Kubuntu PowerPC builds

[Ho Wan Chan]

Hello Kubuntu Council, Developers, Contributors and Users,

Recently Steve Langasek announced that Ubuntu Desktop will drop it's
PowerPC builds due to build failures and at the same time performance
issues. He did say that it will not affect Ubuntu Server PowerPC
builds, and community flavours such as Lubuntu and Kubuntu.

For Kubuntu, our attitude has been that if the PowerPC image can build
successfully and properly tested, we should provide releases of such
images.

However, a survey conducted by Russian Ubuntu users revealed that 80%
of users agree to the decision of removing such images. Steve himself
did say that it shouldn't have influence since the technical reasons
are not included, but because of exactly that, it means that removing
PowerPC builds isn't a real problem for users.

So, I'm suggesting that we should change our attitude, and stop
building PowerPC images.

Now, I know quite a number of people will object to my suggestion.
But, it doesn't exactly mean that you can't use Kubuntu (or KDE) on
PowerPC, it's just that we won't provide images.

What PowerPC users can do is to use the mini images and install
Kubuntu. These images are really tiny and can be installed using a CD
at anytime. Or they can just install the images provided by Lubuntu,
and then install "kubuntu-desktop" meta package (and maybe rip off the
relevant LXDE parts). These images are more frequently, thoroughly and
properly tested than our PowerPC images. Even some Kubuntu PPC images
before release have to be tested by Lubuntu PowerPC testers, since we
have no testers available.

Don't forget, we aren't exactly Lubuntu, who wants to support every
single old computer.
Alternate images are what Lubuntu still wants while we have already dropped it.
Why should we drop alternate images if we can properly test it, as in
coherence to our attitude?

So, what are the pros and cons of removing PowerPC image builds?

Pros:

Save testing time on PowerPC builds (and no need to wait for it at all
before we can release betas or final releases)

Don't have to rely on other testers

Don't have to spend time squeezing size of those builds (like Lubuntu does)


Cons:

PowerPC users can't install Kubuntu directly (you can still install it
indirectly).

This is just a suggestion, and developers and users are welcome to
provide evidence for or against it.

Remember: We are NOT Lubuntu.

Regards,
Howard Chan (smartboyhw)
Kubuntu Member