Is the MEPIS Desktop in Need of a Makeover?
Posts: 340
From time to time, we hear from users who say that the look of the MEPIS desktop isn't on par with the quality of the MEPIS operating system. We tend to agree that the desktop could use a little makeover. The problem is that we just don't have the money to hire a professional to design a desktop, nor do we have the time to work on it ourselves. So this is a call to you graphic designers out there, and anybody else who would like to tackle the MEPIS desktop makeover. Please give us your comments and ideas, and also indicate whether you'd be interested in working on this project.
yes!
Posts: 31
i totally agree. in fact, i suggested this. i think a serious make-over is the key to mepis's growth. i tried to install for my buddy, and he had one look at the bloat and FISH TANK on the default mepis toolbar and the pyramids and moon and he just couldnt do it. ubuntu might suck for all he cares, but it has that clean feeling about it, that just makes him so much more forgiving. and i know how he feels.
unfortunately i have no idea how to do this stuff so i can't help outside of the spiritual sense.
i think ubuntu is georgeous, i'd love something like that. simple and elegant. hopefully without any pyramids and moons. 
Desktop Background
Posts: 499
I believe the goal of this project is to end up with a series of backgrounds that help improve the look of the Mepis desktop by offering a wide range of backgrounds, as well as changing the default background. It would be nice to be able to have complete themes arise from this project. I guess it is best to get this clarified: Is this project a design of desktop themes, or just desktop backgrounds?
I agree that there should be some changes to the default startup items such as the aquarium and weather. It would be great to have something similar to Redhats welcome configuration that asks what you want to have run on startup, but I believe that may be another project. Let's get a few comments going, let Warren or Erin clarify what the project is, and see if some Mepis beautification gets going.
Joe Pearce
The student is not above the teacher
The servant is not above the master
The student shares the teacher's fate
The servant shares the master's
MEPIS beautification
Posts: 340
Thanks, Joe. You pretty much got it.
For now, we'd like some suggestions about changes to be made to the desktop, and we would like to see some backgrounds. I'd like to see a more sleek, modern look than what we have now. We're going to start a gallery where you'll be able to post your backgrounds. I'll let you know when the gallery is available.
Erin
What I like: I like Nuvola
Posts: 4077
What I like: I like Nuvola icon set, I like simple mouse pointers (please don't change that, all the rest of distros have "fancy" pointers that annoy the heck out of me).
What is OK: background and bootsplash, it would be nice to have some improvement there though.
Get rid of the fish, they generate too much hate, who likes them they can add them with 2 clicks, same with weather applet.
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Check out Mepis wiki: www.mepis.org/docs
Beautification Needed
Posts: 57
I feel that some beautification would go over well.
An icon-set and custom Mepis theme could go a long way towards this, along with an adjustment or two to the color scheme.
I've mentioned this before,
Posts: 15
I've mentioned this before, I don't know if anyone thinks it's a good idea or not, but I think instead of one generic desktop, I think it would be novel to have 2-3 different desktop setups. Couldn't add but a few megs to the liveCD, really, and I think it would help people find something more in tune with what they're into.
I mean, you could have a really techy looking desktop with dark colors and sci-fi type images, one conservative businessy theme with the usual blues and greys, maybe a nature-ish theme with gorgeous landscape photos and a softer color scheme. I toy with KDE's visual options a lot, and it really can do quite a bit and cover quit a bit of ground. Seems a pity not to showcase this flexibility to some degree.
I agree with lykwydchykyn it
Posts: 4077
I agree with lykwydchykyn it would be nice if we could showcase some nice KDE customization, it would be nice to have 2-3 different setups.
