Re: default theme consensus

[Seth Nickell <snickell gmail com>]

> > Let's have a *quick* discussion, then get somebody with an iron fist to
> > deliver the verdict from on-high.  And I mean quick.
> 
>         No opinion from me other than lets not let indecision stop us from
> making the change.

My concrete suggestion (theme analysis below):

- We include Glider in the current release (as per our current path)
- We do *not* change the default theme for this release (meaning we
don't go changing all the docs, etc)
- We decide on Industrial as the default theme for the next release
(as I thought we'd done per jdub's first thread for this release, but
*shrug*) NOW
- We add Industrial to gnome-themes and change the default in
libgnome's GConf schemas as soon as we tag the next GNOME release

Why:

1) We decide now so we don't have to have a long rehash again at the last minute

2) We get a new theme. People will notice, it will appear in many
review screenshots, we'll list it as a new feature, etc.

3) We don't let themes burn a whole in our pocket and go with Glider
just because its "most ready now" or because we want to avoid having
this discussion again or missing changing themes in yet another
release ;-)

If people really feel we need a theme change NOW, I would still
suggest we do the work to use Industrial. I'm willing to do the
gnome-themes work as my penance for failing to perform any of my
maintenance duty for the module in the past year :-P ).

>         It'd be nice if one of Calum, Seth or Bryan[1] had a quick look at both
> and gave their opinion.

As with Calum, I have some small reservations about specific elements
in Industrial, but overall feel it is the stronger of the two,
particularly in terms of constructing  a uniform visual language while
still differentiating behaviors. Particularly as a default theme I
think Industrial is much stronger.

The lightness communicates a certain naturalness (which I see as part
of Gnome's brand, or at least what we'd like to have as part of our
brand) as opposed to technical grey, but if we want something darker
and more traditionally computery jdub's modifications also seem great.

I think Glider is a nice theme, and very much support including it (as
we are doing), but its also from the "Gradient School of Design". This
can be attractive, but non-solid backgrounds will also tend to wear on
people more quickly so gradiented themes are less well suited to being
a default. Also, to be quite blunt, the window manager component is
ugly (or at least old-skool NeXt) as sin. But overall, I think Glider
is good. Indu[b]strial is just better than good ;-)

In terms of visual style Industrial is also the more unique style
whereas Glider is more a good remix of existing common styles. This
will inevitably be a part of the Gnome "brand", so its a strength to
have something that's recognizable and a little different:
particularly because I think Industrial feeds into the Gnome "desktop
for the less technical" message.

Also, Industrial includes a good sized icon set so we get change on
that front too. As icons are a huge chunk of work, this seems like
something that shouldn't be overlooked.

-Seth