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Mosfet Contributes Code To KDE (Again)

davidsmind writes "Former KDE hacker and creator of the much acclaimed Liquid theme, Mosfet(AKA Daniel M. Duley ) is back in the spotlight. The Dot was the first one with the story. 'Many in the KDE community are aware of some rocky history between KDE hacker Mosfet and other KDE developers. Fortunately, it looks like things have taken a great turn for the better: Mosfet wrote in to tell us that "I've decided to donate 20 effects I ported to KDE/Qt for PixiePlus to KDE3." Waldo Bastian promptly added them to CVS.'" The list of effects is long, impressive, and under a BSD-style license. Mosfet has done a lot of the work that makes my desktop pretty, so I'm very happy to hear about this.

193 comments

  1. Wonderful news by i_am_nitrogen · · Score: 2, Informative

    I for one am looking forward to installing KDE3 when it's all good and ready. Both KDE and Gnome have made incredible progress in the last few years. I think that the Open Source desktop systems are advancing much more quickly than any proprietary system. It's only a matter of time before KDE and Gnome surpass (if they haven't already) all proprietary GUI systems as far as appearance and usability go. My only complaint about KDE is that it's all C++, and it takes forever to load on an older computer. As I recall that's a problem with the dynamic C++ linker, and not KDE itself, though.

    It would seem that "The Dot" is already fallen under the Slashdot effect.

    1. Re:Wonderful news by bero-rh · · Score: 2, Informative

      My only complaint about KDE is that it's all C++

      A matter of perspective - my only major gripe with gnome is that its API re-invents the wheel over and over (C is not an object-oriented language, and gtk's attempt at emulating an object oriented language just isn't as good as the real thing, IMO).

      It would seem that "The Dot" is already fallen under the Slashdot effect.

      Currently working on it... The machine's load was temporarily up at 33.8, it's starting
      to enter acceptable values (10.33 ATM) now, after some tweaking.

      --
      This message is provided under the terms outlined at http://www.bero.org/terms.html
    2. Re:Wonderful news by navindra · · Score: 1

      I gave Zope a slap up the head too, so it should be more responsive now. Now that I'm back, I'll have some time to figure out a more robust solution for the dot.

      -N.

    3. Re:Wonderful news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      dot.kde.org would fall down in a slight breeze - nevermind the slashdot effect. It is apparently hosted on a vacuum cleaner.

    4. Re:Wonderful news by Peter+La+Casse · · Score: 1
      C is not an object-oriented language

      Object Orientation is a programming style, not a set of language features. Some languages (e.g. C++ and Java) attempt to encourage object-oriented programming, but the world is full of non-object-oriented programs that use this languages.

      Using object oriented programming techniques in C is not a sign of delusion, it's an attempt to do more with less.

    5. Re:Wonderful news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      A matter of perspective - my only major gripe with gnome is that its API re-invents the wheel over and over (C is not an object-oriented language, and gtk's attempt at emulating an object oriented language just isn't as good as the real thing, IMO).

      Er... isn't C++ written in C? Why can't you have a nice toolkit written in C that uses a nice clean OO-like interface? I'll never understand that argument.

    6. Re:Wonderful news by Arandir · · Score: 2

      Using object oriented programming techniques in C is not a sign of delusion, it's an attempt to do more with less.

      You can always do more with less. So why not write your OO program in assember? Just because I can build a house armed with only a screwdriver does not mean that's the way it should be done. I have only myself to blame if my neighbors think me delusional for hammering, sawing and spackling with only a screwdriver, especially when my toolbox includes hammers, saws and putty knives.

      There are some OO like things you can do in C easily. But most of them are very difficult. It's not worth the effort when you can do the very same thing, and more, with a real OO language. C++ may not be the perfect OO language, but I would rather hammer in nails with an imperfect hammer than with an elegant screwdriver.

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
    7. Re:Wonderful news by Arandir · · Score: 2

      Er... isn't C++ written in C?

      In the GNU world, yes. But so what? So is fortran, ada, objective C, java, and every other language that gcc supports.

      If C++ compilers were standard on all Unix platforms, then it would make sense to write a compiler in C++. But a lot of platforms don't. I don't see how you could bootstrap a C++ compiler written in C++ using only the default C compiler. Compilers aren't written in C because C is better than C++, but rather because C is the lowest common denominator language on Unix.

      Why can't you have a nice toolkit written in C that uses a nice clean OO-like interface?

