Future of ubuntu usplash

[tretle]

I was thinking during the several different phases of hardy development why the usplash loading screen hasn't changed much.
Screenshot below:

http://www.mainardistefano.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/linux/usplash.png

Maybe its because it is just satisfactory and not worth looking into but I began thinking what could make it better and more unique.
I was thinking about the various different loading methods used on various products and the benefits off all of them.
For anyone thats used OSX at any point you might be familiar with the simplicity of the loading screen.
Screenshot below:

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/1166/ipodspinxx3.gif

So what can we learn from OSX this time, Text is not necessary in a loading screen. It makes it unbalanced looking. The circular shape of the Ubuntu logo would fit nicely centered in the middle of the screen as a focal point.
It would actually put the logo to use, its supposed to be a visual representation of the brand of Ubuntu after all so lets put it to some use.
Now that we are on equal grounds with OSX when it comes to simplicity how can we take it further.
I haven't read up a whole lot on usplash and I presume what I am about to propose is not currently possible but I will propose it anyway for future reference.
So from what I can tell from watching usplash load it loads in two parts. First it goes 0%-100%-0%-100%-0%-100% etc and then one final 0%-100%. Sorry about the phrasing of this, I cant find the right words to describe it right now.
For anyone thats played the wii and downloaded something they might have realized that Mario is working in a similar way when downloading files, he runs jumps on the first brick, second, third, then back to first, then second then third. When it gets to 33.333% Mario has finished the first brick so he runs straight to the second and jumps then third then second etc and when the download has got two thirds of the way through he repetitively jumps at the last brick.
Now this made me think about the status bar in usplash and how we don't need it. The Ubuntu logo is circular in shape allowing for 360degree revolutions and the logo also has three smaller circles which could be the equivalent of the boxes mario smashes.
Of course we wouldn't use Mario due to legal reasons but instead we could have the Ubuntu logo do revolutions for the 0%-100%-0%-100%-0%-100% etc and then one revolution plus the left circle bounce repetitively until it reaches 33.333% and then the top right circle would bounce until it reaches 66.666% and then the bottom circle would bounce until complete.

You can vote for this idea on Ubuntu Brainstorm (http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/5953/)

[smartboyathome]

I would say splashy could do this nicely with modification. I think that it would be able to do something similar in version 0.4.

[spych102]

Rather than bouncing, perhaps they could emit a radio signal in turn?

[spych102]

Or maybe each of the 6 pieces could slowly slot in when its 1/6th has finished loading?

[smartboyathome]

I was thinking maybe fill up the logo with color as it is loading, like the debian one. Another idea is pulsating glows around the heads and bodies of the logo with each step, leaving the glow when they complete.

[Ralphie]

I agree, something should be done with it, I always thought the little loading bar was kinda goofy, especially the first time it comes up, all it does is bounce back and forth, which has always been strange to me, like I expect it to be showing progress, but it doesn't lol.

These are some good ideas you guys have, I like the slotting in idea, but I wonder if it could be accomplished? Sounds kinda complicated for a splash screen.

[smartboyathome]

It could with Usplash already, but it wouldn't look as nice as splashy. Ubuntu won't accept splashy until 0.4, so I would think that it would be delayed until then unless someone can make one that looks good (and professional) at 256 colors.

[jacob01]

i think the splash looks good and since i dont reboot much it doesn't really bother me.

[spych102]

jacob01, I agree and think it looks good now, but I think macos looks better and we can't let that state of affairs carry on much longer.

How about a glow after the slotting has occured? I feel a story board comming on....stay tuned.

[spych102]

What do people think about this mockup? I am sure there are loads more ideas that we can incorporate. Please comment.

[smartboyathome]

I think it looks a little too basic for my taste, I am trying to do a mockup of my idea to see if it looks good.

[spych102]

basic? it is a 30 mins mockup, of course it is basic!

[natehall]

I'm thinking a second hand sweeping aroud the Ubuntu symbol lighting it up as it passes. After the splash is done the hand would disappear.

[Gwasanaethau]

Rather than bouncing, perhaps they could emit a radio signal in turn?
I quite like that idea! Sounds interesting! It sounds a bit like the old 9 o'clock news logo from the BBC!
What do people think about this mockup? I am sure there are loads more ideas that we can incorporate. Please comment.
I like this too, good work! Would it be possible to get them to spin too? Like they're sliding on ice or something and they just slot nicely together.

