I may be tired, but...

[claydoh]

Is it just me, or does it seem like the ONLY distro (KDE-specific anyway) that gets bad-mouthed in any way is Kubuntu? And that with just about EVERY review or blog post concerning it, someone always seems to slide in a "Kubuntu is known for being the worst KDE implementation" or "known for having terrible packaging" or similar, without any examples or specifics, heck even opinions as to why this is so.

And even more troubling (and this is just my impression, nothing intended to detract from the project in any way whatsoever and am NOT trying to start any wars here whatsoever) is that a disproportional number of these seem to mention or are from Arch users

Heck, back in the day even the stereotypical Gentoo "ricer" wouldn't actually slag another distro, just hype theirs as The Best.

Heck, even taking out my perceptions of where a lot of these comments may possibly be coming from, I almost get the feeling there is some sort of campaign to slag on Kubuntu......

I must be REALLY tired :/

GreyGeek, I should ask you to put on your cape and fly around and see what you find Your super-senses hopefully will prove I am just waayyy too tired right now.

[Snowhog]

Re: I may be tired, but...

Can't answer, as the only Linux distro I've used is Kubuntu, starting with Edgy Eft.

I have always been of the opinion that most of the people posting negatively about Kubuntu are not very literate computer users. Kubuntu is a cutting edge distro - the developers tend to 'push the envelope' maybe more than other distros. But if people would take the time to properly identify the information about their systems before installing/upgrading, I think most would have a much smoother go with Kubuntu.

Kubuntu is a 'thinking man's' Linux, and I kind of like that.

[GreyGeek]

Re: I may be tired, but...

I agree with Snowhog!

I've noticed both good, mixed and bad reviews about Kubuntu 10.4, with the good and mixed out numbering the bad. Most of the bad reviews I've read seem to be written by GNOME or KDE 3.5.9 fans wanting to tee off on KDE 4.x again, because that is what most seem to complain about.

But, like Snowhog says ....

[claydoh]

Re: I may be tired, but...

I definitely am ( er, was I hope ) tired but I am thinking more along the lines of comments in the articles/reviews/blogs concerning Kubuntu as opposed to the actual articles themselves.

[dibl]

Re: I may be tired, but...

Being a lifetime student of human nature, I have noticed a definite tendency of the armchair critic crowd to reserve their fiercest complaints for the "top dog", in every field. (Aside: I guess Microsoft is going to have to move to second place so Apple can catch the spears for awhile, according to today's news ...).

Anyway, Kubuntu seems to be the big dog of KDE distributions, and so it naturally gets the most flak, according to "dibl's rule" above. Probably it should be a point of pride. 8)

[claydoh]

Re: I may be tired, but...

I dunno, dibl. Not that distrowatch stats are terribly useful, but there are a decent number of KDE distros ranking much higher on that list.....


To clarify my point a little: how many other distros get dissed in comments/tweets/dents etc? I personally seldom see any other one get more than mildly criticized. That's the part that got me into this conspiracy theory the world's out to get us!!! lol We MUST be good if we are such a target

[Rog131]

Re: I may be tired, but...

Empty barrels make the most noise


Well, to me it seems that there are group of peoples who need a life.

An example: a KDE-Apps grop for the 'buntu haters > No More Ubuntu Respins.

The latest (May 20 2010) :

Anyone wanna open an ubuntu hate channel...Just imagine, we can all sit there and chat/troll ubuntu in realtime!...

.

[dibl]

Re: I may be tired, but...

I dunno, dibl. Not that distrowatch stats are terribly useful, but there are a decent number of KDE distros ranking much higher on that list.....

That is true. But, I seem to see a lot of "mental merging" of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Xubuntu, in the "chattering class" -- I wonder if they just lump them together and then launch the allegations. I think Rog is right about the "lack of a life" thing.

[GreyGeek]

Re: I may be tired, but...

The comments to the reviews are usually hijacked by anti-KDE4 folks. Some, it seems, search out such reviews and rant in the comment section of every one of them. A while back I decided to track one of them after he deposited a rant on LT. Over the preceding two years he visited about every major news site or blog talking about KDE4, using the same old tired rants. He even posted a rant to a thread which had no activity for a year!

One complaint in his rant was that KDE4's menu was too "VISTA like" and there was no way to change to to the classic menu. I mentioned to him that right clicking on the KMenu icon and choosing "Classic Menu" would switch to the classic menu. Without missing a beat he dropped that whine and began ranting about how the KDE developers were "gutting" Konqueror, removing functionality, and using a slower engine. When that disinformation was rebuffed he switched to yet another whine and went on ranting at other sites.

