--- title: Ubuntu Karmic desktop description: Yesterday was a big day for the Karmic desktop. Lots of pieces came together like switching icon themes, colour changes in the UI, a new dark theme for GDM, a new default background and, 19 photos chosen from the flickr group we started earlier this ye […] url: https://canonical.com/blog/ubuntu-karmic-desktop?format=md --- 1. [Blog](https://canonical.com/blog) 2. Article --- [Canonical](https://canonical.com/blog/author/canonical "More about Canonical") 25 September 2009 # Ubuntu Karmic desktop [Design](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/design) --- Share the article Yesterday was a big day for the Karmic desktop. Lots of pieces came together like switching icon themes, colour changes in the UI, a new dark theme for GDM, a new default background and, 19 photos chosen from the [flickr group](http://www.flickr.com/groups/ubuntu-artwork/) we started earlier this year. The results of the flickr submissions is simply amazing. 639 members submitted 2001 photos. Selecting the images to include in Karmic was a big task, and if there were more free space on the disk, I would add more. First, we chose a [short-list](http://www.flickr.com/groups/1188458@N24/). To do so, a group of Ubuntu artwork community members and Canonical employees collected their favourites and we invited the photographers to include their images in the short-list group. That same group then made a selection of 20-30 top photos and from that we have 19 stunning images for users to select from. Anyone and everyone who took part in this deserves a big round of applause, and perhaps a beer from me :) [Get in touch Interested in running Ubuntu in your organization?](https://ubuntu.com/about/contact-us/form) ## Sign up for our newsletter Get the latest Canonical news and updates in your inbox. Work email: \*I agree to receive information about Canonical's products and services. By submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to [Canonical's Privacy Policy](https://canonical.com/legal/dataprivacy). Sign up ## Share on --- ## Related posts [### Challenges designers face in open source (and how to fix them)](https://canonical.com/blog/challenges-designers-face-in-open-source-and-how-to-fix-them) Open source powers up to 90% of modern software, yet many projects lack usability. Canonical’s Design team surveyed 115 cross-functional professionals to uncover the 4 core... [Kola Ojoodide](https://canonical.com/blog/author/kola-ojoodide) 26 June 2026 [### Why web engineering is great](https://canonical.com/blog/why-web-engineering-is-great) Hi, I’m Johann! I’m an engineering manager in Canonical’s web team. For the larger part of my 15 years of work experience as engineer, I’ve been working in web development.... [Johann Wolf](https://canonical.com/blog/author/johannwolf) 27 April 2026 [### Canonical’s recipe for High Performance Computing](https://canonical.com/blog/canonicals-recipe-for-high-performance-computing) In essence, High Performance Computing (HPC) is quite simple. Speed and scale. In practice, the concept is quite complex and hard to achieve. It is not dissimilar to what... [Igor Ljubuncic](https://canonical.com/blog/author/igorljubuncic) 24 January 2024 [### Web team – hack week 2023](https://canonical.com/blog/web-team-hack-week-2023) Today, around 96% of software projects utilize open source in some way. The web team here at Canonical is passionate about Open source. We lead with an open-by-default approach... [Anthony Dillon](https://canonical.com/blog/author/ya-bo-ng) 25 October 2023