Kubuntu's status with Blue Systems?

[DarkCerberus]

According to Wikipedia on the Kubuntu article, blue systems took over the support from Canonical awhile back and became a sponsor could someone clarify this to me - if this is the case then why does Canonical dictate to the policies of Kubuntu hence dictating to Jonathan which meant he had to leave the Ubuntu council - this to me needs clarifying does Blue Systems own Kubuntu since they according to Wikipedia bought the rights to the Kubuntu Operating System, and if so why does the kubuntu.org website say Kubuntu is a registered trademark of Canonical Ltd? Also Canonical no-longer to my knowledge develops on Kubuntu only blue systems do and the kde developers....

[NickStone]

My understanding is that Blue Systems did not buy / take ownership of Kubuntu, they sponser Jonathan Riddell and a few KDE developers to create Kubuntu. Kubuntu is not a seperate Linux distribution to Ubuntu. It is Ubuntu with KDE sitting on top of it. The same with Lubuntu; Xubuntu; Gnomebuntu and Mate Ubuntu.

Blue Systems are benefactors to Kubuntu as well as Linux Mint KDE and Netrunner. They use their money to help to develop those Linux distributions, they don't own them.

[claydoh]

You may want to re-read that wikipedia article, as I am not sure how you are getting this information from that. The Kubuntu trademark has (iirc) always been owned by Canonical. It used to be an official Ubuntu product - think Blue Haired Stepchild, lol, an official, paid for and supported second fiddle to Ubuntu's (at the time) Gnome desktop.

Blue Systems sponsors various KDE projects and developers, including (but not limited to) some who work on Kubuntu. They to not own, operate, or control Kubuntu in any way.

As a flavour of Ubuntu, we have to follow certain technical rules and guidelines so that the different desktops are not stepping on each other's toes while we take advantage of (and contribute to) the Ubuntu project as a whole.

As part of an overall community, we have to actually taker part in that community, whether technical in nature, or structurally in terms of governance. Kubuntu has had its members at most if not all levels of the entire Ubuntu ecosphere. So, while Kubuntu does run Kubuntu without much influence from anyone, when dealing with the community we need to be within those guideleines and rules.

Now, while the whole situation we have with the Ubuntu Community Council forcing the Kubuntu Council remove a duly elected member of said council is a complete crock, to put it nicely, and well out of the norm, it unfortunately is a "my house, my rules" thing, so the Kubuntu Council decided to go with the demands. We'll see what developes down the road.