      GTK+ is a nice toolkit. But it stretches things quite a bit to call its OO interface "clean".

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
    8. Re:Wonderful news by pclminion · · Score: 2
      A matter of perspective - my only major gripe with gnome is that its API re-invents the wheel over and over (C is not an object-oriented language, and gtk's attempt at emulating an object oriented language just isn't as good as the real thing, IMO).

      Exactly. The biggest problem, I think, is that calling a method is done differently depending on whether that method is virtual. If object Z has standard method A and virtual method B, then to invoke A you must say A(Z), but to invoke B you must say Z->B(Z). This disparity is ugly and would be solved by using C++ which they should have done in the first place.

  2. Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Did someone mention BSD? This story is bound to have about 30 or so "BSD is dying" posts from Linux users who recently converted from Windows only 10 days ago.

    1. Re:Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh wait! How about the *more* prevalant "BSD is better than Linux" and "The GPL sucks, *BSD r00lz" comments by the 10-day-old ex-Linux users who installed FreeBSD?

    2. Re:Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "BSD is better than Linux" ... "The GPL sucks, *BSD r00lz"

      I have never seen any BSD user use the word "r00lz" ever. And the people who preach that BSD is better than Linux usually back up their claims with hard fact.

      10-day-old ex-Linux users who installed FreeBSD?

      The problem is that it doesnt work that way. Your whole charade of claiming that BSD users are trolls is completely unfounded.

    3. Re:Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have never seen any BSD user use the word "r00lz" ever. And the people who preach that BSD is better than Linux usually back up their claims with hard fact.

      hahahahahahahahahahah!!!!!!!!!

      Oh my god that was a good one.

  3. That Just Goes to Show Ya by Mojo+Geek · · Score: 1, Insightful

    An old carpenter I worked with almost 30 years ago told me "if it don't come out in the wash, it comes out in the rinsin'".

    All of us that use and enjoy KDE owe thanks to those that contribute, regardless of whatever went on before they bring code to the table for us to share.

    1. Re:That Just Goes to Show Ya by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Awww thats too bad.. nothing gets out chocolate, see?

  4. What's the story? by Gogo+Dodo · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Many in the KDE community are aware of some rocky history between KDE hacker Mosfet and other KDE developers.

    For those of us not in the know, what's the rocky history?

    dot.kde.org is totally /.'ed.

    1. Re:What's the story? by Nevrar · · Score: 3, Informative

      http://slashdot.org/search.pl?query=mosfet might help...

      --
      Nevrar
    2. Re:What's the story? by ThatComputerGuy · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm not exactly sure of the specifics, but I do know that mosfet had a falling out earlier with the rest of the KDE developers.

      He's done some cool stuff for KDE, but from what I heard, he appeared to not work well as a team and could possibly have been a hindrance to KDE's progress. This is mostly what I read from KDE's other developers.

      Mosfet took his code and began developing separately from KDE, and KDE developers allegedly began forking his code, sometimes even claiming that mosfet's code was forked.

      He then had some trouble with FutureTech, but that's not directly related to the KDE team at all.

      So, that's what I know. Basically some stuff I've read from mosfet, kde developers, and 3rd parties.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    3. Re:What's the story? by jallen02 · · Score: 1

      Mosfet is a she :)

    4. Re:What's the story? by navindra · · Score: 1

      Sorry about that. dot.kde.org should be more responsive now.

      -N.

    5. Re:What's the story? by ThatComputerGuy · · Score: 2

      No, dude, you're mistaken by the images he's always had on his site. No, I don't know what's up with those either.

      Btw, Mosfet's real name is Daniel M. Dudley. Does Daniel sounds like a chick's name?

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    6. Re:What's the story? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      dot.kde.org probably isn't slashdotted...it's just slow as hell.

      Most of the kde webservers completely suck. I mean, *no* other major webservers that I go to are as bogged down as they are.

  5. I propose a Mosfet section on Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    But the icon may frighten off the readers :-)

    1. Re:I propose a Mosfet section on Slashdot by ThatComputerGuy · · Score: 2

      If you think that one's bad, check out mosfet2.jpg.

      And the weird thing is, the dude's got m4d skillzZz, but he claims he likes these images!

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    2. Re:I propose a Mosfet section on Slashdot by burtonator · · Score: 2

      Could someone PLEASE answer this for me? I am confused.

      Is this what Mosfet looks like? Is this him in drag? Who is that in the picture!?

