So This Is What I’m Up To
Today was my first day at Red Hat. I spent most of it behind the steering wheel though.
This isn’t the most radical job switch you can think of. Big corporation with strong focus on open source with red and grey dominating its visual identity. Most of the 3rd party rpms I download work just as well on Fedora 13 as they do on openSUSE 11.2 
So why the switch?
The amount of upstream work I’ve been able to do has been in steady decline in the past few years and I am hoping to reverse that trend. As a graphics designer I’m hoping to give GNOME 3 the attention it deserves, so I’m planning to get back to hitting some afterburners maintaining the gnome-icon-theme and focus on visual design of gnome-shell.
Part of that is tying the loose ends of the symbolic style. Write some basic use guidelines and provide full naming spec coverage for gnome-icon-theme-symbolic.
Do the same for widget and WM themes what we did for icons — create a basic set of usable defaults that distributions can build on top of rather than reinvent the wheel. Asset reuse and building on top of other people’s work is what differs us from the proprietary world. Branding doesn’t have to throw that benefit away. Why run the whole marathon when you can just sprint the last mile?
I obviously do plan to join the Fedora design team to help shape the Fedora brand. But I am most interested in working on upstream GNOME projects, creating the building bricks both Fedora and other Linux distributions can benefit from.
I am a strong believer in competition. Free software has matured. We need projects/apps that have specific vision rather than try to do everything for everybody. It is necessary there are competing free software projects as there is no one right way to solve a particular problem. But there is a ton that can be shared. I personally like to focus on those bits that we can share and build cross-company, cross-distribution communities. I hope the geekos don’t feel like this is a farewell, even if I may now be seen wearing an eccentric hat.
July 1st, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Welcome!
July 1st, 2010 at 11:07 pm
Congratulations, Jakub!
That’s really cool…glad to see you’re able to work on upstream projects. Partly, I admit, because I don’t use anything that’s Redhat branded.
Man, I was really worried about GNOME 3, but I’m not as worried now. Heh.
July 1st, 2010 at 11:28 pm
Nice to see system-config-* unified with other icons
July 1st, 2010 at 11:31 pm
My favorite designer in the open source world get a job by my favorite Linux-based company – I really like this!
Love to see what you can bring to gnome-shell, Red Hat and Fedora design
July 1st, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Amazing news and congratulations on the new job!
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:58 am
Sorry to see you leave Novell, but I’m glad to see you join Red Hat. Good luck with your GNOME 3 upstream work!
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:10 am
We’ll miss you at Novell, but I’m psyched to see the renewed focus on upstream GNOME! Best of luck to you Jakub.
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:18 am
Welcome in Fedora. I switched 1 year ago to Fedora after 8 years of S.u.S.E. I certainly missed your graphics touch. Really cool to see you at Red Hat!
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:27 am
Awesomeness. Just awesomeness.
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:43 am
*Awesome* news. I don’t think they could have made a better choice for a designer to add to the GNOME 3/Shell group at Red Hat.
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:23 am
No worries, dude, all us Geekos still love you!
We’re just happy you are continuing to work on FLOSS, and GNOME especially
I’d say keep up the excellent work, but I already know you will!
July 2nd, 2010 at 6:01 am
I am so happy you are still in FLOSS and GNOME land, particularly at a great company like Red Hat which will encourage and value your contribution to upstream projects. Congratulations, and I hope you have way too much fun there.
(Wonderful news for GNOME 3, too!)
July 2nd, 2010 at 7:30 am
All the best on your new job. I felt bad when you left Novell. But when I realize that you have left Novell, for working on upstream GNOME for RedHat, I feel happier.
July 2nd, 2010 at 8:49 am
I have been following your work since the ximian time. I am happy to know that you are now part of RedHat/Fedora. Hope to see some polishing to the distro which i personally is missing in RedHat/Fedora.
July 2nd, 2010 at 10:20 am
Ah, nice choice! Enjoy RedHat!
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Congratulations, I am especially pleased to read that I will still be able to enjoy the quality of your work every single day I am in front of my computer. Again, thanks a lot for all what you have done up to now and what is coming next!
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Yay!
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Welcome! Mo’s been all excited that you’re here, so I’m looking forward to seeing you around (I lurk as mchua on #fedora-design) and hearing about upstreamy GNOME goodness.
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Congratulations! It’s good to see that you are able to stay with the GNOME community and will be able to continue to contribute. All the best!
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Now RedHat is serious in replacing BlueCurve with something new, something fantastic! I wish you success at RedHat and I wish for the day all GNOME on all distros will share the same look-n-feel. I can feel those day now…
July 2nd, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Congrats, Jakub. As a Fedora user since Core 2, I’m glad to know that Fedora will be getting some Jakub-attention, but even more glad to know that you’ll have time for upstream Gnome work.
July 2nd, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Congrats! Now let’s make fedora kick ass!
July 3rd, 2010 at 9:01 am
Welcome on board
July 3rd, 2010 at 11:02 am
Thats weird, I figured the visual style of GNOME upstream doesn’t matter too much, almost every major distribution customises the shit out of it. Fedora, Ubuntu even Debian these days.
July 4th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
tag, you’re it!
July 4th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
I am shocked, yes, really shocked… saw you for a few days on #fedora-art but didn’t expect that, I was used seeing designers moving the other way, from Red Hat to Novell
For now I can say only welcome on this side of the fence and I hope wou will make a difference for GNOME 3, with which current status I am not happy at all. And maybe we’ll get to work together or some stuff, I would be glad to have the opportunity.
July 4th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Success at RedHat and welcome to Fedora
July 11th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Dister and friends (that’s us) will miss you dearly! All the best there and hope to see some awesome GNOME 3 stuff soon.
July 13th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Thanks everyone!
August 12th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Just saw this. Congrats! How is it going thus far?