Kubuntu and KDE Neon and Netrunner

[GreyGeek]

Back in 2012 Canonical stopped supporting Kubuntu and there were concerns for its future. But, Blue Systems picked it up and began supporting it financially, hiring several of its developers.

That's the way I thought things were until yesterday, when I happened to run across Blue Systems in WIkipedia and noticed that it "previously supported" Kubuntu. Among its projects are KDE Plasma, Manjaro, KDE Neon and some other non-distro projects.

A little checking showed that Blue Systems dropped support for Kubuntu in 2016, and Kubuntu is now a "community project". However, the developers remained employed by Blue Systems and working on KDE Neon and other projects. Blue Systems had begun, in 2010, developing an in-house distro called "Netrunner".

Kubuntu and KDE Neon are both based on Ubuntu. Netrunner's current release, "XOXO" - 21.01, is based on Debian Stable (10.7 Buster) with Plasma 5.14.5. That puts it on par with Kubuntu 20.04. As I write this 633K downloads of Netrunner have been counted. The number of installations is probably much greater. I can not find information documenting the number of Kubuntu or KDE Neon downloads.

On Distrowatch, as a measure of public interest during the last 7 days, KDE Neon is around 18, Kubuntu is around 47 and Netrunner is at 100. Manjaro is at 3 and Ubuntu is at 8.

[Snowhog]

IF Kubuntu ever 'dies', and KDE neon is still 'active', KDE neon will become my main OS.

[GreyGeek]

While Blue-Systems financial support for Kubuntu stopped in 2016, there are several companies which sponsor Kubuntu by offering the Kubuntu developers various services.
Continuous Integration Server, provided and sponsored by Bytemark.
Build and Packaging Servers provided by Linode.
Video conference and training suite, as used by Kubuntu Podcast, provided by BigBlueButton.
Cms2Cms automated forum and migration services.

I was surprised that Kubuntu had been "on its own" for the last five years so, since it hasn't died already, I don't think Kubuntu will die any time soon, if ever. But, if it did, KDE Neon would be my next distro too.

We are, however, entering a time of severe economic shakeups. A lot of apps and websites will go down, IMO, and any app which requires a call "home" before it will run, or has to connect continually with the mother-ship before it will run, will be an app that I will be moving away from.

[Esperanto]

I tried KDE neon, but got a lock screen error. It kept me out of the computer, and I reinstalled Kubuntu on it. Then someone gave me another computer, and they put Kubuntu on it because I said I liked it. So far, I really like Kubuntu, and it's worked better, allowing me to do more stuff with less problems, than any distro I've tried so far.

[Beerislife]

KDE Neon has been my main OS since it was based on *buntu 18.04 and I can't see that changing any time soon. I like the 'nothing installed by default approach' and I can build it up with what I need. I tried the latest Kubuntu on my old Mac Mini but it wouldn't boot. It's basically a music/video player for the bar so the fewer frills the better so it's running Mint Cinnamon.

[Esperanto]

You inspired me to start reading comparison lists:

https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?se...stlist=kubuntu
https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?re...es#allpackages

Anecdotally, I gave an old laptop with Kubuntu on it to a friend, and then their printer worked with Kubuntu but not windows, and now another friend wants me to put Kubuntu on their computer. My new computer came with Kubuntu installed. My last computer had Fedora. So three new users in about two weeks over here, I think.

[Esperanto]

Any advice on the best Raspberry pi image for someone who loves Kubuntu and KDE Neon partly because of the night light feature? I can't find a raspberry pi distro with a night light.

[GreyGeek]

I tried KDE neon, but got a lock screen error. It kept me out of the computer, and I reinstalled Kubuntu on it. Then someone gave me another computer, and they put Kubuntu on it because I said I liked it. So far, I really like Kubuntu, and it's worked better, allowing me to do more stuff with less problems, than any distro I've tried so far.

When KDE Neon first came out in June of 2016 I ran it for several months, beginning with the alpha release, before I replaced it with Kubuntu 16.04. I liked KDE Neon and wouldn't hesitate to move to it again if the need arises. I also looked at Netrunner which, IMO, is Kubuntu 20..04 based on Debian instead of Ubuntu. German engineers are known for the fine software and Netrunner is from that mold and I would have no problems switching to it. I don't know what target market Netrunner was developed for, but even with 633K downloads IF Blue-Systems doesn't generate some more media buzz about Netrunner it will drop of the Distrowatch PHR list of the top 100 distros.

[Bings]

If I was forced to move, i'd probably try a rolling distro for a change. Just to see if I liked that. Would stay with KDE though.

[Beerislife]

I've tried Manjaro KDE a couple of times but even their minimal install has more in it than I want...

[chimak111]

Back in 2012 Canonical stopped supporting Kubuntu and there were concerns for its future. ...

Putting aside the issues of a few years ago (re. funding or travel grants?), isn't Kubuntu treated or supported to the same extent as other Ubuntu official flavors?

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RecognizedFlavors

[GreyGeek]

Any advice on the best Raspberry pi image for someone who loves Kubuntu and KDE Neon partly because of the night light feature? I can't find a raspberry pi distro with a night light.

