I installed dt 2.5.0+4…dirty prior to Christmas. The dt logo has a Santa Clause hat on, and it is very cute. But today, when I opened dt, the Santa Clause hat disappeared without me doing anything. It seems this Santa’s hat is a timed feature and expires after Christmas. I am concerned what else can dt do to my files and computer. Developers or administrator or moderator, please explain.
I am not one of the dt devs but a long time user and probably can therefore give some hints.
tl;dr: This software is used by alot[tm] of people and caused harm to files such as data loss in an extremely low number of cases which can e.g. be researched on the project’s mailing list. As with all software, it can of cause contain bugs that may cause some issues in future. However, as far as I can tell, there’s no particular reason not to trust this software, as it is developed in an extremely careful manner, with code review at least for a huge amount of new code and a reasonable amount of testing. However, a good backup practice is indispensable not only because of darktable.
There are several “easter eggs” that pop up at special days along the year, which I won’t spoiler to give you the chance to discover yourself. However, be warned that there is one easter egg that requires to press either the “q” or escape key (don’t remember which one it was) to imediately access darktable that day.
The legal side of this topic is covered by the license. Quoting from https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt:
- Disclaimer of Warranty.
THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY
APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT
HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY
OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM
IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF
ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
- Limitation of Liability.
IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS
THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY
GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE
USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF
DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD
PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS),
EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGES.
- Interpretation of Sections 15 and 16.
If the disclaimer of warranty and limitation of liability provided
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reviewing courts shall apply local law that most closely approximates
an absolute waiver of all civil liability in connection with the
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The awesome thing about Free Software is that the code is your for perusing. You can find it here: GitHub - darktable-org/darktable: darktable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer
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Don’t you know that Santa Clause is on well deserved vacation now?
The logo is changed a few times a year according to seasons (I am open for more suggestions when to do that). The only other easter egg has been made less annoying in 2.4.0 by only showing up once that day and then be silent till a year later. To leave it you need to press l or any other hotkey switching views. Or just accept your fate and spend the few minutes to deal with it. 
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The moment I wrote it I knew the key was wrong 
.
Everything else has never been an option to me, too bad that the day occurs only once a year 
.
I feel there is something required for February 29th, but no idea so far what it could be. Since there are 2 major releases until the next occurrence, there’s still some time to think about.
cough Konami
Thanks for the explanation. I now remember I have seen the easter egg before. Would there be something for April Fools Day:grin:
I blame Billy Bob Thornton.
Would a Discordian-inspired logo in honor of http://discordia.wikia.com/wiki/St._Tib be too obscure?
Oh, now I remember. However, the sequence does not work if I overwrite one of the buttons (I had “a” mapped to the quicktag lua module). When I remove the key mapping it works again. Bug or feature?
Not for me but I would skip the typical actions of St. Tib in the logo for the sake of good taste .
Did Santa Clause eat his hat?
Nice idea. Hail Eris! Kallisti! All hail Discordia!
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Well, there is only so much time I am willing to invest to make easter eggs bug free.
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