Fedora COSMIC Desktop Spin Being Considered

[RejectModernity]

Shocking development, never in a million years could have predicted this development over and over again.

This is why I keep saying that the System76 folks should make COSMIC closed source and only available to their customers, at least for a short time.

They have spent nearly 2 years writing a new DE, from a fresh code base and you already have people that are salivating at the chance to use their work without any financial benefit to the creators.

If any System76 people happen upon this thread, seriously consider not releasing COSMIC as open source, at least initially.

Give your company a chance to benefit from this new DE, if you see a sales bump that you can attribute to this new DE, then ride the wave of interest, if there is no sales bump, then release it under any license you see fit to.

Unless of course COSMIC is not the clean sheet design we think it is, if it relies on GPL'd code, then you have to do what you have to do.

But to me it's ridiculous to give away what may be the only competitive advantage you have.

What if you release it as GPL'd code, Fedora does create a spin and some other company starts up in your state offering systems configured similar to yours but with Fedora COSMIC and they offer better warranties and lower prices and your sales plummet?

Part of the reason why so many people interested in COSMIC is that it's FOSS. Most of its parts under GPLv3, you can't just close it, so keep your delusional business ideas to yourself.

[CommunityMember]

This is why I keep saying that the System76 folks should make COSMIC closed source and only available to their customers, at least for a short time.

Too late (unless they completely rewrite it all from scratch), as COSMIC's license is GPL3 (which also aligns with System76's stated values). You live by the license you choose, you die by the license you choose.

[Quackdoc]

...

https://nitter.privacydev.net/jeremy_soller/status/1577061838910390272#m

[skeevy420]

I will never understand the attraction of black and white desktops as Windows 11 and so many Linux DEs have embraced. I mean my goodness, why would you want the only two desktop colors to be dirty black or gray? It's like preferring an old black and white TV instead of a modern color one. But at least with Linux we still have the choice of a few full color desktops, whereas with Windows 11 there is no choice other than light or dark mode.

That's underselling what Windows can do. It has light and dark modes with multiple accent colors that can be user set or dynamic based on the background which keeps the UI looking both different and the same when you use something like the Bing Wallpaper of the Day. I'm not denying that it couldn't be better. It could.

My assumption about why you don't understand it is because you probably haven't considered UI and theming from a mass market accessibility perspective; only from the how I'd like to see it perspective like the majority of us see things. People don't always see the same colors or can experience color combinations in the same way as each other. Black, white, and grayscale are the most universal and simplest colors to theme around so it's easier to create mass themes around those. They're also less choices. Adding in the ability for the user or themes to set primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, meaning main element, shadows and highlights, and text, there are 281 trillion combinations possible using 16bit colors...3 elements with 65K colors each. While it sucks from a user freedom and choice perspective, it really does make sense from a usable for everyone perspective and as a way to keep it simple. Ideally, there'd be system and per app theming, but, alas, we don't have that.

I'm totally aware of the irony/hypocrisy in all of that. If they really cared about accessibility then there'd user defined colors on a per app basis. Accessibility and Easy-To-Do Accessibility. Colorblind modes only help so much.

There's also the electrical element. With the right displays, greys and blacks use less electricity. It's.....worth considering.

Also, also wik considering is the UI toolkit dilemma and moose bites. Every damn UI toolkit does it differently. There's no Theme Protocol for UI toolkits to standardize around that defines what's what so everything can look consistent from one thing to the next and moose bites can be pretty nasty.

[Gusar]

LOL at how many don't realize sophisticle's post isn't serious, they're making fun of Red Hat.

[Quackdoc]

LOL at how many don't realize sophisticle's post isn't serious, they're making fun of Red Hat.

one would think that, but he constantly drones on and on about it, going so far as to respond to comments made by s76 devs. I think it's serious... https://www.phoronix.com/forums/foru...87#post1403987

[muncrief]

That's underselling what Windows can do. It has light and dark modes with multiple accent colors that can be user set or dynamic based on the background which keeps the UI looking both different and the same when you use something like the Bing Wallpaper of the Day. I'm not denying that it couldn't be better. It could.

