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actually, because of qt4/kde4 port, digikam should be available on windows for some time now : http://windows.kde.org/

From the bug reports, it seems like KDE still can't handle silly things nobody ever uses, like persistent printer settings or SSL certificates. Both of those are regressions from KDE 3.5, and it seems like KDE tries to mimic Mozilla when it comes to usability.

But yeah, we totally need more UI bling. Not like there was work to do.

From the bug reports, it seems like KDE still can't handle silly things nobody ever uses, like persistent printer settings or SSL certificates. Both of those are regressions from KDE 3.5, and it seems like KDE tries to mimic Mozilla when it comes to usability.

But yeah, we totally need more UI bling. Not like there was work to do.

Interesting timing on this story. KDE 4.5 beta 2 was released today.

http://kde.org/announcements/announce-4.5-beta2.php for the official announcement

Knetwalk

heya,

Ok, by "every major distribution", what exactly are you referring to?

There's two things at play here.

Firstly, and this is important, so listen carefully - *nobody is forcing you to upgrade*. Sorry, if you don't the latest and greatest, *don't upgrade*. Now seriously, they release KDE 4.x, does your wonderful KDE 3.5 suddenly, and magically stop working? Is your "workflow thrown away", all of a sudden? I continue to be baffled by people like you.

It's the same logic going on in the Google Android world - all of sudden, because somebody releases new Android handsets - your handset is suddenly OH NOES, IT'S BROKENS!!!. Look, just because your shiny toy isn't the "newest", it doesn't detract from the fact that it's still exactly the same.

The KDE developers didn't sneak into your house in the dead of the night, and suddenly smash your KDE 3.5 computer. The mobile phone handset manufacturers didn't creep in, and break your Nexus One handset. I just ordered a Nexus One to Australia - now, the HTC Evo 4G is out - am I suddenly in an uprorar? Well fine, I'm a bit annoyed, drat, I should have waited a bit, but guess what? My Nexus One is still a damn phone, and it still does everything it was promised to do.

All the major distros - Debian, Fedora/Redhat, OpenSUSE (although recent events might change this...lol) - continue to maintain security patches for older versions, if that's what you're worried about.

In fact, going further, Debian still has KDE 3.5, from what I can tell, and it works fine.

Ubuntu, well, that's a Gnome distribution, first and foremost, so I won't comment on it. However, Kubuntu, even in the 4.x branch is an unholy piece of junk.

Older versions of Fedora still contain KDE 3.5.10, and Mandriva and OpenSUSE still do as well. See here: http://www.kde.org/info/3.5.10.php

You complain that nothing is being worked on. Sorry, but see above - nobody is forcing you to update. Just because they're not pushing out new features into that branch doesn't stop you from working as you were before.

Then we come to your little rant about calling the KDE developers children or immature...haha...this is quite funny to read, actually.

Perhaps you don't understand how open-source software works? Guess what it's *free* (in both senses of the word). If you don't like something, you're free to fork it, or gather a group of people, and fork it together. Seriously, it's just pathetic, how you take something that people have freely contributed to, then complain they're not doing it the way you want them to.

You know what, if you don't like it, you can get a full refund - how does that sound. You'll get your full purchase price back.

This is just a joke. Seriously, if you bought Windows, do you think you could take it back to the shop, and say "Gee, mate, I'm not happy with it, can I get a refund?". I know quite a few stores that would laugh you out - but look, even if you did manage to find somebody sympathetic enough to let you return a piece of opened software - you know what, they'd just give you your money back and tell you to get out...

Frankly, I'm sick of ungrateful people in the OSS community, who never give back.

Look, other people gave up their sweat and tears to give you this thing for free, ok. The least you can do is be polite about it, and show a little graciousness.

If you don't like something, you should do your duty - file a bug report (or write a constructive blog post, say). If you can point to a single place on the internet, where you've done that (as opposed to ranting), I'll be glad to retract to commend you for it.

Cheers,
Victor

No, I run dual monitors and agree with the GP. Multi-monitor support in KDE 4.x is pretty weak compared to 3.5. For example, there's no way to have a plasmoid (the one that replaces kicker in particular) span two monitors, and there's no way to have a background wallpaper span both monitors, you can only clone from one to the other (or set them separately, but that makes the slideshow feature useless). Both of those features worked beautifully in 3.5, but are nonexistent in 4.x. Before you ask, I've already filed bug reports.