I noticed a couple days ago that a group has started "supporting" KDE 3.5.9 in a project called Trinity. It's one thing to fix bugs and edit existing 3.5.x apps to fix security holes, but if those holes are in Qt 3.5 API objects then that group will have to start supporting the Qt 3.5.x API as well. New apps for KDE 3.5.9 will have to be done with the Qt 3.5.x API, which doesn't have the power or flexibility of Qt4. Supporting both the DE and the Qt3 API will be a very demanding burden, which will get even more demanding when the KDE dev group stops supporting KDE 3.5.9 and Noika stops supporting Qt 3.5.x.

[toad]

Re: I may be tired, but...

I don't really get much further than reading the BBC and some of the kubuntu, archlinux and kde feeds on the computer so I suppose I am further away yet closer to the ground than blogs are. Anyway, I haven't read anything negative about kubuntu in any of those forums - though it would be great to read _anything_ - even critical - about kubuntu/linux on the beeb :P

And as I keep on stressing (just to explain my ignorance in some fields), I haven't been using this "update-ridden" distro for some time.

Still, the LTS release will calm things down again. After all, it is hard for a "self proclaimed" cutting edge distro aiming at stability to bridge the gap. Just think of the pace of development, the inherent lack of completeness opposed to the popular demand for KDE4. Now KDE4 is here (I suppose a properly functioning akonadi will complete it) kubuntu can concentrate on being kubuntu again.

@ Rog131

I don't think they mentioned even one percent of them. Heck, they didn't even mention my kubuntu-respin! Bastards! Either they are elitist, ignorant or politically motivated. Mono is one thing - we have GG to keep us informed on that front -, but they haven't got a particular line of reasoning. So there ...

[GreyGeek]

Re: I may be tired, but...

I dunno, dibl. Not that distrowatch stats are terribly useful, but there are a decent number of KDE distros ranking much higher on that list.....

When I was running PCLinuxOS 2007 I put a lot of stock in DistroWatch page hit rankings. I thought that they might represent both the popularity and relative "market share" of PCLOS among Linux users or those curious about PCLOS. But, while PCLOS was ranked "#1" for over a year, I didn't see any relative increase in the number of users at their forum, nor did I get a sense that outside of Distrowatch PCLinuxOS was gaining in user counts or Linux news outlet articles. Then, as PCLinuxOS lost its hold on the #1 ranking and began sliding to 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and lower, I got the sense that nothing had actually changed. The number of users at the forum were about the same, the number of articles were about the same, if one ignored those about TextStar being absent from the project. Nothing really felt different at all. Almost all of the buzz was focused on Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, Mandriva and Mint, just like it had always been. Just like it is now.

IF any distro releases a new version they climb in the rankings, then they fade to where they were before the release within a couple months. To leave the top 100 rankings a distro just has to stop releasing new versions, ore release a truly stinky one, which raises a lot of bad press and causes folks to move to other distros, just like I moved from PCLinuxOS to Mandriva.

The main feature of Distrowatch, in my mind, is that it is one location where one can find links to ALL the Linux distros which still have some sort of pulse.

[Zhao]

Re: I may be tired, but...

Kubuntu is a very nice distro. Depending on the hardware, new versions might not run so well as previous ones but that doesn't mean the new version is worst, actually is always much better. But this hardware thing happens on all other distros too, so no point in going through there. Those destructive comments are from people with a very poor taste and shouldn't be taken into consideration. However I understand, it always feels bad to hear (or read in this case) bad things about what we like and especially when it becomes often and generalized. One of the great things about Linux is that you can just try it out for free and see it for yourself. Not a good idea to just stick with what others say without even trying it yourself (when I say "yourself" I mean people in general, not anyone in particular :P).

Anyway, such comments just remind of this pic:
[img width=400 height=250]http://www.godlikeproductions.com/sm/custom/telnmksa.jpeg[/img]

[MoonRise]

Re: I may be tired, but...

+1 @ Snowhog.

[claydoh]

Re: I may be tired, but...

I noticed a couple days ago that a group has started "supporting" KDE 3.5.9 in a project called Trinity. It's one thing to fix bugs and edit existing 3.5.x apps to fix security holes, but if those holes are in Qt 3.5 API objects then that group will have to start supporting the Qt 3.5.x API as well. New apps for KDE 3.5.9 will have to be done with the Qt 3.5.x API, which doesn't have the power or flexibility of Qt4. Supporting both the DE and the Qt3 API will be a very demanding burden, which will get even more demanding when the KDE dev group stops supporting KDE 3.5.9 and Noika stops supporting Qt 3.5.x.

That is the same guy been doing kde3 stuff for Kubuntu post-Hardy, good guy overall imo, even if it is a thankless task he pursues

Anyway, I have finally almost have caught up on sleep (I only have to work 11 hours tomorrow yay!), I am relaxing, sipping a nice, cold glass of fresh brewed spearmint iced tea and enjoying the company of good friends

many thanks everyone !!

[Snowhog]

Re: I may be tired, but...

many thanks everyone !!

Hey, what else are we here for?