Kubuntu is Being Left behind?

[johnno56]

Re: Kubuntu is Being Left behind?

My 2 cents:

I love linux. I think Kubuntu is great. I do no care if one distro provides this, the other distro provides that, this one is better because.... etc.

What are we doing? Wasting time arguing about what I call "the little things". In the meantime, the Microsloth black hole, is sucking in more and more uninformed users, into a money draining pit that they may no be able to afford to get out of.

The more we "in fight" with each other, the better Mr. Gates looks.

Does there have to be sooooo many distros? I cannot begin to imagine how many linux boffins are dedicated to producing a squillion distros, when they all could be better used in producing a few great distros that would give Gates and his henchmen, a run for his money.

I will now get off my soapbox.

That was my 2 cents, for what it was worth.

Regards

J

[Snowhog]

Re: Kubuntu is Being Left behind?

Have to (respectfully) disagree with the thought that 'less is better' (my paraphrasing) regarding the proliferation of Linux distributions that one has to choose from. Does the shear number of Linux distributions weaken the threat to M$? Would having a smaller, more concentrated group of Linux distributions be better?

I don't think so. Linux is choice. The fact there are so many versions to choose from is part of. if not the strength of Linux. Linux doesn't believe in a 'one size fits all' model. The user, not the developer, gets to (ultimately) choose what they want in a Linux distribution. And more, if you have the skills, you can modify any distribution and create one specifically suited to you! Do that with M$ or Apple.

[marshallbanana]

Re: Kubuntu is Being Left behind?

I've actually be thinking lately that I wouldn't be surprised if part of the 'future' of linux distros was to offer three or four possible defaults (not just in terms of fedora 'spins' but within each spin having a bunch of different possible artwork defaults). This would go someway towards accommodating the different artwork tastes of various users.

[cantab]

Re: Kubuntu is Being Left behind?

If you're just thinking aesthetics, that's what themes do in KDE. But themes have been made rather unfriendly, and even more well-hidden: It's in kcontrol but not in systemsettings.

[johnno56]

Re: Kubuntu is Being Left behind?

My other 2 cents.

I am not saying that "less is better". In my opinion Linux IS better than m$. Ok, so I am biased. M$ uses a very slick marketing team to determine their target "audience". XP comes in a few "flavours" to cater for specific users and budgets. The more expensive the product, one would expect, more "bells and whistles". While the less expensive has parts "removed". What if Linux followed a similar pattern. Instead of producing many distros, why not concentrate our efforts aiming at the same targets in the effort to "rescue" users? I believe that Linux has everything a user could need. Simply engineer the distro, in either appearance or function or both, to appeal to the same type of m$ users. eg: Have a simple "point and click" system that the early Apples had, for our novices; a desktop with all "our" "bells and whistles" for our more experienced users. (with several levels in between).

In a sense, have less distros, using more techs on each, to make it even better.

Just a thought.

Regards

J

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu is Being Left behind?

Installed Mepis 7, 64-bit today, and played with it awhile. It looks good, and most everything works fine, but it ran out of gas on compiz. Seems to be missing a package "gtk2-engines" from the repository that is required to get their one and only window decorator (Clearlook) to function.

I'm kinda used to spinning my compiz cube -- who knows -- I might have left something interesting running on the other side!

Anyway, that's one data point that tells me the grass is NOT greener on the other side. 8)

[marshallbanana]

Re: Kubuntu is Being Left behind?

If you're just thinking aesthetics, that's what themes do in KDE. But themes have been made rather unfriendly, and even more well-hidden: It's in kcontrol but not in systemsettings.

I know and thats why I think it would be so easy to have a stage in the install where it shows 4 screenshots each of a different theme and ask you which you would like by default.

[eddieg780]

Re: Kubuntu is Being Left behind?

Well here is my 2 cents worth.......

I'm using Kubuntu 7.10 and just love it. It installed flawlessly on my Dell 1505 laptop. I used Ubuntu but really didn't like the Gnome look. I think Kubuntu will excel above the others with time. As soon as more manufacturers start supporting Linux drivers for their hardware you will see Linux advance quicker. Linspire 6.0 is now Ubuntu based so they must think it's pretty great too. One thing I always say is" a bad day with Linux is always better than any day with Windoze"....