      I mean, if Mosfet wants to dress in drag, that is cool I don't care (heck, I live in San Francisco). I just want to find out what the deal is!

      Is this just something the is into? Men dressing like crazy aggressive women?

      There are some more pictures in his PixiePlus screenshots.

      Anyway...

      Kevin

    3. Re:I propose a Mosfet section on Slashdot by Otter · · Score: 3, Funny
      Is this what Mosfet looks like? Is this him in drag? Who is that in the picture!?

      Yes, that's him.

      There are some more pictures in his PixiePlus screenshots.

      The pictures of the blonde woman in a dress? That's his girlfriend, IIRC. So if you single guys out there were wondering what you're doing wrong, you might want to consider long green hair, green lipstick and periodic feuding with the core KDE developers. Apparently there's more to know than just what's in Eric Raymond's sex tips HOWTO...

    4. Re:I propose a Mosfet section on Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ya, well, we all have our weird kinks. Aside from the fact that he's unfortunately coding for KDE instead of GNOME ( :-) ), Mosfet gets thumbs-up.

    5. Re:I propose a Mosfet section on Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Is this just something the is into? Men dressing like crazy aggressive women?
      I don't know where you get the aggressive thing. He looks more like Kate Winslet. Or is a guy in a dress aggressive to you?

      ps. drag means "as a female", strictly speaking a guy in a dress doesn't count as drag. These pictures are wearing lipstick and (probably) makeup - they're not really female.

  6. Not just a large contribution by jonathan_ingram · · Score: 5, Informative
    Mosfet writes some good code, but don't go away thinking that KDE is lost without him (particularly not because of this recent contributution of some effects ripped from imagemagick). This is so far away from the truth as to be laughable.

    One of the biggest things to happen to KDE in last year has been the rewrite of KDE's printing support, by Michael Goffioul. No-one goes around proclaiming Michael as a coding god, because he just got on with it and produced something very impressive (and that has got even more impressive in KDE 3).

    Similarly for the developer(s) of Kate, KDE's text editor. Or the developers of Konqueror, who have equalled Mozilla with a twentieth of the personnel and a thousandth of the money.

    Similarly for all the people that don't code, but instead translate KDE into 15 million languages.

    KDE is a true team effort and can do without coding primadonnas.

    1. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, what are you getting so defensive about? No one said anything like that. Are you guys really so nervous that you don't have someone like Miguel leading the pack that people are gonna think it's a disorganized mess? I'm sure not everyone thinks that.

    2. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow... kinda looks like OS X. Only it isn't.

    3. Re:Not just a large contribution by Darren+Winsper · · Score: 0

      No offence, but Konqueror has not equalled Mozilla. Konqueror has weaker standards support, is less portable, doesn't support alternate stylesheets and is less stable.

      Also, keep in mind that Konqueror is a much smaller project than Mozilla. For example, if your claim of a twentieth of the personnel you're including the people who wrote the mail/news editor, the toolkit, the HTML composer and various other things.

    4. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yep, konqueror and opera barf on pages that mozilla renders flawlessly, of course those pages are quite rare

    5. Re:Not just a large contribution by nathanh · · Score: 2, Flamebait
      Or the developers of Konqueror [konqueror.org], who have equalled Mozilla with a twentieth of the personnel and a thousandth of the money.

      Without belittling Konqueror, as it is truly an excellent browser, it is not in the same league as Mozilla.

    6. Re:Not just a large contribution by anfloga · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I work professionally as a GUI developer, and can add one more reason why it's probable that Mosfet is getting so much attention, relative to the other equally worthy programmers out there.

      You can see what he's done. It's obvious, it just jumps right out at you, because it's GUI work. For better or worse, GUI programmers have this extra responsibility.

      Erik

    7. Re:Not just a large contribution by Jagasian · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Without belittling Mozilla, as it is truly an excellent browser, it is not in the same league as Konqueror.

    8. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Primadonna or not, he produces code that makes some peoples
      desktops nicer. He does eventhough nobody demands that he does it.
      He does it for fun.

      He is not a primadonna. He is a coder which gives his stuff away. Whats
      so f*cking primadonna about that?

    9. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Konqueror doesn't handle broken pages nearly as well as Mozilla. It doesn't support nearly as much of the DOM as Mozilla (and thus the same levels of Javascript as Mozilla).

      I mean it's lightweight and a nice day to day browser but it's more comparable to Opera than Mozilla.

      Mozilla wrangles pages like no other.

