KubuntuDapperRoadmap

Revision 11 as of 2005-11-01 17:44:22

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Summary

Kubuntu Roadmap 2 - the big picture

Rationale

Kubuntu is now an established and popular distribution. It's use is growing among Ubuntu users, KDE users and users new to Free Software. We want Kubuntu to be the most popular, featureful and easy to use distribution there is.

Scope

Fix current problems in Kubuntu, catch up with Ubuntu where it has features which surpass ours and promote and encourage the best KDE software.

Implementation

Dapper is a long term supported release, so we must ensure Kubuntu is an extra polished release with minimal bugs. Breezy included too many major problems, some caused by the last minute inclusion of KDE 3.4.3. There are also far too many unsorted bugzilla entries. We will ensure all Kubuntu bugzilla entries are reviewed and tidied.

Dapper will include KDE 3.5. Packages for KDE 3.5 will be uploaded to dapper after the conference. KDE 3.5 will be released less than a month from this conference so there will be plenty of time to ensure it is free of major problems. The KDE packages need to be synced with Debian as they have made some changes since our last sync. We should continue to work closely with the Debian KDE packagers and make an effort to actively point out our changes to them. This has started with a Kubuntu-Debian-Changes file for the KOffice packages which also helps make syncing back to Debian easier. Our packaging should be made available in revision control to the Debian packagers (and others).

We will investigate the possibility of using -fvisibility=hidden GCC option. Currently this causes problems with GCC 4.0 which may be fixable or have been fixed. arts in KDE 3.5 also crashes with Debian/Ubuntu's GCC. We will work with our GCC developers and KDE's developers on these issues.

KDE is moving away from arts. Kubuntu has taken advantage of this by using GStreamer in both Amarok and Kaffeine. We will work with upstream to ensure GStreamer support in these applications is stable and featureful. We may also investigate SuSE's kdemm backport to KDE 3, however as a backport of an unstable API it may not be easy to maintain.

System settings has been a successful move in Kubuntu. We will ensure any outstanding issues with it are fixed, significantly it does not load modules with i18n. We will also review the ordering of the modules, currently it is hard to find keyboard set for example. We will also ensure that modules fit on 1024 screens, currently not all modules do.

knetworkconf is our network configuration module and a frontend to gnome-system-tool network module. The code is not as well tested as it should be and the user interface is not as slick as the gnome frontend. We will review the code, ensure it works in all situations and improve the user interface.

There is increasing concern about the appearance of KDE applications on Gnome and vice-versa. Applications from the other desktop should feel natural when run on the other. This is party solved in Kubuntu with gtk-qt-engine. We will ensure gtk-qt-engine works well in dapper including support for KDE icon loading in Gnome apps. We will also review the freedesktop icon name spec for use in KDE 4 as the removal to one of these barriers in the future.

We want to encourage IPCF/Telepathy/Galago/Kimproxy integration into KDE and will work with any upstream in getting it into Kubuntu. See [https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-integration-sip-im]

We should work towards full CKJ support with help from the ubuntu-cn community. Skim is being packages and we need to ensure the latest version is in Dapper. We should test that fonts work reliably for CKJ languages in Kubuntu.

We should create a testing plan for Kubuntu CDs to mirror the Ubuntu CD testing and encourage the community to help by following the testing plan.

Breezy did not have any Kubuntu milestone CDs due to the transitions giving very little time when CDs were usable. We should ensure Dapper has milestone Kubuntu CDs and work with Colin to find a way for this to not take up too much of his workload.

LaptopTesting has been a sucessful way of improving Ubuntu quality. We should work with the LaptopTesting team to extend the program to Kubuntu to ensure Kubuntu is well tested for the same features as Ubuntu.

We should focus on a better KDE Python Integration for Ubuntu especially in Dapper. So we have to work with PyQt/PyKDE/PyKDEExtension Upstream maintainers more closely.

Time permitting we will create initial packages for KDE 4 to let KDE developers have an easy way to get a KDE 4 environment running.

BoF agenda and discussion

Less bugs please kde 3.5 (sync to debian) ... kde 4 packages?

simplify KDE bits:

investigate best practice for kwallet to balance lack of intrusiveness with security.

right click on files in konqueror with "send to email recipient" option maybe other "send to" options - make configurable so that it doesnt have to use Kmail if you dont want it to