Re: Cultural Issue with the Foot Logo

[Thilo Pfennig <tp pfennigsolutions de>]

Hi Dave,

Dave wrote:

>
> Which countries?
>
>   
 Besides Thailand and Nepal due to the material online I would add:
Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Saudi
Arabia, Quatar, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United, Arab Emirates and also
Pakistan, Afghanistan and other muslim countries maybe those with +50%
muslim population: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Muslim_world_map.png

> When abandoning a logo, you are in essence saying that it has no value to you.

In my view its rather the question of why a worldwide project that
committed itself to internationalization would want to offend parts of
the world. To do this without knowing to do so is acceptable and
understandable - but if iobe becomes aware of a problem the question is
why one wants to keep offending people. What was formerly unconciously
is than conciously.

I think my view is very different from yours. You are trying to defend a
logo, which has served GNOME for many years. I rather look at what
offends people and therefore holds back GNOME in many countries and
would suggest to change what offends. Both views are possible, but a
compromise is needed. The real question is how much harm the current
GNOME logo does in relation to the benefit for keeping it.

My view is that if the GNOME logo will keep some countries from even
looking at GNOME as a viable desktop alternative than it does great harm
to the whole project if the goal is to be acceptable in every country.
There are things that GNOME will never fix, such as becoming closed
source for people who are offended by open source - but there are things
that are not essential to the core GNOME like a logo, documentation,...
which can be changed if it seems wise to do so. I would recommend to
think over the conception of "why should it be a problem if I dont have
a problem with it?" Thats the wrong approach - the better question is
"Why should one offend people if this is not what the project is about?"
If one decides to do it conciously then one has to bear the consequences.

A compromise could be that the Foundation  does a real evaluation about
the extend of the problem. I think by just asking of the list one might
not get good answers because those who are offended by GNOME would not
subscribe here ;-).

Its not always about better software, or better documentation, sometimes
its about how to interact and communicate that makes the difference.

Regards,
Thilo

-- 
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