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Check out Mepis wiki: www.mepis.org/docs
great comments. i think a
Posts: 31
great comments.
i think a wallpaper image might help, as long as it serves as a template for a larger theme. i think we all agree, wallpaper alone isnt enough.
i think we should go for minimalism, for starters ... a minimal task bar. no fish, etc. simple, elegant. i also think minimalism is almost implicit in erin's comments, "sleek and modern."
another thing that bugs me is the menu. for every subgroup like internet there are a few apps and then more under "more applications." i think they should be merged. also, there is the "all applications" at the root of the menu, where all the applications are again repeated. seems redundant. and complicates matters.
A menu restructure might be
Posts: 1634
A menu restructure might be in order, but you'll always have criticism about any arrangement you come up with.
Some programs don't auto-install an entry in the contextually categorized menu areas, but do wind-up with an entry in the "All Apps" section. My leaning would be to retain that, and allow the user to delete that branch or not, at their own discretion.
As far as the pursuit for distinctiveness goes, I can think of worse things to do other than a MEPIS Beautification Project.
I'll see what I can come up with that looks good to somebody other than just myself.
Wallpapers:
Bear in mind that there are plenty of resolutions and aspect ratios out there to deal with; and some of us use multiple monitors, so this shouldn't be overlooked. A bit of something for all.
"You have two labs?"
"Each has its place. At the university, I try to please the Federal Government. Here, I negotiate with God."
yes, new clean looks
Posts: 2299
And I like the idea of three (or whaddever) different looks.
Getting the right wallpapers is 80% of the job. I would however opt for wallpaper screenshots with the whole desktop schebang, i.e. kicker bar and icons. That way we get a complete image, and besides, the poster can explain the tweaks he/she has incorporated (like: 'kicker bar transparent, 10% tint amount color #a3a3a3. stuff like that).
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question
good ideas
Posts: 340
Good ideas so far. I like carlops suggestion of posting screenshots. As for the multiple desktops on the live CD, I will tell Warren, but I don't know if we'll have room. I know it won't take much space, but that CD is crammed with about as much stuff as will fit, and Warren does like to keep a little bit of a cushion. But, if it's possible to fit on the CD, I like the idea.
Keep the ideas coming!
careful of RAM requirements
Posts: 13
This sort of goes along with the recent discussion about what Mepis 6 Lite should be like.
When improving the look and feel of Mepis, please be sure to consider how any changes would impact those of us running older and slower systems that might not have as much RAM as the newer models.
In the efforts to make the desktop look less bloated, don't lose sight of how much newbies appreciate having things like hda1 and hda2 and hdb1 (when dual booting) and the floppy drive icons be there on the desktop.
As for the aquarium applet, it is pretty easy to remove! Maybe a readme file placed on the desktop to explain how to customize things (add and remove applets)?
Look and feel
Posts: 7
Been using GNU/Linux since 1998 March. I dont think I like using a distro as much as Mepis and Arch. I checked the Live CD of pclinuxos and found it to have a beautiful cohesive look and feel. Like another poster suggested, if we could have a couple of themes, simple, advanced and one over the top it would be great. Since am not an artist I cannot contribute although I like to take pictures and you can use any from http://smdeep.blogspot.com
Sudeep
Wallpaper, vs Themes, vs KDE
Posts: 5513
As Joe indicated above, I think we need to clarify what we're trying to do. Given space constraints for installations, and (lack of) time to devote to this, I recommend first focusing on getting multiple wallpapers. Yes, a clean, minimalist format, a fancier "eye candy" format, and a nature type format would be nice. But then expanding that to incorporate "themes" will require more work. I think any major [b]changes to KDE are right out[b/] for now.
How about, as folks submit ideas, and we have a place to host them, that we hold onto them? That way, once Mepis is installed on their computer, the will have a site to go to and download other/additional Mepis themes?
But having more than one "Mepis" desktop wallpaper would be very nice. I normally configure my box with multiple virtual desktops, and I like to use a different wallpaper to tell me which one I'm on
Jon
Is there any way a new
Posts: 516
Is there any way a new install can start-up with the KPersonalizer, so we can have a normal KDE look with a nice picture on the Desktop?
