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Kubuntu Rocks Titan technology YouTuber Chris Titus

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As you know from our previous post, back in 2019 the Kubuntu team set to work collaborating with MindShare Management Ltd to bring a Kubuntu dedicated laptop to the market. Recently, Chris Titus from the ‘Chris Titus Tech’ YouTube channel acquired a Kubuntu Focus M2 for the purpose of reviewing it, and he was so impressed he has decided to keep it as his daily driver. That’s right; Chris has chosen the Kubuntu Focus M2 instead of the Apple MacBook Pro M1 that he had intended to get. That is one Awesome recommendation!

Chris stated that the Kubuntu Focus was “The most unique laptop, and I am not talking about the Apple M1, and neither I am talking about AMD Ryzen.” he says.

In the review on his channel, not only did he put our Kubuntu based machine through it’s software paces, additionally he took the hardware to pieces and demonstrated the high quality build. Chris made light work of opening the laptop up and installing additional hardware, and he went on to say “The whole build out is using branded, high quality parts, like the Samsung EVO Plus, and Crucial memory; not some cheap knock-off”

The Kubuntu Focus team have put a lot of effort into matching the software selection and operating system to the hardware. This ensures that users get the best possible performance from the Kubuntu Focus package. As Chris says in his review video “The tools, scripts and work this team has put together has Impressed the hell out of me!”

By using the power optimizations available in Kubuntu, and additionally providing a GPU switcher which makes it super simple to change between the discreet Nvidia GPU and the integrated Intel based GPU. This impressed Chris a lot “I was able to squeeze 7 to 8 hours out of it on battery, absolutely amazing!” he said.

The Kubuntu Focus is an enterprise ready machine, and arguably ‘The Ultimate Linux laptop”. In his video, Chris goes on to demonstrate that the Kubuntu Focus includes Insync integration support for DropBox, OneDrive and GoogleDrive file sharing.

The Kubuntu Focus is designed from the get-go to be a transition device, providing Apple MacBook and Microsoft Windows users with a Cloud Native device in a laptop format which delivers desktop computing performance.

Chris ran our machine through a variety of benchmark testing tools, and the results are super impressive “Deep Learning capabilities are unparalleled, but more impressive is that it is configured for deep learning out of the box, and took just 10 minutes to be up and running. This is the best mobile solution you could possibly get.” Chris states.

To bring this article to a close it would be remiss of me not to mention Chris Titus’s experience with the support provided by the Kubuntu Focus team. Chris was able to speak directly to the engineering team, and get fast accurate answers to all his questions. Chris says “Huge shout out to the support team, I am beyond impressed”

Congratulations to the support team at MindShare Management Ltd, delivering great customers support is very challenging, and their experience and expertise is obviously coming across with their customers.

WoW! this is a monumental YouTube review of Kubuntu, and the whole Kubuntu community should congratulate themselves for creating ‘The Ultimate Linux Desktop’ which is being used to build ‘The Ultimate Linux Laptop’. Below is the YouTube review on the ‘Chris Titus Tech’ YouTube channel. Check it out, and see for yourself how impressed he is with this machine. Do remember to share this article.

About the Author:

Rick Timmis is a Kubuntu Councillor, and advocate. Rick has been a user and open contributor to Kubuntu for over 10 years, and a KDE user and contributor for 20


Kubuntu 20.04.2 LTS Update Available

Kubuntu 21.04 Testing Week

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Kubuntu 21.04 Testing Week

We’re delighted to announce that we’re participating in another ‘Ubuntu Testing Week’ from April 1st to April 7th with other flavours in the Ubuntu family. On April 1st, the beta version of Kubuntu 21.04 ‘Hirsute Hippo’ will be released after freezing all new changes to its features, user interface, and documentation. Between April 1st and the final release on April 22nd, all efforts by the Kubuntu team and community should be focused on ISO testing, reporting bugs, fixing bugs, and translations right up to final release.

On social media, please use the #UbuntuTestingWeek hashtag if you write about your testing or want to spread the word about the event to your followers. Testers can visit the ISO tracker and read bug reporting tutorials.

You can test without changing your system by running it in a VM (Virtual Machine) with software like VMWare Player, VirtualBox (apt install). Or run Hirsute from USB, SD Card, or DVD to test on your hardware.

There are a variety of ways that you can help test the release, including trying out the various live session and installation test cases from the ISO tracker. If you find a bug, you’ll need a Launchpad account to file it against the package the app is bundled in, which you can find by asking around on the IRC/Telegram/Matrix Kubuntu channels or the user mail list.

Chat live in IRC (Freenode) #ubuntu-quality (or #kubuntu-devel if it cannot be reproduced on other flavours) or Telegram: Ubuntu Testers.

