You’re right - that’s the opposite to what I imagined, and I guess that puts the idea to bed 
Anyway, I think having a web link to the Ubuntu community forums is the last thing I can think of, to get a Circle of Friends icon on the launcher by default, and I think it’s a nice idea. I leave it with the thread!
EDIT: Aha, just saw your reply
Yes, what I did was
Create an empty SVG with 124px X 24px
Put the Ubuntu logo into it at the left edge
Style the panelActivities.panel-button with
124px X 24px
Text aligned to the right
And the SVG as a not stretched 1:1 background centered
This didn’t work because either I could increase the length of the button and short translations of “activities” left a big space or of I could fit the button to the logo and long translations overlapped the logo 
This patch would be pretty awesome.
What we would need is
[ [ new container for the icon background ] [ label for the “activities” string ] ] <---- outer brackets are another new container element for placing logo and activities into
yeah, I won’t get to it immediatly, but I think it’s doable (either hardcoding the logo or checking for one with a specific name and only showing up the container if found).
I do understand the reason for not including Ubuntu branding in a system icon. There were three main suggestions: file manager, settings, and software centre. Even I (privately) felt that software centre would be pushing it, because neither the software centre app nor the things being viewed in it are properties of Ubuntu (it’s the Gnome Software Centre, and you’re looking at apps from developers all over the world).
I felt there was more of a fair rationale for file manager (because you’re exploring your installation of Ubuntu) and settings (because you’re personalising Ubuntu) but I genuinely wouldn’t want to alienate or offend the people who work on those Gnome components, so I absolutely consider the idea abandoned based on the atmospherics from GUADEC.
I’m still very happy to try to make (rather than merely mock up) a Suru icon for “Ubuntu”, if the thread agrees on something to use it for - including “Help” if that gets consensus The blue for the current Help icon is really lovely, so it would be nice to re-use that for something else if so.
Just do it. We could also use it for the welcome app which currently has no suru logo
I find it suiting well the welcome app. The only thing is that it’s only showed once per definition.
We should have a re-welcome!
Yes like the welcome boutique from mate.
I actually can’t find a welcome app, I know people mentioned one but I thought they meant a hypothetical one that could be made. Is it something that could be a launcher favourite by default?
I am afraid this would push the wrong idea that Community HUB is for help and support
I checked your mockup. It looks awesome, well done, you definately have great skills.
@didrocks , @frederik-f, @jaggers, @c-lobrano, @taciturasa and and all others who participated:
Just to remind you for a moment, my post above, and put things in perspective:
I find it a bit amusing to become the one who try to defend the idea of keeping the branding of UBUNTU . Kipping it up and bold at the top of the “Ubuntu-Dock”. If it was up to my decision, it could have been a LOGO without any function at all. Not clickable! Just there so say : UBUNTU ! - When you install it for the first time or upgrade or what ever it seats there load and clear. Whats wrong with it?
There are two different things here:
I am not really convinced. A logo on the dock, you expect to be able to click on it and do something, this way it would look like wasted space
I agree to a point, it will be better if it can be functional as well, no doubt about it. but I can’t see in this aspect that Ubuntu logo is a waist of space.
I see it as declarative idea. but as I said before - it’s my point of view
For example, consider a small screen or even a big screen with enough applications opened or pinned that one needs to scroll down the dock to reach an actual application, at this point an inactive icon fixed on top would be a little annoying I think
@mozit, I honestly nearly suggested the same thing in despair (logo that isn’t a button for anything) but I think it would need an option to turn it off/on for the reason @c-lobrano gives. But really, I think if it’s there you might as well link it to something. I know a lot of apps have (or used to have) a menu item called “About” which just opened a small popup with credits and version information. I think having that would be preferable to a Circle of Friends that doesn’t respond at all when you click?
Okay, another option, though it may not be preferrable. Fedora uses their own extension to add a watermark to the desktop with the fedora logo. We could do the same for Ubuntu, but I feel that’s one of those instances where it’s actively annoying and upsetting to the user, especially if they have a wallpaper with wording in it.
- @jaggers and @c-lobrano I do agree with you. but as I said, users will have the ability to right click it out if they so like. It doesn’t mean Ubuntu should give it up on their own in advance. That’s why I said it’s a declarative aspect.
For instance, if you do a random google search :" How to remove Ubuntu logo from top-panel"? you will see what I mean.
We as users can have our ideas about how we want our desktop to look n’ feel But here we talk about the default theme and my question is referred to that side of the equation .
In that case… I return to my earlier question, which is: can an icon be made for a particular subsection of “Settings”?
If you search for “about” in the Gnome dash, the top suggestion is a shortcut to the relevant part of Settings (the shortcut icon is a star):
When you click on it, you get this:
…which has a very conspicuous Circle of Friends on it!
So, if the default installation had an “About” shortcut on the launcher, I’m struggling to think what the icon would be, other than a Circle of Friends Better yet, I would probably keep the icon there on merit (rather than for the sake of the logo alone), because it has a handy “Check for updates” button that I actually didn’t know about!
Sadly you can’t right-click the star shortcut and add it to your launcher, so it isn’t quite the same as an app. But if it’s possible to create a launcher icon that points to About, the only sensible design would be a Circle of Friends, and that could go at the top of the launcher for the default (“out of the box”) installation. I would be super-happy with that solution.
I also like the idea that was suggested earlier, of using an Ubuntu icon for the welcome app/message. Sadly I can’t find that anywhere on my system though 
In terms of the icon work in progress, this was my first attempt to do a full Suru icon in all sizes, based on the Software Centre icon for maximum consistency in colour, etc… I think the composition can be improved, but at least I now know I can do a Suru icon at every different size, taking the same pixellation/highlights as an existing one:
…but I think the circle of friends needs to be a little bit smaller relative to the squircle.
I am afraid we are mistaking the real problem here. My understanding is that we like to have an always visible mark that we are on an Ubuntu machine, something that will be nice and easy, but also not useless. Even if an normal, but actionless, icon on the dock is the (currently) only option, it is not a viable solution to me. The user can (and probably would) remove it, since it has no purpose except showing the logo, which does not provide any real plus for a normal usage/workday and every UI element should have a (possibly evident) purpose. If the icon is for an application, as said, it should be a Ubuntu powered app (like the welcome application) or we should agree with the owner, before doing so.
I see the logo on top panel the best solution here
