That’s going to be a problem if you plan on becoming an official flavor. The technical board has taken the stance that flatpaks are not allowed in official flavors. The package “flatpak” is allowed, but flatpaks themselves are not allowed as they come from untrusted, external repositories. Snaps are allowed, but only if they meet certain requirements.
There are a number of rules you must follow to become and remain an official flavor. See this wiki entry.
Ubuntu GNOME was, as of 17.10, “absorbed” into Ubuntu Desktop. The flavor lead of Ubuntu GNOME, @jbicha, now works for Canonical on the Desktop Team. Therefore, Ubuntu GNOME lives on, but as Ubuntu Desktop. I’d be worried about brand confusion here, but that’s just my opinion.
About flatpaks: No problem, there are no flatpaks installed on the current system so it would be a quick removal of the flatpak apt packages.
Also, I find it kind of disappointing that Ubuntu Gnome (through Ubuntu desktop) is not a vanilla-ish UI like most other flavours: IMO, Ubuntu desktop should be described as GNOME+Yaru (or whatever) UX instead of just GNOME like the folks at system76 have done with the COSMIC UX and Pop!_OS
This is why the vanilla-gnome-desktop metapackage exists, so that people have the option of having a completely vanilla GNOME experience within Ubuntu from a simple installation and change their session in GDM to “GNOME” from “Ubuntu”. Pretty easy.
This is 100% not allowed if wanting to become an official flavor. All official flavors must use internal repositories, i.e. the main and universe repositories. Any package included in the official flavor must be in those repositories must be included, and somebody on the team must have upload rights to universe (i.e. a MOTU, Master Of The Universe) or both universe and main (a Core Developer).
It’s temporarily allowed if you need a place to put the packages for the branding until those can be uploaded.
In other words, I can keep the branding packages in a PPA until/unless it becomes an official flavour and can put the branding in the official repositories.
If possible, I would prefer it to be a Plymouth theme premade because I have a lot of de/rebranding to do right now.
If it is too much, just send the gif and I will try to sort it out.
Here is a Plymouth theme creator that works with gif: https://github.com/jcklpe/Plymouth-Animated-Boot-Screen-Creator
Thanks
Allow me some time. I will go through the library you shared and see whether I can get a working Plymouth theme. Sunday evening for me, I will try to work on it tomorrow.
No. Before you even apply to become an official flavor (it doesn’t happen automatically), you must have everything you need in the official repositories, no exceptions.
You can rely on a PPA for now during early stages, but just know that if you want to become an official flavor, those packages do eventually need sponsorship and to be uploaded into the official repositories. Furthermore, you need someone on your team with upload rights, preferably yourself.
The bar to become an official flavor is quite high, and for good reason. I highly urge you to read this document thoroughly, because that’s the bar you have to meet to become an official flavor. I have worked with the technical board to come up with a process, but you need to meet the requirements.
Of course! That’s a step in how you become an official flavor! You just need someone with upload privileges willing to sponsor the packages. However, even the packages must meet the packaging standards in the Debian policy manual to be accepted for upload. For what it’s worth, I’m the official MOTU/sponsor for the Ubuntu Cinnamon packages, and they have stated their intent to become an official flavor to the Technical Board, so that process is rolling.
edit: nevermind, I see I skimmed too quickly. This used to say “Vanilla Remix might not be a good name due to possible confusion with Vanilla OS”, but I see the name changed since then.
