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Really? My impression was the exact opposite, Fedora is losing the professional feel that it once inherited from Red Hat.

Shiny spheres, glowing DNA strands, the rounded type and the...what is that, fairy dust? That's not at all professional in my opinion.

It's not to say it looks bad, but it looks like something from Digital Blasphemy (http://www.digitalblasphemy.com/dbhome.shtml), not something from, what I would call, a professional Linux distribution (or a pro designer).

To each their own I suppose.

Yes well, it's better than alot of distro artwork i've seen including SUSE. Look pro not is.

"""To each their own I suppose."""

Indeed. I use CentOS 4.4 on my customers' machines and (currently) Ubuntu Dapper with the Human theme on my desktop.

I don't find Fedora's new theme to be unprofessional, exactly... but just cold. Very, very cold and impersonal.

I guess you have a different idea of what professional means than many people. I don't see a huge deal of changes in Core 6 compared to Core 5 but the bottom line is that Fedora is one of the very few distros that has consistency and coherence through out the desktop. I really can say the same for Ubuntu although so many people seem to be bedazzled by it. What I like most about Fedora is that it actually has some vision. As far as professionally looking goes I guess you'd say that MasOS X is really unprofessional and yet so many professionals use it and love it... Plus if you don't like the default graphics you can always change them to something else. Real easy for the desktop and slightly harder for the boot up screen.

They need to redo the icons though. They are looking old looking now.

They are redoing them they just aren't going to be done for a few months and therefore aren't included in the default install. (The "Echo" iconset)

If you had said that the artwork was beautiful, I would have been the first to agree. This looks like the work of a professional artist, no doubt about that.

However, if you look at it with the eyes of a user interface designer, it is far from professional. To him the pattern of the desktop should not only fill the function of being pleasant to look at, it should also fill the function of helping the user to orientate.

Just like you may remember that you read something on the top left page in the middle of a book, the pattern could help you remember where you have put your icons, but the pattern should in itself carry as little information as possible, to give the contents more mental focus.

By having a clean background objects on the desktop will stand out and be easier to find. If you have some kind of pattern it should preferably be non figurative, and the smallest detail in the pattern should be much larger than the largest icon size.

Having background detail that is about the same size as icons will also make icons harder to see to visibly impaired.

The new default background in FC6 is MUCH BETTER than the one in FC5, but its still not good enough. It shows that the fedora team doesn't consult enough with people knowledgeable in usability and accessibility.

Anyway, people will most likely change their backgrounds to pictures of their children, girlfriends or cats, without any usability concerns, but I think that what is installed by default should be vied and vetted with usability as well as beauty in mind.

Another problem is that the DNA spiral gives me wrong associations. I start to think about live things, and before I know it I think about viruses, but that's probably just me.

The new default background in FC6 is MUCH BETTER than the one in FC5, but its still not good enough. It shows that the fedora team doesn't consult enough with people knowledgeable in usability and accessibility.

It is very important for people like you to list a suggestions for improving the usability. At least, background can be changed. Currently, Artwork team is discussing about improving theme for Fedora. Participation from users is greatly welcome.