Ubuntu Wallpaper Nostalgia Trip (Plus Poll)

By , Published September 25, 2009
This week in Ubuntu has seen a proverbial flood of new artwork for our favourite operating system's latest pet €“ the Karmic Koala. One of the biggest additions has been a new default wallpaper (for the Alpha's and Beta's at least).
View omgubuntnuwww

Let's take a quick trip down memory lane and look back at what previous defaults looked like€¦

Ubuntu 4.10 Warty Warthog

warty
Not much to say for Ubuntu's very first wallpaper except:
OMG! UBUNTU BRANDING!!
This that would later be somewhat advised against.

Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog


EPIC (if ruined by the off-centre Ubuntu logo). The first true €œdesign€ of Ubuntu's wallpaper linage.

Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy Badger

breezy
Wonderful original design. The logo somewhat spoils this one by distracting your eye to it.

Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake

dapper
Dark. Very Chocolaty. Dark. Nice Swirls. Dark. Dark.

Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft

edgy
The first outing of the 'skin' tone in Ubuntu wallpapers. Like some later releases, this is a bit too €œOS X Aqua€ like, but a simple, plain and unobtrusive design nonetheless.

Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn

feisty
Having never used Feisty it's odd to look at this and try to imagine it being the first thing i saw when logging in. It almost looks like like a half finished version of Edgy's wallpaper, not to metnion you could easil mistake it for a blurry photo of a bruise on someone’s skin€¦

Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

gutsy
For some reason this wallpaper always reminded me of Galaxy Chocolate bars, but it holds a special place in my heart as Gutsy was my first Ubuntu and so this was my very first Ubuntu Wallpaper.

In retrospect it was perhaps a bit too dark for a default choice and was evidently inspired/caught up in trying to create a Vista/OSX Tiger type wallpaper.

Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

hardy
A bold visual statement did the Heron make; hardy indeed! Lighter tones made for a more pleasant welcome to Ubuntu and the Heron in €œubuntu colours€ was a nice touch. This one certainly stands up well looking back.

Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex

intrepid
Yes that is a coffee stain€¦ wait not it's an ibex€¦ wait no it's one of those psychologists 'ink splatter' cards€¦

I'm actually fond of this one, it's an artistic triumph. That and I’m a sucker for anything with the mascot on.

Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

*thanks to those who let me know i’d uploaded the wrong image!

The run of mascots-on-screen came to and end with Jaunty, but just how do you incorporate an antlered rabbit into a desktop background anyway!

I'm jesting, obviously, but the Jaunty wallpaper was a slight disappointment after the striking designs of Hardy and Intrepid€¦ What will Karmic give?

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala?

karmic
This is the current default wallpaper for Karmic Koala (it may/will change) and first reactions: -
OMG! IT'S NOT BROWN! =o P

Vote

To your right you’ll see a lovely little poll where you can cast your vote for the best Ubuntu Wallpaper so far.

Poll Results:

[Thanks to http://ubuntu.ecchi.ca/wallpapers/ who's great archive allowed me to revisit many of these great wallpapers!]

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

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  • http://pensieriacoriandoli.blogspot.com/ Giorg

    Wait, Jaunty’s one is wrong! That’s one of those offered by default, but the one really used as default is the other…

  • http://twitter.com/Nickedynick Nick Stringer

    I thought the Jaunty default was the one used in the Karmic alphas until today?

  • http://yann.universfantastiques.org/ Yann Dìnendal

    Another famous alternate ubuntu wallpaper was “Dawn of Ubuntu”, which has been included for numerous releases (http://wallpapers.bpix.org/wallpapers/30/Ubuntu…).

  • http://blog.sidneidasilva.com Sidnei da Silva

    Not sure what will be default when the final release is cut, but the ubuntu-wallpapers package was just updated today with an amazing set of new images [http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-art-pkg/ubuntu-wallpapers/ubuntu/files].

  • Anonymous

    i really love Dapper drake, so cold for my eyes… :D

  • Marius

    I have a thing for the Intrepid Ibex one.

    Elephant skin mentioned in another comment is very nice too.

  • Anonymous

    I’m a fan of the Hardy Heron design.

  • http://blog.nizarus.org/ nizarus

    As in other comments the Jaunty Jackalope wallpaper is not the default one. And there isn’t an Ubuntu 6.04 Dapper Drake but an Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake :)

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Oops! Thanks for spotting the 6.04 typo. Corrected now.

  • http://twitter.com/b1ackcr0w Alistair Munro

    I liked the Hardy default best – it was distinctive and proud. If they could do something similar without being quite so, well, brown (!) then i think it’s a nice strong statement.

  • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

    noway this Karmic Koala wallpaper will be used, its the worst thing i’ve ever seen

  • Mohan

    I like the Heron and Ibex ones!

  • http://www.yatsite.blogspot.com/ L4Linux

    The Intrepid wallpaper simply ROCKED!!!
    I wish they will offer cave-like drawings of mascots again.

  • p45

    even looking at the poll it is clear that Ibex & Hardy were the best wallpapers not sure why Mark Shuttleworth has retorted back the bland non animal wallpapers. Maybe to keep them inline with the ugly default look.

  • Narfss

    The intrepid Ibex, was great, but the original “galaxy stile” was better:
    http://frikiorgulloso.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/ubuntu810-intrepidibexwall-large_0031.jpg

    • http://www.yatsite.blogspot.com/ L4Linux

      Wow dude!!!! First time did I see this great variation of the Ibex wallpaper!!!
      Thank you:)

  • http://ndrw.me AndrewNoNumbers

    The Intrepid wall gives me the biggest impression since 8.10 was my first version of Ubuntu after ditching Windows.

 
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