redoing Echo colour palette in sRGB using CIE Luv (in Luma, Chroma, Hue coordinates) as a working space.</p>
<p>The resultant palette is redone from scratch based on the Echo (Perspective) icons that have been already released instead of the current palette for better consistency, but it's "normalized" WRT CIE Luv colour space. The result looks like this:</p>
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<p>The right column actually uses normalization WRT CIE Lab colour space, but I decided to stick with the CIE Luv one, which is in the left column. The differences are subtle though.</p>
<p>From there it was ony one step to doing icons, actually. I went all out and decided that I'll
<ul><li>make more sizes than before to better support current and future DEs, i.e. 16×16, 22×22(24×24), 32×32, 48×48, 64×64, 128×128 and 256×256;</li><li>make similar icons in a single file svg (which means I'll need to write some helper libraries to help split it automatically during build);</li><li>start with action icons in media player, browser and related, which is 23 icons in two groups.</li></ul></p>
<p>Well, it's a lot of work—23 icons, each in 7(8) sizes, that's 161 pictures. Ugh, that will take a while... Some preview WIP is bellow:</p>
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<p>You can notice some design changes, some are new, some have been appearing for a while already, albeit inconsistently. First I went back to slightly darker blue hues than what we were doing recently, it makes better contrast and should work a bit better with darker backgrounds. You could have noticed this design change in my nodoka designs as well (there were three icons in them).</p>
<p>Second change that has been already visible in nodoka designs, is departure from sharp corners. They make the images unnecessary bigger (especially the arrows) and look kinda oldish. I decided that the white outline as well as border should have rounded corners. IMHO it looks better and I hope to retain this style consistently throughout Echo Perspective.</p>
<p>Last change is to shapes—first one I did was view-refresh. The old two big arrows looks sort of heavy and are hard to do at smaller sizes. So I've done something simpler and later I noticed that my new e-book reader uses similar style while loading, lol. My primary source of inspiration in this was an anime I liked for its easygoing style and, believe it or not, typesetting (the anime is called acchi kocchi):</p>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR0IKIjIBjAw5zyJox_qbR8KAC5VlW7HTiplXVN1dL9-6056ZEHlInnwFIXhIeKeEBgy3pXp9KcD9VaOJJlLrAgLb-Ld07OtDP8Q313K-yWJnYOXax8WYpZEX9quDzdVtTkGIpawZPAcA/s1600/acchi-kocchi.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="225" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR0IKIjIBjAw5zyJox_qbR8KAC5VlW7HTiplXVN1dL9-6056ZEHlInnwFIXhIeKeEBgy3pXp9KcD9VaOJJlLrAgLb-Ld07OtDP8Q313K-yWJnYOXax8WYpZEX9quDzdVtTkGIpawZPAcA/s400/acchi-kocchi.png" /></a></div>
<p>Second shape change was for process-stop icon from circle to the more common octagon. And finally a small change to media-record icon for it to be better distinguished from similar dialog related icons like dialog-no.</p>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-21018067512764653702012-11-30T00:31:00.000+01:002012-11-30T00:31:34.058+01:00Color ChallengeIt took up <a href="http://tatica.org/en/2012/11/29/reto-de-color/">tatica's challenge</a>, and to my own astonishment I scored perfect. I did it in a room, at night with medium bright indirect lighting, on a LCD screen that came with my 6 years old laptop. There where a couple of colours I wasn't 100 % sure of, but it seems I leaned towards the correct choices after a couple of switch-compare-switch-compare rounds. What helped me was that while two colours seemed sometimes almost same, when grouped with other already sorted colours, when they were in wrong order, they stood out.
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Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-64858622738386772322012-09-09T17:37:00.000+02:002012-09-09T17:49:15.273+02:00Nodoka Concept Art—FinishedIt's been a year, a month and a day (and a couple of hours) since my last update to Nodoka concept art (well, I've been lazy, busy with other stuff and since vast majority of my apps are still GTK2, there was also no need). Over the weekend I've finished the last one—Noir. The current Nodoka style will remain as Classic. As it will be mostly unchanged (sans maybe some small modifications to shadows) I haven't done any concept art for that. I hope it won't be another year before I start writing code, actually… Anyway, here are the pics (roughly sorted from brightest to darkest), enjoy!
