Developing a smaller Kubuntu

[NickStone]

I know that Kubuntu is Ubuntu with the K desktop environment instead of Gnome (Gnome-shell, Unity). Would it be a good idea to develop a future version of Kubuntu for low spec machines and instead of using the K desktop use Razor-QT instead?

[claydoh]

Sure, if someone wanted to make a spin of it. They'd have to do it on their own, though, at least at first. And give it a name, as I don't think it would be Kubuntu anymore, it would be ubuntu with razor-qt If the project has enough traction, it could eventually be an official 'flavour' like Lubuntu, et. al. I use this LXDE variant as an example as it is somewhat like a lite version of Xubuntu and uses a mix of LXDE and XFCE configuration tools and uses Openbox as the WM, an interesting mix that works I use it on an eeepc 700 as an XBMC box.

But I think in reality down the road, that the future in low end may be plasma-active. But that is of course down the road a ways still.

Remastersys or a similar tool would make it pretty easy to get something going, once the basic selection of applications and configuration tools is chosen.

All it would take is someone taking the interest in doing such a thing.

[claydoh]

Moved this to an open, unmoderated board for now.

[lcorken]

Wow! FAR-OUT Nick!! That would be really great! Let us know when you get that put together. I will volunteer to be one of your testers, LOL.

I have a 9 year old laptop that won't run KDE but works fine with Lubuntu. This old rig has enough disk space but not enough RAM and other hardware capacity to run KDE or Gnome.

I have found that I can install and run kate, konqueror and a few other KDE apps with Lubuntu with no problem. Just can't run KDE.

I installed Razor-QT on top of Lubuntu some time ago (0.41 maybe). It worked but seemed a bit young then. May try the latest again soon.

Ken.

[claydoh]

Don't forget to try slimming KDE down by using kubuntu-low-fat-settings, which will turn off a lot of the bling and extra services and features that bog older systems down.

[vw72]

Wow! FAR-OUT Nick!! That would be really great! Let us know when you get that put together. I will volunteer to be one of your testers, LOL.

I have a 9 year old laptop that won't run KDE but works fine with Lubuntu. This old rig has enough disk space but not enough RAM and other hardware capacity to run KDE or Gnome.

I have found that I can install and run kate, konqueror and a few other KDE apps with Lubuntu with no problem. Just can't run KDE.

I installed Razor-QT on top of Lubuntu some time ago (0.41 maybe). It worked but seemed a bit young then. May try the latest again soon.

Ken.

We had an ubuntu derivative running kde that ran quite well on an Acer Aspire One netbook with just 512K of ram. The secret is to start with a command line install and then add only what you need. Ubuntu/Kubuntu preloads a lot of services that you probably aren't using and never will use, but are loaded so everything works out of the box for everybody. It also helps if you compile a kernel just for your hardware and of course, turn off desktop search and most desktop effects.

[sithlord48]

if you want a razor based ubuntu version.

1. install ubuntu server
2. install the package python-software-properties (for add-apt-repository)
3. run -> sudo add-apt-repository ppa:razor-qt (you see razor-qt is not in the "real" ubuntu repo)
4. sudo apt-get update
5. sudo apt-get install razor-qt.
6. use remastersys to make a live disk/ installer of your currently installed system.

[whatthefunk]

I like the idea. You could call it Rubuntu or Qubuntu. I wonder how it would compare to Lubuntu in terms of resource usage....

[Robtygart]

You can always look at building a smaller kubuntu using Puppy Linux. Look at puppylinux.org

Not really what your looking for but its an idea.

[vw72]

if you want a razor based ubuntu version.

1. install ubuntu server
2. install the package python-software-properties (for add-apt-repository)
3. run -> sudo add-apt-repository ppa:razor-qt (you see razor-qt is not in the "real" ubuntu repo)
4. sudo apt-get update
5. sudo apt-get install razor-qt.
6. use remastersys to make a live disk/ installer of your currently installed system.

That might be a bit too sparse. You might want to add cups if you are going to print and some gui apps such as a terminal, editor, multimedia (which would also probably require pulseaudio), login manager, etc. Remastersys works fine, but if you are going to build for others to use, you want to make sure that all of the parts are in place for others, including system administration tools and the like. Otherwise, it is just as easy for others to grab the server edition and install razor-qt (in otherwords, what is the added value you would be providing).

Also, it's important to realize, too, that razor-qt is not a lightweight KDE, it is it's own lightweight system that happens to be based on QT. The relationship is similar to Gnome and LXDE, both are based on GTK, but one is not related to the other, other than sharing an underlying toolkit. If you try to add any KDE apps, it will pull in the associated kdelibs.

If you want a lightweight version of KDE, you actually have to start with a lightweight commandline install (or server install as above) add the appropriate pieces for your userbase and then add the parts of KDE and configure them appropriately for low resource. Again, we had KDE running in 512K on an Aspire One quite acceptably. It really isn't the desktop that will be the killer, but the applications that run on top of it (ie firefox, libreoffice, and the like are real resource hogs regardless of using KDE or razor-qt).

[kubicle]

(you see razor-qt is not in the "real" ubuntu repo)

It's in the repos for raring...so from 13.04 onwards, you should be able install razor straight from the repos (metapackage 'razorqt'), of course you may find a more recent version in a ppa.

[NickStone]

I like the idea. You could call it Rubuntu or Qubuntu. I wonder how it would compare to Lubuntu in terms of resource usage....

Oi! That's my idea!

[NickStone]

if you want a razor based ubuntu version.

1. install ubuntu server
2. install the package python-software-properties (for add-apt-repository)
3. run -> sudo add-apt-repository ppa:razor-qt (you see razor-qt is not in the "real" ubuntu repo)
4. sudo apt-get update
5. sudo apt-get install razor-qt.
6. use remastersys to make a live disk/ installer of your currently installed system.

If I was to do it by myself, I would start with Ubuntu core then add all the QT developed apps mostly found at http://qt-apps.org/ not mention the desktop itself. I would avoid any K specific apps unless there was no real alternative.

[OneLine]

RRR-Qt desktop: http://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthr...Ringtail-Razor

[claydoh]

http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=07639

this might give you an overview of what you might need to create a full desktop. What window manager (Kwin openbox, etc), what config tools to use, and the like.