No, I run dual monitors and agree with the GP. Multi-monitor support in KDE 4.x is pretty weak compared to 3.5. For example, there's no way to have a plasmoid (the one that replaces kicker in particular) span two monitors, and there's no way to have a background wallpaper span both monitors, you can only clone from one to the other (or set them separately, but that makes the slideshow feature useless). Both of those features worked beautifully in 3.5, but are nonexistent in 4.x. Before you ask, I've already filed bug reports.

It took Google less than a second to turn "kde sc branding" into http://dot.kde.org/2009/11/24/repositioning-kde-brand

I already understood what they were trying to accomplish with their silly renaming... and gawd, that convoluted explanation only makes it worse. Why is the KDE team spending so much time creating arbitrary new naming conventions? No one cares. IMO it comes off as pompous. Similar to when they were insisting that a .0 release signifies extreme beta or alpha quality software.

And this "SC" crap? Who possibly thought that was needed, or was even remotely a good idea?

1/10.

It took Google less than a second to turn "kde sc branding" into http://dot.kde.org/2009/11/24/repositioning-kde-brand

I know you only want to read some crappy summary and a few comments after it on /. and use that as a bases for your understanding of reality. That's cool, I guess, but "SC" really doesn't hurt anything and isn't worth all the mindless trolling. It really detracts form your "I've tried all of KDE and it suxors!" rant.

http://www.kde.org/info/3.5.10.php
KDE 3.5 should have been re-written in QT4 for the KDE4 release instead.

I think Vista is pretty ok, in particular when you compare it to the current Wine implementation of the Windows API or the early KDE 4. E.g. the VISTA panel never crashes while it occasionally happens to Plasma.

I think Vista is pretty ok, in particular when you compare it to the current Wine implementation of the Windows API or the early KDE 4. E.g. the VISTA panel never crashes while it occasionally happens to Plasma.

Being able to quickly link arbitrary tasks/windows with hotkeys would be more useful to me, as such I proposed this:
http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=121349
http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/DesignersPlayground/KeyboardShortcuts

Alt-tab allows quick switching between two active tasks, but is not as quick for more than two. In the end I gave up waiting, and actually wrote something to do that in Windows (my current workplace is a mainly Windows environment): http://sourceforge.net/projects/linkkey/

It's handy enough for me whenever I need to work with more than two windows. It doesn't work with all app windows ( e.g. those using the ITaskList_Deleted property ). But I think I'm the only user anyway. I guess everyone else is happy enough with "alt-tab" and clicking.

Lots of people get impressed with stuff like 10/GUI ( http://10gui.com/ ) but it would be slower if you actually need to use it for stuff, after all I don't see how it can even switch tasks faster than "alt tab". It's only good for Hollywood ;).

Thought-based interfaces are already appearing, so what would be a better UI than all that flashy animated 3D crap would be the ability to link "thought macros" to arbitrary actions or objects/items.

Then I would only have to think "command" (this would be a unique thought macro - not thinking of the word command), "recall", [thought macro of object follows] (object retrieved), "send to" [thought macro of Bob here], "confirm", "uncommand" (to get out of command mode).

This isn't the first time the German government shows respect to F/OSS:
Matthias Ettrich, founder of KDE was knighted late 2009.

Some German cities announced in 2003 that they'd be moving away from Microsoft, towards Linux. (source)
Munich is one city that I know of that has actively been moving their infrastructure towards F/OSS. (source)

(Disclaimer: I'm not German, I'm just going by what I read on the internet.)

KIO requires Dolphin? Um... no. Really, no.

Wine and Linux for the client machines should work well for your needs. Ive seen that most games work quite well under Linux+Wine. If Wine isnt enough, possibly CrossOver Games would be better.

Windows prior to Vista doesnt really offer capabilities that you are requesting, as far as I know. And Windows is still expensive...

But on the Linux side, there are a few tools that can do that.

For GNOME, there is GNOME Nanny. Though it seems restricted to time session management and web activities.

A more universal set of tools is available too:

• TimeKpr- Controls login and session times using PAM
• WebContentControl- Despite its name, it does more than control website access. It also includes scripts for controlling application access.
• A new *in-development* GUI called GChildCare is being made to succeed WebContentControl.

Im not sure if there are other tools out there that work. I think Mandriva Linux actually provides integrated support for parental controls similar to GNOME Nanny and TimeKpr. The scripts from WebContentControl would let you block which applications they can run, though that isnt that big of a problem on Linux if they dont have a compiler or root access.

KDE itself has a configurable Kiosk mode, which can help control KDE itself.

