Kubuntu's New Future

[claydoh]

Today Jonathan Riddell announced that our favorite Linux distro will no longer have the same support that it has had for almost its entire history.

It is very sad news to hear that Kubuntu will no longer have the "Official" status it has had for many years.
But what exactly does this mean? What will the future bring for the Blue Gears?

I really don't know yet precisely what the changes will be, that may take some time to fully flesh out. But I doubt it. The Kubuntu team is already mostly independent, run mostly with its own personality and ideals that stem from those of Ubuntu. The concept of a highly KDE-centric Linix distribution is still a vital and valid one, one that attracted me back in 2005 when my previous one was killed off.

Kubuntu ain't going anywhere any time soon. We already have our lovely friendly forum here We have all the hard working packaging Ninjas. We have a large, broad range of users all over the world. We will still be a KDE showcase. We will still have the same set of awesome volunteers. We still have the will and means to do what we are already doing.

What will see change is the level of help from YOU, the user and developer community. Some of us will have to ante up and
kick it into a higher gear. New contributors will be sought and welcomed. Things will move on, yet i do not foresee any upheavals or intense drama.

Yes, I am trying to pep up some unfortunately bad news. We have a great platform to continue working on, so we continue to work on it. It isn't too hard to find the positive amongst all the goodness.

I do want to thank Canonical for providing Jonathan and the Kubuntu community with the resources it has for so long. KDE has benefited imo from the adoption of Kubuntu by its wide range of users, and Canonical and Ubuntu have provided the means for this occur.


Go Blue!!!!

[GreyGeek]

Claydoh, what's the status of the availability of servers to store repositories and download ISOs from?

[claydoh]

no change, other than loosing Jonathan as the full time paid dev. my take is we will be in the same sphere as xubuntu/edubuntu, only with more users

the links in his blog post eventually point to wiki pages describing and defining what " derivatives" are

[SecretCode]

Thanks to OS for enabling replies!

Only now I feel that I need to make a more substantive reply Not sure if I will manage that ...

I agree that this is nothing worse than being in the same situation as xubuntu (which seems to do pretty well) and edubuntu (which I don't know about but seems at least widely known.

Every (nearly every?) Linux distro could with more loving care and attention from developers, packagers, testers, documenters and so on: this is true of Kubuntu and KDE now and will only be 1 person worse after 12.04.

[rec9140]

Since I have no idea who this person is what was their job? Were they the sole person paid ?

What were they responsible for doing?

What percent of their work time was spent on KDE tasks?

Is there something that outlines just how the development process works..... and whos involved?

Something tells me this is bigger than its being portrayed as.

[dragonbite]

This may just be a blessing in disguise.

Watching what is happening with Ubuntu and Gnome, shell, Unity, etc. I think there is a tremendous opportunity for Kubuntu to take what is strong and good about Ubuntu, but maintain a more sane upstream/community focus.

I was looking at hoping over to openSUSE or even Fedora KDE but with this I may just see about Kubuntu instead.

[pasti]

I don't think this will make a massive difference to Kubuntu, cannonical will still be providing the infrastructure for Kubuntu, just like they do with the rest of the *buntu family

[GreyGeek]

The announcement said that "Canonical will no longer be funding my work on Kubuntu after 12.04." The key word is "after". I am interpreting that to mean that Jonathan WILL be working on Kubuntu for FIVE more years. What comes after 12.04 is 12.10. So, the worse case interpretation is that Jonathan will not be working on Kubuntu 12.04 after the April release, but that makes no sense because 12.04 is an LTS. There can be no support if there are no developers working on patches and bug fixes. And, worse case interpretation also means that 12.04 will be the last version of Kubuntu released under Canonical's helm. There is no purpose to releasing later versions, like 12,10, 13,04, etc..., if they are not going to have a developer working on it and there won't be any support, meaning no bug or security patch releases. (LTS implies paid support, but we are all beneficiaries of bug and security patch releases.) But, Shuttlesworth indicated that he is extending the LTS time from 3 years to 5 years. So, the best case interpretation is that Jonathan (or someone) will be paid to work on Kubuntu until April of 2017, when the 12.04 becomes history. That's nearly TWO computer generations. It is a question which has to be clearedup.

Something tells me this is bigger than its being portrayed as.

I think it is. Think about it. You are looking at a repositioning of Canonical so it can try its "Hail Mary" pass, if you will.

Shuttlesworth has been trying to get Ubuntu/Gnome onto desktops and laptops since 2005, but he's been block by a variety of reasons, the primary one being that Microsoft holds an illegal monopoly on what the PC OEMs install on their hardware. He decided to try a market where Microsoft not only does not dominate, with less than 1% smartphone market share it is not even a major player. Apple and Google own the smartphone market and the tablet market. He couldn't do that with Gnome because of Gnome's footprint and its lack of touch screen technology (at least any that I am aware of). He doesn't want to use Qt4, even though Qt offers Plasma-Active-Two, which will be shortly appearing on the Spark tablet (I'm ordering one!), because he'd have to pay a license fee and he wouldn't be in charge of the technology development or time-line.

Enter "Unity". His developers are writing Unity mainly with Python, if my information is correct, and in-line assembler for speed, including touchscreen capability. In addition, he is including in Unity the ability to detect which kind of hardware it is being installed on so it can set up the proper environment for either a desktop, laptop, notebook, netbook, tablet or smartphone. One OS and a UI for all platforms. Unity. He can't support Gnome, KDE and Unity for so many platforms and architectures. Hence Gnome and KDE had to go.

