lubuntu-desktop team mailing list archive

[Mario Behling <mb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all,

I would like to start a discussion about the goals of lubuntu, outline
what I believe and get your feedback. This is an important question as
we should include packages according to the goals.

The usage case I see for lubuntu is a situation like in emerging
countries where Internet availability or bandwidth is often limited
and the power of CPU etc. is low. I was recently working with the
community in Afghanistan. People usually download software through one
person, for example in a company overnight, and then share it through
a USB stick. So the size of the image is important but not the most
important. To install and upload packages on a single computer is more
difficult as bandwidth of personal users is limited. It is possible to
use Internet, messengers and maybe listen to some music, but
downloading larger updates and making net-installations is an issue.

Looking at this case, I would like to see lubuntu as a distribution
offering more applications than just a minimal install. A lubuntu
image could be downloaded by one person and then easily distributed
among many people having different usages cases. Currently we already
have a minimal install of LXDE in Debian.

If here is a choice among different solutions, we should choose the
lightweight solutions. However, we also need to look at the support of
translations for example to make lubuntu a widely adapted distro. It
is important to include applications that support many languages.

Defining these goals, it becomes clear - there are many compromises.
But as we go on with the project and will release new versions, we are
always able to adapt our decisions.

The question of lubuntu is:
1. Either we want to make it a minimal install or
2. we want to make it a lightweight alternative to full featured distros.
I vouch for the second.

What do you think?

Best,

Mario


PS: The option to have a choice of software to install is a good idea
for following releases as well, but requires more competences that we
need to build up, I guess.