The Ubuntu and KDE developers are working together

Aug 3, 2015 15:29 GMT  ·  By

Unity 8 promises to be an evolution over the current Unity version, and it's a profoundly different piece of software. Yes, it brings a lot of new features and improvements, but it will also create a lot of issues. Like the ability to install a different desktop environment alongside, such as KDE.

Unity 8 is far from a working solution for the Ubuntu desktop, but it's slowly making progress. Next year, it will probably be included as an alternative to Unity 7, which will be a new milestone for Canonical. It will also create some issue with other projects. Ubuntu powered by Unity 8 will also use click packages, which will make the addition of other projects to the distribution problematic, at least at first.

In the case of KDE, its developers will have to make the effort to package the desktop environment specifically for the Ubuntu, but the same will have to happen for all the other projects out there. And if developers don't do it, this job will fall into the hands of third-party maintainers. Long story short, the first few years will be very interesting for Ubuntu.

Have no fear, KDE and Unity 8 will be able to coexist

Installing two desktop environments is not all that uncommon and the change is usually done from the login manager. Some users have been asking about a scenario where someone has Unity 8 on the Ubuntu desktop and wants to get KDE in there as well. The Ubuntu community managers have answered in their regular Q&A.

"The Canonical engineers have not said a definite yes, but they did seem optimistic about it because, Plasma mobile is able to use the Ubuntu SDK applications, it was built on top of a Ubuntu touch image, it was another proof that the separation of system layers worked and because current ubuntu touch images still run a upgraded LightDM login manager. However they are still in contact with KDE developers, and they hope that click packaging will work with it. They also said that many small details still have to be figured out, like modifications to LightDM on unity8," is noted in a blog post.

A user named Blue Dragon took the time to transcribe some of the highlights from the previous Ubuntu Q&As, and we thank him for that. You can also watch the entire Q&A below.