
GNU Wallpapers - chauhankiran
https://www.gnu.org/graphics/wallpapers.en.html
======
dmos62
They're naive, non-professional, obviously from a different time, not too
distracting and there's a strange proportion of people who can't help but
point out that they don't like it. What else could you want?

To go off on a parallel topic for a bit, I haven't used a desktop or a
wallpaper for some years now and it's great. Both are a bad idea. The desktop
is a magnet for sloppy organization. You'd be surprised just how much more
organized and productive file system and shortcut usage gets if you turn off
desktop icons. And a wallpaper is just distracting. I've never found a
wallpaper that I didn't want to change after a while. I even tried minimal
gradients. What ended up working perfect, as in I'll likely never change it,
is a solid black wallpaper.

Concerning not using a wallpaper, functional benefits aside, someone might
think that this would take away the bling of an expensive laptop, but that's
exactly what I find appealing about it. This way you're treating the device,
not as a status or fashion statement, but as a functional tool.

~~~
lkdjjdjjjdskjd
I rarely ever see my desktop, because apps are usually maximized. Doesn't
everybody do that? What kind of apps did people use back in the day when
desktops weren't hidden all the time?

Maybe the idea was to occasionally quit apps and open other ones, not to keep
them all open at the same time?

~~~
sovande
> What kind of apps did people use back in the day when desktops weren't
> hidden all the time?

Emacs to the left and one xterm window in the bottom right corner.

~~~
FlyMoreRockets
... with xclock top center.

------
Fice
Looks like a collection of random contributions that were not evaluated for
their aesthetic quality. For better examples of crowdsourced art see Fedora
supplemental wallpapers: [https://fedoramagazine.org/submissions-now-open-
fedora-30-su...](https://fedoramagazine.org/submissions-now-open-
fedora-30-supplemental-wallpapers/).

Also, the GNU project appear to have capable designers:
[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/](https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/)

~~~
jancsika
> Also, the GNU project appear to have capable designers:
> [https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/](https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/)

And still the images have little speckles and color bleed presumably left
there from a poor quality scan/cleanup.

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self_awareness
It doesn't communicate very well. All this website says is: you don't pay
anything, so you're getting a sh__tty quality. Plus you have no right to want
anything more.

There are tons of good free high quality wallpapers on deviantart.com, and for
those that aren't "free as in freedom", I think it's up to negotiation with
the author of a particular wallpaper. Some of them will probably be delighted
to be selected by gnu.org to be the producer of GNU-approved art.

~~~
josefx
> Plus you have no right to want anything more.

Some of the linked wallpapers do not have their source files linked. As far as
I know the GPL requires that the preferred version of the source is also made
available and neither png nor jpeg qualify for most image manipulation tools.
At least a few have the xcf also linked.

~~~
klez
Why do you think they're GPL-licenced? Did I miss the license on the page?

Also, if you read about the FSF they don't advocate for all non-software to be
free. Some documentation from the FSF is not included in Debian because the
Debian developers deemed it not free enough, because some parts are marked as
non-modifiable.

~~~
josefx
At least this one is [https://www.gnu.org/graphics/this-is-freedom-
wallpaper.html](https://www.gnu.org/graphics/this-is-freedom-wallpaper.html) ,
stated below the image. However that brings up annother issue, which license
applies to the images that do not have an explicit license stated? Is it the
creative commons stated for the website itself and would this also apply to
the externally hosted images?

~~~
klez
I guess the CC license is just for the page, as the image are hosted someplace
else and are not explicitly included in the license footer (which is the
standard footer throughout the FSF/GNU website.)

If the images themselves don't specify any license they fall back to "all
rights reserved".

------
gattilorenz
The design of the website and of these wallpapers communicates this: we're
better because we're free, who cares about the looks.

I do appreciate the GNU tools and whatnot, but it is hard to "convert"
everyday users with the moral argument.

~~~
_ZeD_
the fact that it's free software is in fact the core of the message, so I
think the design correctly conveys it succesfully

~~~
josefx
Are bad and inconsistent design also core of the message? Because every single
linked wallpaper page on that list has a different layout when they don't go
directly to a wallpaper of unspecified size. Others have their sized versions
listed directly inline and then we have the wallpapers hosted on an external
server vs. hosted on gnu itself. It leaves a bad impression when they don't go
the last 10% of the effort to present a clean site instead of an unorganized
dump.

------
lkdjjdjjjdskjd
They all seem to be incredibly ugly. The 90ies called and want their bad
designs back?

------
leemailll
It looks just like never changed for 20 years. I've visited this page long
time before, and still seems no serious effort for these except [this
one]([https://www.gnu.org/graphics/meditate.html](https://www.gnu.org/graphics/meditate.html)),
which according to copyright notice have been there for 18 years.

------
benj111
Am I missing something with the onion wallpaper?
[https://www.gnu.org/graphics/plant-
onion.html](https://www.gnu.org/graphics/plant-onion.html)

It seems to be more about actual onions than a tor thing?!

Edit: Doh, reread the description "Gardeners and tor users..." Thanks for the
replies though.

~~~
dmos62
Planting onions is easy, running Tor relays is easy too. The onions in the
picture use the same palette as Tor's [https://www.torproject.org/images/tor-
logo.png](https://www.torproject.org/images/tor-logo.png)

------
Rjevski
It would be better if they just linked to Unsplash.

------
Jerry2
Some of them are quite nice but unfortunately none of them are higher res than
1080p.

~~~
BlackLotus89
What thinkpad that runs libreboot has a higher resolution?

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la_oveja
this one look like a windows 95 program installer splash screen:
[https://www.gnu.org/graphics/meditate.png](https://www.gnu.org/graphics/meditate.png)

~~~
kieranph
I mean, Libreboot hasn't been updated since 2016, so it might as well be...

------
intea
related: [https://www.gnu.org/music/](https://www.gnu.org/music/)

~~~
opencl
OpenBSD used to release a song along with every OS release, seems to have
stopped last year with 6.2 though.

[https://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html](https://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html)

~~~
jordigh
Nooo, they stopped? The release songs were really great, and I always looked
forward to a new release song.

------
raverbashing
Yeah, I didn't know what to expect.

Nowadays my "wallpaper" is the terminal or browser app, maximized

------
offbytwo
Gonna start using this one
([https://www.gnu.org/graphics/I_run_GNU_by_GNUlancer.png](https://www.gnu.org/graphics/I_run_GNU_by_GNUlancer.png))
on my Windows PC at work

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niceworkbuddy
It feels like early 2000s.

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meuk
Well, that's embarrassing.

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zapzupnz
Holy cow, these are hideous. Then again, the website itself isn't exactly a
Renoir.

~~~
SamWhited
It's a little known fact that Renoir did web design on the side.

