Kubuntu - step child of the Ubuntus?

[marcopl]

1. Guys, not to stir up a hornet's nest or anything but is kubuntu sort of a 'step child in the Ubuntu family'?

2. Can long time users of kubuntu / ubuntu comment?

3. Any kubuntu developers in this forum? Any comments?

Note: Rational discussion only. Venting ok but lets keep it civil.

[exploder]

Re: Kubuntu - step child of the Ubuntus?

Kubuntu does not get the same amount of attention by the developers that Ubuntu does. The Kubuntu forum is what makes Kubuntu good. People on the forum find the fixes and work arounds that make the system usable and nice. A good example would be how the Intel issue was addressed, the work around on the Ubuntu forum mentions Kubuntu but does not provide complete information. On this forum the missing information about how to get the script to run automatically is provided and the issue can be easily resolved.

It surprises me that the Ubuntu developers do not put more time into Kubuntu because KDE 4 is maturing quite nicely. I have used Gnome for years now but have now come to use KDE on my main desktop. I work for a distribution that builds a community release from a Kubuntu base. Ubuntu provides the means to build a good KDE release through the ppa repos. I do not understand why they do not put things like the KDE 4.2.4 packages into the main repo as regular updates.

In my opinion, KDE 4 is the future. Gnome 3 is not looking very appealing to me. KDE 4 is a modern looking and very advanced desktop environment. KDE 4 was completely rewritten and that is no simple task to accomplish but things are looking very good at this point in time. In my opinion Kubuntu could become more popular than Ubuntu if more time was spent on it's development. Had the release cycle been 8 months instead of 6 Kubuntu 9.04 would have been released with far less bugs and the release would have been much more popular for people new to Linux.

These are just some of my thoughts and opinions, others may agree or disagree but the bottom line is that the Kubuntu forum is the driving force that makes the distribution work.

[marcopl]

Re: Kubuntu - step child of the Ubuntus?

thanx exploder.

1. agree that the kubuntu forum is great.
2. agree that kde4 is the future.

[Teunis]

Re: Kubuntu - step child of the Ubuntus?

I have always been a KDE user though I regularly try out Gnome.

The Ubuntu organisation has firmly decided Gnome is their core desktop around which all development is centred but the group that is integrating KDE is still doing a great job.

In the early days like 10 years ago, the Gnome desktop was suffering realy annoying quirks like the inability to copy and paste between certain applications, that's when I decided to go KDE.

KDE4.0 should never have been put out on a regular release as it was at best a concept for a desktop. >

KDE3.5 is still a lot smoother and quicker than the KDE4.2.9 I'm mainly running, even though the whole KDE4 back end should have a smaller foot print...

But the innovations present in KDE4 make the transition worthwhile and some patience is a nice virtue :P

Oh yeah, Xubuntu is another nice distro, I'm running it on a PIII with 386MB of RAM and it's doing fine.

[claydoh]

Re: Kubuntu - step child of the Ubuntus?

1. Guys, not to stir up a hornet's nest or anything but is kubuntu sort of a 'step child in the Ubuntu family'?

No, but it is easy to see why some would think so.

Ubuntu is, and probably always will be , focused on the Gnome desktop, and that is where probably they should put all their energies towards squashing Bug #1

But it is not gloom and doom for Kubuntu users. For our small size (in terms of the development team) I think we put out a great product - a KDE showcase distro that stays pretty close to a 'vanilla' KDE but still having some extras to make things easier.

2. Can long time users of kubuntu / ubuntu comment?

I have been using KDE since the 2.0 days, and it has been my main desktop since 2002

I have used Kubuntu since the first release (5.04! - wow it's been that long?!?). I sometimes install just Ubuntu, to check it out, but I personally just don't care for the Gnome desktop enough. I have never felt I was missing out on anything that Ubuntu provided, and even though I do check out other distros I still end up back with Kubuntu

3. Any kubuntu developers in this forum? Any comments?

Some are registered here, but don't often post, here or in forums in general. They do most of their stuff in irc (#kubuntu-devel on freenode) and sometimes on the kubuntu-devel or kubuntu-users mailing lists. As I find quite a lot of the *buntu developers do.

