EQLucky Big feature for me would be something on the scale of Ikey's Intel patches.

c432 And what major changes Budgie 10.5 brought to the table if we exclude updating it to the latest Gnome stack and some cosmetic changes?

Those "cosmetic changes" were huge quality of life improvements for Budgie. And Josh and I have made it abundantly clear that no major changes to Budgie will happen until Budgie 11 and that we aren't working on it this year. This is also a pointless argument. Ikey himself hadn't put out a release for over a year. 10.4 came out in August, 2017.

c432 Name one big feature that Solus got after Ikey left.

  1. These new forums.
  2. Huge internal improvements to Solus' long-term "bus factor".
  3. An entirely new infrastructure which receives more frequent updates and costs significantly less to operate.
  4. Several new Global Maintainers who work on huge portions of Solus packages.

But of course you are looking for some new feature in the OS, which we are working on, just not as quickly as you'd like apparently.

c432 I know they are not deadlines but they are not supposed to be a list of good wishes without any obligations to follow them either. I appreciate your work guys, I know you're doing it in your free time pro bono but it's obvious that development stalled without Ikey, there's nothing wrong with that, he left a big shoes to fill in.

Who said we aren't still going to finish all the things we set out to do? Many of those things we never expected to have completely finished this year. Others we are actively working on, just at a slower pace than we expected. We still intend on finishing everything on that roadmap and I don't appreciate your insinuation that we aren't going to.

And I've already addressed your belief that "development has stalled". We seem to have wildly different definitions of what development is and I kindly ask you to stop with this nonsense. A ton of work goes into Solus every day and making claims like this is an insult to everyone who contributes.

dbarron CorvusRuber See... c432 clearly demonstrated that even with a few blog posts focusing on the main news is already very hard to follow for some...

c432 And what major changes Budgie 10.5 brought to the table if we exclude updating it to the latest Gnome stack and some cosmetic changes?

Everything is detailed in this blog post
And this other blog post clearly says there won't be any major change in Budgie 10.5 (as big things will be implemented on Budgie 11)

c432 Name one big feature that Solus got after Ikey left.

Solus 4 ... huh... wait... oh there is a blog post about this too...
(in the less fancy things, the infrastructure move from OVH to the RIT servers, the new weblate instance, these forums with the 0auth integration, the work on ferryd, cuppa, the upgrade of phabricator, etc... of course these aren't "bling bling" shiny visible things, but just try to run the distribution without this and you'll see it would not work so well... without the servers & ferryd, you wouldn't get any update and without these forums, you won't be able to complain here, ...)

    kyrios dbarron CorvusRuber See... c432 clearly demonstrated that even with a few blog posts focusing on the main news is already very hard to follow for some...

    Put on a bot posting at random intervals on the blog/forum/Reddit/whatever some variation on the theme "All is well, we're working hard, wohooo !!!" 😅 ?

      02.11.2018
      Ikey Doherty, the founder and lead dev of Solus, has left the project...

      07.09.2019
      Justin: due to personal issues between myself and the team, I will be moving on from Solus...

      17.09.2019
      sunnyflunk: Stepping down from Core Team

      17.09.2019
      c432: After Ikey's departure Solus is in the maintenance mode. Roadmap is just a list of good wishes I'm afraid.

      ==============

      2018
      crom5: Please don't get me wrong, the following thoughts are expressed with best wishes and intentions. It is my understanding that Solus is an "independent" distribution. The bad news is that in this "strange" times it is forbidden to survive as such. Recent Ikey important life decisions were just so predictable. Similarly, it is very easy to guess what will happen with Solus within a relatively short period of time if the developers doesn't start to earn something from their hard work and efforts...

      ==============

      08.09.2019
      Manjaro is taking things professionally. While the Manjaro community will be responsible for the development of the project and other related activities, a company has been formed to work as its legal entity and handle the commercial agreements and professional services.

        CorvusRuber (humor) But wouldn't this fictitious bot need to ping "all" and make sure "all" were still well before posting? I mean maybe a dev died or lost internet access, same thing really, right? (yes, still joking)

          dbarron But wouldn't this fictitious bot need to ping "all" and make sure "all" were still well before posting?

          No, why, should it ? Total randomness, just for the lulz.

          crom5 Your "chronicle" is clearly focused on the bad news, as it misses the entries about introductions of new global maintainers (Girt and ermo). Not to mention big infrastructure improvements, but... they were mentioned in this thread multiple times already, and it seems that no one cares about them 🙂
          And how Manjaro is relevant here?

