Kubuntu Status Update

[David Wonderly]

Greetings to the wonderful Kubuntu Community!

I just wanted to drop some updates so that you guys know what is going on. 
I've been seeing a lot of questions about the status and future of Kubuntu.

I wanted to take some time today and give you guys the updates and information 
we have so far. 

I'm not going to repost the same text that I have make from my blog, [1] 
reading it may answer some of the questions that you have. I will try and 
answer some of the common questions I have recieved so far.

Q: How will this effect the 12.04 LTS and other future LTS releases?
A: As of right now, it is not going to effect the 12.04 LTS. The Kubuntu 
Council [2] released a statement on the Kubuntu Website [3] to help assure 
everyone that 12.04 will be a 5 year LTS. We have no plans to stop providing 
LTS releases.

Q: Who is Blue Systems?
A: While the details of who is paying for Blue Systems is not widly known here 
is how it effects the Kubuntu Project. As mentioned in my post, we now have two 
developers who are being paid to work on KDE and in turn, Kubuntu full time. 
Part of the deal 
with Blue Systems is that Kubuntu will remain a Community Run project[4].

Q: Are we going to fork Kubuntu.
A: Simple answer, no. We will still remain the KDE flavor of Ubuntu.

Q: Okay, so if you are not forking, why is there talk about a name change?
A: The name change conversations stems from the Ubuntu TM policy. [5] There is 
a vision for the future of Kubuntu where the TM policies might constrain 
things we want to do with Kubuntu. We are working with Canonical to see what 
we can do and at the same time there are those of us int he Council and 
community who are preparing for a possible name change if it is needed.

If you have other questions, please, do not hesitate to email me or, talk to 
me in IRC. You can find me in #kubuntu-offtopic on the FreeNode network as 
Darkwing. You can either highlight me or, PM me and if I am not there, leave 
me your email address and I will do my best to get an answer to you. 

Thank you for staying with us as Kubuntu continues to grow. You are the reason 
why people have stepped forward to provide for the Kubuntu project. 

Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time.

Cheers!

David Wonderly
Kubuntu Council
IRC: Darkwing
Twitter: @dwonderly
E-Mail: david.wonderly at kubuntu.org


[1] http://www.wonderly.com/2012/04/kubuntu-moving-forward/
[2] https://launchpad.net/~kubuntu-council
[3] http://www.kubuntu.org/news/12.04-lts-announce
[4] http://www.kubuntu.org/news/kubuntu-to-be-sponsored-by-blue-systems
[5] http://www.ubuntu.com/aboutus/trademarkpolicy