Bearfruit

Ubuntu 7.10, which until recently was known as “Gutsy Gibbon,” has been released. As usual, the week leading up to release was killer. When it comes to the website there is just so much that has to be done at the last minute.

You’d think that choosing artwork could be done far in advance, but invariably it comes down to the wire. The design agency did a stellar job though, and I’m excited to show off what the results are. The design firm seems to love interactive media done with Flash. However we have a policy of not using flash on our homepage unless it can be viewed using a free/oss player. Gnash simply couldn’t play the stuff they were giving us.

We showed them the animation we’d planned to use for the 7.04 release (when we had terrible performance problems), which was created using mootools. Low and behold, they gave us some beautiful pieces that also used mootools. How awesome is that for a design firm to set aside their tool of choice and switch to an open source platform? (hint: it’s awesome!)

The animated banners won’t be on the homepage much longer. While they’re there, you can see each in turn by adding a ?definition or ?generations or ?dates to the end of the homepage URL. Unfortunately, if you’re using IE6 or if you have a screen res < 1000px wide you’re stuck with the definition.