<h3>Nodoka Glossy</h3>
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<h3>Nodoka Classic</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwPhBSvu9ErpCusgPdsaIpZkbbQI1n1j9Ueqshz4A0X7XmBt_Y7tuZw7KZpzU6AFxpcLciPhKNaZslFvpeG4D2IpIWdf7Un5Bfoa7bfBuU7hLZ_hMpPRbfROGouZEi95qWo4GVGsi_oFo/s1600/classic-layout.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="305" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwPhBSvu9ErpCusgPdsaIpZkbbQI1n1j9Ueqshz4A0X7XmBt_Y7tuZw7KZpzU6AFxpcLciPhKNaZslFvpeG4D2IpIWdf7Un5Bfoa7bfBuU7hLZ_hMpPRbfROGouZEi95qWo4GVGsi_oFo/s400/classic-layout.png" /></a></div>
<h3>Nodoka Modern</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRIHrc5ZOMv8fIPNM7Nb4bNwPPs8aBM7zqVd10tDIRKYPKxAZ4qWcEeKlepuag-vBM0xPpFxZWkLHNl-U7Qmybyb0TnfoZywGcsiS6t5TZCnDSgcsy8SnmaxeGY1Sa4RC7ibFlb49Ksxg/s1600/modern-layout.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="378" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRIHrc5ZOMv8fIPNM7Nb4bNwPPs8aBM7zqVd10tDIRKYPKxAZ4qWcEeKlepuag-vBM0xPpFxZWkLHNl-U7Qmybyb0TnfoZywGcsiS6t5TZCnDSgcsy8SnmaxeGY1Sa4RC7ibFlb49Ksxg/s400/modern-layout.png" /></a></div>
<h3>Nodoka Noir</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxOsOPdMQYy1xHkbsby3aLQVVtgUYPQA80z6X_q6EBm41ERoBzHIabkAGVBgtsizXpNM9840vxUn6l8B0lyaE12NhShxxllco6WE44SWR7_xId4-E6bM3UplAMKry0YWME85yDjNn6V0Y/s1600/noir-layout.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="378" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxOsOPdMQYy1xHkbsby3aLQVVtgUYPQA80z6X_q6EBm41ERoBzHIabkAGVBgtsizXpNM9840vxUn6l8B0lyaE12NhShxxllco6WE44SWR7_xId4-E6bM3UplAMKry0YWME85yDjNn6V0Y/s400/noir-layout.png" /></a></div>
<p>If the pictures are blurry you can see them in original size on <a href="https://fedorahosted.org/nodoka/wiki/1.x_Brainstorm/Initial_Widget_Design">Nodoka 1.x concept art</a> wiki page.</p>
<p>I hope you like it, comments are welcomed. Also bear in mind that this is <i>concept art</i>, not a working example. So the working example will look slightly different and moreover I haven't started writing it yet.</p>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-28546901627888099012012-09-06T14:17:00.000+02:002012-09-08T20:53:50.232+02:00Fedora 18 Alpha Wallpaper<p>It's rather old news, but today it has been finally set as default—yes the wallpaper for Fedora 18 Spherical Cow release. It took so much time because I didn't manage to update the package that sets the defaults in time before Alpha freeze.</p>
<p>You probably have a general idea of what the wallpaper looks like from my <a href="http://mso-chronicles.blogspot.cz/2012/08/fedora-18-pre-alpha-wallpaper.html">post about pre-alpha version</a> of it, but since then it has been polished a bit—mizmo did a great job on that—and now it looks like this ;-)</p>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBzCGLlBUWUQpr5n_jN6cJuwLqOTNjg9oGuVNAZJ3Yneepk_wKBdWi7Y27vpZKan07Oe1hTElO5Q0tJs4MrnvU2IQh56kjFVLKylcogA80kqDu5EdqeEB65kum-ZnC3-MM04njCTd1VAk/s1600/fedora-18-alpha-wallpaper.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="250" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBzCGLlBUWUQpr5n_jN6cJuwLqOTNjg9oGuVNAZJ3Yneepk_wKBdWi7Y27vpZKan07Oe1hTElO5Q0tJs4MrnvU2IQh56kjFVLKylcogA80kqDu5EdqeEB65kum-ZnC3-MM04njCTd1VAk/s400/fedora-18-alpha-wallpaper.png" /></a></div>
<p>Enjoy.</p>
<p><b>Update Sep 08: </b>I'm <i>not</i> the author of the wallpaper, just a packager, so do not thank <i>me</i> ;-) However, I'm relaying your feedback to the design-team, so I really appreciate all the comments you've posted so far. I'll keep both my readers as well as the design team informed about news on both sides, so comment more and stay tuned for updates ;-)</p>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-2692725921854635012012-09-06T14:07:00.000+02:002012-09-06T14:07:23.278+02:00Midori—Two New ImprovementsThose of you who have been following my blog for a long time probably know that for various reasons (to list a few—it's still in gtk2, uses webkit, has tab panel feature, it's fast, has simple, yet powerful UI, uses gstreamer for html5 video …) I'm a user (and fan) of a lightweight xfce web-browser called <a href="http://twotoasts.de/index.php/midori/">Midori</a> (it's from Japanese 緑 which means green). For these past few months I've been constantly annoyed by two of it's shortcommings—loading of pages have become slooooow and very CPU intensive; and java plugins crashed the browser upon applet removal (e.g. by reloading or closing the page). Today I've figured fixes for both!
