[kde-artists] New start sound - Discussion.

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

On Thursday 30 May 2013 22:46:05 Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On Thursday, May 30, 2013 16:00:14 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
> > On Thursday 30 May 2013 13:10:50 Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > > On Thursday, May 30, 2013 09:13:37 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
> > > * It often starts at an unpredictable time due to the mechanics of the
> > > startup procedure and the wonder that is free software audio; this is
> > > only
> > > going to become worse as we move to increasingly parallelized startup
> > > where
> > > dependencies are determined at runtime by access (the systemd model,
> > > e.g.)
> > 
> > Yes, Free Software audio is a mess, but I agree with Djuro here that
> > working around the mess by disabling sounds would not help getting the
> > mess fixed.
> we use sound in many other places. there is no need to remind people how
> unhappy this part of the stack is as one of the first things we great them
> with on log in.
> 
> put another way: the log in sound is not going to undermine the need for
> improvements in the audio stack as we have many, many other functional use
> cases that compel us to do so.
> 
> given that the log in sound is not functional (but purely aesthetic and/or
> for branding) i have to object to presenting it to people if we can not do
> so in a non-broken way. (similar to our approach to compositing at the
> start of 4.x, back when things were really broken and shaky)

Agreed. So getting the login sound to work correctly may be a side effect of 
fixing the sound stack for other, more important reasons ;)

> > > * They are annoying as hell (regardless of platform). We've opted for
> > > elegance for the user rather than attempts to inject our brand into the
> > > environment.
> > 
> > A long startup tune like we currently have may indeed be annoying (and
> > even
> > short ones occasionally are), but I would not consider a startup sound
> > "not
> > elegant" per se.
> 
> given the youtube videos that mock them, i would beg to differ :)
> 
> for me, i don't particularly like the idea of imposing something that is not
> elegant on our users just to forward our own goals of branding (e.g.). the
> person we make this stuff for should come first imho.
> 
> so if we manage to have a good sound, it needs to be something soothing,
> simple and well timed. a wave hitting a beach would do it for me, but then i
> grew up by the ocean ;)

I grew up pretty far away form the ocean but that still sounds like a nice 
idea to me :)

> > > Things that could improve the above and which would cause at least me to
> 
> > > re- assess this decision:
> ...
> 
> > So I'd suggest we encourage Ernesto to create a new, short, and overall
> > better new sound instead of implying "Don't waste your time, it's disabled
> 
> yes, i think that's what i wrote above :)

Okay, I'll pick the discussion up again when we have good ideas for login 
sounds and a working sound stack.

So Ernesto, time to shine ;)