[natehall]

An additional thought: The letters light up one after the other until all is bright.

[smartboyathome]

An additional thought: The letters light up one after the other until all is bright.

That is similar to my idea above, where the logo gets a glow effect on each piece one after another until they all get the glow effect

[spych102]

Yeah, glowing's good, I'll try to work in some rotation too. Does anyone know how to get an svg into either synfig or pencil, Inkscape's driving me up the wall as it is not at all suited to animation.

There is an ubuntu theme for cairo clock. Must dig that up for further inspiration.

[smartboyathome]

Try using GIMP for animation.

[spych102]

Thanks smartboy, gimp-gap is now installed.

[Merk42]

While I do like a lot of these ideas, something I don't understand is showing the Mac startup in the beginning. The Mac starup is a looping animation, that just goes until all is loaded. So far all of the ideas for Ubuntu have some sort of progress percentage associated with them. I'm not saying having a progress related animation is bad, just that it's not what the Mac startup has which was quoted in the first post as a good example.

[smartboyathome]

While I do like a lot of these ideas, something I don't understand is showing the Mac startup in the beginning. The Mac starup is a looping animation, that just goes until all is loaded. So far all of the ideas for Ubuntu have some sort of progress percentage associated with them. I'm not saying having a progress related animation is bad, just that it's not what the Mac startup has which was quoted in the first post as a good example.

The reason people avoid that is because you cannot know how long until ubuntu loads, nor if it has froze during bootup. If, for example, fsck is run, it would just keep looping forever (assuming it doesn't drop to terminal like it does now), and if someone shut it down because they didn't know, then their system might not work. This way, at least they know where it "freezes" (for example, someone might say "Ubuntu freezes while the first dot is pulsating", which can tell someone that Ubuntu probably hasn't loaded yet and that it could have been FSCK which stops it).

[spych102]

The Mac starup is a looping animation, that just goes until all is loaded. So far all of the ideas for Ubuntu have some sort of progress percentage associated with them. I'm not saying having a progress related animation is bad, just that it's not what the Mac startup has which was quoted in the first post as a good example.

I suppose our imaginations just started to run away with us. The ubuntu logo looks like it was designed to be animated in interesting ways, whereas the apple logo looks better as a static image.

Try using GIMP for animation.

Spent much of the day doing GAP tutorials only to slowly come to the realisation that I can't use SVG for the animation because it all gets rasterised, which is quite simply wrong imo. But then what would a vector boy like me know? Thanks anyway smartboy - I might use it for making gifs now I have learned how to do this.

I have switched my efforts to Blender which is much easier for animation than I expected (all keyframes and tweening) and totally pwns GIMP which pwns Inkscape for animation. I still have to learn more before getting any further than my little mockup yesterday.

[BradwJensen]

I was thinking maybe fill up the logo with color as it is loading, like the debian one. Another idea is pulsating glows around the heads and bodies of the logo with each step, leaving the glow when they complete.

I agree that there should be no text, and that the Logo should start out with borders and maybe a glassy look, then get filled in with color as it loads.. Like Azureus does when u view info about it from within the application.

[natehall]

The ubuntu logo looks like it was designed to be animated in interesting ways...


I've been working on my own animation the last two days. Check it out!
http://ubuntuforums.org/g/images/419605/1_bestsplash.gif

[natehall]

I was thinking if it ever does take a long time for Ubuntu to load each spin could turn on one letter at a time. I made this an endless loop so that it could be looked at as long as one liked here but in a splash screen of course it would end when everything is bright. The way I made the Ubuntu symbol light up might be a nice little wait icon, its similiar in some ways to the spinning disc Ubuntu already uses.

[smartboyathome]

I made a storyboard of my idea (the animation wouldn't be very smooth for some reason). See it here (http://smartboy.salocinlinux.org/db/UbuntuSplashSlideshow.png). The slides go from left to right, top to bottom. The first slide to second slide represent the Ubuntu logo fading in. The last slide is right before GDM/KDM comes up, and it would be cool if it could fade off to GDM/KDM.

[SonicSteve]

What do people think about this mockup? I am sure there are loads more ideas that we can incorporate. Please comment.

I love it, someone needs to put this into the Ubuntu Idea storm. I agree that the upsplash would look better without the bar, and no text.

I love this idea. It's a small thing but in many ways it's the small things that matter. Functional and ugly doesn't win many prizes. I don't think in its current state the Ubuntu upsplash is ugly but this little tweak makes a pleasant difference.

