Kubuntu should be discontinued?

[jem]

After all my problems with my upgrade from 10.4 to 10.10 (see a separate thread), a question came to my mind: what is the purpose of Kubuntu? Obviously Kubuntu does not receive the amount of care it need to be a good distro. Kubuntu has always been the little stepbrother of Ubuntu. Ubuntu has received a lot of polish in recent years, but none of this polish seems to spill over to Kubuntu.

I realize a lot of effort probably has gone into building Kubuntu, but it still falls short. My suggestion is to direct all that energy on some other distro whose "Mother ship" takes a less indifferent position towards KDE than Canonical does.

*** Maybe it is time to call it quits, and discontinue Kubuntu? ***

By putting out mediocre Kubuntu releases (compared to the high class Ubuntu releases) you are giving KDE a bad name, you are giving Linux a bad name and possibly even giving Ubuntu a bad name by confusing the market with multiple parallel Ubuntu versions.

To the person making the decision that it is appropriate to change the standard KDE environment to the Netbook Edition during a one-step upgrade: you obviously have no respect whatsoever for the time and effort required to clean up your mess. You could at least have asked or even warned what was going to happen during the upgrade, but no: you know what's best for everybody and that includes turning the user interface upside down.

Goodbye Kubuntu! Many years and a lot of versions have gone by, but now this machine is migrating to Gentoo like my two other PCs.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Kubuntu should be discontinued?

My, we seem to be having a flock of low posters coming to this forum to whine, moan and complain about Kubuntu. There's the door ... here's your hat .... what's your hurry?

[Snowhog]

Re: Kubuntu should be discontinued?

*** Maybe it is time to call it quits, and discontinue Kubuntu? ***

In your dreams!

Goodbye Kubuntu! Many years and a lot of versions have gone by, but now this machine is migrating to Gentoo like my two other PCs.

Linux has always been about 'choice.' You don't like the direction that Kubuntu has/is going, no problem. There is no single Linux distro that satisfies everyone.

It is your opinion that Kubuntu is "putting out mediocre Kubuntu releases", and that is an opinion not shared by a very large and satisfied Kubuntu user base.

I've been a Kubuntu user since 2007. I started with Edgy Eft and KDE 3.x. I've gone through every new release, their upgrades, KDE and it's upgrades, and am currently running 'happily' on Kubuntu 10.10 with KDE 4.5.4, on a laptop, with everything working.

Kubuntu is a solid Linux OS. It is, and continues, to mature with each new release. And last but by no means least, Kubuntu is a 'bleading edge' Linux distro. The developers are constantly 'pushing the envelope' - leading the pack; going where others fear (or won't/refuse) to go.

If one is going to express an opinion, it should be clearly identified as such.

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu should be discontinued?

Heh heh heh -- that "FULL UPGRADE" button is such a tempting little devil, isn't it?

It's only after the carnage and destruction that it becomes obvious one should just leave it alone.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Kubuntu should be discontinued?

No kidding GG. There must be 10 or 12 newish threads that include the line "This should just work out of the box..." or something similar.

It would be nice if a magic genie would swoop down and make a free operating system that works on every computer, every configuration, with every piece of hardware (even if the manufacturers deliberately keep the details required for a driver secret), and last but not least: read the minds of each individual owner so that the configuration would be exactly perfect every time.

I hope the sarcasm wasn't too subtle.

Personally, I'm a little tired of the whole generation of entitlement that seems to be prevalent in the younger generation(s). Whatever happened to "You get what you pay for." and the understanding that you get only what you are willing to work for?

I guess I'm just old fashioned - I expect to get what I deserve and expect to work to get what I want.

Rant over...

[Snowhog]

Re: Kubuntu should be discontinued?

Heh heh heh -- that "FULL UPGRADE" button is such a tempting little devil, isn't it?

In the earlier days; Edgy, Fiesty, and maybe Gutsy; I used (at least once) that option. But I never do now. Never. I follow the advice that gets posted on doing a release upgrade from the console. I've never had a problem by "reading twice; executing once."

[Linkmaster]

Re: Kubuntu should be discontinued?

Jeez. I happened to glance at this post, and I want to put my two cents in:

I have never optionally used a Linux OS. My school forced us to use SuSe Linux, which was a locked down version that had no fun in it. So, my first impression of Linux was bad. But I decided to give it a chance, and I used Ubuntu after I was happily installed with XP. I tried the Ubuntu, and was unhappy with it. At this point, I was starting to get a real unhappy feeling for Linux, when I heard about this "Kubuntu." I have tried it, and absolutely love it. I agree with the people above. There is no Linux for everybody. I dislike SuSe AND Ubuntu, yet love Kubuntu 10.10. Strange, isn't it? How there is such thing as OPINION? I've had problems with it yes, but thats because I'm simply a new user. Just because you don't like something, or if your not willing to work with something, doesn't mean you need to post something nasty about it. I could say all sorts of nasty things that I've heard about your Gentoo, but, I'm not going to. And have you heard any of these other people say anything degrading about your version? I say no, because they understand OPINION. Thank you, and thats my two cents.

Actually, last note. To those who help and support Kubuntu. I thank you. You guys are amazing.

