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View Full Version : Why Isn't Ubuntu Allowed To Gussy Up KDE?



Mark76
October 11th, 2010, 07:43 AM
The new default themes for Xubuntu and Lubuntu are pretty snazzy. I'd love to see what the design team at Canonical could come up with for Kubuntu. If only they were allowed to :(

capink
October 11th, 2010, 02:12 PM
I Always wondered why don't they create the same Ubuntu themes for KDE. It would give Kubuntu a distinct character.

macewan
October 11th, 2010, 02:40 PM
Little history on Kubuntu's fall from grace (http://www.itnewstoday.com/?p=1032).

Mark76
October 11th, 2010, 03:17 PM
I Always wondered why don't they create the same Ubuntu themes for KDE. It would give Kubuntu a distinct character.

Even a distinct theme utilising the same colour scheme as the boot splash would be pretty neat.

kaldor
October 11th, 2010, 03:38 PM
I think I heard once that Kubuntu is a kind of showcase for the newest KDE software.

But as it stands now, it's nothing special at all.

SeijiSensei
October 11th, 2010, 03:41 PM
Little history on Kubuntu's fall from grace (http://www.itnewstoday.com/?p=1032).

I'm more focused on getting things done and less on eye-candy so I don't really care much if there are unique themes, etc., in Kubuntu. I do care that things work more or less "out-of-the-box." My experiences with wireless were much the same as this blog author's. Kubuntu 10.10 seems a solid step forward in that department. I don't know how much credit for this is due to work by the KDE developers and how much is due to work by the Kubuntu packagers. I do often feel from browsing the threads here that we KDE users remain a distinct and often under-served minority. I'd like to see a Kubuntu subforum here myself just for that reason.

Linye
October 11th, 2010, 03:49 PM
I do often feel from browsing the threads here that we KDE users remain a distinct and often under-served minority. I'd like to see a Kubuntu subforum here myself just for that reason.


I don't use Kubuntu but thats a reasonable request.

zekopeko
October 11th, 2010, 04:15 PM
Little history on Kubuntu's fall from grace (http://www.itnewstoday.com/?p=1032).

Fall from grace? Really? Kubuntu is a community project as opposed to Ubuntu which is both a community and Canonical project.
Mark Shuttleworth spends roughly 2 million US$ each year on KDE.

CraigPaleo
October 11th, 2010, 05:50 PM
My Kubuntu is dark - purple and brown! :)

lykwydchykyn
October 11th, 2010, 06:07 PM
Last November they announced "Project Timelord" which was supposed to crack down on improving the Kubuntu end user experience. I don't know what the specific goals of the project were, but I was disappointed to see very little visible fruit in the Maverick release.

I'm not as concerned about theming and wallpaper as I am about the kubuntu-specific tools (read: kpackagekit) and the default desktop layout, which seems to me a very poor demonstration of what KDE can do.

lykwydchykyn
October 11th, 2010, 06:13 PM
The new default themes for Xubuntu and Lubuntu are pretty snazzy. I'd love to see what the design team at Canonical could come up with for Kubuntu. If only they were allowed to :(

BTW, I'm curious as to what makes you think they aren't "allowed" to?

CraigPaleo
October 11th, 2010, 06:28 PM
BTW, I'm curious as to what makes you think they aren't "allowed" to?

I'm reminded of this blog post.Kubuntu is not Ubuntu (http://apachelog.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/kubuntu-is-not-ubuntu/)

Excerpt:

Finally it also means that the community gets to decide how much branding gets committed, and currently the opinion is to stick with KDE’s. Not only is their artwork of incredibly high quality, but also are they the biggest contributors to the Kubuntu desktop, so they deserve most credit.

On that last note I would also like to note that Kubuntu’s target was to make the best KDE distribution, not the best Ubuntu flavor, thus deriving from KDE’s artwork and color scheme would not only be in conflict with the fact that Kubuntu’s color palette is almost identical, but also with what Kubuntu is trying to achieve.

Islington
October 11th, 2010, 07:44 PM
I gotta say I don't disagree with you many times mark but I do on this one. Gnome defaults like xfce defaults are way too conservative and old school. KDE upstream does great artwork and is already working on distro branding (look up the stripes wallpaper that Ivan is working on.)

The devs are happy pulling from upstream, because the defaults are really good.

edit: I would like to point out that kubuntu has already done some awesome work for things like openoffice to use kde theme stuff.

Mark76
October 12th, 2010, 03:58 PM
BTW, I'm curious as to what makes you think they aren't "allowed" to?

Mainly the branding. I mean. There's nothing on a Kubuntu desktop that would make you think you hadn't just downloaded vanilla KDE straight from the KDE site.

I was under the impression that Canonical aren't allowed to put their own stamp (in the form of a customised Kubuntu menu icon and custom wallpapers) on KDE. Perhaps you have to pay Nokia for the privilege and Canonical don't consider that to be a good use of their monies.

Simian Man
October 12th, 2010, 04:04 PM
I like the way other distros do it. You can download Fedora, for example, with any of the major desktops, and they all have the same wallpaper and color scheme to match the release.


I was under the impression that Canonical aren't allowed to put their own stamp (in the form of a customised Kubuntu menu icon and custom wallpapers) on KDE. Perhaps you have to pay Nokia for the privilege and Canonical don't consider that to be a good use of their monies.
No.

Mark76
October 12th, 2010, 04:07 PM
No it's not a good use of their monies, or no that's not what's going on?

Simian Man
October 12th, 2010, 04:10 PM
No it's not a good use of their monies, or no that's not what's going on?

KDE is open source, is not affiliated with Nokia, and most other distros do customize KDE quite a bit. I have no idea why Ubuntu doesn't theme their KDE, but it isn't money.

CraigPaleo
October 12th, 2010, 05:11 PM
Mainly the branding. I mean. There's nothing on a Kubuntu desktop that would make you think you hadn't just downloaded vanilla KDE straight from the KDE site.


There's a wee bit of branding. If you use Kickoff, which I don't, you'll see this:

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/1253/branding.png

Mark76
October 12th, 2010, 06:11 PM
KDE is open source, is not affiliated with Nokia, and most other distros do customize KDE quite a bit. I have no idea why Ubuntu doesn't theme their KDE, but it isn't money.

Don't Nokia own KDE? Or at least QT.

Barrucadu
October 12th, 2010, 06:18 PM
Yes, Nokia own Qt.

GeneralZod
October 12th, 2010, 06:20 PM
Don't Nokia own KDE?

No :confused:


Or at least QT.

Yes. But what difference would this make, given that both Qt and KDE are Free Software?

Simian Man
October 12th, 2010, 06:21 PM
Don't Nokia own KDE? Or at least QT.

They own QT, but not KDE. Since QT is LGPL, they have no claim on anything created with the library and certainly can't charge people for changing KDE defaults :).

NightwishFan
October 12th, 2010, 07:08 PM
Kubuntu 10.10 is actully quite awesome. I was tempted to switch, however I have been a Gnome user for so long now I am stuck in my ways. A new theme is something the community can brush up if they want I am sure. Why not make one?

lykwydchykyn
October 12th, 2010, 08:13 PM
If you read the blog entry that CraigPaleo linked to above (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9954085&postcount=12) it explains an awful lot. Much of the misinformation rattling about this thread would be set straight.

Dragonbite
October 12th, 2010, 08:19 PM
I just want to see the (newer) Kubuntu logo replace the KDE icon for the kicker menu!