KPDF (now Okular) has specifically forbidden this behavior forever because it is a security risk. I use Okular myself so I am not vulnerable to this issue. Since it has been known so long to be a security issue in Linux-land why has Adobe allowed it so long? XPDF also is not vulnerable to this issue and so on. So it appears to be a tempest in a tea-cup for Linux and just another day on Windows.

with an Open Source project? For example, KDE has a "bugsquad" and seek those interested in contributing. At least do that you can make a presence for yourself which may/or not lead to something. http://techbase.kde.org/Contribute/Bugsquad

...and, perhaps, marble, if one wants the free/open maps plastered onto a free/open globe.

http://edu.kde.org/marble/

http://edu.kde.org/marble/

Marble is a Virtual Globe and World Atlas that you can use to learn more about Earth: You can pan and zoom around and you can look up places and roads. A mouse click on a place label will provide the respective Wikipedia article.

Of course it's also possible to measure distances between locations or watch the current cloud cover. Marble offers different thematic maps: A classroom-style topographic map, a satellite view, street map, earth at night and temperature and precipitation maps. All maps include a custom map key, so it can also be used as an educational tool for use in class-rooms. For educational purposes you can also change date and time and watch how the starry sky and the twilight zone on the map change.

In opposite to other virtual globes Marble also features multiple projections: Choose between a Flat Map ("Plate carré"), Mercator or the Globe.

The best of all: Marble is Free Software / Open Source Software and promotes the usage of free maps. And it's available for all major operating systems (Linux/Unix, MS Windows and Mac OS X).

Don't know why you would actually want Amarok (seems kinda clunky to me) but you can run it on Windows if Amarok is really what floats your boat. Personally I would go with Media Monkey or if you are strictly FOSS then I'd go with Songbird, but whatever. You can probably run F Spot too, but again why would you want to?

Presumably for these beginners, you're teaching programming concepts: symbolic logic, input, output etc.

So while you could dive right into programming languages as we know them, or give them something like Turtle/Logo

My kids' primary school uses Scratch for this. Of course, you could just give 'em actual Logo via KTurtle.

Fat lot of good that does for a significant chunk of the Linux user base. VDPAU is Nvidia only: there is no support there for Intel or ATI chipsets.

Perhaps you mean XvMC - oh sorry, that's old and is only partially supported (to varying degrees by the different graphics hardware vendors) and is effectively dead now.

Ah I know, let's all use VxBA - oh dam, that's ATI only (competition for VDPAU) so we can't code for that and include everyone either.

How about VD API - the first attempt to ditch XvMC and reinvent the wheel from scratch. Well blow me down, after all this time there's only minimal native support for a few Intel and S3 chipsets. VDPAU can be used as a backend so that brings Nvidia into the fold, but no ATI. Oh hang on, there's a late development .. hurray now it has AMD Radeon's UVD2 chipset support to: shame it's a proprietary extension though, no open source. So VD API doesn't cut the mustard either.

Lastly there's Gallium3D. Finally an Open Source, smart, well thought out and very portable solution (can work on Linux, FreeBSD, smart phones, etc). It's got strong backing from VMware with solid roots from Tungsten Graphics and is making good progress. If you're interested there's a nice PDF presentation on it's design here.

Bennett, I'm glad that you thought of that. Slashdot is not the place to file Mozilla feature requests, though. Try this place instead:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi

For KDE (Konqueror) feature requests:
https://bugs.kde.org/

For Opera feature requests:
http://my.opera.com/community/forums/forum.dml?id=24

Here's why:

The latest incarnation of KDE looks great. You must be warned though that the system your folks must be using has to be "powerful" enough. Here "powerful" is subjective.

When forced to give out e-mail address online, use the VendorName@yourdomain. If the vendor abuses your trust (such as by automatically adding you to their e-mailing list), you can block that single address. If you don't have your own domain (how come?) you could use yourself+ Vendorname@gmail.com for the same purpose (it is a shame, Yahoo! Mail does not support the sub-address). Unfortunately, many vendors' sites — including highly prominent ones like the Enom-registrar reject the sub-addressing e-mails as "invalid" — the verifying regular expressions must be too complicated for the dumb programmer wannabees, employed by these companies. This is where having your own domain is very useful.

