Kubuntu 7.10: The end of an era?
Kubuntu 7.10 RC was announced as available several days ago. I installed it immediately, and I have to say, I’m very impressed! Although it’s still just a release candidate, it has all of the necessary ingredients: stability, responsiveness, innovation and coherency.
While other articles will no doubt focus on the many benefits that Kubuntu 7.10 will bring, I’d like to look forward into the future. Namely, this is because of the upcoming release of KDE 4, which is currently planned for December 11, 2007.
Kubuntu 7.10 RC includes KDE 3.5.7. This is the latest in a long line of KDE 3 releases. The initial KDE 3.0 release was over half a decade ago, on April 3, 2002. Even the KDE 3.5 branch initially dates from November 29, 2005. But during this timeframe we’ve seen much work done on KDE 4.
It’s without doubt that KDE 4 will be a major revolution within the open source desktop environment world. The benefits we will see will be enormous:
- Qt 4: An already-responsive desktop environment gets even faster!
- HIG: Greater UI consistency.
- Oxygen: SVG-based icons and visuals.
- Plasma: Combining the desktop, panel and more.
- Phonon: A modern multimedia framework.
- Solid: Better network and portable devices support.
- Decibel: Communication protocols galore.
- Kross: Easier scripting integration.
- Dolphin: A new file manager.
- Sonnet: Spellchecking with automatic language detection.
What’s more, we haven’t seen comparable innovation from the GNOME developers. When the final release of KDE 4.0 comes around, I don’t think that GNOME will really be able to compete any more. It will likely take years for them to catch up, at which time KDE will likely have gotten even further ahead, in terms of quality, capability and usability.
So we may be at a turning point. If the next release of Kubuntu is based around KDE 4, a shift may start away from GNOME-centric Ubuntu, towards KDE-centric Kubuntu. Were Ubuntu to move away from GNOME towards the more capable KDE 4, that would put the Kubuntu project in an awkward position. In essence, they would make themselves irrelevant due to the very act of basing their offering on the best product available.
However, it would also signify a major accomplishment within the open source community, with regards to maturity. KDE 4 will really become a platform that can compete with the likes of Windows Vista and Mac OS X. While desktop environments like GNOME and XFCE would always have their niche, KDE 4 has the potential to become the first open source desktop environment to see a far more widespread usage. This is a very important milestone for the entire community, and also the industry as a whole.
Regardless of what actually happens, the next six months will be very exciting times within the open source desktop environment arena. The impact of KDE 4 will no doubt also be felt by many of the other Linux distributions, as well as the broader BSD and Solaris communities. These sort of widely-felt changes are rare, usually limited to the likes of X.org and GCC. Interesting times lay ahead, my friends!
October 14th, 2007 at 8:41 am
KDE4 is still buggy as hell, adn may not be includeed in the next ubuntu release, because it will be a Long Term Support release, thus stability will be the most important factor for choosing versions of applications.
Until KDE4 is ready for mass use, gnome will advance. I don’t believe it will lose it’s position to KDE4, although, I agree, KDE4 is a great move in the future.
October 14th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Well, don’t want to be rude, but let’s compare KDE’s innovation and Gnome’s lack of it, using the very examples from the post and leaving aside all the “fasters” and “betters”:
* HIG: Greater UI consistency.
- Gnome: 2002
* Oxygen: SVG-based icons and visuals.
- Gnome: ~2001
* Phonon: A modern multimedia framework.
- Gnome: GStreamer, integrated ~2002
* Decibel: Communication protocols galore.
- a wrapper for telepathy (used in - guess? Gnome). Tie, ‘cos telepathy is not very mature itself.
* Dolphin: A new file manager.
- criticized by KDE users for being too nautilus-like
Summary: Kongratulations (sorry, I could not resist)
Disclaimer: I’m a happy WindowMaker user, not associated with Gnome nor KDE, but the post seemed a bit unfair to me.
October 14th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
I’m looking forward to KDE4, even if only for its SVG support
October 15th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Well, G and K currently don’t have much of a position anyway, it’s mostly about what the future will hold for them. Yeah, Kubuntu won’t have KDE 4 for another year as default desktop. It’ll be 4.1 before it gets in that position, but that’ll most likely be a pretty capable and mature desktop. And it doesn’t seem there will be a huge surge into linux anytime soon, at least not much more than now. KDE 3.5.x can hold its ground until 4.1 starts to roll out on the Linux desktops. And I think by then, we will be able to say linux has something more advanced than the proprietary operating systems.
October 16th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Kubuntu 8.04 won’t include KDE 4. Ubu devs are going to PROBABLY use it as default for Kubuntu 8.10, that means 1 complete year of waiting.
Why? KDE 4.0 is going to be lacking somethings and it’s going to be “very” buggy
KDE 4.1 and superior, will start being truly usable for the common user
However, I agree, GNOME will need years to catch up KDE 4.
I believe that, unless GNOME devs do something great, KDE 4 is going to ending being Ubuntu default desktop, not only because it’s improvements, it’s because it will make migration easier because you can actually run KDE 4 applications on Windows and Mac OS X.
Is KDE 4 going to kill GNOME? Hell no, look at Fluxbox, it’s still alive and it’s quite lacking compare to those two.
Is KDE 4 going to take a lot of GNOME market share? Yep, KDE until 2006 was the most used Desktop, now GNOME wins by a little margin, however, KDE 4 is going to make people quickly change, just give a look to Ubuntuforums, “I’ll migrate to KDE 4″ topics are everywhere.
KDE 4, the only matching DE? Are you serious? Vista is prettier, yes, and it has some features the others lacks, however, I don’t believe is that superior to KDE 3.5 series or GNOME (well, I actually find those to be better). I want to believe that if KDE 3.5.7 is already at least at the same league as Windows Vista GUI, then KDE 4 series (not 4.0) will be quite better.
October 27th, 2007 at 12:02 am
Remember it’s not a KDE vs. Gnome battle. They’re both on the same side. It’s a battle to get users to switch from maintenance intensive Microsoft to Linux. Crossover Office is helping a great deal as well.
I hope that they will add many more innovative features to KDE 4.0. It’s great, but I would like it to beat Mac OS-X Leopard for usability and eye candy. Yes eye candy isn’t crucial, but it’s what makes people switch over. I have 2 systems I’m installing at the moment for clients that want to give Linux a try, just because they saw Compiz Fusion videos on YouTube.
KDE 4.0 has to look elegant and very, very classy. The betas already show that it finally went away from the cartoonish look of previous releases. That’s a step in the right direction. It still has some ways to go though.
I think adding reflections and more glossy effects would help. KDE has to be 2 steps ahead of Mac OS-X Leopard to gain mass media attention. It has already beat Vista.