Kubuntu Funding Cut

[bsniadajewski]

@jpenguin
I may go back to Opensuse, or go to either Fedora (if I don't have any NVidia troubles in later releases) or LMDE (to get my feet wet in straight Debian, or closer to it than the Ubus). I may even try to find a user-friendly(er) Arch-based distro for the hack (I mean heck) of it

[SteveRiley]

i may even try to find a user-friendly(er) arch-based distro for the hack (i mean heck) of it

lol

[GreyGeek]

If worse-come-to-worse and kubuntu development completely stops (not very likely) What distro would you go with? Fedora, SimplyMEPIS, LMDE, strait Debain?

PCLinuxOS is a find distro, as long as TexStar is running the show and controlling the quality of the releases. I used RedHat before it forked Fedora as a test bed for its server suits, and I've tried Debian (when it came on 15 floppies and 6 CDs). So, I've had years of experience with RPM based distros. Most of their problems were because of the RPM packaging system. That's one reason why I liked Kubuntu and other DEB based distros, DEB & apt is, IMO, superior to RPM and yum, or whatever.

That said, IF Kubuntu were to go away, I'd move to either LinuxMint KDE or Debian running KDE. As a worse case mode, I'd use openSUSE, but jump to a deb based system running KDE ASAP.

[GreyGeek]

@jpenguin
I may go back to Opensuse, or go to either Fedora (if I don't have any NVidia troubles in later releases) or LMDE (to get my feet wet in straight Debian, or closer to it than the Ubus). I may even try to find a user-friendly(er) Arch-based distro for the hack (I mean heck) of it

If you are going to go that primitive why not use Gentoo or even LinuxFromScratch?

[SteveRiley]

PCLinuxOS is a find distro, as long as TexStar is running the show and controlling the quality of the releases.

Looks like that might not be happening for a little while now...

[GreyGeek]

That's sad to read. TexStar is (was?) a coder of unusual ability. He was creating RPM packages for Mandrake when I was using it. It was obvious that he knew the RPM system better than any other Mandrake packager. He began making suggestions about how Mandrake, and later Mandriva, could be improved, but he was ignored. So, he started PCLOS.

When the hurricane went through Huston a few years ago and destroyed his house (I understand that he retired from banking) and drove him, along with hundreds of thousands of others, out of Huston, PCLOS went down hill as those entrusted with its care began a game of territory building and infighting. That's when I left and went to MEPIS. But, Woodford had to set MEPIS aside to feed his family just about the time he realized that using Ubuntu for a base wasn't working for him, so he returned to the old base. It spelled a rough time for MEPIS, so I returned to Mandriva. It was on a lark that I tried Kubuntu, primarly because it advertized that it was going to use KDE 4.2, and Mandriva said it wasn't going to KDE 4.2 for another six months. Suprisingly, Kubuntu gave me instant 3D, something I had been working with Xorg developers for 4 months to get 3D in my Mandriva installation. I switched to Kubuntu immediately (Feb of 2009) and haven't looked back.

If what happened at PCLOS before occurs again, it means the beginning of the end for PCLOS. IF I know TexStar he had an inkling that this time would come and probably spent the last 4 years since he returned to PCLOS training someone to take his place. I.e., teaching him/her to be as good a packager as he is, and better people skills.

[rms]

As an additional remark, I'd like to bring into discussion the fact that this is a time of financial depression. Worldwide. I have the impression that everybody seems to be forgetting it or not taking into account enough.

In view of the crisis Canonical is probably forced wily-nilly to focus all manpower and every dime into something which will enable the company to survive the hardships. If they are pulling out the support for Kubuntu project now, perhaps, it doesn't mean forever and that it will not be renewed when this storm abates, and it will. Because all madness does.

[DoYouKubuntu]

@rms, I see your point, but if Kubuntu gave us, its users, an easy way to donate financially, some/many of us would. That would have to help, at least somewhat.

[GreyGeek]

As an additional remark, I'd like to bring into discussion the fact that this is a time of financial depression. Worldwide. I have the impression that everybody seems to be forgetting it or not taking into account enough.

In view of the crisis Canonical is probably forced wily-nilly to focus all manpower and every dime into something which will enable the company to survive the hardships. If they are pulling out the support for Kubuntu project now, perhaps, it doesn't mean forever and that it will not be renewed when this storm abates, and it will. Because all madness does.

This will especially be a problem for the USA when the Dollar finally loses its status as a World Currency Reserve. Already Russia, China, Iran, Japan, France, South Africa, Brazil and several other countries are making plans to stop using the Dollar for foreign exchange, or ALREADY have. When the majority of them do, then the USA will no longer be able to export its debt by printing more money. That will lead to hyperinflation which will take years to rise above, and will destabilize the country.

[jook]

I would send some cash Kubuntu's way if it were possible. For the many times it helped it, I would give a little back.

If Kubuntu disappeared, I would probably go Mint KDE or Debian KDE. There may be good RPM options out there, but I don't really care to learn it.

[ardvark71]

Hi all...

Is it safe to assume that Canonical will continue to give Kubuntu access to their repositories or would come to a point where Kubuntu would need to create their own?

Regards...

[SteveRiley]

Folks, please take the time to understand what's actually happened here. For some time, Ubuntu has granted recognition of several alternative "flavors" -- Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Edubuntu, Mythbuntu, Ubuntu Studio. Kubutu enjoyed a more elevated position, in that Canonical paid one person -- Jonathan Riddell -- to supervise the work of maintaining the KDE packages for Ubuntu. The "funding cut" here is two-fold:

* Jonathan's employer is assigning him to other tasks, meaning that Kubuntu no longer has a paid developer working on it
* Canonical will not provide fee-based support for versions of Kubuntu beyond 12.04

All this talk of Kubuntu disappearing needs to stop. According to Launchpad, the Kubuntu project has 55 members. Sure, 54 of them are volunteers, but Canonical's decision to redirect the one employee in this group to other projects doesn't mean the project will suddenly vanish. Kubuntu is now being reclassified in the same category as the other flavors I mentioned above.

BTW, this is the same way those other flavors have always operated. For example, Launchpad is the home of Xubuntu with a maintenance team of 87 members.

The infrastructure for developing and maintaining Kubuntu is not going away (although its packages will move from "main" to "universe"). I fully expect we'll continue to see KDE packages prepared for and made available to Ubuntu users for many years to come.

[ardvark71]

Folks, please take the time to understand what's actually happened here.

Hi Steve...

It sounds like you're getting a bit frustrated with people, at least today. Please keep in mind that not everyone processes information the same way or in the same time span you do. Please be patient with your fellow KFN'ers.

Regards...

[DoYouKubuntu]

ardvark, I think Steve's frustration [if we call it that] isn't so much with the people posting in this thread, but the fact that the thread's message kind of warped from its original point. It went from its original point of Kubuntu's funding being cut to the HYPOTHETICAL question posed by jpenguin, "If worse-come-to-worse and kubuntu development completely stops (not very likely) What distro would you go with? Fedora, SimplyMEPIS, LMDE, strait Debain?" and its responses. Now it sounds like Kubuntu is going to disappear and we all have to decide on other distros, but that was never the point. I'm glad Steve stepped in and reiterated what this issue is actually about.

[ardvark71]

Hi DYK...

Perhaps I should have posed what I said in a question instead. "Are you feeling irritated with people on the forum today?" It's really easy to misinterpret people's thoughts and emtions on a board such as this one.

@Steve: My apologies, Steve, if I have done so.

Regards...