<h2>Sluggish page loading—caused by cookie manager</h2>
Today I've noticed that the very same pages that are freezing the UI upon load for a few seconds does not suffer from these issues when opened in web-app mode. So my guess was like—either user style/script or plugin fault. A simple try-and-error quickly yielded results. The plugins that is at fault is cookie manager, though I haven't got the slightest idea why. So if you suffer from similar problems, just disable cookie manager and you'll be back to the usual swiftness of webkit based browsers.
<h2>Crashing java plugin—fixed in icedtea-web-1.3</h2>
Yes, yesterday on Fedora Planet I read the <a href="http://dbhole.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/icedtea-web-1-3-released/">release information</a> about new icedtea-web plugin and since it contained info about google chrome fixes, I guessed it might improve my midori experience as well. However as there was still no build for fedora today morning, I decided to build it myself. So I did (was as easy as downloading the new tarbal and bumping the version in rpm spec file) and to my great joy, java applets now load faster and do not crash upon exit.
What a great day!Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-40249601524225881142012-08-11T13:53:00.000+02:002012-08-11T15:38:43.494+02:00Fedora 18 Pre-Alpha Wallpaper<p>It's been a while since I last blogged, but as I have some design news, it's worth writing a blog post again. Yesterday there was another design team meeting&hackfest and we were able to agree on the theme for the Fedora 18 Sperical Cow wallpaper. The latest iteration, I still call it pre-alpha because I expect there'll be some polishing yet before alpha release looks like this:</p>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-coF_JKcjUNW425rn1LmEo2hMxnqWmQIrGthqPM0rYkkTZIVIbSP5EgLee9IKvpBQsCcrmoBhfKbuHcPJOgzitjEsBWg9fRdQgUvKiDCVUeLo_gIyHoHvmhrRFAyPGmu33Ela-BtUnjY/s1600/spherical-cow5-xfce-screenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="250" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-coF_JKcjUNW425rn1LmEo2hMxnqWmQIrGthqPM0rYkkTZIVIbSP5EgLee9IKvpBQsCcrmoBhfKbuHcPJOgzitjEsBWg9fRdQgUvKiDCVUeLo_gIyHoHvmhrRFAyPGmu33Ela-BtUnjY/s400/spherical-cow5-xfce-screenshot.png" /></a></div>
<p>I've packaged it and submitted a <a href="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=847436">review request</a>, which is currently in need of a reviewer.</p>
<p>We at the design team hope you'll like it and of course are open to comments and suggestions. We'll hear you out in our usual channels: #fedora-design @ irc.freenode.net and <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/design-team">Fedora Design Team Mailing List</a>.</p>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-13571668911378915282011-11-23T12:06:00.002+01:002011-11-23T12:11:18.997+01:00Fedora 17 Beefy Miracle Wallpaper—Accepting Concept ArtworkWe're a little bit behind and should have started much sooner, so the time is running short. We are now open for submissions for the Fedora 17 Beefy Miracle default wallpaper concept artwork. If you are interested, please submit your work as soon as possible, the closing date is about one month ahead (the deadline will be officially announced next week).<br /><br />Submit your concept work here:<br /><a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/F17_Artwork/Submissions/Wallpaper_Concept">https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/F17_Artwork/Submissions/Wallpaper_Concept</a>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-35660570153100445782011-11-12T00:09:00.001+01:002011-11-12T00:31:36.776+01:00Fedora 16 XFCESo, I also updated and here are my impressions :-D
XFCE live cd works like a breeze, installation went smooth. I even got wifi (broadcomm) working out of box (suspend works for me too, btw.)! GRUB 2 seems nice, although it associated detected kernels with the newly installed Fedora. Still better than nothing from grub 1 >:-D
Now for the system itself. GDM suck. It sucks hard. As soon as I installed some of gnome as deps it started putting gnome instead of xfce to session. It also does not seem to allow for keyboard and language selection. I need to switch to LXDM or try out LightDM soon…
XFCE works as expected, after copying old configuration and installing apps I use, almost everything seems to work.