    10. Re:Not just a large contribution by Dahan · · Score: 1

      What, Konquerer's in little league? :)

    11. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mozilla takes longer to load. Therefore, it must be better. :)

    12. Re:Not just a large contribution by RickHunter · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, that's curious. Konqueror renders twice the pages correctly in half the time that Mozilla does. And loads faster. And has a more appealing default interface. And browses the web, as opposed to reading mail and news, providing an IRC client, and making my morning coffee.

    13. Re:Not just a large contribution by krogoth · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "particularly not because of this recent contributution of some effects ripped from imagemagick"

      Are you saying that he used Open-Source code in an Open-Source project? *gasp*

      If he didn't credit the source that's understandable, but if this is brought to his attention and he fixes it, it could be a mistake (although since I'm sure you've never made any, you wouldn't understand).

      --

      They that quote Benjamin Franklin on liberty and safety deserve neither.
    14. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      mozilla makes me barf
      konqueror doesn't

      mozilla sucks major smelly donkey ass

    15. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, Konqueror has a great deal more DOM support than Mozilla does. Most of the current bugs in Konqueror are in kjs, not in it's DOM support, which is indeed, one of the best.

      Check out w3's browser listing:
      http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/

      and Konqueror's own support table:
      http://www.konqueror.org/content/khtml_css2.html"

      You are, however, right that Konqueror handles broken pages less than Mozilla does. That is certainly true. But the thing is that Konqueror tries to be as standards compliant as possible, so it does not implement things like the (broken, nonstandard) nobr tag while mozilla does.

    16. Re:Not just a large contribution by Compenguin · · Score: 1

      From what i've heard Konqueror also doesn't support PNG transparency. And if your comparing the UI try to compare it to Galeon which is mozilla embeded into a Gtk+ interface.

    17. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Actually, Konqueror does support PNG transparency.

      try looking at the offcial PNG transparency test page using Konqueror:
      http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/pngs.html

      You can't really compare Konqueror and Galeon because they have different scopes. Konqueror is a file manager that doubles as a web browser. Konqueror, Nautilus, and Internet Explorer have the same scope (although Nautilus's web functions are a bit weak).

    18. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What, Mozilla's in little league? :)

    19. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Konqueror has much better standards support than Mozilla has. Mozilla is much better at supporting non-standard things tho.

      Konqueror supports alternate stylesheets since 2.0. It was a bit broken until 2.2. Konqueror's stability is a lot better than Mozilla's.

      Yes, Konqueror is a lot smaller of a project than Mozilla, however, khtml took a LOT less time to mature than gecko did, and a lot less people worked on khtml.

    20. Re:Not just a large contribution by Ranger+Rick · · Score: 1

      Hehe, yup. And actually, if you read the thread on dot.kde.org, mosfet was very open about where he got his algorithms and effects.

      --

      WWJD? JWRTFM!!!

    21. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      You can't really compare Konqueror and Galeon because they have different scopes. Konqueror is a file manager that doubles as a web browser.


      Wait a minute, wait a minute. We have these raging Konqueror hordes who whine and grumble and moan about Mozilla being so much more than a web browser, where Konqueror just renders the web pages. Now we have some troll who's going to say that Galeon (which "just renders web pages") and Konqueror can't be compared? Please!!! Let's have a little consistency here.

    22. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That W3 page pretty much lists everything that even vaugely supports CSS. In the past they had Communicator 4 (where CSS barely works) and MSIE (which didn't correctly support positioning until v6). It has nothing to do with DOM at all.

    23. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These kinds of posts are the reason why some people think that KDE people are Karrogant Kpricks.

    24. Re:Not just a large contribution by Menthos · · Score: 1
      Konqueror renders twice the pages correctly in half the time that Mozilla does

      Twice the pages? Really? Do you have any examples? Else this is probably mostly wish-thinking, as every other person I've met will testify that Mozilla renders more pages correctly. Nothing personal against Konqueror, it's just that the Mozilla people have had more time to spend developing their engine.

      And browses the web, as opposed to reading mail and news, providing an IRC client, and making my morning coffee.

      I hope you know that you don't have to install those parts if you do not want to.

      --

      GNU/Linux. The Freshmaker.

    25. Re:Not just a large contribution by Yosho · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't believe he said what you think he said. Konqueror is fine for an everyday web browser; Mozilla is as feature-rich as one could imagine, including reading mail and news as well as using IRC. Believe it or not, some people like that.

