Fedora Workstation WG Meeting Summary, 2025-05-27

Meeting May 27, 2025 at 08:47 CDT

Summary

Michael Catanzaro announced the Fedora 42 release party, and 
participants discussed improving the consistency and quality of Fedora 
desktop wallpapers. Allan Day highlighted the challenge of agreeing on 
a wallpaper style, while Michael Catanzaro and Allan Day emphasized the 
need for brand consistency. The working group agreed to request the 
Fedora wallpaper design team to consider a more consistent visual style 
across releases, with Neal Gompa (Conan Kudo) and Allan Day 
volunteering to communicate with the designers.

Details

Fedora 42 Release Party

Michael Catanzaro announced an invitation to participate in the Fedora 
42 release party on Thursday, May 29th, from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC. 
Matthias confirmed their willingness to be involved, assuming their 
laptop is returned. The event will include a 15-minute slot to present 
Fedora 42 workstation work.

Desktop Wallpapers Discussion

Michael Catanzaro initiated a discussion on improving and maintaining 
the default desktop wallpapers. It was noted that the 
gnome-backgrounds-extras subpackage has been removed, consolidating 
wallpapers into the main gnome-backgrounds package. While more 
wallpapers are now installed by default, the quality and consistency of 
the default wallpaper remain a concern, with the last recorded 
discussion on the issue being eight months prior.

Challenges in Wallpaper Style Selection

Allan Day highlighted the recurring nature of the wallpaper discussion 
and the difficulty for the working group to agree on a specific design 
direction due to the diverse preferences and the group's non-design 
focus. Allan suggested options such as a vote or delegating the 
decision to someone like Jakob Steiner. Michael Catanzaro acknowledged 
the potential of delegating but noted the removal of the Fedora 
community from the process.

Opinions on Current Wallpaper Style

Matthias and Neal Gompa (Conan Kudo) expressed the view that the 
current Fedora wallpaper style is already unique and recognizable. Neal 
Gompa (Conan Kudo) specifically mentioned the watercolor paint style 
and noted its appearance in OMG Ubuntu. Jens-Ulrik Petersen expressed a 
preference for some of the earlier wallpapers but found the latest one 
unappealing.

Desire for Branding Consistency

Michael Catanzaro and Allan Day voiced their agreement on the need for 
more consistency in the wallpaper style across Fedora releases to build 
stronger brand recognition, similar to Ubuntu and Gnome. Michael 
Catanzaro disagreed with the idea that the current wallpapers 
effectively communicate a consistent Fedora identity. Allan Day 
emphasized that the wallpaper should communicate the qualities of the 
Fedora product.

Moving Forward with Wallpaper Issue

Michael Catanzaro questioned how to progress on the wallpaper issue, 
suggesting options like presenting it to the Fedora developer community 
or holding a vote. Michel Lind supported the idea of voting within the 
working group first. Allan Day suggested discussing options with the 
current design team member, Madeline, as a first step.

The Role of Release Code Names

Neal Gompa (Conan Kudo) suggested that linking wallpaper designs to 
release code names could provide a thematic connection and more 
uniformity. Matthias and Michael Catanzaro expressed their disagreement 
with having code names for the six-month release cycles. Michel Lind, 
however, found the Ubuntu model of using animal code names every six 
months effective for branding.

Proposal for Consistent Visual Style

Michael Catanzaro proposed requesting the Fedora wallpaper design team 
to consider incorporating a more consistent visual style across 
releases, without specifying a particular style. Neal Gompa (Conan 
Kudo) agreed with the need for a generally homogeneous style, 
clarifying that their earlier disagreement was against completely 
changing from a humanistic to a geometric style. The proposal to 
request greater consistency in style was agreed upon by the working 
group.

Delegating Communication with Designers

Neal Gompa (Conan Kudo) volunteered to talk to the design team at 
Flock, noting that the team is expected to be present. Allan Day 
offered to continue as the liaison but expressed openness to Neal Gompa 
(Conan Kudo) taking on the task. It was agreed that both Neal Gompa 
(Conan Kudo) and Allan Day could communicate with the designers.

Meeting Conclusion

Michael Catanzaro expressed satisfaction with the progress made and 
moved the wallpaper issue to pending action. The agenda items were 
completed, and the meeting was adjourned on schedule.

Suggested next steps

Neal Gompa (Conan Kudo) and Allan Day will communicate with the Fedora 
wallpaper design team to request greater consistency in the visual 
style of the default wallpapers from release to release.

The group will invite Jeff (new Fedora project leader) to attend a 
future meeting.


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