You might want to comment on these two Kmail feature requests, which are designed to allow just that:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=72926
http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=159251

When forced to give out e-mail address online, use the VendorName@yourdomain. If the vendor abuses your trust (such as by automatically adding you to their e-mailing list), you can block that single address. If you don't have your own domain (how come?) you could use yourself+ Vendorname@gmail.com for the same purpose (it is a shame, Yahoo! Mail does not support the sub-address). Unfortunately, many vendors' sites — including highly prominent ones like the Enom-registrar reject the sub-addressing e-mails as "invalid" — the verifying regular expressions must be too complicated for the dumb programmer wannabees, employed by these companies. This is where having your own domain is very useful.

You might want to comment on these two Kmail feature requests, which are designed to allow just that:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=72926
http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=159251

I don't have Configure Amarok as a top-level menu bar item. There is however a Configure Amarok under Settings, and from there I do indeed find Playback->Sound System Configuration->Config. But once I am there, how do exactly I enable sharing with other apps?

My bad memory. You are right the option is under "Settings".

I'm still unclear as to what you mean by "share with other apps". If you mean allow other apps to use the sound bus at the same time - ALSA will allow that, subject to it's "release" settings. If you mean "pipe" eg. play a song in Amarok and pipe the sound into Audacity, process it somehow, then pipe the sound out your speakers, then you will need to employ the JACK sound system. Sound is definitely not my area - this may help, and you should probably check the requirements (as root/sudo "dpkg --get-selections | grep the_package_you_are_checking_for")

Yes, that brings me to the same page as above.

And shows you which settings you are currently using... re: my question "What sound system are you using"

As has been stated earlier - KDE4 is still in development, Kubuntu (and other distros) have attempted to make it stable and useable - unfortunately that is not possible due to it's rapid development. I like the new features and I look forward to their stabilization. But IMHO they belong (rightfully) in Testing/Unstable.

Note: Testing/Unstable = Cutting/Bleeding Edge. The view might be nice, but the effort required is half the satisfaction gained. Which is the reason I don't run Testing/Unstable on my production machines. I understand the reasons the Ubuntu/Kubuntu et al are based on Testing/Unstable - but it's always seemed contradictory to me - "for new users and they want the latest" (but the latest has the least testing, the most bugs, and the least user-friendly documentation.

I should also point out that the major difference between free OSs and commercial OSs is with the free ones - the testing is done by the users. The commercial ones do all their testing before the end-users get to try it. On the plus side, the free OS users don't have to wait 2+years for the latest.

I don't have Configure Amarok as a top-level menu bar item. There is however a Configure Amarok under Settings, and from there I do indeed find Playback->Sound System Configuration->Config. But once I am there, how do exactly I enable sharing with other apps?

My bad memory. You are right the option is under "Settings".

I'm still unclear as to what you mean by "share with other apps". If you mean allow other apps to use the sound bus at the same time - ALSA will allow that, subject to it's "release" settings. If you mean "pipe" eg. play a song in Amarok and pipe the sound into Audacity, process it somehow, then pipe the sound out your speakers, then you will need to employ the JACK sound system. Sound is definitely not my area - this may help, and you should probably check the requirements (as root/sudo "dpkg --get-selections | grep the_package_you_are_checking_for")

Yes, that brings me to the same page as above.

And shows you which settings you are currently using... re: my question "What sound system are you using"

As has been stated earlier - KDE4 is still in development, Kubuntu (and other distros) have attempted to make it stable and useable - unfortunately that is not possible due to it's rapid development. I like the new features and I look forward to their stabilization. But IMHO they belong (rightfully) in Testing/Unstable.

Note: Testing/Unstable = Cutting/Bleeding Edge. The view might be nice, but the effort required is half the satisfaction gained. Which is the reason I don't run Testing/Unstable on my production machines. I understand the reasons the Ubuntu/Kubuntu et al are based on Testing/Unstable - but it's always seemed contradictory to me - "for new users and they want the latest" (but the latest has the least testing, the most bugs, and the least user-friendly documentation.

I should also point out that the major difference between free OSs and commercial OSs is with the free ones - the testing is done by the users. The commercial ones do all their testing before the end-users get to try it. On the plus side, the free OS users don't have to wait 2+years for the latest.

Steve Jobs announced that Apple was developing its own Web browser in January 2003. Safari 1.0 was released in June 2003. So not only can your throw one together, but it seems you really can do it in a coffee blender if more than 50 percent of your code comes from pre-existing open source projects.