<br />
<h3>
Troubles</h3>
I had to disable starting gnome services to get rid of gnome volume and power manager icons. As a result, probably, my ssh keys passwords aren't remembered anymore, even though gnome-keyring-daemon with SSH agent capability is running. I really hate to type 12+ char. long password zillion times during one package update :(<br />
<br />
I also had troubles setting up iBUS. I prefer it to keyboard selection as I use it not only to use Czech keyboard layout but also to type Japanese (via anthy). Nothing seemed to work. But after finding im-chooser and selecting ibus there it started to work. However, im-chooser does not seem to be anywhere in menus—its desktop file contains
<code>NotShowIn=XFCE;</code>. WTF?!<br />
<br />
Also ibus keyboard shortcuts seem to misbehave. Switching to next input method does not seem to work (but just a second ago I managed with it to turn it off and make toggle on/off shortcut not work!?) at all—well, to be fair, I just tried to play with it and it seems to do something: cycle through English - Default Layout, nothing, nothing and nothing?! I'll probably have to fill bug later…<br />
<br />
Other than that, I'm fairly satisfied, I even discovered some nifty features in xfce that I hadn't noticed before ;-)<br />
<br />
Oh and I forgot to mention—everything GTK3 looks awful. The adwaita theme is awesome at times (check boxes, for example) and so plain/unfinished looking it hurts at others (dark version, buttons, scrollbars, for example). In general it looks like inconsistent half-finished work thrown together just to have a new theme, with some of its components already finished (the parts that look kicking-ass). Luckily XFCE stays at GTK2 still.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-39199739388228094042011-09-25T12:35:00.000+02:002011-09-25T12:36:30.241+02:00Mounting Novel Netware Drives, How?<p>Dear lazy web, I figured someone might have some suggestions in this area. I was recently employed (half-time) in education and they use Novell Netware for network drives and I was wondering how to connect to them from Fedora. From what I know the server's SUSE based, uses LDAP for authentication, no IPX, I need to be able to specify context and server IP (the tree-based login currently does not work as the admin does not know yet how to make it work for two separate networks managed by one server). I tried some of the novell-related packages in fedora, but never succeeded in authentication, probably because it's built with IPX support and without LDAP support…</p>
<p>Anyone has any suggestions?</p>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-16448672444645304122011-09-21T08:30:00.000+02:002011-09-21T08:30:42.660+02:00Fedora 16 Verne Beta WallpapersIt's been a while since I pushed the updated wallpapers but now I finally got the will to post about it. First see the updated beta wallpaper:
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihF5wtMQX9VbEaieqXz71X1IOegZRJFj_ni1uHn3KmchVzFb9hBefUM9szg_acH1UsLZrOBs-QLVbyQmiAn1doefiaLdhi0x96xnmvARdjzgzY3Ki_HDEQzsxfxVj26uep34r60WWPpBw/s1600/verne-02-noon.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="250" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihF5wtMQX9VbEaieqXz71X1IOegZRJFj_ni1uHn3KmchVzFb9hBefUM9szg_acH1UsLZrOBs-QLVbyQmiAn1doefiaLdhi0x96xnmvARdjzgzY3Ki_HDEQzsxfxVj26uep34r60WWPpBw/s400/verne-02-noon.png" /></a></div>
Next, I'd like to remind you that in Fedora 16 we again have supplemental wallpapers and what's more: since Fedora 16 all the supplemental wallpapers appear not only in GNOME's and KDE's wallpaper choosers but also in XFCE's. Enjoy:
