The Tux Project

Introducing The Tux Project. It is a place where various creative and unique promotional campaigns will find life and active participants. This is a global GNU/Linux website! That is to say that it is not distro or DE specific. :)

To what end?
So that existing projects, businesses and anybody interested in being involved can participate as much as they want to without sacrificing their uniqueness. It is a promotional marketing cooperative for GNU/Linux as a whole.

How does it work?
When registering for a membership choose the working groups if any that you would like to be a part of. Once you sign in you will be able to share your GNU/Linux Promotional Ideas with the world. Others can get involved that are like minded and start refining the idea with you.

When you feel that you are gaining momentum you can request project leader status and create your own working group. This will allow you to have the tools at your groups disposal that will help you make your ideas reality. I grabbed the text from the FAQs at the new site. ;)

This is what we spent our holiday weekend doing. We had a blast putting this together.

If you have ever had an idea that you think would work really good or would like to share something that you do to promote GNU/Linux this is a great place to do so. I look forward to seeing you there and participating with you on your ideas and existing projects.

Tux500 is in the 91st Indy 500!

As some of you may know I love open collaborative efforts! I find that no matter what the project is when you put like minded people together you can end up with some new friends and sometimes some amazing stories to tell.

The Tux500 project has been yet another one of these amazing projects! No matter how you feel about the subject it has been wildly successful in terms of monopolizing on the larger media coverage provided for the Indy 500. Immediately after this footage appeared on television the number of Google searches for Linux skyrocketed!!!


There were some scary moments though. The original driver Stephan Gregoire was caught by a large gust of wind while qualifying for the main event! The back end of the car was whipped into the side of the race track Gregoire was amazingly able to control the slide and walked away from the accident. We later found out that he had fractured his spine and was not going to be able to drive the "The Blue Car" in the big race. It was amazing the out pouring of get well wishes that came pouring in. Get well soon Stephan. :) The whole project was on pins and needles. It was one of those moments where I felt like holding my breath. Stephan is going to be fine he is recovering and is not in too much pain. Mr Tom Chastain the car owner immediately started looking for a new driver. Stephan came through once again by personally recommending Roberto Mereno. What a recommendation that has turned out to be!

Robert and Tom decided to take a bit of a risk in order to ensure that the car would be in the main event. They removed the first qualifying speeds for the car and decided to requalify. 220 mph later we were in the # 11 slot for the 91st Indy 500!

The donations are going through the roof!!! We still have time to brand the side pods of the car. If you were waiting to see if the car would qualify for the race your wait is over!

I can not really explain how cool it has been to be part of this project. There has been so many doors opened by this project. It has really brought a lot of like minded people together. I am getting really excited to see what comes next!

VRRRRROOOOOOMMMMMMMM! VRRRRROOOOOOMMMMMMM!

Tux500.com

Landy(land0) and I have been working with the http://tux500.com project recently. We have been pitching in by setting up merchandise shops via the REVELinux Gear project. While we were setting up one of the new shops for them I realized that the REVELinux Gear project has been going since 2004! We started with a Cafepress shop in late 2004 then moved over to Spreadshirt in April of 2005 where we created two shops one for the EU and one for the US. The EU shop has sold a total of 239 items. The Us shop has come in second with 213 items. The thing that is so cool to me is that all of these items are being worn by people who love the various projects enough to represent them in their everyday life. (like Aseigo our most famous model) ;) It has been pretty exciting to contribute to and promote the F/OSS projects that we love. We really appreciate all the developers that make F/OSS what it is.

We had a rough few months this year and Landy just recently got back on his feet literally after a frightening experience that landed him in the hospital for a bit. But as he always likes to quote "I got better..." Landy is really looking forward to getting back involved with all of the projects that he has been contributing to. It has really been very refreshing to both of us to work with the tux500 team. They are all really great people who are like minded about promoting Linux. It reminded me of all of the wonderful people that I have had the joy of working with on various projects all around the globe.

Attention Art App Developers

If you are developer for a KDE art application please send me the RSS feeds for your official news and/or blogs. This way I can publish them on KDE-Artists.org.

Feel free to sign up for an account at KDE-Artists and use this site as a resource to promote your app. You can easily submit content that will be read by artists that could benefit from your application.

Artwork request

The artwork requests are starting to roll in at Open-Collab.org so break out your tablet and crankup your favorite graphics editor. This is a great way for all of the artists out there to contribute to the F/OSS community and have some fun. Anyone is welcome to get involved and it is very easy to participate, even if you are on a tight schedule. In no time at all you will be collaborating with many other F/OSS enthusiasts from around the world all with varying levels of involvement. It is also a great way to create because you are being challenged to make something somewhat specific that you might not ordinarily do and you will receive feedback, ratings and comments from F/OSS maintainers on your ideas and art that you submit. Many times others will build on your contribution which can turn into a very dynamic experience. This goes for other contributions requests and discussions taking place all over Open-Collab as well.

Here are just a few Project Pages and artwork requests you will find at Open-Collab.org.

