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On Wednesday, 2009-11-04, Martin Gr=E4=DFlin wrote:

> 3. Patching: it's really difficult to find the patches Kubuntu applies. I
>  tried to look for all patches to kwin and it was painfull (I found one
>  patch and it got removed). While bazaar might be nice for you because of
>  the launchpad integration it's definately not helping in getting more
>  developers. That seems to me like a general problem with the Ubuntu
>  landscape (compare Rosetta).
>=20
> There are also some changes in the default settings which are difficult to
> track. Here I would ask: why change the default? If KDE's default is
> improvable contact your upstream. In any case if you have a patch or a
>  change to the default settings: just contact the responsible KDE team. In
>  best case they will accept the patch, in worst case they will tell you w=
hy
>  it is a bad idea.
>=20
> 4. Ayatana: I really, really dislike the changes done to Kubuntu Karmic d=
ue
>  to Ayatana. It is sad that it is completely developed ignoring the
>  community and it is sad that developer power is wasted by developing a
>  system which is not upstreamable and that is known to the developer of t=
he
>  system. The way how Canonical tried to push their changes upstream were
>  suboptimal. To me it looked like Canonical thought that if they send in
>  patch after patch it will be accepted. So here I see potential to improve
>  the communication, but that's more Canonical than Kubuntu.  And that
>  brings us back to patching. Many applications have been patched to suppo=
rt
>  yet another messaging system aka MessageIndicator. Review requests like
>  "This patch has been in use during Kubuntu Karmic development and is now
>  deployed with Kubuntu Karmic version" illustrate the problem. What's the
>  advantage of having a review, if it is already out in the wild?

While the two points above are annoying for as long as they happen, the goo=
d=20
thing is that they will end at some point.
Canonical, like many others before, is currently in an evolutionary phase=20
where they try to be as incompatible as possible to anyone else to leverage=
=20
their current popularity for a sort of soft vendor lock-in, e.g. getting=20
software explicitly packaged for Ubuntu.

We had this before: e.g. Redhat shipping a compiler that does not exist=20
upstream, Mandriva totally abusing the menu system so non-Mandriva packages=
=20
wouldn't show up, etc (can't remember what SuSE did, but back then we user=
=20
support people would recognize one of their users within half a sentence).

Not a fun period for the upstream project but usually resulting in a better=
=20
relationship afterwards.=20
My guess is that the pain period is dictated by managment people and once=20
their superiors understand what harm has been inflicted upon their brand fo=
r=20
short time benefit, they put people with better understanding into position=
s=20
of decision influence.

It is very alien to how our communities work but it is business as usual in=
=20
corporate world.

My prognosis is that about two years from now Canonical has secured a posit=
ion=20
in the desktop linux sector which the feel comfortable about, probably=20
something like Red Hat has in the server sector.
At which point the will (might not but I am quite sure) help to really adva=
nce=20
the whole ecosystem, not just theirs.

Until then I'd consider suggestions of improvements as useful as bikesheddi=
ng,=20
with the additional bonus of creating really nice flamewars for boring=20
weekends.

Cheers,
Kevin

=2D-=20
Kevin Krammer, KDE developer, xdg-utils developer
KDE user support, developer mentoring

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