[Vistaus]

Re: Kubuntu should be discontinued?

@Snowhog: I wouldn't call Kubuntu "bleeding edge". You're right that they're constantly pushing the envelope and go where other fear, but "bleeding edge" is something different; that is more like Arch for example.

To the TS: It's right that Kubuntu could get some more love from Canonical, but I don't want it discontinued. It's KDE with the simpleness (for example PPA's) of Ubuntu. And everything works rock solid here, and I even have the 2.6.37-kernel and xorg-edgers installed and various other bleeding edge packages from Debian Packages.
Beat that.

[jem]

Re: Kubuntu should be discontinued?

It would be nice if [...] read the minds of each individual owner so that the configuration would be exactly perfect every time.

Is it really asking too much if I upgrade Kubuntu with a standard KDE that it would not change the user interface to the Netbook Edition? What?

Seems to me that an attempt at too much mind reading has happened here: "Hmm... This guy's screen seems pretty small. And yet he's running the standard KDE. Tsk, tsk. Let's install the Netbook Edition instead, that will make his users happy when they can spend the whole day learning the new user interface instead of doing 'productive' work."

[Snowhog]

Re: Kubuntu should be discontinued?

...spend the whole day learning the new user interface instead of doing 'productive' work."

If one takes just a little bit of time to learn about the OS they are using, and the changes that updates/upgrades bring to it, or at least just ask questions when something 'odd' or 'unexpected' happens after an update/upgrade, well...

A quick Google search finds:

How To Switch Between Desktop And Netbook Workspace In Kubuntu 10.10

This functionality (yes, that's what it is) was addressed and published by the developers.

[Ole Juul]

Re: Kubuntu should be discontinued?

Is it really asking too much if . . .

Yes.

[oblivion]

Re: Kubuntu should be discontinued?

It would be nice if [...] read the minds of each individual owner so that the configuration would be exactly perfect every time.

Is it really asking too much if I upgrade Kubuntu with a standard KDE that it would not change the user interface to the Netbook Edition? What?

Seems to me that an attempt at too much mind reading has happened here: "Hmm... This guy's screen seems pretty small. And yet he's running the standard KDE. Tsk, tsk. Let's install the Netbook Edition instead, that will make his users happy when they can spend the whole day learning the new user interface instead of doing 'productive' work."

Well, no. You are right. This might very well be a bug, because afaik Kubuntu automatically detects and (in this case, it seem that it also tries to set, without respecting the users preference) the workspace either to desktop or netbook. Both workspace come preinstalled with 10.10. Installer didn't installed something unexpected. This new autodetection feature is introduced with 10.10, it seems that there is a little problem. I suggest you to report this bug to launchpad immediately, so that the other users won't suffer the same in the future.


Probably your desktop is still there and you can switch from netbook to your old desktop workspace. Open KRunner (ALT+F2) and type "Workspace" + press Return. A window should open. Select Desktop instead of Netbook from the form factor. Logout and relogin.


P.S: I suggest you use KRunner to find what you want within KDE. It is easier and faster.

Regards.

[claydoh]

Re: Kubuntu should be discontinued?

First and foremost Kubuntu is a COMMUNITY project, a fact that most seem to forget sometimes. Yes, Canonical provide the infrastructure (download servers, apt repos, launchpad, etc) and even pays for some developers now. But our OS was started as a community project. Canonical/Ubuntu have no say in how we do KDE, though obviously things such as drivers, kernels, and xorg are those used by Ubuntu.

Point is, no one can 'discontinue' Kubuntu except for us, really.

I am finding out that still, to this day, the most negativity towards Kubuntu/KDE has been over what I consider issues not as dire or drastic as the reporters are claiming. Look at a few of the most recent:

The Desktop/Netbook interface issue , though admittedly can be off-putting, is not even a difficult switch to make - and IS noted in the release notes.

KDE4 is not exactly the same in every single way as KDE3?

Attempting to log in to a social network at login? Probably annoying, but a Disaster?

Tooltips on the taskbar entries?? Really??

An upgrade process that DOES replace something added after the fact with the default IS annoying, but the upgrader DOES list what is being removed and asks for permission to proceed. And is an easy fix.

I am NOT saying these are not 100% valid issues, but if these things are dealbreakers, then there is NO OS that will satisfy. And imo, moving to something such as the well-regarded Arch or Gentoo usually means MORE tweaking and adjusting and learning.

I really think all these sorts of posts (here and anywhere else for that matter) are just a reminder of how narcissistic society is becoming. Which is at odds sometimes with the Community aspects of the F/OSS world.

but that is really a discussion for another place, and is not meant as criticism or insult.

[MoonRise]

Re: Kubuntu should be discontinued?

Just because you don't like something, or if your not willing to work with something, doesn't mean you need to post something nasty about it.

Very well said. I also agree with those that said you must learn your OS and yes, that includes those like M$ with their newer ones. You have to learn them and let me tell you, even M$ upgrades do not go well on all machines, but we learn and figure out the issue and go on. That is for all OSs, not just Kubuntu.

[jglen490]

Re: Kubuntu should be discontinued?

@jem --

Feeling beat up?

Next time just present the problem you see and ask for a solution. Unlearn your noobish ways.