Closed Design or No Design? Something is better than nothing.

“As a practitioner and someone who has managed design teams, I
have to agree with this move. It is a hard decision especially in
open source but sometimes you have to make an attempt to balance
the signal:noise ratio.

“Last December, Ubuntu came under fire when they unveiled the
Notify-OSD design which was developed behind closed and locked
doors. In response to the criticism of closed design, the Ayatana
project was founded as a way of opening Ubuntu design processes and
providing a way for others to participate. However, as with many
mailing lists, the value in opening design and having a public
forum is questionable as to how much value it provides compared to
the overhead of managing noise.”

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