"I'm aware of techbase. It's not really helpful. Let me give an example. Suppose I want to write a Plasmoid. Okay, let's start at techbase.kde.org. Under "Discover" I click on "Developing with KDE." Fine so far. Now what do I click? It's hard to say -- I want an API reference. Nevertheless, I figure out that I need to click on "KDE Architecture." Okay, now I click on "KDE 4 Architecture Overview." Ooh, I finally see a link to "Plasma - the Desktop." I click it."

At techbase.kde.org under Developing with KDE have a link to API Documentation. At http://techbase.kde.org/Development under KDE Architecture there's another link to API Documentation.

Still, what is there is quite useless.

Proper API Docs are here: http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/plasma/html/index.html There are some basic tutorials: http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Plasma Finally the source to the default plasmoids are here: http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/plasma/generic/applets/ It's true that some pages within kde websites need to be updated. However with a bit of digging you can find the above.

Proper API Docs are here: http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/plasma/html/index.html There are some basic tutorials: http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Plasma Finally the source to the default plasmoids are here: http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/plasma/generic/applets/ It's true that some pages within kde websites need to be updated. However with a bit of digging you can find the above.

Proper API Docs are here: http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/plasma/html/index.html There are some basic tutorials: http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Plasma Finally the source to the default plasmoids are here: http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/plasma/generic/applets/ It's true that some pages within kde websites need to be updated. However with a bit of digging you can find the above.

The API "documentation" is still completely unorganized and most of it is just Doxygen pages. While the Doxygen tagging is fairly good, this is not a "manual," it's a reference.

I agree a manual would be great, but they have an huge wiki.. any developer should know how " read " code. I think the logic is that they created such an awesome product that they should not have to ' put it in the hole ' for you ..

too lazy to contribute to the docs...

You need to read docs first if you had not had the chance. Start here.. [ http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials ] They even have snippets [ http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/D-Bus/Accessing_Interfaces ]

Coding for KDE is no cakewalk; yet its not as impossible as you make it seem.

What helped me is opening up the sources for Cairo-Clock and others and copy, pasting, reading, and reading some more..

Yes, the docs can be better; but just try to look at the problem like a kid who likes to break there toys to figure out why. Thats why I became a developer.

The API "documentation" is still completely unorganized and most of it is just Doxygen pages. While the Doxygen tagging is fairly good, this is not a "manual," it's a reference.

I agree a manual would be great, but they have an huge wiki.. any developer should know how " read " code. I think the logic is that they created such an awesome product that they should not have to ' put it in the hole ' for you ..

too lazy to contribute to the docs...

You need to read docs first if you had not had the chance. Start here.. [ http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials ] They even have snippets [ http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/D-Bus/Accessing_Interfaces ]

Coding for KDE is no cakewalk; yet its not as impossible as you make it seem.

What helped me is opening up the sources for Cairo-Clock and others and copy, pasting, reading, and reading some more..

Yes, the docs can be better; but just try to look at the problem like a kid who likes to break there toys to figure out why. Thats why I became a developer.

You couldn't download it from them without seeing the warnings. You couldn't install it from a distro without seeing the same warnings. They made it clear it wasn't even "alpha" quality, it was just a snapshot to show the new direction they were taking, because people were asking to see it.

I don't believe that is correct. Here is the KDE4.0 release announcement:

http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.0/

Not a thing about being a testing or development version. And I believe you could have downloaded and compiled it without any warnings. Certainly there were no warnings when I added the extra software repository in ubuntu and installed it that way.

techbase.kde.org

I'm aware of techbase. It's not really helpful. Let me give an example. Suppose I want to write a Plasmoid. Okay, let's start at techbase.kde.org. Under "Discover" I click on "Developing with KDE." Fine so far. Now what do I click? It's hard to say -- I want an API reference. Nevertheless, I figure out that I need to click on "KDE Architecture." Okay, now I click on "KDE 4 Architecture Overview." Ooh, I finally see a link to "Plasma - the Desktop." I click it.

Now, I have three choices. The most logical is the link called "API." I click that, and now all of a sudden I need to shift my focus to the left hand column, where I finally locate "Plasma/Applets." I click it. I get this useless page. But hey, there's a link to Plasma again! I click it, and I get this.

Guys, this is not documentation.

techbase.kde.org

I'm aware of techbase. It's not really helpful. Let me give an example. Suppose I want to write a Plasmoid. Okay, let's start at techbase.kde.org. Under "Discover" I click on "Developing with KDE." Fine so far. Now what do I click? It's hard to say -- I want an API reference. Nevertheless, I figure out that I need to click on "KDE Architecture." Okay, now I click on "KDE 4 Architecture Overview." Ooh, I finally see a link to "Plasma - the Desktop." I click it.

