forked from alice-mkh/do-not-theme.github.io
-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
index.html
executable file
·184 lines (129 loc) · 12 KB
/
index.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<!-- Primary Meta Tags -->
<title>Please don’t theme our apps</title>
<meta name="title" content="Please don’t theme our apps">
<meta name="description" content="An open letter from independent app developers to the wider GNOME community">
<!-- Open Graph / Facebook -->
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://stopthemingmy.app">
<meta property="og:title" content="Please don’t theme our apps">
<meta property="og:description" content="An open letter from independent app developers to the wider GNOME community">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://stopthemingmy.app/assets/social.png">
<!-- Twitter -->
<meta property="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
<meta property="twitter:url" content="https://stopthemingmy.app/">
<meta property="twitter:title" content="Please don’t theme our apps">
<meta property="twitter:description" content="An open letter from independent app developers to the wider GNOME community">
<meta property="twitter:image" content="https://stopthemingmy.app/assets/social.png">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/favicon.png" />
</head>
<body>
<div class="intro">
<div class="container">
<img src="assets/leaf.svg" class="intro-icon">
<h1 class="title">Please don’t theme our apps</h1>
<p class="subtitle">An open letter from independent app developers to the wider GNOME community</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="container">
<div class="notice">
<p>Please read the letter all the way to the end. This is aimed at <b>distributions breaking apps by default</b>, not tinkerers playing with their own setup.</p>
</div>
<p>We are developers and designers making apps for the GNOME platform. We take pride in our craft and work hard to make sure our applications are a great experience for people.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, all our efforts designing, developing, and testing our apps are made futile by theming in many cases.</p>
<br>
<div class="point">
<img src="assets/stylesheets.png" class="point-image">
<p><b>GTK Stylesheets</b> can make applications look broken, and even unusable.
</div>
<div class="point">
<img src="assets/iconthemes.png" class="point-image">
<p><b>Icon Themes</b> can change icon metaphors, leading to interfaces with icons that don’t express what the developer intended.</p>
</div>
<div class="point">
<img src="assets/appicons.png" class="point-image">
<p><b>App Icons</b> are the identity of an app. Changing an app’s icon denies the developer the possibility to control their brand.
</div>
<small class="caption">Note: These examples are purely illustrative, and not intended to call out individual themes. No hard feelings, theme devs ❤️</small>
<br>
<p>There are also less direct, second-order consequences, including:</p>
<p><b>Appstream Screenshots</b> (the screenshots used in GNOME Software or Flathub) are not very useful if they look nothing like the real app does once you install it.</p>
<p><b>User Help and Documentation</b> are similarly useless if UI elements on your system are different from the ones described in the documentation.</p>
<br>
<p>These blog posts explain some of the issues with theming in more detail:</p>
<p>GTK Stylesheets — <a href="https://blogs.gnome.org/tbernard/2018/10/15/restyling-apps-at-scale">Restyling apps at scale</a></p>
<p>App Icons — <a href="https://samuelhewitt.com/blog/2017-11-26-linux-themes-third-party-icons">Linux Themes & Third-Party Icons</a></p>
<br>
<p><b>This is why we ask respectfully that our applications not be themed</b>. They are built and tested for the upstream GNOME stylesheet, icons, and fonts, so that’s what they should look like on peoples’ systems.</p>
<p>Though we could disable theming directly in our apps, we do not want to resort to this. We believe that a technical solution would likely not be effective, because this is not a technical problem.</p>
<p>The problem we’re facing is the expectation that apps can be arbitrarily restyled without manual work, which is and has always been an illusion. Until this perception changes, there is little hope of improving the situation. We’re trying to do our part in raising awareness with this letter.</p>
<p><b>If you like to tinker with your own system, that’s fine with us</b>. However, if you change things like stylesheets and icons, you should be aware that you’re in unsupported territory. Any issues you encounter should be reported to the theme developer, not the app developer.</p>
<p>On a platform level, we believe <b>GTK should stop forcing a single stylesheet on all apps by default</b>. Instead of apps having to opt out of this by hardcoding a stylesheet, they should use the platform stylesheet unless they opt in to something else. We realize this is a complicated issue, but assuming every app works with every stylesheet is a bad default.</p>
<p><b>If you are a distribution who changes the system stylesheet and icons, please reconsider this decision</b>. Changing third-party apps without any QA is reckless, and would be unacceptable on any other platform. Your actions are hurting us app developers a great deal, and are damaging to the entire ecosystem beyond your distribution.</p>
<p>We understand the need for distributions to stand out. However, we urge you to find ways to do this without taking away our agency. We are tired of having to do extra work for setups we never intended to support, just to have that used against us when people tell us the breakage from theming is “not that bad”. You are not doing this to Blender, Atom, Telegram, or other third party apps. Just because our apps use GTK that does not mean we’re ok with them being changed from under us.</p>
<p>Since you are shipping the GNOME platform, we assume you want this ecosystem to be healthy. If you do, we ask that you please stop theming our apps.</p>
