frellwits

Open source art is nothing new, it does already exist. But why would you open up something that you have created? You do have a choice when you create something. You can either close it, watermark it and angerly pursue everyone who uses it for something. See the big media companies and the participatory culture on YouTube for example. You may have a reason for closing something, like economic profit for example.

However, looking at the participatory culture on YouTube you can see that creativity sparks more creativity. But this is nothing new, poeple do get inspired by all sort of things around them. It’s a complete waste when a fantastic visual artistic video gets the audio removed on YouTube because of copyright infrigments. Another piece of art lost in the angry pursuit of maximum profit and control. Niether Beethoven or Mozart had anything against people playing their music or even changing some parts of it. One piece of art can get even better when more minds work on it. It can create forks and open completely new unexplored areas.

What you can do

My point is that creativity feeds creativity. If the goal behind your project isn’t money and control, then open up your creations with open licenses and let the art do what it’s supposed to do – Create feelings, spark new ideas, be used and viewed by as many people as possible. Although, a link back to the original should be obligatory just to have some control of it. You can also add rules against certain uses of your art, like rasism for example. I wouldn’t ask for more when I use the Creative Commons by-nc-sa license for my themes and designs.

Don’t mind my old guide, this one will explain it a bit better. If you’re like me and don’t like all the software Ubuntu comes with by default you can install a minimal base system without any extra software like OpenOffice, Evolution, Gnome Games for example. You could also install Debian only if you prefer a very stable system. I prefer Ubuntu though because of the more recent up to date software in the repositories.

Getting started

If this is the first time that you install a minimal Ubuntu installation you can test it in a virtual machine before you install it on your main computer. I highly recommend that. Even if it’s a very easy process you may get trouble later on. Try VirtualBox if you want to test it in a virtual machine. You’ll now need the Alternate installation CD – http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/downloadmirrors#alternate or the minimal installation CD – https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD

When the Alternate CD is booted you must select your language. Then press F4 and select Install a command-line system. Press enter and start installing. The installation process should be quite straightforward if you have an internet connection and all. No need for me to explain all the easy steps. Same goes for the minimal CD except that you need to type CLI before you start the installation instead of pressing F4.

Installing a graphical user interface

So your system is up and running and you’re logged in with your new user in the command line. Now for the fun, building your own installation with the software you want. Before you continue, run sudo apt-get update && upgrade to upgrade your Ubuntu installation to the more recent up to date software. Now you need a user interface, run: sudo apt-get install xorg gdm gnome-core to get a graphical login manager and a minimal Gnome desktop. The current system isn’t very pretty when you start Gnome, to change this you can install some gtk-engines and themes with sudo apt-get install gtk2-engines human-theme. Now it’s all up to you what software you want to use, so check http://packages.ubuntu.com/ to see what software you need. You’ll probably want a browser and an archive-manager – sudo apt-get install firefox file-roller gdebi. Have fun with the rest. Gnome without a lot of bloat feels much better.

Hopefully I can write something this time before I get tired, and hopefully I won’t get tired. If I know me right I think I may write some simple articles and then forget about this journal again. Never mind about that though, what about this design? It’s simple and doesn’t really stand out or anything, the CSS is a messy edit of another WP theme and some things may be a bit buggy. Works fine in Opera and Firefox though (even IE6 :o ). I decided to focus on some simple typography and get rid of most images just to keep all your eyes on the text. :p Oh well, I may release the WP theme if I decide to work on it some more.