Five Years of KDE

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Posted by michael on Sunday October 14, 2001 @03:08PM from the birthdays-for-everyone dept.

Jacek Fedorynski writes: "Looks like KDE is five years old. Five years seems like a lot of time but just look how much they've achieved in this time." I think the hard part is just beginning - KDE has got all the basics down, and now they have to resist adding too much more crap.

7 of 401 comments (clear)

Crap? by robbyjo · 2001-10-14 15:22 · Score: 5, Insightful

KDE has got all the basics down, and now they have to resist adding too much more crap.
I think KDE team is doing their good job. What do you mean by "adding more crap"? Do you mean adding more apps into the window manager? Well, you can always only download kde-base and other necessary ones if you don't like KOffice, KDevelop, and other stuffs...
Meanwhile, I like the idea to integrating their office suite with KDE. That way, you can get consistencies in user interface so that Windoze users don't get too much shock on migration.
Moreover, they're getting better every release. More stable, speedier, and more usable to users. Five years to develop this brilliant stuff is just unbelievably short. Not even Microsoft can build their lousy Win3.1 to another lousy Win2K, that took them more than 5 years...

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Congrats and thanks to KDE by Ars-Fartsica · 2001-10-14 15:41 · Score: 5, Insightful

KDE is an amazing set of products. I am using KDE 2.2 right now and compared to a product like OSX, it is competitive in terms of features and applications.
The QT libraries continue to evolve nicely, and thanks to Troll for GPL'ing the code.
Konqueror is an excellent browser product, and I consider it to be on par with the excellent Mozilla product.
KOffice is a competitve, well integrated product for people with moderate needs. I haven't had any problems yet I could not solve with KOffice.
KDevelop is the closest thing the Visual Studio on linux.
Other lesser-known product like Qunata, Kate and KXML are starting to show real promise. I would like Kate in particular to really catch fire like Emacs has over the years - its time for an editor that it totally integrated with its visual environment.
Its the integration that keeps me using KDE over GNOME, which I admit may have some stronger individual programs but just isn't stitched together like KDE is. Its amazing that this entire system is free and has source code available. I look forward to the next five years of this fantastic set of products.
1. Re:Congrats and thanks to KDE by Ars-Fartsica · 2001-10-14 17:49 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  2) integrated voice activation
  This is a lame feature and thank god KDE does not attempt it. There is nothing more moronic than a bunch of people talking to their computers (no offense to Star Trekkers).
  If the only thing I can do with this is launch programs, its just a joke.
  3) An easy way to script out application action (like AppleScript)
  There are about a thousand ways to do this on linux that are better than anything Apple has come up with itself. Perl. Python. Bourne Shell for christs sake. Apple has caught up to linux with scripting, but only on the basis of porting the GNU tools through BSD support.
  7) A proper user interface
  Well, supposedly Apple had the ultimate UI before OSX, yet they felt the need to scrap it. You can find numerous articles where UI folks and Apple greybeards shit all over OSX's interface.
  Personally I like the OSX UI, but its more or less eye candy. Functionally almost nothing has changed that isn't purely cosmetic (and resource hungry).
  8) Lots of properly integrated apps
  No. KDE has plenty of apps well integrated through KParts. Apple has Classic and Cocoa, and will have these two environments for a VERY VERY VERY VERY LONG TIME. Since few people are working on any Mac code these days, Apple is going to be supporting MacOS9 apps until doomsday. Already Apple users are being humilliated on the shelves at retailers by Windows 98 and soon XP will finish the job.
  Sure, there is a lot of distance for KDE to go, but as cool as OSX is, Apple has killed itself on strategy. When your userbase is as low as Apple, doing a total presto changeo on the OS, development tools, and even thr fricking monitor connection is just more motivation for Apple users to buy a PC next time around. I commend the for the Apple store concept, but it won't help at this point.
Re:A great example of open-source at work. by Pr0xY · 2001-10-14 16:10 · Score: 5, Insightful

I agree that these five years worth of progress is very impressive. However comparing them to Microsoft's work isn't entirely fair. Microsoft was developing an Operating System, not just a GUI for it. KDE has the advantage of using somone else's GUI library to work with as a basis. Plus they don't have to worry about the complexities of Operating System's.

Don't get me wrong, i don't mean to not give KDE credit where credit is due...but we gotta be fair, comparing KDE to Windows is hardly an equal comparison.
Behind every good GUI... by Ogerman · 2001-10-14 16:53 · Score: 5, Funny

.. is a woman!

From Matthius' original newsgroup post:

"..The idea is to create a GUI for an ENDUSER. Somebody who wants to browse the web with Linux, write some letters and play some nice games.
I really believed that is even yet possible with Linux until I configured my girlfriend's box.

Yes indeed, I would like to thank Matthius and the rest of the KDE team for their enormous contributions to the future of Open Source. But most of all, I'd like to thank the nameless girlfriend who wasn't afraid to complain! (-:
The international touch by hack0rama · 2001-10-14 16:58 · Score: 5, Interesting

Since KDE is out of Germany and QT from Norway I was just thinking how much international connection Linux has compared to Windows or Macintosh which are completely US centric.

Linux - Finland
GNU - US
KDE - Germany
QT - Norway
GNOME - Mexico ( Miguel )
OpenOffice - Germany ( Stardivision )
Mozilla - US
SAMBA - Australia
LyX by Moritz+Moeller+-+Her · 2001-10-14 21:56 · Score: 5, Insightful

Well this wasn't Matthias Ettrich's first and only accomplishment. He also gave us the first and only usable frontend to latex.
I (and many other people!) swear by lyx for their scientific papers. It is absolutely great. Only after this did Matthias Ettrich start KDE.
First he created a GUI for the best OS text processing system, then he went on to create the best GUI for the entire unix OS!
Unlike some other guys (Miguel, Bruce, ...) he did not become a poster child of slashdot kids, but he deserves our gratitude for his great work towards a linux (and BSD) for the end user and on many desktops.
THANK YOU!

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Moritz