Maui Linux needs to be MORE ACTIVE to capture the Linux Mint KDE Users

[smoreau]

I fully agree with you, OS and Manjaro are very good distros with excellent forums and community communication, but also those distros are much more for enthusiasts and power users than for beginners and regular users.

Netrunner rolling or Manjaro could have been solutions for me, but absolutely not for my friends.
However they are not fully satisfying :
https://forums.mauilinux.org/showthread.php?tid=24668
SM

[rocky7x]

Indeed Manjaro based distros are not for normal users.. just for enthusiasts and power users..

[Kurtbw]

I reiterate.

There's got to be a way to go forward when this bit of OS works so nicely out of the box.  (Or, shall we say, the cloud?)

[rocky7x]

Yes there is for sure: check my post here:

http://forums.netrunner.com/showthread.p...5#pid40725

[kdemeoz]

Oh deary me, i just read that thread over in the Netrunner forum. The sense of melancholy & desolation wrt bleak future options, given the Maui demise, is palpable. As i have no desire or intention to use Netrunner, coz of my own research, there's no point in me joining the Netrunner forum. However if i might be so cheeky as to address poor Dieter, who is of course both there & here...

so, after the dead of maui, the best distro ever, i got several options, if I want a real plasma/kde-distro:
change to neon, but that is no real distro
change to netrunner 17.10 but here i will every few days destroy my installation, because I will not be able to handle this fucking crazy testing-repitory-thing
change to netrunner 17.06 which is pretty save but i will not get an plasma update which does not make any sense
change to whatever (suse?)
Since about fourteen years I have been using now kubuntu/netrunner/maui and now again netrunner. And never have been so deeply disappointed since.

Why are you doing this? Why?

If you feel that you simply MUST stay within the Ubuntu/Debian ecosystem, then maybe your options are limited as you suspect. But as per other posts of mine, if you were willing to branch out to different ecosystems, i assure you that you would enjoy a really excellent rolling P5 experience with openSUSE Tumbleweed [but not Leap, which has the same frozen paradigm as Debian Stable] & Manjaro KDE. However as rocky & i have also noted, trying out one [or both, like i did] of these new-to-you ecosystems does not come without a cost to you. There IS unambiguously a learning curve needed. There IS a different management paradigm you need to get comfortable with, wrt ongoing maintenance/updates. But it's a curve that you CAN survive, & thrive thereafter. You've been using Linux much much longer then me, & i know i am a Linux-numpty, yet even a clod like me managed to have a great time with both TW & now Manjaro.

BTW, rocky's advice [in the next post] re VirtualBox & Neon is of course excellent, but naturally you can use VMs also to decide if you like / want to seriously consider any other new-to-you distro too. I make very heavy use of VB VMs for detailed testing of multiple candidate distros... i never choose to actually replace my on-SSD OS until/unless i have first heavily played with that candidate in a VM. Also as rocky said, those same VMs remain invaluable even once you might have migrated your installed-on-disk OS, because you can test-drive each future update safely there before then proceeding with the update "for real". Similarly i like to test individual new-to-me programs in my relevant VM before i install it in my real OS. 

Good luck, best wishes. 

[smoreau]

I think that the real loser in the Maui team approach is KDE. During install party the Ubuntu (unity or gnome or Mint Cinamon) are the main distributions which are proposed for newbies. They are readily install and then you can focus on the hardware detection and the use of the system. Mint KDE and Maui were the alone KDE distributions able to compete with Ubuntu, because they were the alone to propose a LTS approach. Do you imagine using Neon in this situation, it is not a real distribution, you have to much things to settle to reach the level of Ubuntu. The Gnome desktop will become the center of the linux world.
It's when becoming better and better that KDE is slowly loosing the party. KDE developers should have a look at what is happening.
Sorry for the message but it reflects the situation around me.
SM

[Pfiff]

Hello,
and thanks to kdemeoz and smoreau for their replies to my postings in this and in the netrunner forum.