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Ks32i5QJv04JyEeJnYEoiwkJt6zG3YuMAfI-O6tOP5e7WILhJnsnByOlvoT_YY_c7zxsVK5fS-tYXXz_4Ax_HVIo9Cm78OjZinjhd3XOf_JMRQLxj33BsQ50-AqR_CSD68xrX7iMVk8/s1600/xfce-f16-supplemental.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="250" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Ks32i5QJv04JyEeJnYEoiwkJt6zG3YuMAfI-O6tOP5e7WILhJnsnByOlvoT_YY_c7zxsVK5fS-tYXXz_4Ax_HVIo9Cm78OjZinjhd3XOf_JMRQLxj33BsQ50-AqR_CSD68xrX7iMVk8/s400/xfce-f16-supplemental.png" /></a></div>
The full selection (with original images and info) is available at <a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/F16_Artwork/Submissions/Supplemental_Wallpapers#Selected_Backgrounds">F16 Artwork wiki page</a>.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-87839052562674195672011-08-07T21:35:00.006+02:002011-08-07T21:51:25.999+02:00Nodoka Concept Art – Noir WIPWell, err, it's been a while ;-) And in order not to stall forever I made an attempt to start designing a really, really dark version of Nodoka. Perhaps it would be more fitting to say that I started playing around with Inkscape as I still don't have a clear idea what it should look like… Anyway, here's some preview, I've called it [fittingly] Noir (click on it to see it in actual size):<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRMn-3C7AsQnyVK8eeLKjf82BOC1pzRtJOkeMmGZBGi1s2R8KWsxkQ2y2lZtKUFFH9DyTrq-IvUmLcSRR0z_LDpqVoXS33yr1nw_skiBEG41ZYNU_mfxteBoVq6dCDTiysXDwlwATgeLc/s1600/nodoka-concept-artwork-noir-layout-20110807.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 378px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRMn-3C7AsQnyVK8eeLKjf82BOC1pzRtJOkeMmGZBGi1s2R8KWsxkQ2y2lZtKUFFH9DyTrq-IvUmLcSRR0z_LDpqVoXS33yr1nw_skiBEG41ZYNU_mfxteBoVq6dCDTiysXDwlwATgeLc/s400/nodoka-concept-artwork-noir-layout-20110807.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638201122834859282" /></a><br />Hopefully, sometime in the future I'll finish all these concepts and start writing the actual code but seeing how much spare time I have, it seems to be rather distant future… Anyway, comments are welcome and sketches even more so. Get <a href="http://mso.fedorapeople.org/nodoka/rewrite/noir-layout.svg">source SVG</a> now!<br /><br />See <a href="http://mso-chronicles.blogspot.com/2011/05/another-update-to-nodoka-concept.html">an older post</a> for the other two styles concept art.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-67144599516323483572011-08-06T15:45:00.005+02:002011-08-06T16:00:55.461+02:00Fedora 15 Sometimes Really SuckHere's a list of problems:<br /><ol><li>Some GTK3 apps <a href="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=705384">don't start at all</a> (evince does, gedit and charmap does not)</li><li><a href="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=724957">Printing from GTK3 apps doesn't work</a>.</li><li>Ugly symbolic icons show up in my xfce try panel (ibus currently).</li><li>Printer does no longer offer High quality colour/greyscale options.</li><li>XFCE does not save my mouse settings. It gets reset every time I either switch to VT, log out or plug out and back in.</li></ol><br />I've never had such serious problems before with any stable release of Fedora since Fedora Core 3 (which was my first). I'm seriously disappointed, especially by the fact that some devs just don't care at all (the first bug blocks a load of useful apps to start, it's nearly three months old, reproduced by more people and still no reaction from the devs). I was even forced to install Adobe Reader to be able to print PDFs. However, it stopped working as well now…Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-24738578153189138662011-07-30T10:20:00.004+02:002011-08-02T14:46:29.315+02:00Fedora 16 Verne Wallpaper<span style="font-weight:bold;">Update</span>: <span style="font-style:italic;">test and give <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/lovelock-kde-theme-14.90.1-2.fc16,verne-kde-theme-15.91.0-1.fc16,kde-settings-4.7-3.fc16">karma to KDE side of things</a> so that KDE won't be left out for Alpha when it comes to default ;-) Thanks to <a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/JaroslavReznik">Jaroslav "Rezza" Reznik</a> for doing the quick work!