      He didn't say one is better than the other; for what they were intended for, they're both excellent. Nonetheless, they *are* in different leagues -- to further the analogy, Konqueror is a flyweight to Mozilla's super heavyweight. Saying that the Konqueror coders have created an equivalent to Mozilla is pure fallacy.

      As a sidenote, the interfaces are even more up to opinion than the rest of the features -- I, personally, find Konqueror to be quite ugly compared to Mozilla. However, that's just my opinion, and has no place in a qualitative comparison of the browsers.

      --
      Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
    26. Re:Not just a large contribution by SCHecklerX · · Score: 2
      In addition to all the comments the above poster made, Mozilla is designed to be a web-browser, and excels at it. Konqueror tries to be a file manager too...and fails miserably as an overly bloated piece of elephant dung (please, let me tell you how I really feel :). I wish they would have stayed with where KFM was headed, but they scrapped it all for the konqueror crap.

      Thank goodness I discovered ROX-Filer.

    27. Re:Not just a large contribution by Zapman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Or the developers of Konqueror [konqueror.org], who have equalled Mozilla with a twentieth of the personnel and a thousandth of the money.

      All preferences asside, both are fantastic browsers, however, saying konq has equaled mozilla is like saying a pear has equaled an orange because they are both fruit. Konq has a goal of being a fantastic browser for kde. This it has done. Mozilla has a goal of being a fantastic CROSS-PLATFORM browser. This it has done. It's quite accurate to say that they arn't in the same league, so long as you realize the leagues you're talking about are the NBA and the NFL, for example

      --
      Zapman
    28. Re:Not just a large contribution by dbarclay10 · · Score: 2

      Well, everything that Moz does, Galeon does. More or less, anyways.

      Try loading up chrome://navigator/content/navigator.xul in Galeon some day.

      --

      Barclay family motto:
      Aut agere aut mori.
      (Either action or death.)
    29. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mod parent up, please.

      You have to understand that the vast majority of the effort in Mozilla has gone into assure cross-platform capability. This is not trivial. If you take a look at the Mozilla coding standards, you realize how much of C++ they couldn't use and how much crap they had to go through to get everything working. They couldn't use something if it broke on *one* of something like 30 platforms.

      Heavy-duty crossplatform work on the scale of Mozilla is a hell of a lot of work. It might have been easier to just write two or three smaller browsers local to each system, but they wouldn't have had the same look/feel/underlying system, which was a design requirement.

      Now, Konqueror is cute, but they design for *one* system (which can be twisted to fit what they want to do, as opposed to having to twist your own code to fit a ten year old *ugly* bug in some OS). It's a fine browser, but there are very good reasons that Mozilla took so much work.

    30. Re:Not just a large contribution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah -- one of the reasons I stay turned off to KDE is that there seems to be quite a few programs where the developers basically said "well, Windows does it, so it must be a good idea". I thought the whole webbrowser-filebrowser thing was a stupid idea when MS started pushing it, when they implemented it, and sure enough, when it was implemented in KDE.

    31. Re:Not just a large contribution by Darren+Winsper · · Score: 1

      Konqueror does not have much better standards support than Mozilla. Mozilla has much better CSS2 and DOM support for a start. Is there any MathML or XSLT support in Konqueror?

      Would you care to explain how I select an alternate stylesheet using http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/ as an example?

      Konqueror is not more stable than Mozilla. It wasn't as stable up until around 0.9.3, but it's now at 0.9.7 and it's a damn site more stable than Konqueror.

      And finally, do you know how many people work on the core Gecko engine? No, I didn't think so.

    32. Re:Not just a large contribution by nathanh · · Score: 2

      Why have I been moderated as flamebait not just once, but twice? Konqueror is an excellent browser (KDE is my default desktop and Konqueror is my normal web browser) but I'm not naive enough to believe it's achieving the same scope as Mozilla.

      Is this more proof that the anti-anti-KDE league is now much more vocal than the anti-KDE league? Both of them seem to be more vocal than the pro-KDE league! It seems they're flaming the people who support KDE (eg, myself) for daring to be objective!

    33. Re:Not just a large contribution by Jagasian · · Score: 2

      At least someone has gotten my point. Stating something like the parent of my original post did without backing it up is just as silly as stating the opposite proposition without any proof.

  7. Re:oh boy! by Kwikymart · · Score: 2, Informative

    When was the last time you tried kde? You could argue that it is slow, but saying that it is buggy is completely untrue.

