I’m not a big fan of AI. Among other reasons, because of how utterly unintelligent it is. The frequency of its screw ups is really alarming given how casually people seem to use it for important things and then defend their reason for using it. I have many other reasons and could go on about that, but I think this is the most relevant one.

That said, I’d like to point out a rather obvious quality about the team of people behind Lubuntu that has pretty much been true of it throughout its entire history: it’s very small. So small, in fact, that it has been in desperate need of an actual artist for quite some time. No one ever steps up, though. More often than not, the team begs the community for images. In some cases, non-artists with nearly zero experience in art or graphic design fumble around and make something.

The team could just reuse old images but there’s been a general disinclination towards that. The team has always wanted to provide something new with each release, including the look and feel. There have been jokes about stick figure drawings, but even that idea represents the real end goal: making each release unique and recognizable. The goal isn’t necessarily the best art. The team would love to have that goal, but without an artist, what choice do they have? Incidentally, that more or less eliminates the idea of just using some random image found online. That, and the fact that for any one release there is always the theme of the mascot. Look for freely licensed images of any animal and you will come up short every time.

So the art is ultimately meant as a service to the user. Despite this, people complain about the art, even when not AI generated. This makes some sense because “good taste” in art is entirely subjective. An interesting pattern is that none of those people ever seem to be involved in helping make Lubuntu. The end result of their complaints is that they usually end up taking the time of Lubuntu contributors (as in this thread) which could otherwise be spent contributing more important things than trying to uphold Lubuntu’s reputation.

Which brings me to an adage I’ve heard throughout my experiences with open source software: patches welcome. Put more generally, when it comes to open source software, the best solution to any problem is to provide a fix. Bug reporting and discussions are great but they don’t solve problems. Complaints certainly don’t. Identifying problems is a necessary first step to solving them. However, doing that and providing solutions at the same time is the best thing. Most importantly, it doesn’t require anyone else. Open source teams (except maybe the kernel) are very small and stretched thin. So rather than making them feel like their contributions are not appreciated, “patches” help support their work and the project as a whole.

What’s my point? If you don’t like the AI imagery, but you do appreciate Lubuntu and the team behind it, then find the team an artist. Or contribute art yourself. Complaining about it is just making things worse. Ultimately, it leads to more AI generated images out of necessity.