The easiest and fastest way to file a bug is in the command line (Konsole): ubuntu-bug $packagename, such as ubiquity – `ubuntu-bug ubiquity`

It is important to file the bug within the testing environment so that the necessary results are properly provided to the bug-tracker. All you need to provide to the ISO tracker is the bug number.

If the bug is found in the installer, file it against `ubiquity`, or file it against the `linux` if your hardware isn’t working. We encourage those that are willing, to install it either in a VM or on physical hardware. It requires at least 15GB of hard drive space. If you can use it for a few days, more bugs can be discovered and reported.

Please test apps that you regularly use, so you can identify bugs and regressions that should be reported, especially as the recently released Plasma 5.21.3 is bundled in this release. New ISO files are built every day, and you should always test with the most up-to-date ISO. It is easier and faster to update an existing daily ISO file on Linux with the command below. Run in the terminal or konsole from within the folder with the ISO file:

$ zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/hirsute-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync

We look forward to you joining us to make Kubuntu 21.04 an even bigger success, and hope that you will also test out the other Ubuntu flavours.

Kubuntu Hirsute Hippo (21.04) Beta released

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KDE Plasma desktop 5.21 on Kubuntu 21.04

The beta of Hirsute Hippo (to become 21.04 in April) has now been released, and is available for download.

This milestone features images for Kubuntu and other Ubuntu flavours.

Pre-releases of the Hirsute Hippo are not recommended for:

  • Anyone needing a stable system
  • Regular users who are not aware of pre-release issues
  • Anyone in a production environment with data or workflows that need to be reliable

They are, however, recommended for:

  • Regular users who want to help us test by finding, reporting, and/or fixing bugs
  • Kubuntu, KDE, and Qt developers
  • Other Ubuntu flavour developers

The Beta includes some software updates that are ready for broader testing. However, it is an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs.

We STRONGLY advise testers to read the Kubuntu 21.04 Beta release notes before installing, and in particular the section on ‘Known issues‘.

Kubuntu is taking part in #UbuntuTestingWeek from 1st to 7th of April, details of which can be found in our Kubuntu 21.04 Testing Week blog post, and in general for all flavours on the Ubuntu Discourse announcement.

You can also find more information about the entire 21.04 release (base, kernel, graphics etc) in the main Ubuntu Beta release notes and announcement.

Kubuntu 21.04 Hirsute Hippo Released

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The Kubuntu Team is happy to announce that Kubuntu 21.04 has been released, featuring the ‘beautiful’ KDE Plasma 5.21: simple by default, powerful when needed.

Codenamed “Hirsute Hippo”, Kubuntu 21.04 continues our tradition of giving you Friendly Computing by integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.

The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing new features and fixing bugs.

Under the hood, there have been updates to many core packages, including a new 5.11-based kernel, KDE Frameworks 5.80, KDE Plasma 5.21 and KDE Release Service Applications 20.12.3

Kubuntu has seen many updates for other applications, both in our default install, and installable from the Ubuntu archive.

Krita, Kdevelop, Yakuake, and many many more applications are updated.

Applications for core day to day usage are included and updated, such as Firefox, VLC and Libreoffice.

For a list of other application updates, and known bugs be sure to read our release notes.

Download Kubuntu 21.04, or learn how to upgrade from 20.10.

Note: From 20.10, there may a delay of a few hrs to days between the official release announcements and the Ubuntu Release Team enabling upgrades.

Backports PPA: KDE Frameworks 5.81.0 for Hirsute

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KDE Frameworks 5.81.0 for 21.04 Hirsute Hippo is now available in our backports PPA.

Frameworks releases are a mixture of bugfixes, new features, and general improvements to the KDE base libraries.

As such, keen adopters who might like to install this backport can check the changelog to what has been fixed/changed/enhanced.

To upgrade:

Add the following repository to your software sources list:

ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

or if it is already added, the updates should become available via your preferred update method.

The PPA can be added manually in the Konsole terminal with the command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

and packages then updated with

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

Kubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver reaches end of Kubuntu support

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As the recently released Kubuntu 21.04 with beautiful Plasma 5.21 makes its way into the world, inevitably other things come to their end.

Kubuntu 18.04 LTS was released in April 2018, and reached ‘End of Life’ for its 3 years of flavour support on 1st May 2021. All Kubuntu users should therefore switch to a newer supported release.

Download a supported release or upgrade from 18.04 to 20.04 LTS.

The Kubuntu team would thank users of all releases, especially for the amazing additional community support on IRC, forums, mailing lists, and elsewhere.

Plasma 5.22 Beta (5.21.90) available for testing

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Are you using Kubuntu 21.04 Hirsute Hippo, our current Stable release? Or are you already running our development builds of the upcoming 21.10 Impish Indri?