[SonicSteve]

I've been working on my own animation the last two days. Check it out!
http://ubuntuforums.org/g/images/419605/1_bestsplash.gif

I think this is great, but I like the idea of removing the text. I hope this gets the attention of the developers.

[MetalMusicAddict]

What becomes an issue for these advanced animations is the amount of resources this consumes during boot.

I had a rather killer Usplash ready for Ubuntu Studio Hardy. It had a VU meter to show boot progression. That was more simple than the above example so I would suspect this would be even more taxing.

I'm hearing rumors of dropping Usplash also. For various reasons. One being lack of widescreen support.

[smartboyathome]

If it is dropped, there are no other alternatives really besides Splashy. They will probably wait until Splashy is "ready" for them.

[MetalMusicAddict]

If it is dropped, there are no other alternatives really besides Splashy. They will probably wait until Splashy is "ready" for them.

One could write something new. There's also Fedora's splash but some don't like loading X just for a bootsplash.

[smartboyathome]

By the way, I think it is called RHGB. Also, I don't like it either because it slows the boot down too much. OpenSuSE uses Splashy, though. :)

[amlucent23]

By the way, I think it is called RHGB. Also, I don't like it either because it slows the boot down too much. OpenSuSE uses Splashy, though. :)

Is that what they use! I didnt know it was a totally different program.

Dont get me wrong, I prefer ubuntu over suse for my personal use. If there is one place that really stands out as clear superiority of Suse over Ubuntu, its the boot! Suse's boot is sexy imo.

Also, I wish that I could hit ESC in the boot in ubuntu so I could see system messages like in suse

[Cresho]

http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/OSXbuntu+%5BUsplash%5D?content=74930

http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/OStuX+Usplash?content=75309

these are animated

[natehall]

I think this is great, but I like the idea of removing the text. I hope this gets the attention of the developers.

It would have saved me a day to leave the text out! That animation takes about 4 seconds to cycle. If each letter lit up after one cycle of the ubuntu symbol that would take about 12.8 seconds to cycle. Much of that animation was done with the math map plug and could just as well been done with a C script. Such a script would take up a fraction of the computers time and very little storage space on whatever media booted it.

[SonicSteve]

It would have saved me a day to leave the text out! That animation takes about 4 seconds to cycle. If each letter lit up after one cycle of the ubuntu symbol that would take about 12.8 seconds to cycle. Much of that animation was done with the math map plug and could just as well been done with a C script. Such a script would take up a fraction of the computers time and very little storage space on whatever media booted it.

Updating the splash has my vote, I just wish my vote was a bit more influential :rolleyes: OK I likely have no influence at all.
I think mac has this right though. I don't like the upsplash for XP, I never really have. I don't like Vista's either. Mac is simple yet it says "I"M A MAC!!" and it has style. Function is not the only criteria people use when buying or choosing something. Our Ubuntu logo has so much untapped potential for this, to be honest it looks good. We need to use it! People who are trying our software don't need the upsplash to tell them what OS their using. They likely already know. Cool is more important. Animating the Logo is a fantastic idea for an upsplash and I can accept that it may take my PC .4 seconds longer to load.

I have trouble believing a new animation could use that much more horsepower than the current animation (the orange progress bar).

Their could even be two install choices, Ubuntu for high powered computers, and a minimal install for lower end computers. They would just use different install scripts. One with all the animated bells and whistles and one without.

[SonicSteve]

http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/OSXbuntu+%5BUsplash%5D?content=74930

http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/OStuX+Usplash?content=75309

these are animated

Neither of these ideas fit with theme and feel of the Ubuntu Logo. Grey is just a MAC Knock off. We need to be original. If we went this way we would just be known as a MAC wannabe. Which I do not wannabe:eek:

[tretle]

I think maybe it was a joke, hmmm so it seems I wasn't the only one who thought it needed improvement after all, and here I was thinking I would get at max 4 responses :D :P
I hope some everybody keeps on talking and brainstorming ideas and has fun in doing so.
I have very strong views on the addition of 'Ubuntu' text along with the Logo, Its just unnecessary and takes away the potential of a great focal point.
As for the colors I don't see any problems with the current color scheme, The Icon looks slick, minimalistic and eye catching against the black background.
The only things which need to be removed are the progress bar and the text.
Using animation as a way to determine the progress is a great way of doing things but warning in advance. Beuty is in simplicity, Lets not have 10,000 animations all happening at once for the sake of it.

