The new Ubuntu Theme on 10.04 Lucid Lynx

I don’t hide the fact that I’m really excited today.
I read on Phoronix that Canonical’s revealed the new theme that will be part of the forthcoming 10.04 release of Ubuntu.
Since the day I read that Mark Shuttleworth left the CEO job to dedicate himself to the feel and look of the product, I knew something was going to happen. However I didn’t expect a radical push so soon. It was clear since long that the brown Human theme got the nerves of mass of users, and Mark knew this. Here though we’re speaking of a big change in all the Ubuntu brand. The changes are presented in two wiki pages, here and here, and they concern:

- New logos for the various Ubuntu related projects
- A new Ubuntu theme called “Light”
- A new minimalistic splash screen
- New layouts for the various website of the ecosphere
- Promotional materials

The team reviewed the logo to “reflect the precision and engineering that sits at the heart of the product”. I appreciate the effort of rejuvenating the image of Ubuntu by I don’t really feel the new logo worth to represent the final product. I know this is harsh but to me it seems too unbalanced, graphically, and the lettering too exotic. I’d have preferred something more consistent with the concept of stability and technical supremacy, but this is just my idea and largely based on personal preferences.

The theme is simply great. They presented a dark and a light version. I like the dark one much more but this is also based on personal preference because they’re both great. The design theme just followed the way already taken with the Karmic Koala release. The brown color has given place to a nice tone of violet. The icons are monochromatic and are implemented following the kde specification. As a result the top bar feels really solid. The gtk widgets got a refreshed appeal and even though there are certainly some rough edges in the design, the intent of increasing the sensation of a carefully designed operating system interface is real.

The effort is clear and the quality is there. Not everything is perfect but, from an end user’s point of view, Ubuntu’s life cycle of releases is bringing fantastic improvements on a six months schedule. I can’t do anything but feel excited to be somehow part of this incredible project that, I’m sure, is contributing to bring new Linux users with every release.