Ubuntu to get visual refresh with Hardy Heron
By Ryan Paul
November 01, 2007 - 11:03 CT

Artists and developers participated in a desktop theming specification meeting at the Ubuntu Developer Summit earlier this week. During the meeting, participants made plans for the visual refresh of Hardy Heron, the next major release of the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

The meeting was led by Ubuntu art director Kenneth Wimer, who explained that the goal for Hardy is to "radically change the artwork and the theming behind the entire desktop from boot all the way through to logout." The new theme will evolve during the development cycle and will require careful planning so that all the pieces will be completed in time for the release.

GTK theme engine development work, for instance, will have to be started earlier in the design process because it's more time intensive. The Ubuntu development community will likely select an existing theme engine on which to base Hardy's visual style. The two options that were discussed during the meeting were Clearlooks and Murrine.

The GTK theme. The Clearlooks-based Human theme engine is currently the default in the latest version of the GNOME desktop environment, which means that using it in Ubuntu would make the Ubuntu desktop more consistent with the look and feel of upstream GNOME.

Ars Technica
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