</span><br /><br />Alpha release of next Fedora installment codenamed Verne is nearing and so is its Alpha freeze. Hence the Fedora Design Team selected a winning wallpaper design and I packaged it for F16 onward. It's currently pending pushing to stable. If you're on F16 or rawhide you'll be able to install these with <code># yum install verne-backgrounds-gnome</code> for GNOME, <code># yum install verne-backgrounds-kde</code> for KDE and <code># yum install verne-backgrounds-xfce</code> for XFCE. At the same time as the new package hits repos an updated desktop-backgrounds that sets is as default for GNOME, XFCE and LXDE-and-alike (e.g. LXDM) will also appear and so in Alpha this should be default everywhere except KDE (these need some more work first and sadly we didn't realized that when creating a design team schedule for F16).<br /><br />And for those wondering what is the winning picture, here's a screenshot of it in my F15 XFCE desktop ;-)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio6I_IMoL7QADhgWilyQC8tbEevmm35BX5yfhEQndmLGyLlJbf6ub3XAUYhf3NCxa21BrBTYEiMZbmZKUb9Q2O4XsSVB0dF32VPQGTyFAcz8tMKucsKXlM-4bmIotgbiZUbOFRvtlSy0o/s1600/verne-alpha-wallpaper-xfce.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio6I_IMoL7QADhgWilyQC8tbEevmm35BX5yfhEQndmLGyLlJbf6ub3XAUYhf3NCxa21BrBTYEiMZbmZKUb9Q2O4XsSVB0dF32VPQGTyFAcz8tMKucsKXlM-4bmIotgbiZUbOFRvtlSy0o/s400/verne-alpha-wallpaper-xfce.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5635059534286081010" /></a><br /><br />As usual, the Fedora Design Team is looking for feedback on this via the usual channels:<br /><ul><li>You can comment under this blog post and I'll summarize your opinions to the Design Team.</li><li><a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/design-team">Fedora Design Team mailing list</a></li><li>at #fedora-design on irc.freenode.net, supposing you catch one of the Design Team members there.</li></ul>Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4447920200692352023.post-58730809600356916422011-07-22T14:42:00.008+02:002011-07-22T15:40:41.252+02:00Font Rendering in FedoraShortly said, it's not very impressive. But what are the options we have? Can we improve it? Well, there are some font settings that are available. See e.g. <a href="http://blog.andreas-haerter.com/2011/07/18/tune-improve-fedora-fonts-typeface-ubuntu-like-sharp-fonts">this blogpost about making fedora fonts look Ubuntu-like</a>. Although I personally see that as making things worse, there are people who think otherwise. What I decided to do was to skim through most of the hinting options we have and decide for myself what looks best. And of course, provide my readers with some images so that they could decide for themselves.<br /><br />So, I decided to do screenshots of some simple highlighted html code to showcase more than black-one white ;-) Initially I decided to make 9pt versions (which is what I use) and 12pt versions (which is standard text size on A4 paper) both for the "gui" variant (white background) and "tui" variant (black background). Halfway I got lazy, so I fully completed only the 9pt variant as you can see in the next two images (click on them to see unscaled). The sorting is this: on left side there are renderings <span style="font-style:italic;">without</span> freetype-freeworld, on the right side there are renderings <span style="font-style:italic;">with</span> freetype-freeworld (and thus with subpixel hinting). From top to bottom: none hinting, slight hinting and full hinting. For some reason, medium and full hinting looks exactly the same on my laptop which is probably a bug (it didn't used to), that's why I hadn't included it.