Talking With KDE Developer Martin Konold

Gatha writes: "The recently concluded Bang!inux conference was a great place to meet some Open Source developers. Among those speaking at the event was Martin Konold, veteran KDE developer. We managed to get an interview with him. Excerpts follow. Interview here on FreeOS.com" Konold (along with Matthias Ettrich) began the KDE project several years ago, and in this too-short interview he touches on the project's origins as well as improvements bound for the stable release, like network transparent sound and anti-aliased fonts. (And a lot more apps -- soon.)

Comments

Re:KDE vs Gnome?

[Rob Kaper]

Even if it is inflammatory, that does not mean you have to respond like that. You could also just reply: "I disagree that KDE is ahead, because even though it does A, B and C, GNOME does A, B, D and F!". Personally I do think KDE is ahead of GNOME, but so what? First of all KDE started earlier and maybe even more important: many of the good things in KDE are there because GNOME is making good things also. Developers of neither project can sit on their arses and be lazy, they keep each other going. KDE would not be what it is today without GNOME, likewise would GNOME not be what it is today (or even be at all) if it hadn't been for KDE.

Re:Unnecessary statement

[Fnkmaster]

Err, nope. You must mean the Swing classes and JFC infrastructure for user interfaces. That is definitely not the speediest or most well designed stuff in the world.

Server side apps written in Java have the general benefit that you can produce the same application in far less time taking advantage of a more standardized set of library classes and simpler language syntax than C++ which makes team development much more pleasant. Of course, when I'm building end user GUI applications, I don't do it using Swing. But there are Java bindings for Qt now and other interesting options to check out too that might avoid a lot of the annoyances of Swing.

Re:That License Thing

[Fnkmaster]

Qt is dual licensed under the GPL and the QPL. The QPL does not lock people out who don't use the GPL nor does it lock people out who don't use the QPL. It's closer in intent and spirit to the LGPL, as I understand it (and IANAL so don't take my word on it).

But I know enough to know that the above poster is spewing FUD.

Re:Please reconsider.

[Bad_CRC]

I teach software classes, and do support for these types of applications. KOffice is extremely simplistic, to the point of being ineffective.

perhaps, very light home use, but for an office environment, these programs just aren't on the same level, and are lacking a large number of the features which are critical to good productivity.

It's a commmendable effort, and at the time they started the project it was a good idea. But at this point, even if they managed to put the remaining 90% of features in, and rework the interface so it wasn't as clumsy, they would lack the most critical piece, which is compatibility.

Open office can offer compatibility not only across desktop environments within linux, but also with windows users, and soon mac users. Teaching, files, interface, all compatible. And in the area of productivity tools for office use, without that, it doesn't matter how good your product is, cause you'll still be the betamaxx and you'll be doing a disservice to your users.

________

KDE?

[Laplace]

I think that KDE is great. It's slick, well thought out, and complete. Having said that, I don't use it. Simply put Windowmaker stikes a very good balance between usability, eye candy, and speed on my Blue and White G3. When I actually need to get work done (at places like work), I prefer to use PWM. It loads very fast, handles windows well (I like have 9 or 10 xterms in one frame), and for the most part stays out of my way. Speed isn't an issue here; I develop on a dual PIII. What I would like to see from the KDE developers is some sort of KDE Lite. Then again, I guess that I could just join the development team and do it myself.