Kubuntu's New Future

[GreyGeek]

......
We are not loosing any of the infrastructure we need to create and distribute our OS.
.....
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.

Jonobacon offered this news:

Well said, nixternal. Also, Canonical is only stopping the funding of Jonathan; we are still providing all the infrastructure and services that the project needs as usual.

which you refer to as infrastructure. This is good news.

Another thing to note is that iirc Mr Riddell's Kubuntu role ends after the release of 12.04.

mmm... the "worse case" scenario. It brings to mind a question as to how much of the development of Kubuntu was done by Jonathan and how much by the volunteers? Development speed, and/or completeness, will be in opposite proportion to the percentage of his work. Regardless, Kubuntu isn't going to die, or even get sick. I see it as an opportunity for the developers & contributors like yourself to take a greater role in deciding its future.

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?
...

Jonathan no longer contributing to Kubuntu development after 12.04 is released fairly well precludes the possibility that Precise is an LTS release, from a paid support point of view. However, IF it remains labeled as an LTS release it merely means that the volunteers will be fixing bugs and patching, or passing along patches to, security holes. This, I think, is not a bad thing. It would represent the first Linux distro with a smooth, rolling update for FIVE years! The traditional reason for release points are 1) too many changes which are not compatible with current release, and 2) to avoid the need to install hundreds of MB of updates. On a release of this type one wants to get in on the ground floor ASAP!

Regardless, Kubuntu is in equal or better shape than any other distro I've used or know about.

[bsniadajewski]

WIth KDE packages supposed moving to universe starting with 12.10 (The "Q" version?), will there no longer be a need for the update/backport PPA's for newer (bugfix) releases of KDE SC, meaning a semi-rolling release style?

[dibl]

KDE is a healthy, independent, open source project. Debian is a healthy, independent, open source project. This forum is a healthy, independent, open source project. I see no reason for alarm here. I always wondered about the ROI prospects of Kubuntu, from Canonical's perspective -- it was great while their investment continued, but it's not a charity. To the degree that folks like claydoh and jonthechidna and others are willing, this distribution has a great future.

[DaemonFC]

Personally, I think it comes down to this.

Kubuntu was becoming more attractive to business customers looking for a professional quality workstation, especially after Canonical's misadventures with Unity. Since Canonical wants to push their in-house software instead of something that is more open.....

What better way to make the Pointy Haired Bosses out there say "We need to be using Ubuntu! They have ZOMG Official Support!" than to take away the official support of Kubuntu?

Moving past conspiracy theory, what should people who want to use the Kubuntu 12.04 LTS do if they don't want to move to broken beta quality 6 month releases? Will there be another LTS to jump to in 3 more years?

[bsniadajewski]

Since, I'm assuming, KDE packages would move from main to universe (where XFCE and LXDE reside), does that mean we would see updates through the proposed and backports repos more often instead of through the Kubuntu Updates PPA?

[Qqmike]

I've found this thread interesting and informative. Bet others here do, too. Been on meds and got foggy about which "new Kubuntu future" thread is which. This is a good one, and I hope people will continue to insert info into it as they come across items.

[SecretCode]

got foggy about which "new Kubuntu future" thread is which.

There is a bright future for new "new Kubuntu future" threads!

[Jonas]

With a more 'sober' view on canonicals choice to sack all(!) the Kubuntu employees I don't feel this is such a head ache anymore.

With some years now running Kubuntu the precise release so far has been a joy, I don't think any alpha has been so stable (or me being cautious perhaps) Oneiric was very stable too for me in pre-release testing, only troubles then came with rolling out the beta. With that said, if Kubuntu keep advancing like it has since 8.04, in my experience, the future is very very bright!

With looking back at the KDE change from 3.5 hegemony to 4.x, 'many' ditched Kubuntu/KDE or downgraded to 3.5. Maybe the future for Kubuntu lies, user wise, in the future and path of the change to KDE 5, and that development to new market standards.

Just some thoughts...

/Jonas

[Rallye]

UEFI worries me far more than this.

[VH-BIL]

I really do not like Unity and Gnome 3. I will always be a Kubuntu user as long as it is around and stable. I hope KDE and Kubuntu is around for many more years.

[Rod J]

I hope Kubuntu sticks around for some time too. I'm about to abandon Ubuntu/Unity myself and I think Kubuntu is where I want to be for the foreseeable future. I had a look at OpenSUSE (KDE) recently but I'm leery of RPM distro's as I didn't like RPM much some years ago using Mandrake/Mandriva.

[MoonRise]

UEFI worries me far more than this.

Ditto! Though Steve Riley had a good post here recently on that so maybe there is hope going forward on that.

[Tito]

I moved from M$ Vista (what a fiasco) to Ubuntu in Feisty Fawn, used GNOME 2.x for ages as it suited my needs and style of work. At the time I tried KDE 3.x but did not find the advantage over GNOME. When 11.04 came along with unity, I continued with 10.04 LTS, With 11.10 I tried Unity and GNOME 3, I tried but could not like tem, so I switched to Kubuntu. After a few tumbles I was able to configure KDE to my needs and so far I'm staisfied with it. Then I read about Canonical abandoning Kubuntu; here we go again, I said to myself, just when I found that KDE is fine for me I may have to start looking for a substitute. This thread however, shows that my fear may have been unfounded.
Good work guys clarified a number of doubts.

[arochester]

Kubuntu Now Independent Of Canonical, To Be Sponsored By Blue Systems - http://www.muktware.com/news/3516/ku...d-blue-systems

"Kubuntu, the KDE-based derivative of Ubuntu, is entering in a new era. Blue Systems wil be sponsoring Kubuntu from the 12.10 cycle starting in May. Canonical recently stopped sponsoring Jonathan Riddell's work on KDE. Jonathan gave indications of this sponsorship when he asked during a meeting if it was OK with the Technical Board of Ubuntu if someone else sponsors Kubuntu.
What does this sponsorship mean for Kubuntu? In an exclusive interview with Muktware Jonathan Riddell told us, "Blue Systems will sponsor my time to work on it and will have a budget for conference travel (e.g. to UDS and Akademy) as well as Kubuntu promotion such as CDs or posters."

Jonathan will no longer be working as a Canonical employee. He will be leaving Canonical after the Ubuntu Developer Summit. "But I'll be working with Canonical just as any Ubuntu developer works with Canonical. I expect to keep being an important part of the Ubuntu project e.g. by being a release driver or archive administrator," says Jonathan."

[arochester]

Via Google +

Ubuntu UK Podcast :
We're interviewing Jonathan Riddell this evening about the latest Kubuntu news. Tune in from 19:30 UTC (20:30 UK Time) at http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/live/