One other thing that annoys me about usplash, which is probably worthy of its own thread is that after you have loaded and logged in gnome, takes awhile to load various widgets onto the screen, Panel etc.
Sometimes the top panel loads before the bottom, sometimes you have what looks like a broken panel as the widget is being loaded.
Maybe there shuld be a way of prioritising which widgets are loaded first, like load top and bottom panel including its contents(applets, etc) at the same time before worrying about loading the desktop folders etc.
I also noticed what could have been just a bug in the panel but would be a fairly nice feature. The top panel now always seems to slide down from the top of the display, If this worked with the bottom panel sliding up from the bottom and side panels sliding from the sides coupled with prioritizing widgets so it doesn't have the premature loading of the panels before the contents of the panel are loaded(applets etc) then this would give a more coherent and fluid transition from when you plug in the pc to when everything is up and running.
Its small things like this which are often overlooked and can be a huge contributer to the first impressions someone gets when using Ubuntu or any gnome desktop for that matter for the first time.

Well thats my rant on UI and coherency for the day.

[SonicSteve]

One other thing that annoys me about usplash, which is probably worthy of its own thread is that after you have loaded and logged in gnome, takes awhile to load various widgets onto the screen, Panel etc.
Sometimes the top panel loads before the bottom, sometimes you have what looks like a broken panel as the widget is being loaded.
Maybe there shuld be a way of prioritising which widgets are loaded first, like load top and bottom panel including its contents(applets, etc) at the same time before worrying about loading the desktop folders etc.
I also noticed what could have been just a bug in the panel but would be a fairly nice feature. The top panel now always seems to slide down from the top of the display, If this worked with the bottom panel sliding up from the bottom and side panels sliding from the sides coupled with prioritizing widgets so it doesn't have the premature loading of the panels before the contents of the panel are loaded(applets etc) then this would give a more coherent and fluid transition from when you plug in the pc to when everything is up and running.
Its small things like this which are often overlooked and can be a huge contributer to the first impressions someone gets when using Ubuntu or any gnome desktop for that matter for the first time.

Well thats my rant on UI and coherency for the day.

I need to say first that I'm not a Star Wars Fanatic but.......
In the words of Xwing fighter pilot guy from Episode 4

"STAY ON TARGET, STAY ON TARGET":)

[smartboyathome]

By the way, from the mailing list:
There was a lot of discussion on usplash in the past. It hasn't
changed much in a while (iirc, the current design came with edgy) but
when it did change we felt it was quite an accomplishment.

It needed to be black because some LCDs do not stretch a
low-resolution image to fill the screen, instead painting a black
border around it. Some widescreen screens will take a 4:3 image and
center it, stretching it to fill the height but putting black borders
on the sides.

Also, the current usplash conceals the distortion caused by viewing a
4:3 aspect ratio image stretched to fill a 16:10 wide screen and it
has no text to translate.

I don't remember who the original artist was who did it but it's
fabulously simple and elegant. The animation is muted and low-key and
is just enough to assure the user that something is happening. Overall
it fits perfectly into the Ubuntu concept of a clean simple desktop
environment.

Anyone hoping to create a replacement should strive to meet these same ideals.

[SonicSteve]

Thanks for the direction. Guidelines are always good, and these are from fairly official discussions.

[tretle]

I was going to say something truly profound and awe inspiring but the forums are hurting my eyes so thats that :D :P

[natehall]

I like the idea of a few things happening during the splash. Your just sitting there waiting for your machine to turn on and having a few things bounce around holds your attention until the system is ready.

[spych102]

I like the idea of a few things happening during the splash. Your just sitting there waiting for your machine to turn on and having a few things bounce around holds your attention until the system is ready.

But there is always the danger that you may be so transfixed by the goings-on on your screen that you miss the most important thing of the day: your first coffee.

[meborc]

you guys are not the first ones to think of this :)

have you seen fluxbuntu splash?

it is a stopperwatch that ticks away revealing fluxbuntu logo... and after the full circle dissapears leaving the logo on screen for few seconds...

colors yould need some work, but brilliant

a pick here - http://lasperanzaelultimaamoriremamuore.files.wordpress.c om/2007/10/fluxubuntu_splash-t.png

they really did a good work with all the artwork being of the same colors and overall feel

[natehall]

you miss the most important thing of the day: your first coffee.
I do that even before I hit the on switch!
I

[natehall]

it is a stopperwatch that ticks away revealing fluxbuntu logo... and after the full circle dissapears leaving the logo on screen for few seconds...l

Since you are just waitng for the machine to come on watching a clock is quite natural.I'm not suprised somebody else thought of this.

