Kubuntu Reviewed at DistroWatch

[Snowhog]

Re: Kubuntu Reviewed at DistroWatch

I wanted to say "the scenery never changes"...

[claydoh]

Re: Kubuntu Reviewed at DistroWatch

They also get to run in the lead dog's "effluent"!

hehe you are on fire, GG !!

[de_koraco]

Re: Kubuntu Reviewed at DistroWatch

snip

I wouldn't change a single word of what is written in your post. +1000

[GreyGeek]

Re: Kubuntu Reviewed at DistroWatch

.....
Linux Mint doesn't seem to want to play ball with those efforts any longer, and therefore they are going to a straight "Debian base" so they are less cornered into adapting to the mobile device reality ...

IMO that is a wise choice. It cuts out the "middle man" and the necessity of removing what would be, for a distro which isn't going the mobility route, cruft. Even though KDE is built with Qt4, those objects in the Qt4 API which deal with mobility issues do not have to be "#include ..."'d in the Mint version.

There has been a benefit of Kubuntu over the years: the Ubuntu/Kubuntu collaboration has ensured that there was cross-over between Gnome-based applications into the Kubuntu world (if not always vice-versa).

And, there is at least one paid programmer working on Kubuntu. Leaving Ubuntu's umbrella would eliminate that perk.

This has served to make Kubuntu currently a more flexible, dynamic, and broad-based OS than Ubuntu, IMO.

Which is a definite asset.

I'm sure with time there will be some applications made somehow specifically for Unity that will find their way into the Kubuntu sphere as well (with tweaking, of course).

Which, if the user likes they can install, or not, as the case may be.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Kubuntu Reviewed at DistroWatch

They also get to run in the lead dog's "effluent"!

lol

[woodsmoke]

Re: Kubuntu Reviewed at DistroWatch

I think Unity and Gnome3 will greatly suit a LOT of people.

"The people who want "friendly" really mean "get on the internet" is an apt comment.

What will be interesting to watch is a comment I made when I reviewed Unity Gnome 3 for an online magazine:

the developers who do NOT want to get close to Unity or Gnome 3 may have to:
a) get closer to Debian
b) or....what would be REALLY interesting...is to get close to and get involved in the development of BSD as a base for a "classic" destkop... !

what a thought! KUBUSDthingy!

woodsmoke

[Zhao]

Re: Kubuntu Reviewed at DistroWatch

Glad to see you back wood

[arochester]

Re: Kubuntu Reviewed at DistroWatch

*Rant*

I often think that Distrowatch should be taken with a pinch of salt. Just look at their ranking of distros.

1) At the top is Ubuntu. It has a short shelf life and comes out every six months. A new install is recommended over an upgrade. So, if I had it today, I would want a new download in 6 months. For me the ranking is artificially high.

2) Second is Linux Mint. Which Linux Mint? Based on Ubuntu or based on Debian. Ubuntu only? Both? Xfce? There is only ONE Distrowatch entry for Mint.

3) There are some fairly stable distros. Once you've got it you won't need to download again for a while. Debian Squeeze was two years (?) in the making. Is it really any less popular/good because it is further down the list?

4) Then there are "rolling releases" like dibl's beloved Aptosid. Theoretically they should update forever. Once downloaded you might never need to download again...

5) The Ubuntu official variations, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu each have separate Distrowatch entries. What is to stop someone downloading Ubuntu and changing it to Kubuntu? But it would count as a download of Ubuntu. Debian Netinstall allows Gnome, KDE or Xfce.

...For me, Distrowatch is not the ultimate authority. It is not infallible and has it's problems. (And we point Newbies at it saying it's a measure of popularity)...

*End of rant*

[kubicle]

Re: Kubuntu Reviewed at DistroWatch

I often think that Distrowatch should be taken with a pinch of salt. Just look at their ranking of distros.

They should be taken with more than a pinch of salt

The rankings aren't even based on "downloads", just page hits on distrowatch.

EDIT: Distrowatch is still a good source for information, but the rankings only have "entertainment" value.

[arochester]

Re: Kubuntu Reviewed at DistroWatch

The rankings aren't even based on "downloads", just page hits on distrowatch.

Point taken. Maybe e.g. Debian people, are more mature, can just find good information elsewhere and don't need Distrowatch. So a low scoring distro is not necessarily any "worse" than one scoring high.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Kubuntu Reviewed at DistroWatch

....
EDIT: Distrowatch is still a good source for information, but the rankings only have "entertainment" value.

In the past I've run RH, Knoppix, PCLOS, Mandrake, Mandriva, and several others. Except for the first two I've always participated in their forums. Without exception someone in a forum would suggest going to DistroWatch and clicking on that Distro's link. It reached mania proportions when PCLinuxOS .p93 made it into the top 10. When PCLOS 2007 made it to #1 and then showed a slight downturn, someone always suggested clicking the DistroWatch PCLOS link to kick it back up. When ever a distro was reviewed, or a poll was taken, someone always posted a message about the review or poll and suggested that everyone go "vote". I've seen that on this forum.

When I was using PCLOS from .p93 till 2008 they were, for almost a year, ranked #1. I could never understand it because PCLOS had no press, no marketing campaign, no deals with DELL or other OEMs to pre-install it, no paid developers, IOW, nothing like what Shuttlesworth did for Ubuntu which could generate a buzz that would draw people to DistroWatch. In fact, most people who have never used Linux probably have never heard of DistroWatch, so I suspect that most of the clicks are by current Linux users.

The only thing I use DistroWatch for is a convenient listing of over 300 distros. With the exception of the top 8, the top 30 or 40 probably have about the same number of users.

[Linkmaster]

Re: Kubuntu Reviewed at DistroWatch

Personally, this article didn't do as much justice to Kubuntu as it should have. To make a good report on something, a person should not rely on personal opinion. Observations are fine, but stating what hey/she thinks should or should not be makes it discrediable.

...Something I noticed early on was the desktop environment was sluggish...Once I'd turned off workspace edges, desktop effects and the indexing/search feature KDE became more responsive. From there on, performance was about on par with other KDE desktop distributions such as SimplyMEPIS and openSUSE...

I am aware this is an observation, but my computer runs at half of what this person says it works at, and its not remotely sluggish. So, what if his 'sluggish' was how it was supposed to look, which is fairly liquidity. Smooth, not lightning fast, but responsive. Things slide, rather then jut out at the user. Just my own observations.

...There were a few default packages (Amarok and the Firefox installer) I would have liked to have seen swapped out, and I would have preferred if all the KDE features and effects hadn't been enabled out of the box...

Why would someone want to cut out some of the things that makes Kubuntu, well...Kubuntu? Someone loads up Kubuntu, and they drop whatever they are holding in awe. My friend did that when she first loaded up on her computer that has the same specs as the reporters computer, and she said she had zero speed issues. I was on the phone with her, and she was speechless for a good 30 seconds, on just the default desktop and how it looked. The sliding, the smoothness. She was exclusively windows user, and referred to Linux as a 'program' until earlier today, and wanted to try it out. She said that if she can, she'll never go back to Windows. Thats because Kubuntu started off at a sprint upon starting up. No finding out how to make things pretty, its straight "bam!"

But I digress. The last point I wanted to bring up was that a personal comments section is good, but it should always be on the last paragraph. Facts to start with, and then comments and ideas/thoughts. Those are my personal observations again, from what I've seen myself and what I've heard from my friends