Looking back at 2024. Looking forward to 2025

Cuppa n' Brew
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Happy New Year, Ubuntu MATE Community! :tada: :tada: :tada:

2024 has been quite an eventful year for us in the Free and Open Source community. We have had some successes and some failures, but I think we have all learned a lot. It might be nice to take a look back at the events of the year and remind ourselves of the lessons we need to bring with us to 2025. :ledger:

The introduction of Large Language Models around 2020 has paved way for the greater development of source-available models, particularly in Hugging Face. Later this year, the Open Source Initiative released the first version of The Open Source AI Definition. :robot:

The traditional view of Open Source code and licenses when applied to AI components are not sufficient to guarantee the freedoms to use, study, share and modify the systems.

On 25th of April, Canonical has finally released Ubuntu 24.04 Noble Numbat. This release saw the unification of the underlying stack of the desktop installer to use the same Subiquity back end as server images. Another notable highlight is the new Flutter-based App Center which provides a newer, fresh way of installing applications to our Ubuntu systems. :ubuntu:

Following Ubuntu of course are the flavours. Ubuntu MATE Noble ships the stable MATE Desktop 1.26.2, showcases the new Bootstrap installer as previously mentioned, with a selection of bug fixes and minor improvements to relevant components. :ubuntu_mate:

On 12th of June, openSUSE released Service Pack 6 for Leap 15. Their latest service pack sees the integration of Cockpit, newer features, bug fixes, and security patches. :suse:

On 25th of July, the Linux Mint team has released version 22, codenamed "Wilma." This offers the fresh Cinnamon Desktop 6.2 on top of the Ubuntu Noble base. :linuxmint:

On 10th of October, Canonical released Ubuntu 24.10 Oracular Oriole. The latest interim release offers the latest kernel, experimental permission prompting, and the GNOME 47 Desktop. :ubuntu:

Experimental new security features demonstrate our commitment to continually elevate the Linux desktop experience in conversation with the community for the next 20 years and beyond.

19th days later, the Fedora community follows by announcing the general availability of Fedora 41. This release delivers a new Miracle WM Spin, RPM 4.20, DNF5, and GNOME 47. By their next release in April 2025, the then-KDE spin will be shipped as an official edition alongside Workstation. :fedora:

On 9th of September, Kubernetes—an open source system for automating deployment and management of containerized applications—have celebrated their 10th Anniversary. :clinking_glasses:

Later this year, the two flagships of the Linux desktop, KDE and GNOME, have both announced their own Linux distributions. In Summer of 2024, Flathub, the leading Flatpak repository under the shared governance of the two previously mentioned projects, have surpassed 2 billion app downloads. :package:

On 9th of November, Debian releases the eighth point release for 12 Bookworm. The latest point release only updates a few packages, mainly to add patches for security issues and adjustments for serious problems. :debian:

On 4th of December, System76's COSMIC Desktop has released it's fourth alpha, succeeding the three consecutive alpha releases from August to October. It aims to revolutionize the Linux desktop experience and is poised to drop the first stable release sometime around Q1 2025. :milky_way:

On 15th of December, after four years of work, Xfce 4.20 is finally released. This release delivers a variety of new features, bug fixes, and minor improvements. :mouse2:

The major focus during this development cycle was the preparation of the codebase to be ready for Wayland. So that we meanwhile have experimental Wayland support for most components.

This upcoming year, I'm looking forward to:

  • :ubuntu: More Ubuntu goodness
  • :file_folder: Better Active Directory support
  • :euro: Paid apps in Flathub
  • :rock: Immutable desktop distributions
  • :motorway: Greater Wayland adoption

How about you guys? What would you like to look back on in 2024? What are you looking forward to in 2025?

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Does anyone see those initiatives as a way to eventually "lock-out" other distributions from

  • ongoing support from the DE "master" developers ?
  • timely and early sharing of any new DE development code ?

Or am I only imagining non-existing monsters under my bed ?

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Exactly, my friend! :slight_smile:

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gNOme way!! ...... (I'll show myself out after :tophat:)

Not sure what GNOME OS is based on, actually forgot about that. KDE Neon is definitely based on Ubuntu.

The other week, I found out that TUXEDO OS (OEM) is based on Ubuntu, but uses KDE Neon's packages, which broke my app for a user on there.

At least, with KDE Neon, there doesn't seem to be a threat. They say it's more a distro for tinkerers. Half-rolling with the latest KDE and half-LTS of Ubuntu stability.

I'm hoping 2025 brings:

  • :muscle: A focus on UI/UX stability. Bugs for the small things get fixed.
  • :running_man: For the potential users that run towards Linux when Windows 10 support ends in October 2025, I hope they land a smooth transition for them.
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Personally, I don't see it that way. Given the FOSS nature of these projects, I still expect there to be timely and early sharing of DE code.

If it goes otherwise, I can't say I don't expect a hostile reception from the community.

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I don't know what to feel about KDE OS. I'm not quite amiable towards new distributions. As for GNOME OS, I just think of it as GNOME's counterpart to KDE Neon, albeit seemingly a one-man-show.

:running_man: For the potential users that run towards Linux when Windows 10 support ends in October 2025, I hope they land a smooth transition for them.

Speaking of transitioning users, what strategies are we seeing from the community to accomodate them nicely?

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I'm excited to see all the cool things getting released in 2025! It's looking like it's going to be a great year.

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Hi, @AgentMello and welcome to the Ubuntu MATE Community!

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Thank you, I'm happy to be here! Never really broke out of my shell and joined a community. I'm looking forward to chatting with all you fine people.

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That is a very good question, one that I often think about.

For some people it might be very productive to let them read Linux is NOT Windows first to give them the opportunity to adjust their mindset to something non-corporate and to prevent wrong expectations.

There is also the Ubuntu-MATE handbook made by @goinglinux (Larry Bushey)

For the rest, I think most of us just try to help out wherever we can.

Talking about strategy, do you have something in mind that could improve the current situation ?

My idea is that it could be efficient to have a sticky post titled "begin here !" that states what to expect and what not to expect from Linux in general and also that Ubuntu-MATE is neither responsible for developement of MATE-Desktop nor Ubuntu. In other words, it's only a distro.

I think that this would prevent a lot of frustration for the user and also prevents miscommunication (example: "no, the ubuntu-mate team can not fix kerneldrivers. Please file a bug with the kernelteam")

any ideas of what else we can do ?

EDIT:
For a lot of users it is a completely alien idea that the Operating System is not a monolithic thing ruled by one party/company. It takes quite some time before they realize that the kernel, the modules, the GNU userland, the desktop etc. are all seperate entities and that getting your bug fixed is like going to the market to find the booth that created that part instead of going ballistic against the almighty operatingsystem company like they were used to do.

To enhance their understanding of these structural differences, this essay/book might be useful: The Cathedral and the Bazaar

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Thanks for taking your time tkn. I really appreciate this reply and the resources too. I'm looking forward to share my insights with you people after I delve on these. :smile:

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