[st0n3cutt3r]

But there is always the danger that you may be so transfixed by the goings-on on your screen that you miss the most important thing of the day: your first coffee.

This is an extremely important step. Clearly you could optimize your schedule better if you ever see anything on your display before the log in screen.

I recommend powering on your computer before you get coffee. Then the loading screen does not matter. Also imho bouncing things are annoying. Even M$ has figured out that a simple loading bar is the most utilitarian.


another thought... I've seen a lot of things with the dots and the arcs of the ubuntu logo disconnected (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4610186&postcount=10). To people who have considered doing something like this, you do realize that the logo is meant to represent the original Ubuntu picture of 3 people with their arms around each other, standing in a circle, right? if you look at it... its 3 people from the top, all looking up at you.
http://dosnlinux.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/ubuntu_people.jpg
Separating the dots from the arcs is the same as removing the heads from the people.... not something that's likely to happen in any official ubuntu material.

[meborc]

This is an extremely important step. Clearly you could optimize your schedule better if you ever see anything on your display before the log in screen.

I recommend powering on your computer before you get coffee. Then the loading screen does not matter. Also imho bouncing things are annoying. Even M$ has figured out that a simple loading bar is the most utilitarian.


another thought... I've seen a lot of things with the dots and the arcs of the ubuntu logo disconnected (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4610186&postcount=10). To people who have considered doing something like this, you do realize that the logo is meant to represent the original Ubuntu picture of 3 people with their arms around each other, standing in a circle, right? if you look at it... its 3 people from the top, all looking up at you.
http://dosnlinux.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/ubuntu_people.jpg
Separating the dots from the arcs is the same as removing the heads from the people.... not something that's likely to happen in any official ubuntu material.

wellll... the original ubuntu logo is this... the dots are separated... it just gives the logo a better look in my opinion

[st0n3cutt3r]

you're correct, the dots do not directly connect to the arcs... nor do heads directly connect to shoulders (because of necks). There's a difference between a small spacing for balance and having the dots and arcs completely separated (by a large distance).

[smartboyathome]

Technically, the "dots and arcs" being separated are Ubuntu's official logo, so there is no changing that.

[meborc]

ahh... i just realised i had understood wrong... :) sorry, sometimes i feel i'm a bit slow

[st0n3cutt3r]

this is really not so difficult a concept.

more than likely you have been looking at pictures of people represented as silhouettes with the heads shown as dots, slightly offset from the bodies, since before you can remember. This is a 'symbol'. In the same way, the Ubuntu logo uses the convention of human simplification using slightly offset dots to represent heads. This is okay - it's normal, universally understood, and apparently natural to do. On the other hand, you don't ever see the dot(head) separated from the body by a large distance. People are not Darth Vadars, with helmets(heads) that are slowly lowered onto their bodies from giant life support machines. This is a bad image, and not one that ubuntu will ever use or support (unless a LOT of people miss this huge detail - it happens... and then people get fired)

Does everybody get it now? **Watch the (attached) ubuntu people animation that I just made if you have any lingering doubts. Yes, it's great for a laugh, but things that are great for a laugh tend not to bode well for corporate image.

[knightcoder]

I was thinking, since its called usplash, there should be some literal splashing.

Current Ubuntu load bar and liquid filling up the screen splashing all about and finally covers the whole screen, thereby sinking the Progress bar ...:)

[zipperback]

I like the splash the way it is now.

- zipperbck


:popcorn:

[MAGZine]

All good ideas.

The first animation was alright, but isnstead of the pieces coming from nowhere, I think it would be good if they came out of a shortrange fade. So, say, 1 - 2 inches away from its final destination, it fades in, and locks into place. That way you don't have these massive pieces (and thus a massive animation) sliding all of the place.

Another idea was to have the Ubuntu logo load like a clock. The motion would have to be fluid, and you might want to take a look at having the image greyscale, and then as the image loads, bring it into color.I'd just leave the ubuntu logo with this concept, but nothing else. Fading might want to be applied to the clock animation too, to give it a more 'smooth' feel.