          Thanks to the team for all the hard work. 🙏 Know that it is appreciated by many, despite such recurrent pointless discussions. I also like that there is a roadmap at all, though I understand the reluctance to share plans so openly given that it sometimes leads to precisely this.

          I finished my PhD about a year ago, so I know how time consuming it can be. Hang in there @DataDrake !

            So, to sum things up.

            • Communication is kind of quiet lately, but the community keeps defending this to be okay. Aka nothing to report.
            • At the same time huge changes are being made in the background, still nothing worth reporting as it seems, at least not via Blog or roadmap.
            • By now I get the strong feeling that we should be more precise in the discussion about what we are actually talking. Meaning Solus OS is getting regular updates, but right now no upgrades aka postponed for later. At the same time Solus as project is still very active and a lot of efforts obviously went into improving the infrastructure.
            • Even so this page here is called discuss it is more like an Q&A so far as any input about how communication could be improved is considered to be already answered and there are no plans to change the way it is.
            • The general tone tends to be passive aggressive, maybe due to mixing up Solus OS and Solus as overall project. Grateful for everyone's efforts, but at the same time this could be really a meaningful discussion instead of... (missing the correct words to describe)

              majamee Not sure what you are trying to accomplish?

              1. Nothing to report.
              2. Everything we have discussed here has been disclosed in previous Blog posts. Anything happening "behind the scenes" is either visible on the bug tracker or related to ongoing Roadmap tasks.
              3. Again, you are trying to apply invalid definitions. Solus is receiving regular updates of software, new software, and continued support. These are not merely "updates" to the OS, but normal operations. "Upgrades" is misleading. We have clearly laid out a roadmap of software development tasks for core Solus software. Most of these are full rewrites or complete replacements and not merely upgrades.
              4. This was bound to be a Q&A because it was so open-ended.
              5. I'm not trying to be passive-aggressive. I'm trying to end a discussion on things that have already been clearly discussed and aren't going to change. There was never going to be any meaningful discussion about the Roadmap because it's not up for discussion. Period. Full-stop.

              crom5 02.11.2018
              Ikey Doherty, the founder and lead dev of Solus, has left the project...

              Alright, so you point out the terminal event and not the events leading up to this. Ikey left Intel and became a full-time developer for Solus because he was already spending 40+ hours a week on Solus in addition to the 40+ hours a week at Intel. That was a train headed for Burn-out Central. Once Ikey went full-time with Solus, he began spending his new-found free time on personal development. Something that he had basically put on pause for years. Not long-after, Ikey started expressing annoyance over people not respecting his clearly defined working hours and demanding support from him all the time. Then, in August of last year, Ikey made the team aware that he was moving to England where he would be starting a family.

              After several weeks of little to no communication, Josh and I were forced to take full control of the project in order to keep moving forward. During this time we made significant strides in future-proofing the project and eliminating bus factors.

              Ikey announced that he would be stepping down from leading Solus and pursuing different things. He clearly indicated that this was a personal decision and he thought that "Solus will stand head and shoulders above the crowd forever more."

              crom5 07.09.2019
              Justin: due to personal issues between myself and the team, I will be moving on from Solus...

              Again, terminal event without context. Justin had already been on leave from Solus during the Summer of last year. He didn't start contributing more heavily again until the Spring of this year. I appreciate his contributions, but him leaving isn't a death-knell for Solus. We also would welcome him back if he so desired.

              crom5 17.09.2019
              sunnyflunk: Stepping down from Core Team

              Again, terminal event with no context. Peter has been on unofficial leave from the project while he focuses on work, for most of the last year. @Girtablulu was asked to take on Peter's maintainership of Qt and KDE/Plasma and has been doing excellent work keeping everything up to date, and making the Plasma Edition his own. Peter decided to officially step down from the Core Team because he is focusing on his financial future and does not have the time to serve in that role. He has not left the project and is free to retake his role on the Core Team whenever he pleases.

              crom5 17.09.2019
              c432: After Ikey's departure Solus is in the maintenance mode. Roadmap is just a list of good wishes I'm afraid.

              I've already addressed this several times. If my responses are insufficient in your eyes, I'm waiting for questions.

              crom5 2018
              crom5: Please don't get me wrong, the following thoughts are expressed with best wishes and intentions. It is my understanding that Solus is an "independent" distribution. The bad news is that in this "strange" times it is forbidden to survive as such. Recent Ikey important life decisions were just so predictable. Similarly, it is very easy to guess what will happen with Solus within a relatively short period of time if the developers doesn't start to earn something from their hard work and efforts...

