Kubuntu Gutsy (Canllaith.org) [LWN.net]

Kubuntu Gutsy (Canllaith.org)

Posted Nov 7, 2007 8:51 UTC (Wed) by Richard_J_Neill (subscriber, #23093)
Parent article: Kubuntu Gutsy (Canllaith.org)

What I don't understand is why Kubuntu tries to be a distribution, rather than a set of
KDE-packages for Ubuntu. Why do so much duplicate work, including trying to make
system-configuration packages just for KDE?

Why not go the whole hog:  Ooo-buntu and Abi-buntu,  Dillobuntu vs Konquibuntu and W3mtu, ....

After all, unless one has a comparatively old system, there's little practical performance
penalty from having Qt and GTK both installed, and most people will use a mix of apps of both
flavours.

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Kubuntu Gutsy (Canllaith.org)

Posted Nov 7, 2007 12:15 UTC (Wed) by mbottrell (guest, #43008) [Link]

Think you miss the point of Ubuntu and it's flavours.

The Kubuntu or Ubuntu or Xubuntu for that matter allows users to get their favourite desktop
environment off the bat, with a bunch of apps/utils for their environment.

Sure, you can install say GTK libs for those KDE users and KDElibs for those Gnome users...
and most power users do..

However for Johnny Learner, it's an easy way to get their desired Desktop environment in a
bootable/installable CD.

Once installed.. just use apt/synaptic to install any of the other bits and pieces you like
(such as the alternative libraries).

Kubuntu Gutsy (Canllaith.org)

Posted Nov 7, 2007 13:20 UTC (Wed) by pointwood (subscriber, #2814) [Link]

Why not go one step further and just make packages for slackware? (or whatever was the first
distro that existed)

Kubuntu

Posted Nov 7, 2007 14:12 UTC (Wed) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link]

What's the duplicate work?  They make it easy to have a complete KDE-based 
(or XFCE-based for Xubuntu) system with a CD install or "apt-get 
kubuntu-desktop".  Kubuntu is just another flavor of Ubuntu; it's not actually very 
separate at all.

I'm pretty sure there are Fedora users who run Gnome and Fedora users who 
run KDE and Fedora users who run XFCE; Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu just gives 
more support to all of them for installing and staying within their preferred 
environment.

Kubuntu Gutsy (Canllaith.org)

Posted Nov 7, 2007 14:17 UTC (Wed) by vondo (guest, #256) [Link]

As others have said, basically it IS a set of KDE packages for Ubuntu.

The repository is the same. Ubuntu chose GNOME for its desktop, so the Kubuntu people came
along and decided to support the KDE packages so that users would have a choice. Probably 95%
of the packages in a default install of either are identical and if you want to add the
"other" desktop, you can with just one command.

There are two ways in which Kubuntu is the ugly step-sister: I don't think it gets as much
support to fix its issues as Ubuntu proper and the schedule is tied to GNOME releases, not
KDE. Still, it's the best KDE-based distro I've used. I left Mandriva/Mandrake for Kubuntu
6.06 and never looked back.

Kubuntu Gutsy (Canllaith.org)

Posted Nov 7, 2007 18:56 UTC (Wed) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link]

April and October were chosen because they're more or less equidistant between the summer and
winter holidays.  Even if Gnome went a full year without a release, Ubuntu would still follow
their six month cycle like clockwork.

That said, I'm sure it's no coincidence that Ubuntu tweaks their release date to consistently
fall a week or two later than Gnome.  :)

Kubuntu Gutsy (Canllaith.org)

Posted Nov 7, 2007 18:59 UTC (Wed) by Richard_J_Neill (subscriber, #23093) [Link]

As I see it, KDE is basically kwin + kicker + konsole + konqueror + klipper.
The rest of KDE is essentially interchangeable. So, what I don't understand is why Kubuntu
excludes all the gnome-stuff. 

If I were making a kubuntu installer, I'd still ship with synaptic, rather than adept, and I'd
keep most of the gnome-system-admin stuff, rather than relying on the less mature and
customised KDE stuff. (Eg ksysv was, when I last used it, not actually compatible with Ubuntu
since it was unaware of the existence of /etc/rcS.d). 

Whereas most distros have a system-admin utility (Mandriva control centre, Yast etc), Ubuntu's
"control center" is very tightly bound to Gnome. Kubuntu seems to ignore most of these. 

In my view, the best apps have to be selected from *both* GTK and QT camps.

gnome-libs vs kdelibs

Posted Nov 8, 2007 14:11 UTC (Thu) by hummassa (subscriber, #307) [Link]

the problem is, when you run synaptic inside KDE, you are with both gnome-libs and kdelibs in
RAM (plus generated data structures). When you run adept inside KDE, you are only with kdelibs
in RAM. I (kubuntu user here) tend to use krita in opposition to gimp, for instance, mostly
because it starts faster, feels faster in general and doesn't hog the whole desktop. I'm sure
Gnome users feel the same when they run Amarok, for instance.

gnome-libs vs kdelibs

Posted Nov 8, 2007 18:23 UTC (Thu) by oak (subscriber, #2786) [Link]

But according to some comments on Kubuntu Gutsy updates, it's the Kubuntu 
package management UI that runs out of memory during distro upgrade 
whereas the gnome tools work for this...  (it's also *much* easier in them 
to view package changelogs before updating to a new version)

Kubuntu Gutsy (Canllaith.org)

Posted Nov 7, 2007 21:25 UTC (Wed) by pointwood (subscriber, #2814) [Link]

There's only one developer (Jonathan Riddel) hired to work on Kubuntu. Of 
course, Kubuntu shares a lot of code/software with Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is certainly where the primary focus is, that is evident 
everywhere. 

Note: I'm not complaining, even though I use Kubuntu. I'm not going to 
start complaining as long as I don't pay anything for it :)