In addition to the desktop issue, there is another problem on the horizon: Ubuntu is beginning to transition away from using the Debian packaging format for the "snappy" system.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-15.10-DEB-To-Snap For now that will be limited to the "desktop-next" spin, but I do not know their plans for the future. Word is the snappy images will themselves be built from debian packages, then distributed in the new format with a base image that is read-only and always the same. If all of the media handling and editing packages of even one workflow were installed on top of this in the "click" or any similar format, the result would be that installation disk space requirements would balloon to tens of GB, as each package would be essentially a portable version with all its own libraries. RAM requirements would also balloon for loading many copies of the same libraries when many programs are open, just like in Windows. I know a lot of energy is going into the whole phone/convergence thing, which is almost opposite what a big media editing workstation needs. What I am worried about is any future plan in which all flavors would be expected to ship as snappy images and it would become difficult for users like me to keep updating from either the alpha of the day or the latest release. Will Ubuntu commit to support for Debian packaged flavors at least through 16.04 if not indefinately? Real worst-case would be for existing installs to become abandoned, with no new debian packages available and having to update everything from upstream source! I do not know at this point if I can count on Ubuntu to keep supporting what I have installed, or should I start the laborious process of porting a very heavily modified OS to an entirely new distro. Alternative for me with the volume of custom built and hacked packages I use (MATE-gkt3 anyone?) might be to find some way to modify Gentoo's Portage system to work with an abandoned version of Ubuntu and source updates. I am really worried about this and looking at mountains of work if Ubuntu plans to drop the .deb. On 4/26/2015 at 7:05 AM, "Kaj Ailomaa" <[email protected]> wrote: > >Feature Spec wiki page: >https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/FeatureDefinitions/DesktopAgno >stic >Blueprint page: >https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntustudio/+spec/desktop- >agnostic > >Let's talk about making Ubuntu Studio desktop agnostic. > >The idea is that while installing Ubuntu Studio, you'll be able to >choose between a set of DEs. If we are to make this happen, we >need to >find our the best method for doing this. > >Also, we have not settled on whether or not we should have our own >default DE once we are offering multiple choices. > >These choices will affect a lot of packages we have, so before we >go >further with planning for our metas and our installer, we should >figure >out this bit first. > >-- >ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list >[email protected] >Modify settings or unsubscribe at: >https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel -- ubuntu-studio-devel mailing list [email protected] Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-devel
