Looking like crap [LWN.net]

Looking like crap

Posted Mar 12, 2008 14:16 UTC (Wed) by corbet (editor, #1)
In reply to: Should use FLOSS to develop flyer by ovitters
Parent article: GNOME Foundation Annual Report for 2007

"I would've used Free Software. However, it would've looked like crap."

Wow, that's a pretty damning criticism of the free options. There's nothing all that complex in the annual report; what, exactly, is there that can't be done in free software without looking like crap? I hope that the abiword / OpenOffice.org / Scribus / ... developers have been told about where their software falls short.

Looking like crap

Posted Mar 12, 2008 17:45 UTC (Wed) by jake (editor, #205) [Link] (3 responses)

I was thinking (hoping) that he was referring to his abilities as a designer rather than the
inadequacies of free software.

jake

Looking like crap

Posted Mar 12, 2008 19:00 UTC (Wed) by b3timmons (guest, #40286) [Link] (1 responses)

>I was thinking (hoping) that he was referring to his abilities as a designer rather than the
inadequacies of free software.

Right.  I see where he is coming from, and I appreciate his comments.  What concerns me more
than the production of the report is the fact that the same criticism was raised last year and
nothing was done about it.   As a GNOME user, I feel partly responsible for this problem and
will try harder to get involved.

Looking like crap

Posted Mar 12, 2008 22:51 UTC (Wed) by ovitters (guest, #27950) [Link]

> As a GNOME user, I feel partly responsible for this problem and
> will try harder to get involved.

Nice! Help is always appreciated. Suggest to contact Lucas Rocha, lucasr at gnome.org. He
coordinates the (now) annual report. Help is especially appreciated with writing the text,
proof reading and ensuring other people hand in their stuff on time. Maybe come to GUADEC,
give that designer a 'you must only use free software and this is how' course :)

Looking like crap

Posted Mar 12, 2008 22:31 UTC (Wed) by ovitters (guest, #27950) [Link]

Yes, I meant to say I am not a designer and that you would've noticed that ;)

Looking like crap

Posted Mar 12, 2008 22:58 UTC (Wed) by ovitters (guest, #27950) [Link]

> Wow, that's a pretty damning criticism of the free options.

Sorry, I thought it was obvious that I was talking about myself... didn't expect it to be
understood in any other way. IMO designs might look simple, but is hard to get right. E.g. for
colours I usually just reuse the Tango ones.