5 years of support..!!??

[Alex Gabriel]

Mark,

The problems you've noted have come up across multiple distros that
I've seen, so I don't doubt that you're experiencing them, nor do I
think they are occurring in isolation.  A simple query via your search
engine of choice will reveal many people experiencing these issues.

I've seen the issues with KMail myself, and thus I know it's not
exaggeration when you say that it uses 75% of your processor.  It's
come up in my use of the distros I noted in the past, and subsequent
updates to KDE appear to have resolved them for the installations I
have.

I've not done anything more than install the updates that are
available for my system.  My system doesn't include anything exotic or
software that came from a source other than the default repositores.
I'd say try running 11.10 [the version I run] in a VM, update it, and
see if the behaviour occurs with the test environment.

As for the plans Canonical has with updates to KDE, the only way to
get an answer to that is to contact them directly.  I would think that
as the interface is updated, so too will the distro.  I've not run
10.04 in quite some time, though, so I've no idea whether minor
version changes are applied to KDE, or whether only bug fixes are
included with updates.

Alex Gabriel
Dimensia Design Studio
alexgabriel at dimensiadesign.com

On 2 March 2012 04:42, Mark Greenwood <fatgerman at gmail.com> wrote:
> Well yes and no. Let's compare where I am with Kubuntu today to where I was
> when I had Kubuntu with KDE 3.5 on it, which must be 3 years ago now.
>
> Back then, the laptop power management options worked. Today the 'shut down
> after x minutes of inactivity' is broken, the 'sleep when I close the lid'
> is broken, and even if it does sleep I have no networking when it wakes.
>
> Back then I had an email client that worked. Today I have one that, with a
> great amount of annoying fiddling, will retrieve my email but not without
> using 75% of my CPU for about two hours. (Honestly, I'm not making that up,
> that is really what happens when I start KMail, every time. And I know I'm
> not alone.)
>
> I could go on but it would turn into a rant and that's not the point. The
> point is that Kubutnu - or rather KDE - today is less functional than it was
> 3 years ago. That's not a subjective statement - it's a fact.
>
> The developers will no doubt say that "Oh you only need to do x and y and z
> and spin round 3 times while chanting 'i hate windows'". That is not the
> point. Back then, I didn't have to do those things. This is not progress
> however pretty and shiny you make it look.
>
> Which brings me back to my original point. While I am glad that we have a
> long term support commitment from Canonical, it would be a real shame if the
> 5 year supported release of Kubuntu was stuck with KDE 4.8 for 5 years -
> you'd hope that KDE would eventually start working properly again at some
> point before 2017 and what I want to know is will the LTS be upgraded to new
> versions of KDE as they come out or will it remain stuck with the
> unfinished, malfunctional KDE 4.8?
>
> Mark