*Official Announcement:* Ubuntu Studio is switching to XFCE.

[Mike Holstein]

On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 1:41 PM, Robert Klaar <nim.batu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I agree with this, the only argument I've heard so far is that it's
> different and sure, installed 11.04(with unity) to my laptop I use for
> backup a few days ago and it is different but nothing that you won't get
> used to, in some ways I like it even better, for one it's layout seems a bit
> more simplistic than I find standard "gnome-based" systems to be. Even
> though this might change workflow for some, the cons of switching to a
> fairly less supported DE in return for this, are probably worse. If there is
> one thing I've learned in these years using linux is to go with the
> mainstream and use what people use most, not doing so might land you in a
> position where something as basic, for a musician, as getting your soundcard
> to work seem hopeless due to lack of support. The main strength in Ubuntu,
> especially, has always been the vast number of people who use it, this is
> also my main reason for using US, because it's basically Ubuntu, with a lot
> of useful stuff added to it, forking of now might cut you out of the circle
> in the future. Even though XFCE is fairly similar to gnome, when gnome
> changes and Ubuntu with it so will the knowledge built up by it's vast
> community and I think US would be wise to stay as close as possible to it,
> and even though switching DE's is not really that drastic, changing
> something like this might make it a lot more harder for an artist or a
> producer etc., with little computer experience, solving problems as the
> solution found in the forums might not be enough. Now, this is not a problem
> for most people who use linux since you get used to these things after a
> while switching distro's aso. and in general you get better at it but not
> everyone does this, especially not your typical artist type, that's why many
> musicians prefer mac's.
>
> And that's what most people are like, I think it's a bad idea to limit US
> only to people with experience in linux and even though switching DE's might
> not do this now, it sets a path towards it.
>

robert, i for one really appreciate your well thought out statements. you
have some very valid points. one of which i would like to bring up for
debate here. do you feel like moving from gnome2 to gnome3 is a more drastic
change than moving from gnome2 to XFCE? that was one of the selling points
of this move. even though we will be moving from the mainstream ubuntu
workflow, we feil like this move to XFCE would actually be *less* disruptive
than moving to unity or gnome3 (from gnome2). another selling point was also
that we feel XFCE is very well supported, and well developed. the hardware
support will always be the same as buntu though. a kernel update will be
more likely to break functionality than the UI change. however, i dont feel
like we should *not* upgrade the kernel. i think most linux users expect
possible changes in support when going to a newer kernel version.
this debate really comes down to the basic question, 'what is ubuntustudio
doing?'. whos is it for. are we attracting new users? studio engineers?
video professionals?. this is something we are constantly trying to be more
clear about. right now, a move to XFCE has the intention of being the least
disruptive change, while maintaining a similar workflow, and also pooling
our resources with the xubuntu team. adopting early hopefully means that by
the next LTS (12.04), things will be nice and solid and working well. if we
are to target current ubuntu users, then unity would be the way to go. if we
are to target OSX users or audio professionals, then the current plan to use
XFCE with the AWN dock actually might be the best idea. XFCE+AWN has a very
OSX look and feel (much more so that the current ubuntutsudio) which i think
is arguably a good improvement, and easily facilitates some nice 'workflow'
ideas that scott lavender has proposed. what do you think would be a target
audience? and how to best implement a DE for them?

keep it coming robert. i feel like this is the kind of educated exchange
that could really help shape the future of ubuntustudio. thank you for your
attention.

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-- 
MH

http://opensourcemusician.libsyn.com/
http://wnclug.ourproject.org/
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