              1. Solus is an independent distribution. The sole requirement for this is that we are not built on top of any other Linux distribution.
              2. Your view of "strange times" appears to us as just another decade of Linux. Distros come and go, names change, people move on, new people rise. That's the way it always has been.
              3. Ikey's decision to leave was understandable, but not predictable. The transition would have been much less painful if that were the case. We would have been able to plan much much better.
              4. It really isn't that easy to guess what will happen with Solus in a short time. That has never been the case and I will happily continue to defy all of your expectations.
              5. Solus is a reward in itself and does not solely rely on praise or donations to continue existing. I think I can safely say that for most, if not all, of the Solus Team that we continue to work on Solus because it's the distro that we want to use. Giving up on it would mean going back to distros we were not happy with in the first place. While I am overjoyed by how many people use Solus every day, that has never been a requirement for my continued involvement in Solus.

              crom5 08.09.2019
              Manjaro is taking things professionally. While the Manjaro community will be responsible for the development of the project and other related activities, a company has been formed to work as its legal entity and handle the commercial agreements and professional services.

              And we have already made it perfectly clear that when time allows or the need demands it that @JoshStrobl and I will be pursuing a relationship between Solus and a non-profit organization so that we can guarantee a legal and financial future for Solus. Right now that isn't our highest priority, even if you think it should be. And Manjaro is taking the very different approach of becoming a company in order to use a different funding model for their distribution. They also have the key difference of having multiple full-time developers who would benefit in many ways from corporate status.

                if he keep writing essay's like this ferryd/sol will be more delayed 😀 .. These kind of thread is unnecessary just ignore.

                  viyoriya I 100% agree! Solus and its team have helped bring a renewed enthusiasm for computing into
                  my life since I discovered this wonderful distro and its community several months ago. It has inspired me to buy
                  new, updated books and delve further into scripting and programming than I ever committed to before. I also plan
                  to give back and contribute to Solus and Linux in general in any way that I can in the future. These forums can be
                  a great tool and the Solus team has plenty of useful knowledge and information that they can share, while responding
                  in a very timely manner to questions. Which is why this thread is so disappointing and depressing. Perhaps in the future, if a thread is initiated that is largely petty, trivial, nagging or just looking for more of a gossip column feel in general, it should be responded to the same way other forums deal with a great many questions ---- it should be ignored. Time, energy and resources can be channeled into more positive and productive endeavors.

                  viyoriya
                  I agree, however at the same time, every time such a thread arises, the responses we get eg. by DataDrake are imo extremely insightful, even to someone who's been familiar with Solus for a while. Probably even more insightful than any blog post.

                  My own one cent - it really bugs me that a lot of people seem to equate Budgie with Solus. It's not. Budgie is just one flavor of the distro, its flagship one perhaps, but it's just a part of the bigger Solus project.

                  To quote DataDrake

                  Again, you are trying to apply invalid definitions. Solus is receiving regular updates of software, new software, and continued support. These are not merely "updates" to the OS, but normal operations.

                  As a GNOME user, THIS is what Solus mainly means to me. I mean I use it, because it performs the aforementioned activities in the most reliable manner out of all the distros I've used so far. It just nails the normal operations part hard.

                  I get my updates, I get new software, and I enjoy the stability. Figuratively speaking, this is what it's all about to me.

                  c432 I really need to react. What you've done is really rude... do you know there are humans here? By the way human relationships are based on consideration... your post was just offensive and pointless, if it's intended just leave for something that fit your needs without judging people who work for you, if it's not so apologize. You're not in a shop buying a t-shirt...

                  @Harvey and the solus team... I totally agree and support your reaction, your work is awesome and you don't owe anything to us.
                  Sorry for you by the way, what a waste of time...
                  Take care

                  I've been reading this thread with interest. I can't remember some of the people here from the time Solus OS started. And, from the days of Solus OS, then to Solus, in between Evolve OS. The thing is nothing was continued. Started something, went on for a while and then dropped. I remember the Debian based distro times, dropping debs to pisi and so on. The fighting with the community etc. And, dropping the project. I've seen all that. Well, if you guys can create Budgie 11 and go forward, it'd be nice. Wish you all the luck, really do!

                  In the early days, it was something like the Chromebook, then sort of like DDE and so on. You start something, and never finish it. That's the problem. Now, he is doing something else, not far from you guys in GitHub. And, he doesn't even mention that he was once connected to Budgie and Solus there and in other places, but mention only Clear OS!

                  DataDrake Ikey's decision to leave was understandable, but not predictable.

                  No, it was predictable. Knowing the history!

                  One can also Google "SolusOS: Life Happens…Distros Die"