Now, I have three choices. The most logical is the link called "API." I click that, and now all of a sudden I need to shift my focus to the left hand column, where I finally locate "Plasma/Applets." I click it. I get this useless page. But hey, there's a link to Plasma again! I click it, and I get this.

Guys, this is not documentation.

You're an idiot. KDE brags about its cross-platform prowess, and especially the Mac while utterly failing to provide anything usable.

Now all that is left is a web site full of slogans which tells you how to "download" KDE, stupid rebranding, anglo-imperialism, consensus culture.

I want to know how development progresses, how many bugs were fixed last week, how the EBN scores improved, which translations are complete.

I want a website which displays the reported recent plasma crashes. KDEoops

I want a website that explains me a single working methods how to set up a built environment on a free machine.

I want an idea torrent set up for KDE.

I want to see the users get involved to discuss KDE in a open and honest way.

I don't want slogans and empty marketing gibberish. I want better code.

I don't want a code of conduct bullshit, I want management by geeks and hacker ethics.

I want to praise the artists which make KDE great.

Having said that KDE 4.4 is really ok now. It is just two years late. The KDE community was much better in 2000.

the info page says it is in rawhide - but I've run into trouble mixing the rawhide repos in with the stable - so I'll just wait. Even if I did have to wait until F13, it wont be that long. I was skipping every other Fedora release for a while because they come so quick but the last few have all had something that I just didn't want to wait to get. MySQL Workbench pushed me onto 12 and this might speed my move to 13.

FWIW, is not the "netbook plasmoid", it's the netbook workspace (they are trying to promote this new naming). Oh, and they are preparing a mobile workspace too. You can see it in the new website, in the top menu. That could be really amazing. Running KDE technologies in a mobile phone is probably only one year ahead, and past year you could call me dreamer if I would say so.

FWIW, is not the "netbook plasmoid", it's the netbook workspace (they are trying to promote this new naming). Oh, and they are preparing a mobile workspace too. You can see it in the new website, in the top menu. That could be really amazing. Running KDE technologies in a mobile phone is probably only one year ahead, and past year you could call me dreamer if I would say so.

>> But seriously, no, you don't get good docs by people who are unfamiliar with the code just staring at it and trying to document their own misunderstandings. Somebody who actually designed and wrote this crap needs to step in. Please?

Disagree.

I started developing for KDE as part of GSoC 2006. It was a hell of a time getting started, and I made little progress towards the actual project. But in the meantime, documented the process of getting involved with KDE so that other people can breeze past the stuff I did and make it further.

I maintain the http://kde.org/community/getinvolved/ website and have worked with Quality, Techbase and code docs.

I you really want to start developing KDE applications or plasmoids, you should have a look at the KDE Techbase

The API "documentation" is still completely unorganized and most of it is just Doxygen pages. While the Doxygen tagging is fairly good, this is not a "manual," it's a reference. And what about Plasma? I've wasted hours hacking applets without a real understanding of the APIs. The Plasma API front page is pretty much useless.

Although I suppose somebody will now yell at me for being too lazy to contribute to the docs... I'd be happy to, if I had some kind of handle I could grab to bootstrap myself and start delving into it. But seriously, no, you don't get good docs by people who are unfamiliar with the code just staring at it and trying to document their own misunderstandings. Somebody who actually designed and wrote this crap needs to step in. Please?

Be happy !

Once again opensource will save the day be providing the infrastructure for doing the right thing. Doing it well, Doing it for the user.

http://dot.kde.org/2010/01/24/kde-gears-free-cloud

It will work because it is essentially there to help, and not generate a revenue stream, which implies preying on your data, on your privacy, or your goodwill.

For the lazy, it is the KDE project for cloud computing. A platform for distribution, backup and revisionning of data and apps. Encrypted. Local as well as distant. Robust. And you get to control both client and server.

If you happen to be one of those lucky persons who happen to have adopted a media player such as Amarok as their media player of choice then you can simply open Amarok's script manager and install the LyricWiki plugin. That enables your media player of choice to just dish out any particular words to a song you wish to access. The beauty of this plugin/site combo is that you can get any lyrics you wish for any obscure artist and perfectly independent of any corporation, media player and even format in which your songs are stored. And album artwork? You already get that by default in Amarok.

So where exactly is there a need for an encumbered, defective, unsupported and obscure format to be able to do exactly what countless people are already doing at this very moment?