<br>
<p>Signed,</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Alexander Mikhaylenko</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-games">Games</a></li>
<li><b>Avi Wadhwa</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/aviwad/organizer">Organizer</a></li>
<li><b>Bilal Elmoussaoui</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/Authenticator">Authenticator</a>, <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/design/icon-library">Icon Library</a>, <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/design/contrast">Contrast</a> and <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/obfuscate">Obfuscate</a></li>
<li><b>Cédric Bellegarde</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/lollypop">Lollypop</a> and <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/geary">Geary</a></li>
<li><b>Christopher Davis</b> <br> Core contributor to <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/Fractal">Fractal</a></li>
<li><b>Daniel García Moreno</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/Fractal">Fractal</a> and <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/danigm/timetrack">Timetrack</a></li>
<li><b>Falk Alexander Seidl</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/PasswordSafe">Password Safe</a></li>
<li><b>Felix Häcker</b>, <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/Shortwave">Gradio/Shortwave</a>, <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/Fragments">Fragments</a>, and <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/Remotely">Remotely</a></li>
<li><b>Forever XML</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://codeberg.org/foreverxml/random">Random</a></li>
<li><b>Jan Lukas Gernert</b> <br> Author of <a href="https://jangernert.github.io/FeedReader/">FeedReader</a> and <a href="https://gitlab.com/news-flash">NewsFlash</a></li>
<li><b>Jordan Petridis</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/podcasts">Podcasts</a></li>
<li><b>Julian Sparber</b> <br> Core contributor to <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/Fractal">Fractal</a>, maintainer of <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/jsparber/teleport">Teleport</a></li>
<li><b>Lains</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://github.com/lainsce/notejot">Notejot</a>, <a href="https://github.com/lainsce/khronos">Khronos</a>, <a href="https://github.com/lainsce/dot-matrix">Dot Matrix</a>, <a href="https://github.com/lainsce/quilter">Quilter</a>, and <a href="https://github.com/lainsce/emulsion">Emulsion</a></li>
<li><b>Manuel Genovés</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://github.com/UberWriter/uberwriter">UberWriter</a></li>
<li><b>Maximiliano Sandoval</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/decoder">Decoder</a>, <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/design/lorem">Lorem</a>, <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/Secrets">Secrets</a>, and <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/citations">Citations</a></li>
<li><b>Michael Gratton</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/Geary">Geary</a></li>
<li><b>Rafael Mardojai C.M.</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://github.com/rafaelmardojai/blanket">Blanket</a>, <a href="https://github.com/dialect-app/dialect">Dialect</a>, <a href="https://github.com/rafaelmardojai/share-preview">Share Preview</a> and <a href="https://github.com/rafaelmardojai/webfont-kit-generator">Webfont Kit Generator</a></li>
<li><b>Sophie Herold</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://apps.gnome.org/app/org.gnome.World.PikaBackup/">Pika Backup</a></li>
<li><b>Tobias Bernard</b> <br> Designer of <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/Fragments">Fragments</a> and <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/podcasts">Podcasts</a> (among others)</li>
<li><b>Vojtěch Perník</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/pervoj/Blurble">Blurble</a></li>
<li><b>Zander Brown</b> <br> Maintainer of <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/design/icon-preview">Icon Preview</a></li>
<li><b>The <a href="https://usebottles.com">Bottles</a> Developers</b></li>
<li><b>The <a href="https://pitivi.org">Pitivi</a> Developers</b></li>
<br>
<small class="caption">Note: Even though some of us are Foundation members or work on GNOME, these are our personal views as individuals, and not those of the GNOME Project, the GNOME Foundation, or our employers.</small>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="join">
<div class="container">
<h2>Sign the Letter</h2>
<p>Are you developing (or contributing to) an app for GNOME and would like to sign this letter? Open an <a href="https://github.com/do-not-theme/do-not-theme.github.io/issues">issue</a> or <a href="https://github.com/do-not-theme/do-not-theme.github.io/pulls">merge request</a>.</p>
<br>
<h2>Get the Badge</h2>
<img src="assets/podcasts-badge.png" class="image">
<p>Do you want to show your support, and also make it clear that your app does not officially support themes? Include this stylish badge in your project’s Gitlab project header or Github README:</p>
<img src="/badge.svg" width="250px">
<br>
<p>To add the badge to your <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/help/user/project/badges#project-badges">Gitlab project’s header</a>, go to <b>Settings → General → Badges</b> and set the link and image URLs like so:</p>
<div class="code-block">
<code><b>Link URL</b>: https://stopthemingmy.app</code></br>
<code><b>Badge Image URL</b>: https://stopthemingmy.app/badge.svg</code>
</div>
<p>To add the badge to your README, use this snippet:</p>
<div class="code-block">
<code>
[](https://stopthemingmy.app)
</code>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<footer>
<p>© Do Not Theme, 2019</p>
<p><a href="https://github.com/do-not-theme/do-not-theme.github.io">Website source</a></p>
</footer>
</body>
</html>