future of Kubuntu?

[woodsmoke]

I know that this question has been asked ad-nauseum especially after the thing with Riddel.

But, and this does not need to be discussed "publicly", I'm just asking the people who "are in the know". and people could P.M. me with a short answer.

What is the latest consideration for the future of Kubuntu, downhill, maintaining, upward?

And I'm not "jumping ship", it is just that i kind of would like to get an indication for other reasons.

woodgratefulsmoke

[dequire]

According to last Kubuntu Podcast the team is small but enthusiastic. They are actively looking for new testers and devs. So I'd say it's not going anywhere. But that's just my outside impression from an outsider. Plus, my personal thought that there's no way Canonical is going to have a 'flavor' for every major DE out there (and more than a few minor ones), and not have a KDE-centric 'flavor'. KDE is too big.

[oldgeek]

Then again Canonical may just decide that Kubuntu is not worth the bother and let Neon deal with it. After all, what is the advantage of Kubuntu over Neon?

[woodsmoke]

lol Neon can go sidewise very quickly!

thanks for the comments folks, any others will be appreciated.

woodjustsayin'smoke

[acheron]

My personal take.....

There was a meeting last night, to be continued at a time to be arranged, that included some of the issues/questions here:

https://community.kde.org/Kubuntu/Vision

From my perceptive as a (relatively) new contributor, kubuntu is here to stay, but still in the process somewhat of building up a new core team on the technical side. Part of discussions is how to make it easier for people who want to contribute, in small or larger ways, to have a clear and helpful route to follow into doing so.

The team is open and friendly, so please come and talk to us via IRC/mailing lists or whatever route suits you best if you have comments, concerns or even want to get involved.

[TWPonKubuntu]

Then again Canonical may just decide that Kubuntu is not worth the bother and let Neon deal with it. After all, what is the advantage of Kubuntu over Neon?

For me, Kubuntu still supports 32 bit architecture which all my system still use. Neon might be pretty, but it excludes many users...

[GreyGeek]

For me, Kubuntu still supports 32 bit architecture which all my system still use. Neon might be pretty, but it excludes many users...

Oh, it's MORE than pretty! MUCH more. But, alas, you are right. It is for 64b machines only. Such is the way of life. I can agree with their decision to support only 64b machines because the 32b market is dead and all existing machines are dying. That said, the reports of the death of the PC were premature. It has regained some health, but not to its former sales level. All the new systems have been 64b for years, but the problem with OEM is that the 32b laptops were too well made. My 32b Gateway m675pr is still going strong running Kubuntu 14.04 at the home of a personal friend.

PCs will probably never regain their central position in personal computing—that mantle has passed to the smartphone. For many individuals, a phone is enough, while for others a cheaper tablet can suffice as a backup. But PCs’ place in offices and living rooms, especially in relatively wealthy homes and countries, may be more secure than industry watchers had imagined.

So, Apple's newly released and very expensive Mac upgrades may be tapping the right market. Personally, I could never afford an Apple Mac. I do 99% of my banking on my iPhone6+, along with monitoring my wife's heart with a portable EKG, playing games, browsing the web and watching YT videos. But, when I want to watch a movie, or do math, or write letters or play Minecraft. then I use my laptop. The limiting factor is that in a 1GB ISO file there is not enough room to include files for 3rd generation peripherals and hardware. It's the "window of compatibility" thing.

[TWPonKubuntu]

... The limiting factor is that in a 1GB ISO file there is not enough room to include files for 3rd generation peripherals and hardware. ,,,.

Why would we be limited to only 1GB ?

DVD's can hold 4-5GB and a USB install is only limited by the size of the thumb drive (although I hope we never get to the point of needing a 64GB thumbdrive to install an OS ).

[woodsmoke]

Acheron thanks very much for the linky!


as to apple etc. Apparently at least some of Apple users are buying system 76 lappys with Ubuntu.

