Kai

This question has been in discussion since June. The issue being, we are not happy with some of the Canonical… ideas. Recently we started a poll over Twitter, to ask if we should split from the Ubuntu remix/flavor sphere.

We are going to follow the current majority in the poll, and we will be switching our name… one problem. Domains. I spent over $50 to get the Ubuntu Lumina domains for .com, .net, and .dev, and while I have $100 cash, that is currently not-yet exchangeable due to health reasons. We will start changing our name soon, and we are looking for name suggestions. DM name ideas to our Twitter (@UbuntuLumina) and we will be changing to one submission at some point.

We have been previously outspoken about the issues of Snap, in articles on different platforms. When Linux Mint originally removed Snapd, my original reaction was “Linux Mint was removing user choice!” when in fact, when looking at the evidence, the issue was in Ubuntu. Ubuntu removes user choice by breaking the promises it made about Snap, and we now are taking a stand and dealing with the issue.

We developed OptinSnap, a tool for enabling/disabling/removing Snap from an Ubuntu system at will. It is a single-file application under the MIT license that was written in bash. The usage is simple. Run the script as root, with the options to enable/disable/remove which can be done in many ways.

This script is under the MIT License, so feel free to put the script in any distribution or package on any system. We will be disabling Snap by default on Ubuntu Lumina Remix 20.10, but we want to add extra usability and functionality to the users of our system. We hate having to vendor lock, but this tool was built as a “sorry, our foot is down, but here is how to change it!” We know this is not going to sit well with everyone, but the decision was made because we do not want to remove choice by forcing Snap, but not also forcing a tutorial to run 3 lines of code, and if you change your mind on re-adding Snap to run through a dangerous and slightly difficult process.

I wasn’t able to participate but I got to hear and see a lot of good comments and good constructive criticism. I want to address *some* of the criticisms because it will help with understanding. The first thing to note is Ubuntu Lumina Remix is ABSOLUTELY NOT ready for production. There are many bugs that need to be fixed still. One of which is the cause of the ISO delays to the point we are skipping the 20.04 LTS edition full version.]

BDLL (US): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T8mmldP-mw
BDLL (EU): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTCaEe7C3vE
*both streams are in english*

“The GPG key is not existing on the ISO” – This is an issue we are working diligently to fix, but is one that is exhausting to fix. We are not sure why this is happening. We are working to fix it, but we do add the key in several manual and automatic ways.

“Ubuntu Lumina Remix isn’t user friendly” – I am, in all honesty, not trying to make a user friendly remix. Ubuntu Lumina is a project for working on Pine64, RaspberryPi, and when it is time, RISC-V. It is supposed to help use other sections of hardware where Ubuntu lacks in either speed or existence.

“Bloated/Complicated” – This I can kinda agree with. Most of the bloat comes from Lumina having a trillion dependencies. With it being complicated, again I agree. Lumina is a clunky and weird desktop, let’s be honest. Something in the works is a custom welcome application, but this point is overall just kinda valid. But it is a lightweight distribution still.

“Lack of applets” – This is a Lumina issue. The version of Lumina inside of the current ISO doesn’t change anything. This is a work-in-progress thing, but is not a top priority for me. With Lumina, kinda treat it like Fluxbox but more… more.

“Nano is not installed by default” – I agree, cardinal sin (as the person who made the comment said). I have yet to add it to the builder, because it is not a focus. I will try and remember that later. Also, the guy who said it is currently helping with a fix for the GPG issues he complained about. So, the dude isn’t bad, and again, I agree not having Nano is a cardinal sin.

“Vim was not available” – Nor will it ever be. At least, by default. I don’t care for Vim, not including it as Nano will do the basics and you can get Vim if you want it. Nano will be for basic fixes. Like sources fixing and maybe GPG bypassing!

“Kai (me) need to edit the system for squashfs” – Other people made the ISO builder, I package the packages and change the settings.

“Right click for terminal gives a text-editor with title “XTERM”” – No f-ing clue why that happens, makes me angry. I will be removing Terminator as the default, and just using REAL xterm, as I think I set the DE to uninstall Xterm as on first packaging it caused random issues. Maybe that will fix it, but oh well.

Same guy with the more “abrasive” remarks did DM me with an apology, which no need. I take it as they care, and their reason…

The “I feel like it has real potential” made my day more than his tone in the review upset me. Kind dude, he works on DraugerOS. I am kinda just free writing this article, and he sent me that when on that last point. Good dude, and good gaming OS.

“Make it autologin on live-session” – This has a package to fix it in the next version. Not the most “simple” solution, but the more less-effort solution.

“System installer would not format” – Good to know, it works on legacy (as I use that to boot) but it will be something for me to look into.

“From first mention to now” – This isn’t criticism but says a lot about the community. So for those who don’t know (most users probably), I first mentioned Ubuntu Lumina in a live stream Martin Wimpress was doing. With the community response… well… that is an understatement. Our ISO and Torrent Mirrors are both just people who volunteered their time and hosting. This website is thanks to the ItsFoss team helping out, with the co-founder being the driving force to host our website, the project would be practically dead without it. These are the more visible contributions, but the community has been amazing with all sorts of help. Thanks especially to everyone on both BDLL streams, kind man Batcastle from Drauger, Monica (who said this), Martin Wimpress, Alan Pope, Aranym, OpenTorrents, FossHost, Yuki (who does the core of our testing), and a trillion others, especially Joshua from Ubuntu Cinnamon.

