Yeah -- the sad fact is that a lot of the creativity that we in the FC
movement like to point to as interesting free culture gets created on a Mac.

I'm guilty -- so is every professional digital photographer I know & work
with. Linux digital photography is not at a place where its usable by
professionals yet. But for development and coding, there is no other way,
and I use linux on all my projects that have web hosting.

I'd love to see alternate designs (perhaps we can match them to user agents
... :)

F


On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 11:11 AM, Christina Xu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Yeah, I totally got the LV reference and liked it a lot for the exact
> reason that Kevin just mentioned. As someone who partially grew up in China,
> I associate LVs with this crazy counterfeit market in Shanghai where they
> make goods that are actually better quality than the real brand stuff for
> way, way cheaper. Free Fashion ftw.
>
> I'm not trying to make anyone do any extra work! And I certainly am not
> significantly upset about the background. Although I use only Ubuntu, I too
> am not a purist in that I think it's far more important for good people to
> run bad software if they are going to use it to make cool stuff. The only
> reason why Ubuntu is an option for me is because I never do any video/audio
> editing and I am trying my best not to play any video games. If any of those
> things became a necessity, I'd probably have to dual-boot at the very least.
>
> That said, maybe if I have time tonight (in my cabin with wifi) I'll fire
> up ol' GIMPy and see what I can't come up with a few alternative designs.
>
> Thanks for the discussion, everyone!
> Christina
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 12:26 AM, Kevin Driscoll <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:
>
>> My classmate is writing a thesis about counterfeit luxury goods right
>> now. It is completely fascinating and was definitely on my mind way
>> back in the spring when we made that image. There's a whole different
>> set of ethics, standards, practices, and expectations among consumers
>> of brands like LV, Coach, Chanel, etc.
>>
>> I can't locate a link right now but there are large communities of
>> people who discuss the best fakes on messageboards and listservs,
>> collaborating on large databases of otherwise disparate information.
>> For example, they can identify which factories in southeast Asia
>> produce the closest approximation of a Kate Spade purse or pair of
>> Gucci shades. I think rocking the fakes purposefully has a curious
>> rupturing effect on brand stability. On one hand, the brand emerges
>> more powerful as it multiplies. But on another, the parent corporation
>> can't simply price undesirable people out of participation so
>> consumers/fans are able to usurp/guide the future of the brand.
>>
>> Definitely a rich topic for any free culture researcher to dig into.
>>
>>
>> The background of this website has proved a surprisingly verdant
>> conversation piece! :)
>>
>> Kevin
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 2:16 AM, Dean Jansen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> > I'm sure this doesn't make it any better (or maybe it does?!), but
>> > it's a parody of the Luis Vuitton handbag print:
>> > http://tinyurl.com/5tcm8l
>> >
>> > Can we just treat it as one deliciously big chunk of irony? We all
>> > know the Apple motto should be "What Copy/Paste?"
>> > http://tinyurl.com/63cr2f
>> >
>> > --Dean
>> >
>> > On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 1:40 AM, Kevin Driscoll <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> wrote:
>> >> I'm not willing to change the background myself only because it seems
>> >> really low on my conference-prep priority list. I'm open to changing
>> >> it if someone else does the lion's share of the work and it works with
>> >> the design we have going. Sorry to be inflexible, there's just a ton
>> >> to do.
>> >>
>> >> Starting another thread re: #2. Another pet peeve of mine.
>> >>
>> >> Kevin
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 4:40 PM, Christina Xu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> wrote:
>> >>> 1) Fred: Thanks for pulling up that Wikipedia article! Yeah, it would
>> be
>> >>> cool to reappropriate the St. John's Cross for our purposes, but I'm
>> kind of
>> >>> questioning if this is going to do it. In this context, it is
>> definitely
>> >>> going to be read as the Apple command icon, not anything else.
>> >>>
>> >>> 2) Kevin: I feel you on where you're coming from with this. As a
>> no-time Mac
>> >>> user and full-time Ubuntu-on-a-PC user, I guess it threw me off
>> because I'm
>> >>> so used to my ctrl key. If you had used "ctrl", it probably 1)
>> wouldn't have
>> >>> looked as cool and 2) would have been similarly alarming to Mac users.
>> BUT,
>> >>> that said...I'm pretty concerned with how successful at "freewashing"
>> Apple
>> >>> is as a corporation. Maybe I'm totally off the mark, but my sense is
>> that
>> >>> Mac has been promoting its products as hip & cool and, somehow,
>> ethically
>> >>> better than Windows. A lot of free software supporters scoff at using
>> >>> Windows but are totally comfortable running OS X, and that worries me
>> >>> (because clearly Ubuntu ftw).
>> >>>
>> >>> SO: my proposed alternatives:
>> >>> * Getting rid of the Squiggle and just having C X V tiled? It might
>> take
>> >>> people a while to 'get it', but the design might look more coherent
>> anyway.
>> >>> * Using the cut/copy/paste icons that I love oh so much at the bottom
>> of the
>> >>> page? (Con: Are those too associated with Office or some such thing?
>> In that
>> >>> case, I'm more up for liberating those than the St. John's Cross
>> thing...)
>> >>>
>> >>> 3) Kevin again: It's true, we're way too uncontrollably hip for our
>> own
>> >>> good.
>> >>>
>> >>> <3
>> >>> Christina
>> >>> (Sorry if this email made no sense, I blame it on altitude & natural
>> gas
>> >>> production-related fumes)
>> >>>
>> >>> On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 1:45 PM, Kevin Driscoll <
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> >>> wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>> As a part-time Mac user and full-time free software supporter, I made
>> >>>> that graphic to mean "cut-copy-paste". I thought of the implications
>> >>>> on using an icon closely associated with Apple but couldn't think of
>> a
>> >>>> similar generic one.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> While we can always better promote freedom, I am afraid we're going
>> to
>> >>>> have trouble being less hip.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Kevin
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 3:39 PM, Asheesh Laroia <
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> >>>> wrote:
>> >>>> > On Sun, 7 Sep 2008, Matt Lee wrote:
>> >>>> >
>> >>>> >> On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 12:58 PM, Christina Xu <
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> >>>> >> wrote:
>> >>>> >>> Question: Why is the Mac command button thing being used as an
>> icon?
>> >>>> >>> Was it purely an aesthetic choice? 'Cause, in case you forget,
>> Macs
>> >>>> >>> are
>> >>>> >>> kiiind of proprietary all over the place.
>> >>>> >>
>> >>>> >> What she said.
>> >>>> >
>> >>>> > It's a bit late, since I'm on the conf08 list too and could have
>> spoken
>> >>>> > up
>> >>>> > there too (mea culpa), but I agree with Matt's and Christina's
>> feelings
>> >>>> > here.
>> >>>> >
>> >>>> > If there's any hope of making the conference less "hip" and
>> >>>> > Mac-promoting,
>> >>>> > and instead more clear that it promotes freedom, I'd appreciate
>> that!
>> >>>> >
>> >>>> > -- Asheesh.
>> >>>> >
>> >>>> > --
>> >>>> > Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school
>> of
>> >>>> > genius.
>> >>>> > _______________________________________________
>> >>>> > Discuss mailing list
>> >>>> > [email protected]
>> >>>> > http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>> >>>> >
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> --
>> >>>> )_)_)_)_)_)_
>> >>>> _______________________________________________
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>> >>>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
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>> >>>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
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