Ubuntu is under attack

[Jan Moren]

sön 2005-12-18 klockan 22:57 +0000 skrev Old Rocker:
> On Sunday 18 December 2005 13:55, Michael P. Soulier wrote:
> 
> > I think we need a section in the Ubuntu Wiki. Here is what you should
> > install, after the bare-bones install that you're provided on the CD.
> > How about, HowToMakeUbuntuNotSuck.
> 
> Well, perhaps a loaded title, but not a bad idea, though why the CD 
> can't come with a bare-bones KDE setup as well defeats me.  Ubuntu must 
> be the only major distro not to do it.  Yes, I know you can do it by 
> installing kubuntu-desktop, but KDE is not a minor suite, and like 
> other distros, it should be at bootup as standard.

Um, that's what kubuntu is for. Ubuntu is at heart a Gnome distro, and
with such a limited space on the CD, don't expect a large set of
packages like that to crowd out all the other useful or necessary stuff.

And remember when Redhat tried to make KDE interoperate a bit better
with the Gnome desktop and got screeching yowls of protest from all over
KDE land for their effort? I suspect the very same thing would happen
with a "bare-bones" (ie. anything less than everything) set of KDE
packages.

Why can't you just let Ubuntu be what it is? Why is not kubuntu good
enough?


> The problem is (as I understand it), Ubuntu does NOT provide an 
> interface with pure Debian packages.  Some work and others do not.  If 
> the system was compatible with 100% pure Debian packages, there would 
> be no problem with choice, and if Debian provided as good an installer 
> as Ubuntu, there would be no need for Ubuntu as a stand-alone distro.  
> We could all join forces around debian.org.

Debian moves slowly. Ubuntu moves fast. There are good reasons for
either, but it means that packages will tend to have version
incompatibilities. To use all debian packages, Ubuntu would have to
essentially put on the breaks (no new Gnome desktop yumminess every six
months) and use the same (older) versions of everything that debian
does.

And it's not like the quick pace of Ubuntu isn't benefiting debian; all
changes and packaging work is offered upstream after all.




-- 
Dr. Jan Morén (mr)              
Japan:  090-3622 8920           jan.moren at lucs.lu.se
Sweden: 031-360 7723            http://lucs.lu.se/people/jan.moren