One of the most recent project pages that has been added is for RSIBreak. RSIBreak is a great new application that prompts you to take a break from your computer now and then. The idea is to help prevent Repetitive Strain Disorder. The RSIBreak OC.o project page so far contains a Artwork Request Forum and an Example Images Gallery. What better way to add a little fun to the project than with a little Dragon Power! When you arrive at the RSIBReak OC.o project page you will find a Konqi-Blender lgpl source file originally created by Bastian Salmela (Basse). I was able to get a hold of Basse and he is also going to be providing an updated version of the blender file. The updated 3D model allows for better movements and even the ability to add facial expressions. Some of these new features were made possible by the work done on the Orange project. Basse also mentioned that he may have the time to make Konqi strike a few poses as well, that would be very cool to see. We also grabbed some existing images to use as illustrations from Workrave a GTK application that does something similar to RSIBreak.

Aktions has a project page on Open-Collab.org that is looking for artwork and some input from any body interested. Computers have become a major aspect of everyday life, creating a need for improved usage statistics. Aktions is a software development kit for KDE designed to gather this information. Our software helps developers understand how well their software meets user demand through an action-oriented perspective.

Tellico collection manager has a project page on Open-Collab.org and is in need of a updated logo.

getMyDistro a very cool project IMO is on its way to a finished logo.

OSS research project is in need of a logo.

Lobby4Linux in need of a new logo as well.

We are nearly out of the Beta stage and it is very exciting to see things starting to roll forward at Open-Collab.org.

The new and improved KDE-Artists.org is live!

KDE-Artists.org is all shiny and new. :) We changed the back-end and have shifted the focus to make our site more informative to the community of artists that use KDE. So you can expect more news articles about the current state of KDE based graphic tools and tutorials for using them. The site will still be used as a place for our artists to find the current artwork guidelines as they are made available. There are many added tools that make KDE-Artists a much more community oriented site. Please feel free to sign up and add any news, links and articles related to KDE-Artists.

Open-Collab.org has been built to replace the now retired Kollaboration forum. The new site is jammed packed full of goodness. It is currently in it's beta release and still being tweaked here and there. It is a non DE specific site built as a place for F/OSS enthusiasts to work together and contribute to the applications and projects that they use and love. It offers a universal space for all of us to dream, collaborate and work together toward a common goal. If you are a developer or maintainer of an existing F/OSS application or project and are interested in interfacing with other community minded people Open-Collab.org is a great place to do this.

Ever have a concept or idea that you feel would improve F/OSS?
Open-Collab.org is the place to go to make it known, refine it with others interested in the same idea and take it to the next level. We are looking forward to seeing what we can accomplish together.

Something Big Is Happening

It is amazing how two weeks can turn into 3 months when you are perfecting a new website. :) We are very close to launching the new and improved KDE-Artists.org and along with it a completely new and very powerful community based collaborative website. Parts of the Kollaboration forum are in the process of being ported over to the new site. If you are interested in helping contact landy_at_revelinux_dot_com.
In other news there is a fun contest going on at Amarok for the details go here http://amarok.kde.org/amarokwiki/index.php/Users_in_amaroK_Gear

The key to success is often the ability to adapt...

KDE-Artists.org has been in transition lately. We have shifted our focus to make our site more informative to the artists that use KDE. So in the future you can expect more news articles about the current state of Open Source graphic tools and tips, tricks for using them. The site will still be used as a place for our artists to find the current HIG/CIG guidelines as they are made available.

Our plan is to give the user/concept developers better tools to communicate their mock-ups and ideas. It has been amazing to see how these ideas have gone from artists mock-ups to usability reviews and more. It has also become obvious that they are not just about artwork anymore. After alot of work and testing we are just a few weeks away from debuting a new site which will contain many tools that have not been available to the developers and users at Kollaboration. Anybody interested in following the concepts and usability opinions that the users at Kollaboration have created will also be pleased to know that they will be easy to keep track of by using rss feeds provided by each "collab". The site will be relocating to a new server and be sporting its own domain name so any body currently linking to the Kollaboration forums should be aware that in a couple of weeks you will need update your link/s.

KDE links

I would like to update the links page on KDE-Artists.org to include all the KDE related websites I can find (they don't have to be just art related). If you know of any good ones please reply to this posting or this one.


I have also been looking for some Krita tutorials to publish on the site. Are they hidden somewhere or is it time to make some?


Thanks!

Tango anyone?

So what does everyone think of the Tango Project? Is this something that the KDE community should contribute to? There has been a general discussion at KDE-Artists.org and we would love to hear more opinions. We have also created a board for Tango in the "Open Source" section (go to Tango anyone?).

We have been receiving some artwork requests from third party non D.E. specific applications. Take a look at Jpodder. This collaboration is completed and serves as a model for what is possible. We think this is great and hope to see a lot more third party applications seeking artwork as a result.

Default artwork polls! Vote now!

Our KDE-Artists have made some wonderful wallpapers that will look great in the next release of KDE. Stop by the Kollaboration forum and vote for your favorites. We will submit the highest rated wallpapers from poll #1 and #2 to the KDE-Artists mailing list so we can decide which one will be the new default for 3.5!

