future of Kubuntu?

[acheron]

One thing I would like to say here is that, with the departure of certain core devs, the team has the opportunity to, should it desire, to change the vision of Kubuntu. One might also argue that this is not a bad thing, and perhaps even needed. What I mean here is that back when Riddell was running things, the goal was to provide the best default KDE experience on a Ubuntu base. Which is the same thing, technically, he and the team are doing with Neon at the moment, albeit via a slightly different approach. My point being that if the team ever wanted to alter or change what Kubuntu is or can be, now would certainly appear to be a good time to do it. Examples of what this could mean can be discussed further in this thread, if desired. It could be as minor as shipping a unique wallpaper and theme. And of course expand from there, into whatever fits the vision of the devs. Just some food for thought.

It would be good to hear feedback.

- On this thread
- In part 2 of our meeting. (time to be decided). As an open and inclusive project, anyone interested is welcome to attend, talk to us, contribute etc.

I like the idea of getting back some more Kubuntu specific artwork, branding and theming for our desktop experience. Not intrusively so, but some distinctiveness and polish.

[dequire]

My personal take.....

There was a meeting last night, to be continued at a time to be arranged, that included some of the issues/questions here:

https://community.kde.org/Kubuntu/Vision

From my perceptive as a (relatively) new contributor, kubuntu is here to stay, but still in the process somewhat of building up a new core team on the technical side. Part of discussions is how to make it easier for people who want to contribute, in small or larger ways, to have a clear and helpful route to follow into doing so.

The team is open and friendly, so please come and talk to us via IRC/mailing lists or whatever route suits you best if you have comments, concerns or even want to get involved.

One thing I would like to say here is that, with the departure of certain core devs, the team has the opportunity to, should it desire, to change the vision of Kubuntu. One might also argue that this is not a bad thing, and perhaps even needed. What I mean here is that back when Riddell was running things, the goal was to provide the best default KDE experience on a Ubuntu base. Which is the same thing, technically, he and the team are doing with Neon at the moment, albeit via a slightly different approach. My point being that if the team ever wanted to alter or change what Kubuntu is or can be, now would certainly appear to be a good time to do it. Examples of what this could mean can be discussed further in this thread, if desired. It could be as minor as shipping a unique wallpaper and theme. And of course expand from there, into whatever fits the vision of the devs. Just some food for thought.

[TWPonKubuntu]

It looks like Kodachi is only available in a 64bit compile. While I can and will download it, I'll need to find another 64bit system to test it.

[GreyGeek]

GreyGeek, thanks, I'll take a look at it.

Use the London download site, the SourceForge is not up to date and a conflict exists between the ISO downloaded from the SourceForge site and the checksums given on the page I linked to.

[TWPonKubuntu]

GreyGeek, thanks, I'll take a look at it.

[GreyGeek]

Yes, I have TAILS on a USB also.

I tried TAILS and uninstalled it. Kodachi blows TAILS out of the water, IMO.

[TWPonKubuntu]

...And the one Woody clued me on on, which runs off of a USB stick, sets up its own VPN and runs a protected browser through the TOR network, allowing me to change my country of origin and IP address as often as I want.

Yes, I have TAILS on a USB also.

[GreyGeek]

GreyGeek, Ok, I understand what you meant. Since we can always install what we want from the repositories (assuming one has a minimum of 'net skill), we are ok at ~1GB. I do note that I can no longer burn the newer ISO's due to their being just slightly too big (1.17GB). But a USB install works, even on my older Dell Latitude D820...

Ya. I haven't burned an ISO to a CD/DVD in several years. Just to 4Gb USB sticks, except for the one I keep in the watch pocket of my jeans, a 32Gb USB stick running Kubuntu 14.04 with the free space being persistent so I can store stuff. And the one Woody clued me on on, which runs off of a USB stick, sets up its own VPN and runs a protected browser through the TOR network, allowing me to change my country of origin and IP address as often as I want.

[TWPonKubuntu]

GreyGeek, Ok, I understand what you meant. Since we can always install what we want from the repositories (assuming one has a minimum of 'net skill), we are ok at ~1GB. I do note that I can no longer burn the newer ISO's due to their being just slightly too big (1.17GB). But a USB install works, even on my older Dell Latitude D820...

[GreyGeek]

I love my System76 box

VINNY

My son loves his as well!

[GreyGeek]

Why would we be limited to only 1GB ?

DVD's can hold 4-5GB and a USB install is only limited by the size of the thumb drive (although I hope we never get to the point of needing a 64GB thumbdrive to install an OS ).

Because, initially, CD's could only hold 800Mb, and that was the limit. A lot of machines only had CDROMs that couldn't handle DVDs. Also, bandwidth was limited and it could take 30 minutes or more to download a 800Mb ISO file that would just fit on a CD. While CD/DVD roms replaced CD roms, the average Internet bandwidth didn't improve that much and a 4GB ISO took too long to down load and/or consumed too much of an individual's data cap. When USB drives came out they were limited to 256Mb, then 512Mb, then 1Gb, then 2Gb, then 4Gb, then 8Gb, then 16Gb, then 32Gb, then 64Gb, then 128Gb, then 256Gb and lately 512Gb. The limit on Internet bandwidth wouldn't allow downloading of ISO's much larger than 1GB and they fit perfectly on 4Gb USB sticks. Laptop OEM's have stopped including CD/DVD/BlueRay on their products unless the consumer pays more for them.

ISP's LIE about their bandwidth. I have a TWC 30Mb/s account. However, my download speed as capped at 2.1Mb/s. (Upload is 1Mb/sec). To DL a 1 Gb ISO will take me about 9 minutes if the Internet is not congested. If it is it could take twice as long or longer. 40 minutes for a 4Gb ISO. My ISP probably doesn't lie any more or less than the other ISPs, so unless one is using an optic fiber connection with 1Gb bandwidth, the 1Gb ISO is going to be standard for a long time. Besides, it contains the barebones desktop. openSUSE offers a 4.5Gb ISO but it includes not only the barebones but many of the major apps as well. Probably other distro makers offer a larger ISO as well, but I haven't paid attention to them.

[vinnywright]

The mention Rick made of perhaps doing a kubuntu machine sounded cool, but not sure if that can happen

it would change the work flow for sure ,,,,,,,but it (kubuntu) installs just fine.

I still have the original Ubuntu-14.04 that was on the box when I got it ,,,,+ 4 more

VINNY

[acheron]

The mention Rick made of perhaps doing a kubuntu machine sounded cool, but not sure if that can happen

[vinnywright]

System76 should hopefully be coming on the Kubuntu Podcast soon, or at least doing an interview for that.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+System7...1kYrR?sfc=true

I love my System76 box

VINNY

[claydoh]

Why would we be limited to only 1GB ?

DVD's can hold 4-5GB and a USB install is only limited by the size of the thumb drive (although I hope we never get to the point of needing a 64GB thumbdrive to install an OS ).

Many people in world have metered internet, or caps, or simply slow connections, so keeping a manageable download size is still of huge importance. I got a small taste of this when I visited Australia this last spring.

One of the reasons for limiting iso size is also to force the hard decisions on what to include and what to leave out while still providing the most utility to the most people worldwide. The 1gb limit *buntu had I think went away after 14.04, and then there is this: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/05/u...e-increase-2gb
Room for more and better language support is a Good Thing