“He and his team” (part of the previous comment) – Team? All jokes aside, while I do development alone, the project wouldn’t be possible without our team who work outside of development. Yuki (our tester), ItsFoss (web host), Aranym (ISO mirror), and OpenTorrents (Torrent mirror) are the core team who contribute directly to the project in more than here-and there contribution. They are my team and I couldn’t be more happy with who I got helping me!

Everything said by ComputerKid – He had a lot of comments in 30 seconds. Thanks for the kind words and information. The wifi applet will be added by 21.04, but is not a priority (as a lot is needed in core development, but will be added). With the screensavers, gotta thank the Lumina desktop devs, I love it too. Also, thanks for the “cool things” comment, makes me feel better as this project has been a little depressing at times.

“There has been a lot of spins over the last 6 months” – I started on/off remixing for the past year. I could have beat Joshua in Ubuntu Cinnamon if I wasn’t a lazy newbie. I also do see a lot of remixes this past couple of months, and I feel Ubuntu Cinnamon kinda sparked it. Joshua knows I went through 4 remixes (Cinnamon (my edition, before he actually made one), Pantheon, i3, and then now Lumina). Pantheon was kicked for being complicated to package, and i3 for me getting depressed (with a severe bipolar episode) and quitting. But this has been factual as there is Ubuntu Cinnamon, Ubuntu Lumina, UbuntuDDE, Ubuntu Unity, and UbuntuCDE (which is the newest concept). Also, there were another couple external attempts that did not see the light. That would make 5 active, one inactive (that I know of), and I have to put it as people with inspiration. Ubuntu Cinnamon’s Josh had an idea, which probably inspired everyone else so far to go through with their ideas (even if it was chain inspiration as with UbuntuCDE being inspired by Ubuntu Unity).

“Her name used to be Safir” – This is from Josh. First, I am non-binary, and the mix-match of using he/her is perfectly fine. It was actually pronounced like the gem Sapphire and spelled Safyre. I went with Kai because typing Safyre everywhere isn’t fun. Also, I didn’t want to associate with the name due to a traumatic event I do not wish to post in public but understand I changed it to Kai for a reason. Josh is a good friend.

“There is a lot of work going into making a distro” – As I am working on two (one is more or less an experiment with a fix in my personal life), it does take a lot of work. With Ubuntu Lumina especially is difficult, even with prebuilt tools it is difficult. Thanks to everyone helping and just being nice in general!

Thank you to everyone with a voice, if I missed a couple big points in BDLL Europe, YouTube did cut the stream for me so idk why that happened. But I am sure, still good points (if it was mentioned).

Over the past several months of development, we have been trying to release the 20.04 edition of the Ubuntu Lumina Remix. Recently, we have had errors we cannot explain and have spent too much time attempting to fix. Ubuntu Lumina Remix will be skipping the 20.04 LTS so we can try to make it on time for the 20.10 mainline release of Ubuntu. We will not be coming back to build the 20.04 LTS version. We will be re-packaging everything for the 20.10 release and will be flipping our entire PPA system. All but one PPA will be deleted (the plain Lumina DE for work pushing to Debian), and we will make a new PPA for system packages. Hope this doesn’t disappoint anyone. We will also be pushing back our RPi and Pine64 builds.

Currently, Ubuntu Lumina has no further feature additions, it’s all bug fixes from here-on-out. That doesn’t mean we are in no need of help. Ubuntu Lumina has two testers, one mirror for full ISO files, and another mirror for ISO torrents, not to forget one person to occasionally help with social media management. Only one person develops for the project full time, me. I am the one alone working on every single ISO release, the one sending notifications to the mirrors, behind the branding, behind the blog posts, behind the packaging, and the one preparing to do research and development for the Raspberry Pi, Pine64, and even Rockpro64 (after a new tester sent an email this week). While I, as the egotistical developer I am, know I can handle it, it is still a lot of effort to do this.

I am not asking for everything to be done for me, but rather someone to catch my errors better than I can alone. I am human it seems and right as I thought I built and sent off the last development ISO for Ubuntu Lumina, and preparing to fix a bug that causes issue in the remix as I whole, I get a message of a new error.

This error is going to take a lot more work to deal with, and while I can do it alone, I reasonably don’t want to do it alone. There isn’t a lot I need in team members, people to help build applications, test images and ISO’s, help package software and keep things at least mildly up to date, and also make sure that any errors are well documented both privately and publicly. While a writer for the blog will also be nice, this blog is more on “when it happens, it happens”. Especially since 20.10 is preparing release, and 21.04 and 21.10 are both a little close for comfort, every last inch of help I can get will make this project better built and better maintained.

If you are interested in joining, there are several ways to do so. Direct message Ubuntu Lumina on Twitter @UbuntuLumina, direct message me @KaiLikesLinux, email the Ubuntu Lumina project email ubuntulumina@kaix.live, or email me directly at kai.lyons@kaix.live. I am excited to see who will join. Have a wonderful day!