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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    KDE Linux/BSD distribution
From:       "N. Thompson" <n.thomp () sasktel ! net>
Date:       2004-10-26 6:15:34
Message-ID: 200410260015.34675.n.thomp () sasktel ! net
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I'm just tossing around this idea I've had for a long time, I've always wanted 
a distribution that focused all of its attention on making the best KDE 
desktop available with the latest version and all the cool enhancements. Most 
distributions today try to include both KDE and Gnome or just Gnome and as 
such KDE often gets less attention then it needs during the development 
process and winds up having more bugs left in it then the other DE. Its no 
surprise to me that a lot of distributions try to hack together their own 
enhancements to KDE and even backport the latest features without taking time 
to adequately test them and all the distributions that focus entirely on KDE 
are commercial distributions that are understaffed and don't have the knowhow 
or motivation to put together a truly great distribution.

So far the closest thing I've found to the wonderful KDE friendly Linux 
distribution I want is Slackware 10 with a lot of enhancements from 
KDE-look.org which fortunately for me were already available as tarballs 
otherwise I wouldn't have been able to apply any of them myself being as new 
to Linux as I am. I'm very new to Slackware but its my understanding that the 
only reason I was able to get KDE 3.3.1 was because of the issue with the 
kdemultimedia package in the included 3.2 version, I hope I'm wrong but I'd 
rather not find out with the next slackware release that I won't be 
fortunately enough to get some of the latest stable KDE releases.

To avoid getting too long winded I'll just get to the point. I think it would 
be great if the KDE project would get together some people and make an 
entirely KDE centred distribution of either Linux or BSD. Such a distribution 
should focus mostly on KDE while having some good configuration tools and it 
should have the latest stable KDE build with all the cool enhancements that 
are stable and should only come with unnecessary non-kde apps on an extra CD 
which could contain stuff such as OpenOffice, the Gimp and Inkscape. The 
CD(s) should be broken up into stable, testing and unstable categories which 
should then contain their respective applications in subcategories and the 
entire thing should be based on good distribution or possibly made from 
scratch.

I have personally found Slackware to have good package managements in that 
there is no dependency hell when installing something, I have also found RPM 
to have its merits however and I'm sure dpkg has its own as well. I'm 
currently unfamiliar with BSD so I cannot comment there. The goal of the 
distribution in case I forgot to elaborate enough earlier would be to produce 
the most complete KDE centred operating system with the latest stable version 
and all the cool enhancements free for personal use and then at any price 
including free for business use depending on which the project leaders deem 
most suitable.

I have posted this here because I do not know the first thing about making my 
own distribution, if I did I would have started a long time ago. I think it 
would be a great project despite the already existing distributions out there 
because none of them focus enough on KDE to put together a truly stable, 
current KDE based distribution. I think it could actually work out if there 
was a real community effort and good leadership in action, I personally don't 
have much in the way of skills right now but I'm learning C++ and Qt and I'd 
be more then happy to contribute anywhere I could at the cost of any free 
time I may have. As a starting point I would recommend making something 
Slackware, RedHat or Mandrake based or perhaps seeing if another distribution 
which is having trouble starting up such as Ark Linux would take the 
initiative of being the distribution that would become the KDE Linux 
distribution.

Right now I'm being a little enthusiastic, I would love to see a completely 
KDE oriented distribution that would do a better job at putting together a 
good KDE desktop then what is currently out there, I use KDE every day and 
know that the people behind it are great developers, I also know that Linux 
and BSD both have room for improvement and thats something that I would 
consider well within the grasp of KDE developers. Gnome already essentially 
has a lot of distribution of this type that are free, Fedora comes to mind 
along with Ubuntu and a fair sized handfull of others, KDE on the other hand 
doesn't really have any KDE specialized distributions aside from the 
commercial offerings which always seem to show signs of a release date that 
was much earlier then it needed to be. I'd like to know what everyone thinks 
of this and who would be interesting in spearheading the project, it doesn't 
have to be  distribution built entirely from scratch as long as it can be 
used to meet the goals set before it, I'd take the job myself were it not for 
my lack of experience with really involved KDE tasks, and since I'm only 18 
and I'm still in school I wouldn't have time to head the project but as I 
said earlier, anyone interesting in pulling this off would have my full 
support and could consider my the first volunteer on the project.

Anyone interested?
 
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