Click here to go the polls:

After the new default wallpaper has been chosen the KDE-Artists team will make a matching splash screen, KDM theme and more! Our goal is for a smooth professional unified look for 3.5.

Kontact sexification

Kontact is a very mature program now so it is time to make it feel slick, cool and professional. The Kontact devels have posted a bunch of artwork requests at KDE-Artist and started a contest for a new logo. So how can we make Kontact sexy?

Here is a quick link to the Kontact board on KDE-Artists: kde-artists.org/kontact




Since the aKademy to coming up soon I made up a few (okay more then a few) akademy themed t-shirts and polo shirts for my spreadshirt shop (for everyone who requested a US shop here is the link to that).

KDE 3.5 default artwork

With KDE 3.5 just around the corner it seems like a good time to discuss the look and feel of the default artwork.

Should we experiment before 4.0 comes out and try some new colors or should we continue to refine our blue look?

Some people might be slow to adopt 4.0 so KDE 3.5 might be on peoples desktop for a while. I think it is important to make this release look really polished. It would be nice to have a unified look with our default wallpaper, splash screen and about pages.

We are discussing this here and today on the #kde-artists channel on irc.freenode.org. Please feel free to voice your option.

Vote for the best concept art!

Plasma has 9 new animated desktop button concepts!

Even though this weekend challenge has ended the need for Desktop Button concept art has not. So check out the entries. Vote for your favorites. Then fire up your favorite graphics program and contribute a few more!

100!

It has only been one week since we debuted the KDE-Artist.org website. I just wanted to announce a milestone that we just hit. Our 100th member signed up today!

Other interesting stats:
The site has had 33,347 hits and 300 posts to the Kollaboration forum.
The Plasma board alone has have 138 posts.

Here is some great screenshots I found on the Kollaboration forum that shows a bunch ideas that our artists, developers and dreamers have been working together on:

screenshots = a 1000 words

I just added a two new boards on the Kollaboration forum at kde-artists.org:
KDE Website Screenshots and KDE-Docs Screenshots.

If you need any screenshots for your projects website or for your documentation please post your request.

The KDE-Docs Screenshots board might be particularly helpful to our Docs translators...

lauri: ok, say I take four new screenshots in konqueror's doc... two replacing old ones, and two new... we freeze for 3.5 at that point... askie here, and his team, pick up the docs to translate to dutch and askie has to retake those screenshots, as nearly exactly the same as possible, but *in dutch* and there, the requirements are a lot easier: exactly duplicate what you see in the english screenshot, but do it with the language set to dutch

lauri: some teams (swedish :) do them pretty much as we do in english - usually within a day of a new screenshot in the english doc, the swedish one is updated, some do it as they go through the doc translation, some do it all in one batch once they're done
so it might be useful in those latter two cases, to have some help for sure so maybe for the dutch team to be able to ask "hey, can someone install the dutch i18n pack, and then retake the screenshots in the konqueror and kicker docs"

askie: It depends mostly on the translator.

lauri: and there *are* situations where I totally can't do the english ones either

askie: Some take the shots while translating, some take 'em after the entire translations. We don't have enough people-time for updating them when they come in.

lauri: but being able to post them on a page, might not hurt (worst case, nobody does them, and I keep nagging, right?)

Need artwork?

KDE-Artists.org has a section where KDE developers can request new icons. All you have to do is register at the site and start a topic in the Application Projects board on our Kollaboration forum.



Please include any ideas you have for the icon like symbolism, colors, etc. You could even attach a picture of your current icon and a link to your project's website. The more details you include the better. Then our artists can submit their icons to your thread and you can pick the one you like the best. Another benefit is that other kde-artists can give suggestions to make sure your new icon complies with our current Crystal standards and looks really cool!

Don't forget to check back often and particapate in your new "Kollaboration".

New resources urgently needed

I would like to formally propose that we start a new project. It would take the best ideas form KHotNewStuff and Adopt-a-Geek. You see there are a lot of KDE developers out there that are students, inbetween jobs or otherwise deprived of dating resources. Many of these folks overworked their underpowered social skills to help bring you an outstanding Open Source desktop. There are also appreciative users that are willing to donate their obsolete girlfriends to help the KDE project if they knew who needed what and where. In order to bring both parties together and thereby increase the productivity of these KDE developers, I suggest we start a project called KHotNewChicks. All we would need is a web page were we could list all these ex-girlfriends that would might make good matches for your favorite developer.


Check out the responses from this article if you don't think this is a urgent need;)

makes me happy

I found this picture I took of of the kids a few months ago and it just makes me happy.



I was giving the girls make-overs and they wanted me to pencil in their eyebrows. Then they wanted me to pencil in the babies eyebrows too.

She looks like Groucho Marx don't you think?

a few good quotes

"We must remember that one determined person can make a significant difference, and that a small group of determined people can change the course of history." - Sonia Johnson

IMO KDE is not just about this or that new feature or bug report. It isn't even about a hobby that I love. The work we do together gives people the tools to make their lives better. It gives _everyone_ the opportunity to use world class applications that are a pleasure to use.

"What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough." - Eugene Delacroix