The Communitheme team is happy to announce a new stable release!
It’s the 13th stable release, but no one is superstitious right? 
This week we worked mainly on
and in some background activities regarding the repositories and some more
I’m already updating!
By the way, why did you choose the black cursor?
"To make it short :
Ubuntu logo at the top of the Dock
Grid icon at the bottom."
“If I (or someone else) won’t find a way to fix the alignment problems with the activities background (yes, the logo is only a background) then I fear it will be removed again.”
The easiest (not necessarily the best!) way to deal with these problems might be something I suggested a while ago:
“You could ask the Suru developer to incorporate a circle of friends into a Suru icon, for an app that could appear at the top of the launcher by default. ‘Settings’ or ‘App store’ would be possible contenders, or it could just open a relevant web page or list of credits. For users who leave the icon where it is, this approach is arguably the closest look to Unity.”
Here was my mockup, although I suppose the Ubuntu icon doesn’t have to be “squircular”:
Pros:
Cons:
You know what - if the mini Circle of Friends turns out to be unworkable, I’d be tempted to change the File Manager button to an Ubuntu logo and have it at the top of the launcher by default.
Of all the apps, File Manager is the one that most represents your installation of Ubuntu, and it’s something you click on a lot. Most people would be happy to see it on the launcher by default and probably keep it there too. I suppose it’s quite arbitrary for an Ubuntu logo to take you to a place where you navigate/search files and directories, but no worse than the previous behaviour. After all, the app grid is just another place where you navigate and launch the stuff you’ve got on your PC, but with the emphasis on apps, rather than files and directories. I’m guessing most Ubuntu users resort to both views a lot in their day-to-day navigation.
If this was the chosen solution, I’d redesign the Software Centre, to avoid having two default icons with the same colour scheme (white on orange).
EDIT - so 18.10 would look something like:
Aha - quick question for @frederik-f:
Am I right in thinking that the text “Activities” is aligned to the right so it doesn’t print over the Circle of Friends? So it’s doing this:
[O . . . . A c t i v i t i e s]
<--------->>>>>>>>>>>
Which means you get different spacing according to the length of the text:
[O . . A c t i v i t i t i e s]
<------>>>>>>>>>>>>>
[O . . . . . . . . . . . . A c t s]
<---------------------->>>>>
???
If so, my question is… is it possible to left align the button text, but add a few space characters to the start of the text in each language, to make room for the logo? So the text starts next to the logo but not on top of it.
E.g., replace the string “Activities” with “_ _ _ Activities” but with spaces instead of dots (annoyingly when I try to do multiple space characters it reduces them to just one). Then add the same number of space characters to the start of each translation and have the text attached to the left. Would that lead to consistent spacing between the logo and the button text?
Text:
“_ _ _ Activities”
“_ _ _ Activitities”
“_ _ _ Acts”
[O . . . A c t i v i t i e s]
[O . . . A c t i v i t i t i e s]
[O . . . A c t s]
?
Yup. That’s the problem.
What we would need is another container
[[Logo][Text]]
Then we could style and align the logo and text individually.
Sadly we don’t have access to the inserted strings in css
I like your idea with a default icon using the circle of friends. But the file manager is wrong.
What would make a bit more could be either the “help” application or the settings imho
Aha, worth a try
Of those two I would prefer Settings. I see the logic in Help, but only new users would click on it really. Then established users have a choice between removing it (and therefore losing the Circle of Friends) or wasting space on the launcher with a button they never click. At least Settings is something you’re likely to always use sometimes, however long you’ve been using Ubuntu
That’d be really something for our fork of Suru. Since the settings icon is pretty fitting for gnome.
Can you make a PR for our repo?
https://snwh.org/suru/guidelines
Ubuntu logo in Activities looks very wrong in my language.
This is how it looks in Greek, the logo is hidden somewhere after the 3rd letter.
In Greek “Activities” is translated as “Δραστηριότητες”, 14 letters in total.
I think the same happes in other languages too, it depends on how many letters or special characters the translated “Activites” has.
@frederik-f, absolutely - am I just making a pull request, or should I have a go at making the icons (as per the linked design guide) and do a PR to get them added?
Thank you very much! This is what I have feared. I’m going to remove the icon now until we have a proper “branding” solution, like the one @jaggers had for the settings icon.
@jaggers you would need to add icons for every folder. I don’t know how he does it exactly but I he has SVGs and then exports them as PNGs into every folder from 48@2, 48, … 16@2 and so on with the proper size. But the smaller icons have bigger outlines. It’s lot to do but totally doable
There is no such logo I think so you would need to create the svg
No probs, I will crack on with it
Hm I am struggling if the settings app is really such a good idea.
Maybe the idea with the gnome-software is better.
There are already “double” icons for gnome software and software updater already:
I really don’t think using File Manager orSsettings app is a good use of the ubuntu logo, it should give access to the system.
Maybe all those attempts show that we should put an hold on the idea to have the logo by default for ubuntu 18.10, focus on the rest of the theme and think about it again for next cycle, wdyt?
The software store could be a place that fits.
But yes we are maybe crossing the border of madness and despair 
When I look to the past posts in here I think that the general opinion is quiet torn. Some people are ok without the logo others are not. 
The activities thing just doesn’t work at the moment
Cursor comes from Suru Icon set
Okay, I know this is kinda late, but why not just let the ubuntu icon be for a welcome app? It’d be simple, not confuse other applications, and be a simple way to brand that would get out of the way when the user removes it. it’d also provide functionality without serving as a core system thing.
It could show off the new theme, how to use snaps, have a link to the discourse, have a list of credits and contributors, etc.
IMO, it would make the most sense to have it be a webpage that opens in your default browser, instead of its own welcome app. That way it could easily be changed per version, have a news feed, etc.
@taciturasa, a logo that linked to some kind of welcome/documentation/webpage/help would be better than not having one at all IMO… but my feeling was that it would then only be useful for novices. Established users would soon have to choose between removing it (and losing the logo/branding) or keeping it and wasting space on the launcher for a button they never used. That was why my preference was to find something that most users would click on occasionally forever, like File Manager, settings or software.
However, I think a welcome/documentation/webpage/help button is a fair solution, and probably uncontroversial in terms of the meaning of the icon (because you click on it to find out about Ubuntu). And at least people then have the option of keeping a logo at the top of their launcher, even if they never click on it!
“It should give access to the system.”
Ideally I agree, and that was my logic for suggesting File Manager… it’s the app that corresponds most closely to being a view of the whole system. I actually think Ubuntu logo = File Manager is slightly more logical than Ubuntu logo = app grid?
One thing Windows users are used to is having two buttons (at least) that take you to File Manager: one for File Manager and one for Documents, with the latter just being a shortcut to the Documents folder in File Manager. Likewise, I wonder if the Ubuntu logo could take you to the Home directory and the current File Manager icon could take you to Documents?
We have a proverb: If it work, do not touch.
Why change UX from previous versions? UX should remain unchanged from version to version. Remember Windows 8 without the Start button and with the shutdown button in a hidden place.