"night light"?
Like that shown in "Settings --> Display and Monitor --> Display Setting --> Night color"?

[claydoh]

Putting aside the issues of a few years ago (re. funding or travel grants?), isn't Kubuntu treated or supported to the same extent as other Ubuntu official flavors?

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RecognizedFlavors

Yes.
Riddell was originally a paid employee of Canonical/Ubuntu. No other 'flavour' has ever had a paid developer.
The main concern for the future back then was the loss of not only Jonathan, but also the core dev team who left with him (and built the automated systems used to create the different iterations of Neon). Who was paid by whom (if at all) really had nothing to do with it. I say this with my former semi-insider hat on.

Like it or not, Kubuntu's team essentially just packages Plasma mainly.
I mean, Muon, the Qapt deb installer, the previous driver manager gui for System settings, a user manager at one stage, plus other things were written by not only Riddell, but volunteer coders as well. Those people are long gone. Granted, Plasma since KDE4 didn't need quite so much massaging like KDE 3 did when Kubuntu originally came out.

[GreyGeek]

Putting aside the issues of a few years ago (re. funding or travel grants?), isn't Kubuntu treated or supported to the same extent as other Ubuntu official flavors?

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RecognizedFlavors

If you go through that listing of support you'll find that, for example, status.ubuntu.com is not active and can't be pinged.

I checked out my old launchpad account when I was helping write Kubuntu app documentation a decade ago. All my old links to development are dead. When you check out launchpad you'll find out that the kubuntu ppa is not active and that a few years ago the main support shifted to kubuntu_dev on launchpad. On that page they list "90 active developers" but it you click that link the actual list is only 7, but most of those are not active: Riddell and Sitter, for example, who left right after the blowup. All of their memberships on Kubuntu_dev expire this month or in November. Even the most recent addition, Rik Mills, who joined on Feb 9, 2017, expires in 12 days. The launchpad mail list is marked as "not used". Most of the Kubuntu launchpad pages show no activity for the last five years, or longer. All that says is that Kubuntu developers, whoever they are, do not appear to be using the same launchpad facilities that Riddell and his group used. When I was helping write Kubuntu app documentation a decade ago the irc was the common form of communication. The current email list is archived here.

Ubuntu does distribute security updates through their repository, which Kubuntu users can install. And, Ubuntu furnishes https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ as a server for Kubuntu (and Lubuntu) ISO downloads, and a dozen or so Ubuntu varieties, current or discontinued. And, Ubuntu supplies the base on which Kubuntu is built. In all aspects, however, Kubuntu is a "community distro".

When Ubuntu stopped supporting Kubuntu financially in 2012 Blue-Systems picked it up and Riddell was paid by Blue-Systems to work on Kubuntu when they hired him. In October of 2015 Riddell stood down from being the Kubuntu release manager and a few months later, in 2016, Blue-Systems stopped supporting Kubuntu in favor of their in-house distro, Netrunner, which began life in 2010. With Riddell's help Netrunner became a distro featuring KDE and based on Debian. I played with Netrunner and found its latest release to be about version identical to Kubuntu 20.04. It is almost a clone of Kubuntu, but I think Debian's repository isn't as up to date as Ubuntu's.

Like I said before, and IMO, Kubuntu has maintained a decent Page Hit Ranking on distrowatch, usually somewhere between 30 and 50, and since I started using it in 2009 the releases have been stable and well done. What happened between 2012 and 2016 is in the rear view mirror and if Kubuntu was going to die it probably would have already done so. Being as good as it is, and it is very good, I don't expect it to die before I do. The help Canonical does give it is beneficial and it costs Ubuntu very little or nothing at all.

PS:
I checked out the mailing list archive out of curiosity and found it up to date but sparse. There is only one entry for May, so far. None for April. But March has an interesting entry:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ku...ch/thread.html

> Back in July I appeared on Big Daddy Linux Live to talk about Ubuntu
> Studio and answer any questions. This attracted the attention of Mike Mikowski of
> MindShareManagement, the company creating the Kubuntu Focus computers.
> Back in November, he brought me on to the project, and I am now the Director of
> User Experience and Packaging as my day job. I also get the privilege of
> working with Rick Timmis, one of the Kubuntu Counselors.
>
> One thing we had been noticing is that Rik Mills is tackling most of the
> maintenance work by himself, and that the Backports repository can no
> longer carry the latest Plasma as it could historically since it requires a newer
> Qt.
> Having found a solution, I approached Rik about this, and we decided it
> might be best to create a new PPA for those adventurous enough to have a newer
> Qt and, therefore, Plasma. Basically, I'd be paid to do this as part of my
> job.
>> Additionally, I want to help out in whatever way I can, since helping
> Kubuntu also helps Ubuntu Studio.
>> In order to do this, I respectfully request to join these teams:
> ~kubuntu-ninjas
> ~kubuntu-dev
> ~kubuntu-ppa
>> My launchpad name is ~eeickmeyer
>> Rik and I also discussed perhaps creating a new team to deal with this
> highly-
> adventurous endeavour. We plan to discuss this on Saturday the 27th.
>> Let me know if you need anything else.

So, Kubuntu is getting fresh help from a person being paid to support it and kubuntu-dev is going back into action.