Here is some pictures I have found, I'm sure more can b found to choose from, I care what picture is used or if any picture is used. www.kakura.jp/hw/wallpaper/2006/06301_2006-01-26_pyramids_1024x768.jpg
www.t0xicwaste.com/images/UL/UPYR1024x768.jpg
But what ever is done I would really like to have a Desktop that I can make my own, you know "A Real KDE Desktop".
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How To Ask Questions The Smart Way: www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#id274601
MEPIS Help Files: www.mepis.org/docs/index.php/Main_Page
why not ship it without the
Posts: 31
dieselbenz, why not ship it without the aquarium but with a readme saying how to install it if they should want fish?
Sounds a little fishy to me.
Posts: 13
Sounds a little fishy to me.
Since this is such a
Posts: 380
Since this is such a divisive issue, perhaps there should be two releases: SimplyMEPIS-F (with fish) and SimplyMEPIS-N (no fish).
http://www.kde-look.org/
Posts: 31
what about heading over to http://www.kde-look.org/
there are some handsome themes here. i'm not a lawyer, but they're likely FREE so perhaps we could take one and just put the mepis label on it or something? some of these are really sweet.
also, i went through the themes that mepis ships with. there are about 10. and they're mostly really ugly. so are most of the default wallpapers mepis ships with. sorry! we could get rid of these and put a few QUALITY themes and wallpapers in there and probably save CD space in the end.
is this a bug? when i went to remove some of the really ugly themes, didn't actually remove them at all. anyone else have this problem?
Some musings...
Posts: 1634
..and some of us go-in for something along the lines of astronomy/science.
This is one of my favorites for a dual-monitor setup:
http://www.gabston-howell.org/linux/images/backgrounds/evloial-2560x1024.png
as well as
http://www.gabston-howell.org/linux/images/backgrounds/2003-11-a-2560x1024.jpg
I was fiddling with this one, a couple of weeks ago:
http://www.gabston-howell.org/linux/images/backgrounds/kde3.5-2560x1024.png
NOTE: There is a page of background images that I use for our installations, at: http://www.gabston-howell.org/linux/images/backgrounds/
for those who are looking for dual (or more) monitor-sized background images.
Distributed.net seems to have a good take on task management...and Lindows/Linspire did something like a wallpaper contest a while back; which seemed to be pretty successful for what they wanted out of it.
In and of itself, this may be an idea worth emulating on several fronts:
(1.) Backgrounds
(2.) Icon Sets
(3.) Widgets
(4.) Styles
(5.) Window decorations
(6.) Themes and desktop customizations
I agree that the first step should be to focus upon background images.
"You have two labs?"
"Each has its place. At the university, I try to please the Federal Government. Here, I negotiate with God."
Too problematic. Just put a
Posts: 1634
Too problematic.
Just put a 'fish upgrade' package in the repos. You get kaquarium and a Billy Bass background image and sound theme.
"You have two labs?"
"Each has its place. At the university, I try to please the Federal Government. Here, I negotiate with God."
These may also be the kinds
Posts: 1634
These may also be the kinds things that would form the basis of something like a mepis-desktop-extras_all.deb. Backgrounds, icons, menu tweaks and themes are actually reasonably easy payloads to deliver in that manner.
"You have two labs?"
"Each has its place. At the university, I try to please the Federal Government. Here, I negotiate with God."
Aquarium
Posts: 13
I'd suggest the theme from Hair -- you know, "This is the dawning of the age of aquarium."
Just put a 'fish upgrade' package in the repos. You get kaquarium and a Billy Bass background image and sound theme.
But ... why did we originally select Mepis as our OS?
Posts: 13
I suggest we remind ourselves what sold us on Mepis in the first place.
Sure wasn't a flashy and eye-catching wallpaper. It wasn't some impressive theme package.