We currently have Plasma 5.21.90 (Plasma 5.22 Beta)  available in our Beta PPA for Kubuntu 21.04, and 21.10 development series.

However this is a beta release, and we should re-iterate the disclaimer from the upstream release announcement:

DISCLAIMER: This is beta software and is released for testing purposes. You are advised to NOT use Plasma 5.22 Beta in a production environment or as your daily desktop. If you do install Plasma 5.22 Beta, you must be prepared to encounter (and report to the creators) bugs that may interfere with your day-to-day use of your computer.

https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/5/5.21.90

If you are prepared to test, then…..

Add the beta PPA and then upgrade:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/beta && sudo apt full-upgrade -y

Then reboot.

In case of issues, testers should be prepared to use ppa-purge to remove the PPA and revert/downgrade packages.

Kubuntu is part of the KDE community, so this testing will benefit both Kubuntu as well as upstream KDE Plasma software, which is used by many other distributions too.

  • If you believe you might have found a packaging bug, you can use a launchpad.net to post testing feedback to the Kubuntu team as a bug, or give feedback on IRC [1], or mailing lists [2].
  • If you believe you have found a bug in the underlying software, then bugs.kde.org is the best place to file your bug report.

Please review the release announcement and changelog.

[Test Case]
* General tests:
– Does plasma desktop start as normal with no apparent regressions over 5.21?
– General workflow – testers should carry out their normal tasks, using the plasma features they normally do, and test common subsystems such as audio, settings changes, compositing, desktop affects, suspend etc.
* Specific tests:
– Check the changelog:
– Identify items with front/user facing changes capable of specific testing.
– Test the ‘fixed’ functionality or ‘new’ feature.

Testing may involve some technical set up to do, so while you do not need to be a highly advanced K/Ubuntu user, some proficiently in apt-based package management is advisable.

Testing is very important to the quality of the software Ubuntu and Kubuntu developers package and release.

We need your help to get this important beta release in shape for Kubuntu and the KDE community as a whole.

Thanks!

Please stop by the Kubuntu-devel IRC channel if you need clarification of any of the steps to follow.

[1] – irc://irc.freenode.net/kubuntu-devel
[2] – https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/kubuntu-devel


Plasma 5.22 available for Hirsute Hippo 21.04 in backports PPA

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We are pleased to announce that Plasma 5.22.0, is now available in our backports PPA for Kubuntu 21.04 Hirsute Hippo.

The release announcement detailing the new features and improvements in Plasma 5.22 can be found here.

To upgrade:

Add the following repository to your software sources list:

ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

or if it is already added, the updates should become available via your preferred update method.

The PPA can be added manually in the Konsole terminal with the command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

and packages then updated with

sudo apt full-upgrade

IMPORTANT

Please note that more bugfix releases are scheduled by KDE for Plasma 5.22, so while we feel these backports will be beneficial to enthusiastic adopters, users wanting to use a Plasma release with more rounds of stabilisation/bugfixes ‘baked in’ may find it advisable to stay with Plasma 5.21 as included in the original 21.04 (Hirsute) release.

The Kubuntu Backports PPA for 21.04 also currently contains newer versions of KDE Frameworks, Applications, and other KDE software. The PPA will also continue to receive updates of KDE packages other than Plasma.

Issues with Plasma itself can be reported on the KDE bugtracker [1]. In the case of packaging or other issues, please provide feedback on our mailing list [2], IRC [3], and/or file a bug against our PPA packages [4].

1. KDE bugtracker: https://bugs.kde.org
2. Kubuntu-devel mailing list: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/kubuntu-devel
3. Kubuntu IRC channels: #kubuntu & #kubuntu-devel on irc.libera.chat
4. Kubuntu ppa bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa

Kubuntu 20.10 Groovy Gorilla reaches end of life

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Kubuntu Groovy Gorilla was released on October 22nd, 2020 with 9 months support.

As of July 22nd, 2021, 20.10 reached ‘end of life’.

No more package updates will be accepted to 20.10, and it will be archived to old-releases.ubuntu.com in the coming weeks.

The official end of life announcement for Ubuntu as a whole can be found here [1].

Kubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa and 21.04 Hirsute Hippo continue to be supported.

Users of 20.10 can follow the Kubuntu 20.10 to 21.04 Upgrade [2] instructions.

Should for some reason your upgrade be delayed, and you find that the 20.10 repositories have been archived to old-releases.ubuntu.com, instructions to perform a EOL Upgrade can be found on the Ubuntu wiki [3].

Thank you for using Kubuntu 20.10 Groovy Gorilla.

The Kubuntu team.

[1] – https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2021-July/000270.html
[2] – https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HirsuteUpgrades/Kubuntu
[3] – https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades





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