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2G0EnEUr3Gq9uUNHIUGIegD7FfnE5tGkTsxFsYTxxNLuJS9UW9k9G5VHIjxp46bAf8_9Ea_fvLiKqA_kpJ0Al2Aab4FH3fVce5bqEurVKAfrs9D3NU-weL1zq_1bc3yL3kP-pRrtub3c/s1600/compare-dark-9pt.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 389px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2G0EnEUr3Gq9uUNHIUGIegD7FfnE5tGkTsxFsYTxxNLuJS9UW9k9G5VHIjxp46bAf8_9Ea_fvLiKqA_kpJ0Al2Aab4FH3fVce5bqEurVKAfrs9D3NU-weL1zq_1bc3yL3kP-pRrtub3c/s400/compare-dark-9pt.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632158703474348498" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK90fVcZdJl5RJ0Uopt2AoAAEF5O0hT2mFp9SBoa8-SAJ8lyLIxMrSX_4cohkk9B3LRcUUCHhGRRe6oebCDCVhhOdDkjsaH1qZqVDuMcouBIeL230Dd299Vfg6AhSKFsnD7nf1hVMzhks/s1600/compare-bright-9pt.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 298px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK90fVcZdJl5RJ0Uopt2AoAAEF5O0hT2mFp9SBoa8-SAJ8lyLIxMrSX_4cohkk9B3LRcUUCHhGRRe6oebCDCVhhOdDkjsaH1qZqVDuMcouBIeL230Dd299Vfg6AhSKFsnD7nf1hVMzhks/s400/compare-bright-9pt.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632158698989448866" /></a><br /><br />From these few images I believe I can confidently say this: <br /><ul><li>increasing amount of hinting increases crispness of the characters (can be seen especially for horizontal lines that are often "smudged")</li><li>Freetype-freeworld tends to produce better results than freetype for smaller amount of hinting.</li><li>Freetype-freeworld introduces colour halo around the strokes.</li><li>Japanese is unhinted (I sense <a href="http://mso-chronicles.blogspot.com/2009/10/mark-difference-ugly-fonts-in-fedora.html">problems with autohinter</a>)</li><li>Freetype-freeworld has better shapes, more smooth curves and better antialiasing, however it sacrifices crispness of the strokes (especially seen with full hinting)</li><li>Freetype-freeworld gives nicer results for e.g. orange on white, yellow on black or dark green black, while freetype gives nicer results for green on white, blue on white or red on black. At this size. I noticed that increasing the size is more favourable for freetype-freeworld.</li></ul><br /><br />I also include two shots with 12pt. Both with full hinting, both include whole geany window (app font is 9pt big), the first one is freetype (save xfwm which uses freetype-freeworld in both cases), the second one freetype-freeworld.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMzsDPDOPO5_cZsRvBAIrjd2Dzp5RA724W4lVN5euaHsAS2OzelWWnoGo3vNev-9Z6TYab2Y6C1ypIdRpSFw0Zka_JKG1zI-jxIvfRewNdYQ9ed0Ek_nsRxvobBqbZ7UUPtTS77RhHk00/s1600/bright-fullhint-12pt.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 231px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMzsDPDOPO5_cZsRvBAIrjd2Dzp5RA724W4lVN5euaHsAS2OzelWWnoGo3vNev-9Z6TYab2Y6C1ypIdRpSFw0Zka_JKG1zI-jxIvfRewNdYQ9ed0Ek_nsRxvobBqbZ7UUPtTS77RhHk00/s400/bright-fullhint-12pt.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632162330117681858" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJV7bfg3BZdqRDJj1GzfaVBeRG57Pc4uiheMhhg4bP5Prf78yVcHGY6871mdUgI51aAZVh1_i0MNpd2bS8oP2-F3ZlRZ6d3OgXzvmRlMHIiB7UERBDBw03soHUOGvD7H9Wj00ag-qKhyphenhypheno/s1600/freeworld-bright-fullhint-12pt.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 230px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJV7bfg3BZdqRDJj1GzfaVBeRG57Pc4uiheMhhg4bP5Prf78yVcHGY6871mdUgI51aAZVh1_i0MNpd2bS8oP2-F3ZlRZ6d3OgXzvmRlMHIiB7UERBDBw03soHUOGvD7H9Wj00ag-qKhyphenhypheno/s400/freeworld-bright-fullhint-12pt.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632162499724464290" /></a><br /><br />Well, decide for yourself what's best for you, but since the blurriness bugs me more than slight aliasing, I'll probably stay without freetype-freeworld and with full hinting.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184701134359021954noreply@blogger.com6