Note: Rational discussion only. Venting ok but lets keep it civil.

[marcopl]

Re: Kubuntu - step child of the Ubuntus?

But the innovations present in KDE4 make the transition worthwhile and some patience is a nice virtue :P

we hear u

Are we there yet :P

Oh yeah, Xubuntu is another nice distro, I'm running it on a PIII with 386MB of RAM and it's doing fine.

wow. i did not know that, a p3?

[jglen490]

Re: Kubuntu - step child of the Ubuntus?

Yes, a PIII does very well. Please look at the specs of my machine shown in my sig, below. And, by the way, I'm running Kubuntu. KDE 4.0 was not ready for primetime, at least for most of us. The Kubuntu developers were pretty much caught in the middle with KDE moving to the QT4 foundation and KDE 3.5.10 being pretty much the end of the road for QT3 and little to no support. KDE 4.2 is a much better beast -- a different beast -- but sometimes different is good.

Kubuntu is not a step-child, red-headed or otherwise, and not a fork, or some sort of abomination. It's a good, solid distro that uses the Ubuntu basics along with the utility and the "pretties" of KDE. Is KDE better than Gnome -- you will probably never get a definitive answer. It all depends on the definition of "better". That usually comes down to choice. And that is the definition of Linux.

[kjjjjshab]

Re: Kubuntu - step child of the Ubuntus?

...KDE4.0 should never have been put out on a regular release as it was at best a concept for a desktop. >...

Wasn't that just a remix, and the first true kubuntu KDE4 release was 4.1.x? (I'm probably wrong, given the mess of PPA and neon/nightly stuff I run, but perhaps someone would like to clear that up right now, before incorrect info is debated. Thanks.)

[kubicle]

Re: Kubuntu - step child of the Ubuntus?

...KDE4.0 should never have been put out on a regular release as it was at best a concept for a desktop. >...

Wasn't that just a remix, and the first true kubuntu KDE4 release was 4.1.x? (I'm probably wrong, given the mess of PPA and neon/nightly stuff I run, but perhaps someone would like to clear that up right now, before incorrect info is debated. Thanks.)

You remember correctly, the first KDE4 version that was in a kubuntu regular release was 4.1.2 (on Intrepid Ibex)...it was and is possible to install KDE4 in Hardy Heron (and there was a remix version with KDE4), but the regular release had KDE 3.5.9.

[marcopl]

Re: Kubuntu - step child of the Ubuntus?

great info claydoh.

1. Guys, not to stir up a hornet's nest or anything but is kubuntu sort of a 'step child in the Ubuntu family'?

No, but it is easy to see why some would think so.

Ubuntu is, and probably always will be , focused on the Gnome desktop, and that is where probably they should put all their energies towards squashing Bug #1

But it is not gloom and doom for Kubuntu users. For our small size (in terms of the development team) I think we put out a great product - a KDE showcase distro that stays pretty close to a 'vanilla' KDE but still having some extras to make things easier.

2. Can long time users of kubuntu / ubuntu comment?

I have been using KDE since the 2.0 days, and it has been my main desktop since 2002

I have used Kubuntu since the first release (5.04! - wow it's been that long?!?). I sometimes install just Ubuntu, to check it out, but I personally just don't care for the Gnome desktop enough. I have never felt I was missing out on anything that Ubuntu provided, and even though I do check out other distros I still end up back with Kubuntu

3. Any kubuntu developers in this forum? Any comments?

Some are registered here, but don't often post, here or in forums in general. They do most of their stuff in irc (#kubuntu-devel on freenode) and sometimes on the kubuntu-devel or kubuntu-users mailing lists. As I find quite a lot of the *buntu developers do.

Note: Rational discussion only. Venting ok but lets keep it civil.