Roadmap for 14.04

[Julien Lavergne]

Before talking about the future of Lubuntu, you have to know and realize
the followings facts :

- My availability will not improve in the future. That means I will focus
on fixing stuff, improving lxsession stuff, try to do some documentation,
and prepare the future.

- We have to consider that no one will magically appear to improve the code
of Lubuntu. It's the case since many months, and I don't think it will
magically change for the next 6 months. We also don't have the
infrastructure (documentation, clean process, availability of mentors ...)
to correctly train new people on the devs team, so even if new young and
enthusiastic people arrive, they can't really help us if they need
training, guidance ...We may have some outside help on specific topics or
bugs, but it will not change deeply Lubuntu as we know it. If eventually
someone comes with actual work (mean, actual working code), we can still
consider it if it's well tested.

- LXDE is dying. Well, except pcmanfm, all components are frozen and will
probably not going to see any improvements in the next 6 months. Expect
only bug fixes and translations updates.

- LXQt (the merge of Razor-qt and LXDE, using Qt instead of GTK) is slowly
taking the place of the LXDE GTK. All work are done on this branch.

Considering this, and the result of the previous release, we have to admit
that we need to focus on fixing bugs for 14.04. We can't introduce new
functionalities and new stuff, unless it fixes bugs, or if someone from
outside the Lubuntu dev team is actively working on it. In the short-term,
that means :

- The only LXDE components which will be eventually upgraded will be
pcmanfm / libfm. The others will be upgraded, but currently there are only
bug fixes / translation updates releases.

- Adding light-locker for locking screen, it's actively developed, use (or
will be used) by Xubuntu, it's in the philosophy of Lubuntu (GTK apps
without any depends on other environment), it's prettier than xscreensaver,
more integrated with lightdm, and it will hopefully fix the locking
problems we have.

- No others changes in default applications. We removed the more
problematics ones, and a change will cause more testing, more integration
work … Generaly, and by default, we are frozen in term of functionalities.


The goal is double :

- Stabilize this 14.04 as much as we can, so it can be the release
reference.

- Prepare an eventual switch to Qt for 14.10, mostly by preparing the
testing environment for people, and make possible a smooth upgrade from the
GTK version.

I'll go through the blueprints open for discussions, but I'll apply
strictly the “rules” I made above. Don't be surprised …

Usually, there is a blueprint which summarize the workitems for the release
(see this for example
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/community-r-lubuntu-work-items).
Since the next release is a “all-you-can-fix” roadmap, maintaining it will
be IMO a waste of time. If you want to work on something specific, talk to
me by mail or IRC (gilir on #lubuntu).

Regards,

Julien Lavergne
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