Kubuntu is largely moot

[clivejo]

In a news article regarding the release of Zesty Beta 2, the good folks over at OMG Ubuntu had the following to say about Kubuntu:

Although I’d argue KDE Neon renders it largely moot, Kubuntu 17.04 Beta 2 attempts to attract with Plasma 5.9 and KDE Applications 16.12.3 on board.

Whilst the article talks about the other flavors/flavours in detail, it appears that Kubuntu and Lubuntu only get a footnote. Do you agree with the points made, or a think it is a tad unfair towards official flavors/flavours?

[GreyGeek]

For those wanting to read the whole article the link is here.

Joe's opinion can be explained by his admission in the comments section: "I'm not traditionally a KDE guy though, so my opinion likely differs from others."

Indeed it does! It's the kind of statement you'd expect him to make on a news site that favors Ubuntu Mate. Neon does not "render Kubuntu moot" any more than a fancy saddle renders a horse moot. As things currently stand Neon rides Kubuntu and depends upon it. This fact explains the page hits on Distrowatch which shows that during 2016 Kubuntu has dropped from 41st place to 69th while Neon has risen from 51 to 26. Just about as many have picked up Neon as has dropped Kubuntu, BUT, they really haven't dropped Kubuntu, the horse, just because they like Plasma 5.9, the saddle. Since Mint is loaded on top of Ubuntu and Ubuntu on Debian, page hits for Mint can also be attributed to Ubuntu and Debian. Another reason why page hit ranking is about as meaningless regarding Kubuntu or Neon as an Ubuntu Mate website opinion about KDE. Want the best and purest KDE experience possible? You'll run Kubuntu. Want that experience to be on the front edge of KDE? You'll run Neon. Want the best of all worlds? Run Neon with Btrfs! That's my opinion.

[clivejo]

Feels a bit off to me. The article is supposed to be about Zesty Beta flavours, yet the author seems to be totally ignoring Kubuntu in favour of KDE neon, which is based on Xenial (now almost a year old). Whilst I use a lot of KDE software, I don't just use it exclusively and like to see other non-KDE software getting updated as well (ie Firefox, LibreOffice, FileZillia, etc..).

But the great thing about open source software, is that there are so many choices and you are free to pick which suits you best. I guess my main issue is that just because the author of the article has formed an opinion, he/she is then excluding Kubuntu as an official flavour because of that opinion. Not very free and open in my view. I don't understand this hostility people have that you must pick one, Kubuntu and KDE neon both have their pros and cons. Let people make up their own minds what is best for them!

[GreyGeek]

Well, "OMG Ubuntu" is an Ubuntu site and that author, Joe, prefers Mate as his desktop. *shrug*. Most of the comments were pro Mate. That's all right. It's their site. They can publish anything they want. But, it's not even marginally about Kubuntu or Neon. That's why it isn't on my reading list.

[clivejo]

Yes, that does seem to be the case. It is a shame really as we are all Ubuntu fans, just with different personal tastes as to how things should look and feel.

[GreyGeek]

+1
Personal choice and taste. Only Linux offers significant choices in those areas. Thankfully.
That's why I appreciate the efforts and ethics of the Kubuntu & Neon dev teams.

[claydoh]

As things currently stand Neon rides Kubuntu and depends upon it.

[/FONT][/COLOR]

No it does not ride on or depend upon Kububtu, but on Ubuntu.

All of its Plasma, Frameworks, Applications, and Qt are built by Neon, and other than the Ubiquity installer on the iso, I don't think there is anything Kubuntu in Neon by default (though of course they are available to be installed.)

Neon are not offering a modified Kubuntu.

sent from my LG V10 using Tapatalk

[GreyGeek]

No it does not ride on or depend upon Kububtu, but on Ubuntu.

All of its Plasma, Frameworks, Applications, and Qt are built by Neon, and other than the Ubiquity installer on the iso, I don't think there is anything Kubuntu in Neon by default (though of course they are available to be installed.)

Neon are not offering a modified Kubuntu.

sent from my LG V10 using Tapatalk

So, you are saying that the Neon Dev crew did not start with Kubuntu 16.04 and add Neon to it, but is adding Neon to Ubuntu, bypassing Kubuntu? News to me.

[dequire]

So, you are saying that the Neon Dev crew did not start with Kubuntu 16.04 and add Neon to it, but is adding Neon to Ubuntu, bypassing Kubuntu? News to me.

This was always my understanding from the beginning. From the Neon website:

More than ever people expect a stable desktop with cutting-edge features, all in a package which is easy to use and ready to make their own.

KDE neon is the intersection of these needs using a stable Ubuntu long-term release as its core, packaging the hottest software fresh from the KDE Community ovens. Compute knowing you have a solid foundation and enjoy the features you experience in the world's most customisable desktop.

[Snowhog]

Neon are not offering a modified Kubuntu.

IIRC, the confusion on this might have come from the very begining of KDE neon, when it was stated (but not (fully) recommended) that you 'could' add the KDE neon PPA to your installed Kubuntu. But it was always stated right up front that KDE neon was built upon a Ubuntu LTS base, using a rapidly updated repository (KDE neon). I'm paraphrasing all this, but I believe the jist is correct.

[claydoh]

So, you are saying that the Neon Dev crew did not start with Kubuntu 16.04 and add Neon to it, but is adding Neon to Ubuntu, bypassing Kubuntu? News to me.

Yes.

Neon is built from the same core as Ubuntu, its flavours, and other derivatives (Mint, Elementary) are built upon.

[AHoneybun]

Very few people seem to know that Linux Mint's KDE spin/flavor uses the Kubuntu Backports PPA for Stable and Reliable KDE updates. On the note about the article, everyone is allowed to have an opinion on their own choices but it is only fair if your going to give all the over flavors decent writeups but completely gloss over Kubuntu and Lubuntu then their is a problem.

[DrGeoffrey]

Neon is built from the same core as Ubuntu, its flavours, and other derivatives (Mint, Elementary) are built upon.

That was my read from Neon's forums as well