I think, we all are very sorry for the situation of kde. This desktop is loosing terrain since several years. And for me the support of blue system (the company behind maui and netrunner) has been the last real sheet anchor for kde (beside suse).

I would appreciate it, when somebody explained the reasons for the politics concerning maui and netrunner. For example why finalize the era of maui?

And why not offer an easy way for the people who are "working" with maui and therefore are short with time and can't do experiments with neon or netrunner.

Ciao!

Dieter

[Fargo]

I think that the real loser in the Maui team approach is KDE. During install party the Ubuntu (unity or gnome or Mint Cinamon) are the main distributions which are proposed for newbies. They are readily install and then you can focus on the hardware detection and the use of the system. Mint KDE and Maui were the alone KDE distributions able to compete with Ubuntu, because they were the alone to propose a LTS approach. Do you imagine using Neon in this situation, it is not a real distribution, you have to much things to settle to reach the level of Ubuntu. The Gnome desktop will become the center of the linux world.
It's when becoming better and better that KDE is slowly loosing the party. KDE developers should have a look at what is happening.
Sorry for the message but it reflects the situation around me.
SM

Yep, I agree.  KDE is going to suffer the most from this.  I think Maui was the bet distro I have used since my early days with Xandros.  Things just worked.  Once Maui is gone there really is not a good Ubuntu based choice for KDE.  Kubuntu tries, but I think it is held back by Ubuntu policies.  Neon has potential, but its not a distro and does not get the testing and support of a proper distro... As far as I can tell.

Its really unfortunate, because KDE is finally really showing what it can be.  Its finally lighter than Gnome and its lighter than all but the ultra light desktops.  Its the most modern desktop in Linux and it offers the most features.  On top of that they are finally starting to make progress on making it simpler and cleaner.  So now that it is the most powerful desktop, one of the lightest desktops, and easy to use, its going to suffer due to lack of a polished Ubuntu based distro.  Its really a shame. Whether  you like Ubuntu or not, it really does make a better base than pure Debian.  At least with Maui it did.  Maui is the first Ubuntu based distro I have ever used.  Since starting with Xandros sometime around 2000, I've always followed the Debian path based on rumors that ubuntu wasn't stable and Debian was better.  But contrary to the rumors I found Maui to be every bit as stable as past Debian distros while at the same time it was easier to use and felt more complete.

With the demise of Maui I will likely move back to SolydK.  SolydK is the best Debian based KDE distro you will find. If you want to stick with KDE, and are OK with a Debian Stable base, I highly recommend checking out SolydK. 

If you feel no one is able to make KDE/Plasma work properly, check out Ubuntu Budgie.  I think Budgie holds a lot of promise.

[smoreau]

Hello Fargo,
Thanks for the advice, I think I will try to stick on a ubuntu kde base distribution. In this line I will probably move to Neon as long as they improve their "distribution" by adding a minimal of basic applications :
A package manager synaptic or muon (if it is maintained)
Thunderbird, Libreoffice (and their language pack)
Xsane, K3b, Kamoso (or Cheese), Skrooge (a finance manager).
Perhaps some basic config files for KDE (activate the polishing of fonts) and Dolphin (rootaction service menu)
With this in hands, Neon will be more competitive during install party with its two versions LTS and User.

[Fargo]

Hello Fargo,
Thanks for the advice, I think I will try to stick on a ubuntu kde base distribution. In this line I will probably move to Neon as long as they improve their "distribution" by adding a minimal of basic applications :
A package manager synaptic or muon (if it is maintained)
Thunderbird, Libreoffice (and their language pack)
Xsane, K3b, Kamoso (or Cheese), Skrooge (a finance manager).
Perhaps some basic config files for KDE (activate the polishing of fonts) and Dolphin (rootaction service menu)
With this in hands, Neon will be more competitive during install party with its two versions LTS and User.

Having enjoyed maui so much, I too will certainly look at Neon LTS.  I don't know what Kamoso is, but otherwise my install would have all the same programs as you.  I would also try to find a good remaster program so I could use my custom Neon install for others as well.