Unity Greeter

Bug #844081
Comment #43

Comment 43 for bug 844081

Revision history for this message

Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl) wrote on 2012-01-20: Re: [Bug 844081] Re: Unity Greeter - Background of the Unity Greeter should reflect the background chosen by the user that is currently selected

#43

On 20/01/12 16:14, Fred wrote:
>> Your Mom knows more about you than you can possibly imagine.
> My mom doesn't know that I'm gay.
> I have a "girlfriend" to cover it up.

This is not a private communication ;-)

Folks, we can construct artificial scenarios to make any option
worthwhile. That's not how we do design; instead of celebrating the
unusual and the extreme, we look for the things that most people can
enjoy and use. That's where we focus our energy. The world of Linux and
Ubuntu will always have infinite possibilities for those who want to
explore them, but it's not in our value set to FORCE everyone who takes
a vanilla CD off the shelf to *have to deal* with those possibilities.

This is good practice. It makes Ubuntu grow and achieves our goals as a
community. As a side benefit, it attracts lots of developers who want to
be part of changing the world, and who want to write applications for
those users.

In this case, as was rather eloquently put, we've chosen to treat the
wallpaper as a part of your expression of yourself to others. That's a
perfectly reasonable position to take - look how *proudly* people show
off their wallpapers! We're celebrating that, and elevating that. And we
think this is good. Moreover, we think the position that one would
choose a wallpaper that would cause mortal embarrassment is (a) so
unlikely, and (b) so impossible to enforce, that it does not warrant an
option.

We have a saying - options cost a knuckle, dialogs cost a finger. This
isn't worth a knuckle.

We have FAR more pressing problems on the discretion front. Top of my
list is the fact that we don't map notifications away from projectors.
That's far more risky - you can control your choice of wallpaper, but
you can't control what someone might IM to you while you are making your
critical presentation.

So, please help us address that issue. I'm sure we all agree that's more
important, and perhaps, by the time we come back to this less important
issue, we will all have evolved our positions. OK?

Mark

On 20/01/12 16:14, Fred wrote:
>> Your Mom knows more about you than you can possibly imagine.
> My mom doesn't know that I'm gay.
> I have a "girlfriend" to cover it up.

This is not a private communication ;-)

Folks, we can construct artificial scenarios to make any option 
worthwhile. That's not how we do design; instead of celebrating the 
unusual and the extreme, we look for the things that most people can 
enjoy and use. That's where we focus our energy. The world of Linux and 
Ubuntu will always have infinite possibilities for those who want to 
explore them, but it's not in our value set to FORCE everyone who takes 
a vanilla CD off the shelf to *have to deal* with those possibilities.

This is good practice. It makes Ubuntu grow and achieves our goals as a 
community. As a side benefit, it attracts lots of developers who want to 
be part of changing the world, and who want to write applications for 
those users.

In this case, as was rather eloquently put, we've chosen to treat the 
wallpaper as a part of your expression of yourself to others. That's a 
perfectly reasonable position to take - look how *proudly* people show 
off their wallpapers! We're celebrating that, and elevating that. And we 
think this is good. Moreover, we think the position that one would 
choose a wallpaper that would cause mortal embarrassment is (a) so 
unlikely, and (b) so impossible to enforce, that it does not warrant an 
option.

We have a saying - options cost a knuckle, dialogs cost a finger. This 
isn't worth a knuckle.

We have FAR more pressing problems on the discretion front. Top of my 
list is the fact that we don't map notifications away from projectors. 
That's far more risky - you can control your choice of wallpaper, but 
you can't control what someone might IM to you while you are making your 
critical presentation.

So, please help us address that issue. I'm sure we all agree that's more 
important, and perhaps, by the time we come back to this less important 
issue, we will all have evolved our positions. OK?

Mark