Here’s the distrowatch announcement.

Moving to KDE

The biggest change in this version is moving to KDE for the desktop.

Something important to understand about that:  when I say “KDE for the desktop”, that doesn’t mean Netrunner is running all KDE apps. There are a lot of GNOME (and other) apps in there, because we are trying to present the best selection of applications and for some reason some people like some of the non-KDE apps better.

Still, I really like the idea of mixing KDE/GNOME. The obvious downside is the “bloat” – the Netrunner ISO is ~1GB, which kills the LiveCD route - but the upside is we do have the ability to present a different (and hopefully better) mix of applications.

If you have input on the application selection – especially if you want to “side” with me and push for more KDE! – get on the netrunner forums and let me know what you like!

Spit and Polish

This is a strange thing for me, because as I’ve said many times I have zero graphic design skills combined with near-apathy for how a distro looks out of the box.

That being said, there is someone (Starbuck) who obsesses over the visual end, and I hope his efforts are appreciated. I do like the wallpaper and theme, and again if you have input on the graphical direction, take it to the forums, because I guarantee you it will get read and discussed.

So give it a try already

Enough yakking from me – download the thing and give it a try and if the spirit moves you post some feedback on the netrunner forums.

This is something that’s been cooking for a while now and we are finally ready to serve it up to a hungry world!

Highlights

Here’s the bullet points:

• Based on Ubuntu
• GNOME
• Includes Wine by default
• No Mono
• Some QT/KDE apps by default
• More you, less them

(More) In Depth

So, the basic idea is to build on top of a “de-corporatized” Ubuntu: we want to capture the strong parts of Ubuntu while being able to explore some areas that stock Ubuntu won’t go, and maybe “un-do” a few questionable decisions.

This first release – n1, codenamed “Albedo” – is a very basic starting point where we can get our tools and starting infrastructure in place, gauge interest and welcome others, clarify our goals and prepare for the 10.04 release of Ubuntu as the foundation for the next Netrunner release, n2.

On a personal note

This is an exciting undertaking, and a bit scary because I know nothing about putting together a distro! Fortunately we have top men working on it now! Who? TOP. MEN.

I invite you all to help us shape Netrunner into a great distro, and I especially welcome pointers from those with experience!

We’ll have more details later, but I wanted to get the announcement out there today while it is still March, rather than tomorrow!

Linkage

Netrunner Home Page

Netrunner Forums

Netrunner on Launchpad