Hi,
Thanks for the feedback on the design. :-)
Concerning the text included:
It's important to note that when I made the mockups I filled them with some example text to show contextually the kind of content which might be placed in any certain area. This content will need to be finalized When I wrote "which runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux", I was assuming that the website might attract users who:
1. were completely new to Inkscape and perhaps to FOSS in general. 2. were running operating systems that _don't_ package and release Inkscape ready for installation. Windows and Mac OS X are two very well known systems that normal people might recognize, even if they "suck at computers". 3. if they were running a Linux distribution they would probably know that (I was an Ubuntu user - even they know Ubuntu is a Linux distribution - not total idiots :-) ) 4. if running a Linux distribution might not necessarily go to the website to get Inkscape (what with command lines, package managers, etc).
But I agree that it needs to be changed - it's inaccurate as stands.
I too think that there needs to be some serious consideration given to "Linux users" on how to install Inkscape - there are so many ways to get it depending on which distro people run, that it would be useful to have that information available on the website. Packaged .deb and .rpm files would be even better...
As for Android being a Linux distro or not, as far as I'm aware it is never marketed as such. I assume many home entertainment devices exist that run on Linux distros, but most normal people probably won't even know/care/try to install Inkscape on them.
So, as stated earlier, all text on the mockups (and hence included into html/css prototypes) was initially created as contextual example text - to be refined/replaced/whatever. Design without content is decoration. If anyone is willing to help out on the copywriting side of things that would be fantastic! Then maybe we can avoid me writing silly filler content to design for.
Cheers, duckgoesoink
On Dec 29, 2010, at 7:31 PM, Martin Owens wrote:
On Thu, 2010-12-23 at 18:41 -0800, Ian Caldwell wrote:
Firstly; I love the design, very nice.
I wanted to make a comment about the text shown in the mockup there. This part:
"which runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux"
Quite besides putting your fellow FOSS project last in a list of supported operating systems, especially since many distros package and release Inkscape ready to install and windows and macosx don't.
But worse is the confusion of "Linux". Does this sentence mean that Inkscape will work on Android? Will it work on my TiVo or my Home brew Wii? It is nonsense to claim to run on Linux when linux is a kernel which can't run Inkscape in most cases.
It would be more clear and honest to say "which runs on Gnome/Linux" or "FreeDesktop Linux" or just "Fedora, Debian and other awesome Free Desktops".
And if you're of the opinion that Android and such aren't marketed as Linux and there for won't be confusing. Think about the way Ubuntu isn't marketed as Linux either (because it isn't true and because it's not helpful to scare away new users), will we have "which runs on Linux and Ubuntu" to account for that?
The lack of consideration that Linux distros are given by the Inkscape website is currently frustrating. The install for Windows and Mac is easy, but we don't have a single deb, apt link, or ppa and instead ask users to compile. Please consider rectifying and please start with the text on the front page.
Best regards, Martin Owens