We do not usually talk just about Ubuntu Studio because of the specificity of the distribution and because, let's be honest, we do not do it with the rest of the Ubuntu family, of which the official edition always takes all the attention… although all the official flavors are highly recommended including, of course, Ubuntu Studio.
Not to mention, we don't even usually pick up the new Ubuntu Studio releases, since we prefer to focus on those of the general-purpose editions… Although when the news is specific we do remember. We sing the mea culpa.
This is how we miss things like the change of desktop environment that Ubuntu Studio developers plan, who finally abandon Xfce in favor of KDE Plasma for the same reason that they did not adopt Unity and at the time: achieve an optimal balance between performance and functionality.
In fact, the news is not new: a couple of years ago the intentions in this regard were announced, but as they point out from the project, the Ubuntu Studio team is small and the migration was more complicated than simply changing a desktop for another. But with the release of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS one cycle closes and another opens.
Future versions of Ubuntu Studio, starting with 20.10, will use the KDE Plasma desktop environment by default. Plasma has proven to have the best tools for graphic artists and photographers, as can be seen in Gwenview, Krita, and even in the Dolphin file manager. Plus, it has better Wacom tablet support than any other desktop environment, ”they explain.
“It has gotten so good that most of the Ubuntu Studio team is now using Kubuntu with Ubuntu Studio added via Ubuntu Studio Installer as their daily system. With so many of us using Plasma, the time seems right to focus on a transition to Plasma with our next release, "they add. This does not mean that Ubuntu Studio will be transformed into Kubuntu with multimedia editing applications.
For example, they talk about a KDE Plasma without Akonadi, the desktop personal information server used by Kontact's productivity applications, and others. "Plasma without Akonadi has become so light on resource usage like Xfce, maybe even more so" they comment, recalling that other audio-focused distributions like Fedora Jam and KXStudio have traditionally used KDE Plasma with good results.
Thus begins the path to Ubuntu Studio 20.10, the first version in which KDE Plasma will be the default desktop environment for the distribution. "We look forward to working with the Kubuntu and KDE teams on this transition, and we are excited to join the KDE community," they conclude.
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