Blame Manuals/Userguide/repository-parts/Directories/trunk/Identity.docbook

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<sect1 id="dir-trunk-identity" xreflabel="trunk/Identity">
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    <title><filename class="directory">trunk/Identity</filename></title>
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    <para>The <filename class="directory">trunk/Identity</filename>
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    directory implements The CentOS Project <emphasis>corporate
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    identity</emphasis> based on the The CentOS Project
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    <emphasis>mission</emphasis> and <emphasis>release
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    schema</emphasis>.</para>
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    <para id="corporate-mission" xreflabel="Corporate mission">The CentOS Project exists to provide The CentOS
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    Distribution.  Additionally, The CentOS Project provides The
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    CentOS Web and The CentOS Showroom to support and promote the
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    existence of The CentOS Distribution, respectively.</para>
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    <para id="corporate-identity" xreflabel="Corporate identity"> The
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    CentOS Project corporate identity is the ``persona'' of the
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    organization known as The CentOS Project.  The CentOS Project
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    corporate identity plays a significant role in the way The CentOS
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    Project, as organization, presents itself to both internal and
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    external stakeholders. In general terms, The CentOS Project
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    corporate identity expresses the values and ambitions of The
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    CentOS Project organization, its business, and its
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    characteristics.  The CentOS Project corporate identity provides
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    visibility, recognizability, reputation, structure and
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    identification to The CentOS Project organization by means of
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    <emphasis>corporate design</emphasis>, <emphasis>corporate
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    communication</emphasis>, and <emphasis>corporate
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    behaviour</emphasis>.</para>
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    <para id="corporate-design" xreflabel="The corporate design"> The
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    corporate design is focused on the effective communication of
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    corporate messages. Corporate messages are all the information
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    emitted from the corporation to a target audience.  In order for
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    such communication to happen, it is required to put the messages
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    on a medium available for the target audience to react upon.
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    These media are know as <emphasis>corporate
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    manifestations</emphasis>, because the corporation manifests its
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    existence through them. The specific way used by the corporation
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    to set their messages on different media is what the corporate
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    design is about.</para>
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    <para>The amount of manifestations a corporation uses to
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    communicate its existence may very from one corporation to
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    another. In the very specific case of The CentOS Project, the
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    following corporate manifestations come to mind:</para>
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    <orderedlist>
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        <listitem>
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        <para>The CentOS Distribution — This corporate
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        manifestaion is built from SRPM packages. There are SRPM
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        packages that make a remarkable use of images (e.g., Anaconda,
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        Grub, Syslinux, Gdm, Kdm, Gsplash, Ksplash, Rhgb, Firstboot,
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        etc.), packages that make a moderate use of images and
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        packages that don't use images at all.  Also, there are some
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        packages that make use of text-based information that need to
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        be changed, too (e.g., release notes, eula, the welcome page
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        of the web browser, etc.), in order for The CentOS Project to
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        comply the redistribution guidelines of its upstream provider.
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        The CentOS Distribution corporate manifestation focuses its
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        attention on SRPM packages that use images in a remarkable
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        way, specifically those packages that contain branding
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        information, in both image and textual format, from the
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        upstream provider. This way, replacing image and text-based
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        files, we implement the corporate design of The CentOS
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        Distribution corporate manifestations.</para>
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        </listitem>
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        <listitem>
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        <para>The CentOS Web — This corporate manifestation
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        exists to support The CentOS Distribution corporate
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        manifestation.  The CentOS Web corporate manifestation covers
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        web applications used by The CentOS Project to manifest its
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        existence on the Internet.  These web applications are free
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        software and come from different providers which distribute
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        their work with predefined visual styles.  Frequently, these
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        predefined visual styles have no visual relation among
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        themselves and introduce some visual contraditions when they
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        all are put together.  These visual contraditions need to be
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        removed in order to comply with The CentOS Project corporate
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        structure guidelines.</para>
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        </listitem>
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        <listitem>
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        <para>The CentOS Showroom — This corporate manifestation
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        exists to promote The CentOS Distribution.  The CentOS
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        Showroom corporate manifestation covers industrial production
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        of objects branded by The CentOS Project (e.g., clothes,
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        stationery and installation media).  These branded objects are
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        for distribution on social events and/or shops.  They provide
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        a way of promotion and a route for commercialization that may
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        help to aliviate The CentOS Project expenses (e.g., hosting,
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        servers, full-time-developers, etc.), in a similar way as
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        donations may do.</para>
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        </listitem>
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   </orderedlist>
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   <para>The corporate manifestations above seem to cover all the
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   media required by The CentOS Project, as organization, to show its
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   existence.  However, other corporate manifestations could be added
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   in the future, if needed, to cover different areas like building,
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   offices, transportation and whaterver medium The CentOS Project
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   thouches to show its existence.</para> 
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    communication"> The CentOS Project corporate communication is
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    based on <emphasis>community communication</emphasis> and takes
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    place through the following avenues: 
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    <itemizedlist>
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        <listitem><para>The CentOS Chat (#centos, #centos-social},
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        #centos-devel on irc.freenode.net)</para></listitem>
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        <listitem><para>The CentOS Mailing Lists (<ulink url="http://lists.centos.org/" />).</para></listitem>
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        <listitem><para>The CentOS Forums (<ulink url="http://forums.centos.org/" />).</para></listitem>
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        <listitem><para>The CentOS Wiki (<ulink url="http://wiki.centos.org/" />).</para></listitem>
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        <listitem><para>Social events, interviews, conferences, etc.</para></listitem>
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    </itemizedlist>
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   </para>
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    behaviour">The CentOS Project corporate behaviour is based on
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    <emphasis>community behaviour</emphasis> which take place in 
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    linkend="corporate-communication" />.</para>
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    structure"> The CentOS Project corporate structure is based on a
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    <emphasis>monolithic corporate visual identity
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    structure</emphasis>.  In this configuration, one unique name and
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    one unique visual style is used in all corporate manifestations of
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    The CentOS Project.</para>
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    <para>In a monolithic corporate visual identity structure,
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    internal and external stakeholders feel a strong sensation of
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    uniformity, orientation, and identification with the organization.
