Hello Everyone! I just joined the list and this is my first post. I am considering using Kubuntu and, if so, would be interested in contributing. As an outsider looking in, I generally agree with all of the proposed ideas below. Also, as an outsider, my perspective might be helpful...
Short story, I have used Debian (along with Debian-based systems like Ubuntu) for nearly twenty years, but Debian was almost always my daily driver. I love Debian for its openness, community, and process. Why consider Kubuntu then? Honestly, it's largely the six-month release cycle. As an outsider, Canonical looms large over everything Ubuntu (to be fair, the same is true of Red Hat/IBM and Fedora/CentOS). If I contribute to a project, I want to contribute to a community instead of a corporation. Putting community building, openness, and democracy before everything is the key to success. Otherwise, I will be wary and unlikely to contribute. I know I am not alone and I know all of you know this, I just want to say it out-loud. By the way, I am fully aware that some of you are contributors to both Debian and Ubuntu. Another thing I like about Debian is that it is largely unopinionated (some might say vanilla). To be fair, Debian does make some choices for users (systemd and apparmor), but Kubuntu should be commended for shipping Flatpak along with Snap! This shows independence and fairness. Those are important qualities for me and should be highlighted! More of this should be encouraged and shouted out-loud! Finally the installer needs some help (I know you know that more users obviously means more potential contributors). I have used Btrfs for years on Debian. When I installed Kubuntu, I ran into a few problems (I have not filed bug reports yet...bad user). First, a manual install of Btrfs into an encrypted volume fails with a Python exception (would be cryptic to many users). I quickly realized that the problem was that the installer needed my password but didn't have it. I simply restarted the install, chose guided and encrypted, entered my password, then chose manual partitioning. It worked. With the improvements in Btrfs and Canonical's apparent loss of interest in ZFS, it might be time to make Btrfs a first class citizen in the installer. I have been helping people on Reddit and elsewhere with Btrfs on Debian and Ubuntu lately, so I know there is a demand (e.g., https://github.com/tonywalker1/ubuntu-tips/blob/main/add-btrfs-subvolumes.md). Anyway, this is just one example of where Kubuntu is losing users to projects like Fedora. Coming full circle, a major complaint about Fedora is the installer and the hardware support out-of-the-box. Kubuntu excels on hardware support, so I suggest giving some love to the installer and enabling newer technologies like Btrfs. By the way, giving some love to the installer is a project to which I would be willing to contribute. I hope this helps! -- Tony Walker <tony.walker...@gmail.com> PGP Key @ https://keys.openpgp.org/ 9F46 D66D FF6C 182D A5AC 11E1 8559 98D1 7543 319C > Hello folks! > > I'd like to brainstorm some ideas on how to get more folks into the project > and be more transparent with what goes out in the Kubuntu world. I'll list a > few ideas: > > - Quarterly meetings > - Meetings notes for the community to post on the news section of the website > - What we have done in that quarter > - What we have planned for the next release > > I think it's a good time to start in Q1 of 2023 as we enter the development > cycle for 23.04. Thoughts? -- kubuntu-devel mailing list kubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/kubuntu-devel
