Dot 8

Or 4.8, is Out......

The reason I say dot 8 is that oxygen started with the 4.x series, so now with dot 8 its alive for 4.5 years, its not a juvenile anymore.

Looking back I must say that I'm incredibly happy with what we did over the years, I think its without a question a fantastic proof that OSS people can coordinate efforts in to creating huge pieces of coherent design made by many, for more.

And doing that with the single motivation of sharing the LOVE poured in to that work.

OXYGEN is a true work of LOVE.     

From the early days 6 years ago, when me Ken and David started with that ambitious crazy project of redoing all of the KDE icon set, (yeah we thought that was ambitious), when we were going to be sported to do that job by a popular Distro. To the moment the plug was removed from the project. Passing trough the days I thought the future was black (literally i made all the icons black :) ). And the days we thought  we could do a widget theme as well, and inviting Thomas L. to help, To the moment we Saw Oxygen explode into everything you see in KDE this days. There was a common element.... The LOVE, the love for a project, the love for a community, the immense fun it was to push the boundaries of what our users expect and appreciate in KDE from a design perspective.

I love working with people Like  Hugo, (must mention him for the superb amazing work he as done), were we can almost hallways complete each others sentences.

Must mention our Ruphy (ricardo) that was for a good part, oxygen soul.

Also can't forget Casper, that literally saved us when all seemed lost.

And Marco Martin, for being the amazing person he his.

Ooooo and  Martin Gräßlin and the kwin team he represents, you guys rocked the way we talk together.

And the other many many many many people that shared the love of/for Oxygen over the last years.

I know I'm being terribly unjust to not mention you, but you have my LOVE.

And Finally, the most important person of them all YOU, the user of Oxygen, the countless You's that moaned at a icon or a folder I did, that congratulated Hugo on his work, or that still use David's icons, You that LOVE/HATE Oxygen, to you my utmost, thank you.

Today.

Oxygen still as a long way to go.  KDE 5.0 is still a distant mirage and oxygen still needs a lot of work, I will keep making what I know best, Icons, I still have over 1000 to do, we now have this missing piece of the Oxygen experience being worked by Vernon, the Oxygen Font.

And we have new people joining in every day like Eshat that is doing all of the 4,8 specific branding Kudos for that.

And by the time the last 4,X comes out Oxygen will be I hope mostly finished... and also I hope dead...:)

And Tomorrow.

Please do not see it as a bad thing, its a good thing, its just part of evolution. And the reason I'm saying this is to start to stern the designers out there to Join oxygen NOW!!! to be part of its future, I can say its has been the most fun personal enrichment experience, of my life. I don't know what will be the future, nor do i think I should as YOU must  have a word in it, But I'm super exited about it.

Do you want it to be the good child of oxygen? using many of Oxygen's lines and elements, or the rebel kid that denies is father??? Its is up to you to be part of that amazing journey now!

The challenges Oxygen faced 6 years ago are vastly different from the scenario we have for KDE in the coming years... From a Desktop design paradigm we now have to face several scenarios, several gadgets we need to excel at, wile keeping the same design language, new design paradigms languages we need to keep up with, new generation of users with different expectations and desires.
Plasma helps allot by providing flexible desktop shells that adapt to several different user interaction paradigms, with QML components, porting desktop apps into more different from factors will become less problematic (but they do require massive redesign in most cases). Having a Font will help us a lot manage the increasing range of display DPI's, on the market.

But all of this needs to be fulfilled by a new project.. Oxygen is/was great, join in to be part of the Next great thing OSS does in design.....

Please tell-me if I'm wrong in my assumptions, is this a good bad idea?