I predict that if Shuttlesworth's gamble of Unity on smartphones and tablets doesn't pay off within 5 years he will shut down Canonical. That's why he's consolidating developers time and their product. IMO, we are entering a five year countdown, and the clock starts with the release of 12.04.

Will that mean the end of Kubuntu? I doubt it.

Linux is focused on two packaging systems, RPM and DEB.

The primary DEB based distro is Debian, and its children include Ubuntu, MEPIS, DSL, KNOPPIX and Kanotix, along with dozens of other smaller ones.
The primary RPM based distros are Fedora and openSUSE. Minor ones include CentOS, PCLinuxOS and Mandriva (but it's about to die), along with dozens of smaller ones.

The only practical thing to do within the next 5 years, if it appears that Canonical can't make it, is jump upstream over Ubuntu and become a direct descendant of Debian. This forum will still be here because it is supported by its users, not by Canonical.

[askrieger]

I agree with GrayGeek. My first thought on seeing this thread was, "Okay, back to Debian when Kubuntu disappears".

[Jonas]

These news made me sad. I'm sure there will be other distros to jump to but at the moment I don't want to, nor do I like to see Kubuntu as a sinking ship.

You make a valid point Greygeek, though as you say it's hard to see two generations of hardware ahead. I'd say that the asian market may determine what comes next.

As for Kubuntu - what about a fund raiser here at KFN? ~20 k members(/users?) could make a difference! I would be more willing to put up some money if I better knew where it went (i.e a paypal button isn't as transparent as a fund raiser for something like in this case)

B.R

Jonas

[GreyGeek]

...
nor do I like to see Kubuntu as a sinking ship.

Kubuntu is in no danger of sinking.

.....it's hard to see two generations of hardware ahead. I'd say that the asian market may determine what comes next.

You make a valid point. IMO, the Asian and European markets will determine the PC, Laptop, Notebook and Netbook OS. That decision is already being made. Distrust in Windows, its source code, back doors, and basic lack of security for non-professional users has created a movement in Asia and Europe to move to Linux. Russia has already made the move, as are many smaller countries and municipalities within those countries. After Iran hijacked our stealth UAV the Air Force switched to Linux to control them.

As for Kubuntu - what about a fund raiser here at KFN? ~20 k members(/users?) could make a difference! I would be more willing to put up some money if I better knew where it went (i.e a paypal button isn't as transparent as a fund raiser for something like in this case)

....

We had a fund raiser last fall for this new ISP & forum software. A few people gave a lot. On most open source projects only 3% of the users contribute to it. The rest just use.
We'll have another one this fall to pay for the next year.

[rms]

This is so sad to hear. Just when I started liking Kubuntu...

[SteveRiley]

Hm... my interpretation of this is less alarmist. In *buntu land, we have:

* Ubuntu: a Debian derivative. Unity/GNOME desktop. Funded by Canonical, maintained by Canonical.
* Kubuntu: Ubuntu base, KDE desktop. Funded by Canonical, jointly maintained by Canonical and community.
* Xubuntu: Ubuntu base, XFCE desktop. Maintained by community.
* Lubuntu: Ubuntu base, LXDE desktop. Maintained by community.

The announcement of Jonathan's departure appears to alter the above list in this fashion:

* Ubuntu: a Debian derivative. Unity/GNOME desktop. Funded by Canonical, maintained by Canonical.
* Kubuntu: Ubuntu base, KDE desktop. Maintained by community.
* Xubuntu: Ubuntu base, XFCE desktop. Maintained by community.
* Lubuntu: Ubuntu base, LXDE desktop. Maintained by community.

Kubuntu loses its special status and becomes equivalent to the other *buntu flavors. I'm not yet seeing this as a sky-is-falling situation, or even the death of KDE as I've seen speculated elsewhere.

[claydoh]

Sometimes more is read into things than there should be as well as overinflating the size and scope of the Kubuntu team (of which I am proudly a tiny part!) as well as its connection to and control by Canonical.

Yes, we are loosing most of our fearless leader's time for work on Kubuntu. We are not loosing any of the infrastructure we need to create and distribute our OS.

Please see Apachelogger's and Nixternal's blog posts for some more thoughts. Kubuntu has never had any substantial funding outside of Jonathan's paid position. We are loosing a few things, but perhaps gaining some other possibilities.

I will be a bit harsh and echo Nixternal's thoughts on those jumping ship or considering it: Such an action would be a lame and stupid thing to do and is a face-slap on those who put in their personal time assembling this distro.

Another thing to note is that iirc Mr Riddell's Kubuntu role ends after the release of 12.04. One unanswered question is whether Kubuntu Precise will still be LTS. I am thinking it won't, but that is a very uneducated guess. NOT being tied to LTS restrictions may actually be a good thing perhaps for the future?

Things still need to be fleshed out.

[ubersoft]

I don't want to disparage the Kubuntu maintainer's contributions, because I like Kubuntu a lot, and I don't have any immediate plans to switch. That said, if you were going to take my leaving as a "face slap" it's only because you would be *grabbing my hand and hitting yourself with it.* :-)