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    No matter if you are visiting web sites, using the distribution,
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    or acting on social events, the one unique name and one unique
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    visual style connects them all to say: <emphasis>Hey! we are all
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    part of The CentOS Project</emphasis>.</para>
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    <para>Other corporate structures for The CentOS Project have been
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    considered as well. Such is the case of producing one different
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    visual style for each major release of The CentOS Distribution.
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    This structure isn't inconvenient at all, but some visual
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    contradictions could be introduced if it isn't applied correctly
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    and we need to be aware of it. To apply it correctly, we need to
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    know what The CentOS Project is made of.</para>
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    <para>The CentOS Project, as organization, is mainly made of (but
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    not limited to) three corporate manifestions: The CentOS
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    Distribution, The CentOS Web and The CentOS Showroom.  Inside The
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    CentOS Distribution corporate manifestations, The CentOS Project
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    maintains near to four different major releases of The CentOS
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    Distribution (e.g., the operating system), parallely in time.
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    However, inside The CentOS Web visual manifestations, the content
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    is produced for no specific release information (e.g., there is no
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    a complete web site for each major release of The CentOS
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    Distribution individually, but one web site to cover them all).
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    Likewise, the content produced in The CentOS Showroom is created
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    for no release-specific at all, but for The CentOS Project in
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    general.</para>
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    <para>In order to produce the correct corporate structure for The
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    CentOS Project, we need to concider all the corporate
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    manifestations The CentOS Project is made of, not just one of
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    them.  If one different visual style is used for each major
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    release of The CentOS Distribution, which one of those different
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    visual styles would be used to cover the remaining visual
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    manifestations The CentOS Project is made of (e.g., The CentOS Web
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    and The CentOS Showroom)?</para>
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    <para>Probably you are thinking, that's right, but The CentOS
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    Brand connects them all already, why would we need to join them up
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    into the same visual style too, isn't it more work to do, and
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    harder to maintain?</para>
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    <para>Harder to maintain, more work to do, probably.  Specially
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    when you consider that The CentOS Project has proven stability and
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    consistency through time and, that, certainly, didn't come through
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    swinging magical wands or something but hardly working out to
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    automate tasks and providing maintainance through time. Said that,
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    we consider that The CentOS Project corporate structure must be
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    consequent with such stability and consistency tradition, beyond
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    the work it might require initially. It is true that The CentOS
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    Brand does connect all the visual manifestations it is present on,
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    but that connection would be stronger if one unique visual style
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    backups it, too.  In fact, whatever thing you do to strength the
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    visual connection among The CentOS Project corporate
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    manifestations would be very good in favor of The CentOS Project
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    recognition.</para>
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    <para>Obviously, having just one visual style in all corporate
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    manifestations for eternity would be a very boring thing and would
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    give the impression of a visually dead project.  So, there is no
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    problem on creating a brand new visual style for each new major
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    release of The CentOS Distribution, in order to refresh The CentOS
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    Distribution visual style; the problem itself is in not
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    propagating the brand new visual style created for the new release
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    of The CentOS Distribution to all other visual manifestations The
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    CentOS Project is made of, in a way The CentOS Project could be
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    recognized no matter what corporate manifestation be in front of
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    us. Such lack of uniformity is what introduces the visual
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    contradition we are precisely trying to solve by mean of themes
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    production in the CentOS Artwork Repository.</para>
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</sect1>