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Canonical pulls Kubuntu funding plug 7 years on

by Alistair Lowe on 7 February 2012, 11:23

Tags: Canonical

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It has been seven years since the official derivative of the popular Linux Ubuntu distribution, Kubuntu, was created and now Canonical has officially pulled the plug on funding for the project.

Kubuntu is based on the Ubuntu Linux distribution, however features the KDE desktop system, which currently has a closer resemblance to Windows Aero and features a different web-browser and e-mail application as its default offering.

Kubuntu 11.10

"Today I bring the disappointing news that Canonical will no longer be funding my work on Kubuntu after 12.04. Canonical wants to treat Kubuntu in the same way as the other community flavors such as Edubuntu, Lubuntu, and Xubuntu, and support the projects with infrastructure. This is a big challenge to Kubuntu of course and KDE as well." stated Kubuntu developer, Jonathan Riddell, "The practical changes are I won't be able to work on KDE bits in my work time after 12.04 and there won't be paid support for versions after 12.04.  This is a rational business decision, Kubuntu has not been a business success after 7 years of trying, and it is unrealistic to expect it to continue to have financial resources put into it."

Jonathan is now looking to the community to take the reins on much of the project. We will soon discover if there is enough support to keep Kubuntu alive without dedicated funding; there are certainly many similar KDE offerings already out there with thriving communities and support packages, though we suspect in typical Linux spirit, what harm could one more distribution cause?



HEXUS Forums :: 12 Comments

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Surprised this hasn't been more popular. When I last tried Ubuntu I couldn't bear the default GUI, and now I read that they've forced Unity on users? Following that though, it almost would've been odd for Canonical to carry on funding Kubuntu.
snootyjim
Surprised this hasn't been more popular. When I last tried Ubuntu I couldn't bear the default GUI, and now I read that they've forced Unity on users? Following that though, it almost would've been odd for Canonical to carry on funding Kubuntu.

I agree and yes they have forced Unity onto others, though they are promising some key functional changes and improved performance in the upcoming 12.04 LTE release.
Scribe
I agree and yes they have forced Unity onto others, though they are promising some key functional changes and improved performance in the upcoming 12.04 LTE release.
The folks over at Linux Format (and elsewhere) are of the opinion that Unity's been a godsend for Mint, because since insisting on Unity (still an ironic name consider it's so divisive) there's been an upswing in the number of Mint users.

Said it before, Unity on netbooks is quite usable. Unity on proper desktops just gets in the way. Choice would have been nice.
crossy
The folks over at Linux Format (and elsewhere) are of the opinion that Unity's been a godsend for Mint, because since insisting on Unity (still an ironic name consider it's so divisive) there's been an upswing in the number of Mint users.

Said it before, Unity on netbooks is quite usable. Unity on proper desktops just gets in the way. Choice would have been nice.

I've found on desktops things are never where I want with it, also, that driver performance with my machine (Phenom X6 II 1090T, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA 480GTX OC) is terrible, until recently I got constant freezing and the desktop remains sluggish. I actually got better performance from Ubuntu 11.10 through a VM on-top of Windows, which is more confusing because the integration in VM is also called Unity.
Scribe
I've found on desktops things are never where I want with it, also, that driver performance with my machine (Phenom X6 II 1090T, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA 480GTX OC) is terrible, until recently I got constant freezing and the desktop remains sluggish. I actually got better performance from Ubuntu 11.10 through a VM on-top of Windows, which is more confusing because the integration in VM is also called Unity.
Hmm, that could be due to the “advanced” mode of Unity - I've seen (and heard on a couple of podcasts) that folks with “lesser” hardware - typically laptops - have had a much nicer time with Unity because it's fallen back to the “Unity2D” mode which seems to be better optimised.