[GS2]

Re: Kubuntu is Being Left behind?

I guess we are talking about the use of Linux as a Desktop here, because under that DE, we all have a solid and secure OS - with a kernel that's heart is used in more servers on the web than Microsoft could ever hope for. Yes Microsoft may have the Desktop lead, but without the open source system there would be no internet (do you think Cisco pay M$ for an OS in their routers ?)- just be happy with that thought

Is Kubuntu being left behind ? Nope, in the time I have used it the project has made great leaps - and a 'hats-off' to all the developers for that !

[b0uncyfr0]

Re: Kubuntu is Being Left behind?

I didint literally mean that Kubuntu is falling behind ( as in being turned into a worthless distro). I was trying to explain how Kubuntu lacks the basic stuff that makes it that much easier for newbies to LOVE it, which a lot of distros have these days. I should have explained better.

I still love Kubuntu though.

[Fenyx]

Re: Kubuntu is Being Left behind?

I know why, because we dont have much to offer above other distros and thats the pure truth. Eg. Codecs and NTFS read/write. This is like standard now and Kubuntu still doesnt have it.

Neither does Ubuntu, but that doesn't stop Ubuntu from being popular does it? (Neither does Fedora, Debian, or openSUSE, except through Fluendo). It's an ideological and philosophical stance that Ubuntu (and Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Edubuntu) have taken. But at the same time, they are continually trying to make it easier to install proprietary/non-free stuff (restricted-extras, restricted-manager). As for NTFS, ntfs-3g is installed by default on Gutsy, although not enabled by default in Kubuntu. (It will be in Kubuntu Hardy)

And to make it worst its not that fast either.

I agree. But the good news is that almost every release gets faster and faster.

The reason why im saying all this is because i see a lot of potential in Kubuntu but it seems like nothings changed over the years.

Really? Kubuntu has actually changed so much, both under the hood and on top since I've used it for the first time in Breezy. In fact, it has changed too much too fast, I'd say.

If we had this, we could pull in more people. Thus increasing the community. I dont think thats a bad idea at all because our comminuty is fairly small or most people dont post( you know who you are).

This forums is not the only Kubuntu community. If you take a look at the mailing list, IRC, and ubuntuforums, we have quite a number of people. It's actually not the size of the community that is the problem. We actually a large amount of users. The problem is how many of those people actually care enough to lift a finger. If we have 100,000 people in the community, and only 10 of those care enough to help, we're going to have trouble soon.

The question really is, "Where are all these Kubuntu lovers?" How much do they really love Kubuntu? Enough to graduate from being "just users" or bystanders, into "Kubuntu contributors" and active participants? This is a question I've always wanted to ask everyone: What have you done for Kubuntu lately?

For what it's worth, I do think Kubuntu is at a crossroads right now (as anyone reading Planet Ubuntu or Planet KDE would have read by now):

http://jucato.org/blog/quo-vadis-kubuntu/
http://jucato.org/blog/after-all-thats-been-said/

I also believe that the time is ripe for those who profess their love for Kubuntu to actually take a more active role and give it their best shot. You don't need to be a programmer, you don't need to be packager (although it would be awesome if you become one). Every little bit counts.

Next week there will be a Kubuntu Tutorials Day to be held in IRC. It would be great if more people could be present. It would be greater if more people could start contributing.

https://wiki.kubuntu.org/KubuntuTutorialsDay

Hope to see you there!

[rogerduncan100]

Re: Kubuntu is Being Left behind?

I just started using Kubuntu a few months back because I got frustrated with Pclinuxos. (It wouldn't play BBC video streams). Also, the Beryl rotating cube was pretty shaggy (ca-ca around the edges of the window) but that may be because my video card is too slow, I don't really care. Pclos didn't seem that stable.

So I came to Kubuntu after having used Ubuntu last year and deciding I liked KDE applications (and the look) better. Also, it's more stable because it is backed by a large organization. I gather Pclos is a one-man show.

I don't agree that Kubuntu is being left behind. The Kubuntu distro is better than others because it is stable and reliable, and of course, there's lots of support! It may not be the flashiest (though my KDE desktop with kpersonalizer is mighty pretty) but it's the distro that does all I want it to without complaining or crashing.

I think KDE and Ubuntu together have a bright future.