Re Macbook pro 2016

Immediately after the Apple Keynote, famed Ubuntu laptop and desktop seller, System76, saw a huge jump in traffic from people looking to buy its machines. The traffic was so intense, that it needed to upgrade servers to keep up, it said. "We experienced much more traffic than we had prepared for, the website didn't go hard down but experienced slowness. We had to scale up to return to normal. It was a pretty big surge, I don't have the details in front of me at the moment but I've not really heard of anything like this before. People being so underwhelmed by a product that immediately following a new product release they actively seek out competitor's products,"

Keep the comments comin' folks!

woodgratefulsmoke

[acheron]

Acheron thanks very much for the linky!


as to apple etc. Apparently at least some of Apple users are buying system 76 lappys with Ubuntu.

System76 should hopefully be coming on the Kubuntu Podcast soon, or at least doing an interview for that.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+System7...1kYrR?sfc=true

[claydoh]

Why would we be limited to only 1GB ?

DVD's can hold 4-5GB and a USB install is only limited by the size of the thumb drive (although I hope we never get to the point of needing a 64GB thumbdrive to install an OS ).

Many people in world have metered internet, or caps, or simply slow connections, so keeping a manageable download size is still of huge importance. I got a small taste of this when I visited Australia this last spring.

One of the reasons for limiting iso size is also to force the hard decisions on what to include and what to leave out while still providing the most utility to the most people worldwide. The 1gb limit *buntu had I think went away after 14.04, and then there is this: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/05/u...e-increase-2gb
Room for more and better language support is a Good Thing

[vinnywright]

System76 should hopefully be coming on the Kubuntu Podcast soon, or at least doing an interview for that.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+System7...1kYrR?sfc=true

I love my System76 box

VINNY

[acheron]

The mention Rick made of perhaps doing a kubuntu machine sounded cool, but not sure if that can happen

[vinnywright]

The mention Rick made of perhaps doing a kubuntu machine sounded cool, but not sure if that can happen

it would change the work flow for sure ,,,,,,,but it (kubuntu) installs just fine.

I still have the original Ubuntu-14.04 that was on the box when I got it ,,,,+ 4 more

VINNY

[GreyGeek]

Why would we be limited to only 1GB ?

DVD's can hold 4-5GB and a USB install is only limited by the size of the thumb drive (although I hope we never get to the point of needing a 64GB thumbdrive to install an OS ).

Because, initially, CD's could only hold 800Mb, and that was the limit. A lot of machines only had CDROMs that couldn't handle DVDs. Also, bandwidth was limited and it could take 30 minutes or more to download a 800Mb ISO file that would just fit on a CD. While CD/DVD roms replaced CD roms, the average Internet bandwidth didn't improve that much and a 4GB ISO took too long to down load and/or consumed too much of an individual's data cap. When USB drives came out they were limited to 256Mb, then 512Mb, then 1Gb, then 2Gb, then 4Gb, then 8Gb, then 16Gb, then 32Gb, then 64Gb, then 128Gb, then 256Gb and lately 512Gb. The limit on Internet bandwidth wouldn't allow downloading of ISO's much larger than 1GB and they fit perfectly on 4Gb USB sticks. Laptop OEM's have stopped including CD/DVD/BlueRay on their products unless the consumer pays more for them.

ISP's LIE about their bandwidth. I have a TWC 30Mb/s account. However, my download speed as capped at 2.1Mb/s. (Upload is 1Mb/sec). To DL a 1 Gb ISO will take me about 9 minutes if the Internet is not congested. If it is it could take twice as long or longer. 40 minutes for a 4Gb ISO. My ISP probably doesn't lie any more or less than the other ISPs, so unless one is using an optic fiber connection with 1Gb bandwidth, the 1Gb ISO is going to be standard for a long time. Besides, it contains the barebones desktop. openSUSE offers a 4.5Gb ISO but it includes not only the barebones but many of the major apps as well. Probably other distro makers offer a larger ISO as well, but I haven't paid attention to them.