Forging a new path.

[Matthew Polashek]

I fell horrible.  I haven't done much at all to help the cause and I use 
this distro every day all day.  I apologize.  This is an amazing work 
that I have grown to love over time.  I will do my best to do better 
with helping and I want to thank everyone who has worked so hard to make 
Ubuntustudio happen.  It's amazing and you guys are amazing!

Matt

Cory K. wrote:
> With Jaunty's impending release, the dev team has given thought to
> Karmic and the projects future. I will attempt to form cohesive thoughts
> for us all to consider. :)
>
> I and many in the linux audio game have become a little disheartened
> with the current state of things. Things are just a mess. Trying to make
> it all work together is a mind-numbing hassle.
>
> "Why can't I use Skype and Rythmbox?" and like questions I'm simply
> tired of. We're *not* a general desktop distro. *Not* for new-to-linux
> users. Linux audio plus learning linux is just to much to do together.
>
> So what can be done?
>
>     One idea is dropping the other metas and focusing simply on Audio or
>     JACK apps. Our audio users are arguably the largest user segment. So
>     we just rip out things like Pulse and run JACK by default. (It's
>     been brought up before) But, there are many damn useful non-JACK
>     audio apps. Though, I feel the other metas included are a great way
>     to advertise what other multimedia tools are out there.
>
>     Another idea was to stop creating disks altogether and just maintain
>     the metas, -RT and Ubuntu Studio Controls. Putting some
>     configuration back on the users. Art would stay as-is and still be
>     available in the repo. -desktop meta would disappear.
>
>     I've even considered folding the project.
>
>
> Another issue has been the lack of talented, dedicated, long-term
> additions to the development team. We've had many great people come and
> go over the life of the project but having the same 3 person core-team
> all with other obligations has become an enormous strain.
>
> We've tried many times to get a proper testing and documentation team
> together, an area where even novice users can help, but that has come to
> nothing.
>
> Personally, it's been a contributing factor to my stepping down after
> Jaunty. I've felt like "What's the point?" Users only complain when
> things don't work and rarely help to fix them. Upstreams are slow or
> altogether ignore issues we try to communicate to them. Whether you
> think so or not, we're all in this together. It's a damn thankless job
> (because none of us are paid) the devs do and it's taken it's toll. This
> has been expressed by heads of other distros as well.
>
> I have very little confidence in the sustainability of the project as
> things are. Painful as that is to say. And in the end, it's the users
> that will lose out.
>
>
> But back to the topic. ;)
>
>
> So, what do you guys want? What are you willing to do? Everything is
> *WIDE* open at this point.
>
> Besides this thread, there will be a series of meetings in
> #ubuntu-meeting (IRC) coming soon. They will be important and if you
> want a voice please make it a point to attend.
>
> Hopefully some of this made sense and won't get totally lost in the
> holiday shuffle. ;)
>
> Almost down for the count,
>                      Cory K.
>
>