Speaking only for me:
Mepis was at 3.4 by the time I discovered it. I was running Slackware 10.1 at the time and thought that once you went Slack you'd never go back. Before that, it was RedHat 9.0 but I dumped that in protest when things went to Fedora Core. Too much bloat in SuSE. Debian was okay but not gee-whiz enough to make me dump Slack.
At the suggestion of a fellow Benz enthusiast (we had a Linux discussion list as a sub-board of our Mercedes mailing list) I tried Mepis and was instantly hooked.
Why? Well, for one thing the hardware detection was second to none. It immediately found my Windows network -- something that only SuSE 9 had done in the past. I used it in a dual boot configuration initially (this error since resolved on my personal system) and was impressed by how it detected the Windows drive and set up everything for me. I could go on and on.
So, perhaps it would be nice to pretty-up what a new user first sees. However, the fancy stuff isn't what makes Mepis the great distro it is. Mepis is what makes Mepis great.
Don
kicker icon
Posts: 3
In the MEPIS 6.0 final release, the "System" icon in kicker was not displaying right. If you adjusted kicker's size to larger or smaller you would see the icon change.
I found having direct menu's from kicker like that is a lot easier to get the programs than following k-menu, if you know what the icons stand for.
Mepis look
Posts: 123
A new look or looks would be nice. As whorush commented first impressions are important and maybe MEPIS could use some "improvements". Remember, tastes are different so the idea of several desktops might work well. I suspect the biggest "improvement" would be the inclusion of XGL/AIGLX IF IT CAN BE MADE RELIABLE. edit This would need to be an option or easy addition ie. comments about memory usage and video card requirements are correct.
No matter what is done to the looks please, please don't change "the quality of the MEPIS operating system". I say this based on the experiences I've had with other recent distros including Kubuntu 6.1, ubuntu 6.1, fedora 6, suse 10.1&10.2, and debian etch(w/kde). I have tried many distros past and present and although some may be "better looking", some may have newer versions of programs, none have "simply worked" like MEPIS. MEPIS has only gotten better from version 2003.10 (the first I used) to the current 6.0.
Make It "Beautiful"
Posts: 5513
As Mark Shuttleworth stated recently, he thinks that Linux distributions must make the desktop "beautiful" in order for it to succeed. Perhaps if we have a desktop wallpaper with three naked programmers hugging around a pyramid and smiling up at the sun...
No, scratch that.
Jon
Girly themes
Posts: 380
To get more women interested in Linux, there should be some optional girly themes, with flowers and so on.
Here's my Girly looking desktop
Posts: 145
To get more women interested in Linux, there should be some optional girly themes, with flowers and so on.
Hi all
Just my quick twopennoth, or Cents if your from across the pond ROFL. Well here is my desktop, it's not that girly really.
Link to image
http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/999/snapshot1py2.png
It's been cropped a little by image shack but the majority is there.
Well in all honesty it's actually based on a wallpaper from my Unreal Tournament character, so it's based aroung shooting anything that moves LOL. But it does show how almost everything in Kde is configurable and it took me about an hour to get it set how I like it. When all is said and done I couldn't have done that in Windoze without paying for a software package ( only joking ), So the answer is yes , I think it would make a very Cool OS even Cooler.
Cheers
Jacko
World Community Grid. Join the World Wide Ownage team
Design or make-over?!?
Posts: 365
Hey Erin;
You mean something like in this string:
http://www.mepis.org/node/4177
Or do you want any of us to to redesign KDE?
The latter will take a lot of time of course.
But if you just need new desktopimages, I might be the creative designer you're looking for.
This is what I do for a living...
Then the project could expect some (real) input from me if I get any hint from all users and their demands/ideas/hopes...
Ruud
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Compaq N1050v, Pentium 4 1.8 GHz, 1024Mb Ram, Mepis 6.0.
Shuttle SN41G2, AMD Athlon XP 3000+, 512Mb RAM Mepis 6.0.
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