My assumption about why you don't understand it is because you probably haven't considered UI and theming from a mass market accessibility perspective; only from the how I'd like to see it perspective like the majority of us see things. People don't always see the same colors or can experience color combinations in the same way as each other. Black, white, and grayscale are the most universal and simplest colors to theme around so it's easier to create mass themes around those. They're also less choices. Adding in the ability for the user or themes to set primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, meaning main element, shadows and highlights, and text, there are 281 trillion combinations possible using 16bit colors...3 elements with 65K colors each. While it sucks from a user freedom and choice perspective, it really does make sense from a usable for everyone perspective and as a way to keep it simple. Ideally, there'd be system and per app theming, but, alas, we don't have that.

I'm totally aware of the irony/hypocrisy in all of that. If they really cared about accessibility then there'd user defined colors on a per app basis. Accessibility and Easy-To-Do Accessibility. Colorblind modes only help so much.

There's also the electrical element. With the right displays, greys and blacks use less electricity. It's.....worth considering.

Also, also wik considering is the UI toolkit dilemma and moose bites. Every damn UI toolkit does it differently. There's no Theme Protocol for UI toolkits to standardize around that defines what's what so everything can look consistent from one thing to the next and moose bites can be pretty nasty.

Thank you for the information skeevy420, but I have heard these arguments and explanations before. And I run Windows 11 under KVM so I can help others that run it as their primary OS, and am aware of the accent colors. But they're so tiny they really don't change the look for me.

However I do understand it's a matter of personal preference, though light/dark modes are so ugly to me that they're absolutely repulsive. And as I said it just seems like a giant step backwards in DE appearance. But so long as we have the choice of color desktops under Linux it's all good. I just had to say something though as there are so many comments praising light/dark modes, and I didn't want it to seem as if everyone liked it. In fact of all the complaints I get about Windows 11, the lack of color is one of the most common. Many people just can't understand why they can't change the color like they could with Windows 10 and all previous Windows versions. In fact I've helped many people roll back to, or reinstall, Windows 10 because they couldn't stand light/dark modes either.

[Daktyl198]

I will never understand the attraction of black and white desktops as Windows 11 and so many Linux DEs have embraced. I mean my goodness, why would you want the only two desktop colors to be dirty black or gray? It's like preferring an old black and white TV instead of a modern color one. But at least with Linux we still have the choice of a few full color desktops, whereas with Windows 11 there is no choice other than light or dark mode.

Cosmic already has pretty advanced theme capabilities, that are easy to configure yourself rather than having to download a theme. One dev made a very red "Doom" theme for himself. Looks like this: https://fosstodon.org/@soller/111222802911852892

This is why I keep saying that the System76 folks should make COSMIC closed source and only available to their customers, at least for a short time.

They have spent nearly 2 years writing a new DE, from a fresh code base and you already have people that are salivating at the chance to use their work without any financial benefit to the creators.

A far, far better outcome for System76 is for COSMIC to appear on as many distros as possible as a fairly common desktop, and for it to be a driving force in allowing more users to move to Linux (not just their distro). The more Linux users there are, the more demand there is for a Linux-focused system integrator.

But it's a troll post so... whatever.

[qarium]

Shocking development, never in a million years could have predicted this development over and over again.
This is why I keep saying that the System76 folks should make COSMIC closed source and only available to their customers, at least for a short time.
They have spent nearly 2 years writing a new DE, from a fresh code base and you already have people that are salivating at the chance to use their work without any financial benefit to the creators.
If any System76 people happen upon this thread, seriously consider not releasing COSMIC as open source, at least initially.
Give your company a chance to benefit from this new DE, if you see a sales bump that you can attribute to this new DE, then ride the wave of interest, if there is no sales bump, then release it under any license you see fit to.
Unless of course COSMIC is not the clean sheet design we think it is, if it relies on GPL'd code, then you have to do what you have to do.
But to me it's ridiculous to give away what may be the only competitive advantage you have.
What if you release it as GPL'd code, Fedora does create a spin and some other company starts up in your state offering systems configured similar to yours but with Fedora COSMIC and they offer better warranties and lower prices and your sales plummet?

why every post you write spread pure hatred ?
if the system76 desktop is based on ubuntu then of course i will not use it because it is based on ubuntu. if fedora has a cosmic spin i will consider to use it.
whyt you don't get is this System76 can also sell their computers with the Fedora COSMIC spin then of course they have me as customer.

and i can assure you that if COSMIC would be closed source i and many others are not interested anymore.

[qarium]

one would think that, but he constantly drones on and on about it, going so far as to respond to comments made by s76 devs. I think it's serious... https://www.phoronix.com/forums/foru...87#post1403987

right he is really a serious deep state agent... spread his poison here. its insane.