    --

    Buying a Dell computer is equivalent to dropping the soap in a prison shower.
  8. Wow.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you, ah, seem to have read quite a bit into the story that was not there.

    no one's proclaiming mosfet is a god or most important member of the kde project [read: you just said that yourself and got angry].

    all that was said was that mosfet wrote Liquid [which is pretty cool].

  9. Re:oh boy! by jonathan_ingram · · Score: 2, Insightful
    slow, buggy overengineered window manager


    'kwin' is actually a fairly lightweight window manager. Or do you not know the difference between a window manager and a desktop environment?

  10. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Or do you not know the difference between a window manager and a desktop environment?

    Who the hell cares? Most people just want a nice, fast, stable GUI to get their work done. They don't care if it uses a "desktop" or a "window manager" or any other geek terminology. (Incidentally, this may be the reason most people use Windows.)

  11. No, it cannot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Another /.er said:
    "KDE can do without coding primadonnas".

    Sorry, I think I disagree.

    Primadonnas are a pain in the ass, ok.

    But in the final count, you must kneel and ask them to come back on stage (hear the fine music about primadonnas from Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera").

    Some primaddonnas have a contribution, a good contribution for that matter -- and *we* cannot afford being egocentric -- even and mainly if they are!

    In the famous Lee Iacocca autobiographic book, he tells about having colleagues who complained about hardtimes with other people. He used to say, jokingly I guess, "Too bad, this company doesn't hire monkeys, or gorillas or tigers, we just got people!"

    And that's it, to put it simply.

    KDE is not just about technology. Ok, it is a very advanced project and what I like in the Linux world is that we progress faster than most other alternatives, be it commercial or not.

    But KDE _is_ about people, too. Don't throw away competent people. Instead, put some buffer around their idiosyncrasies.

    Heck, keep them in an asylum if you need, but don't disregard their work. We lost too many geniuses because they were gay, and now we regret it.

    So, get two people, the primadonna and someone who can interface him/her to the world.

    Now, to Mosfet and Rasterman, you can sing very well -- but what is a singer without an audience.

    Have patience with those who must have patience with you.

    From a friend.

    1. Re:No, it cannot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes in order for open source to have a chance at success you have to kiss the ass of anyone who might contribute code, including the assholes and losers.

      In the real world you just fire the prick and get someone who knows how to interact with other humans, but with open source you instead have to kiss these lamewads ass.

    2. Re:No, it cannot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Umm...not to sound like a complete troll, but I wonder how many coding projects you've really been on.


      Prima donnas are nothing but trouble. In this day and age, the talented programmer is the one who has both the technical aptitude AND the ability to work with (gasp) users, professionals from other diciplines (graphic artists, etc) and generally communicate/ work well with others, etc. Once upon a time, yes, programmers were allowed to be prima donnas and get away with it. Now, they might get away with it for a while, but it catches up to them eventually - you really become your own downfall if you continue to act that way.


      I don't follow KDE that closely, but it seems like this guy is a classic prima donna. When he originally made the decision to leave, it looked to me from everything I read like a good thing. I'm not sure why the KDE crowd would want him back actually.

    3. Re:No, it cannot by CAIMLAS · · Score: 2

      Where do you get the idea that they're self-assigned stars? All I see is a couple geeks doing things they enjoy - writing code, participating in an online community, etc. I really don't see where you get this primadonna idea from. AFIK, neither Mosfet nor Rasterman have proclaimed their own superiority. You, and other people like you, seem to have done a good even job.

      --
      ~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
    4. Re:No, it cannot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heck, keep them in an asylum if you need, but don't disregard their work.

      This seems to be an unusual case. mosfet defected, asking that his contributions be returned. He then attempted to transfer their ownership to a private company that apparently turned out to be just a bunch of fakers pulling his chain. I don't know why he went along with it, but my guess is he had a strong need for money.

      Unless his sources of income are adequate and openly known, I think it would be prudent of the KDE developers and the public at large to check mosfet's future contributions carefully to ensure that they can be legally accepted. At the very least, before accepting any further contribution from him, he should be required to sign a statement saying that he will never again ask for any contribution of his to be removed from the project.

      Large GPL projects like KDE (and smaller ones too) should be more careful where their support comes from. They should know the motives and obligations of their contributors.

      It would be easy for some large monopolist to arrange shadowy support for someone posing as an "open-source developer" and supply him with infringing material that could cause embarassment or delays to the project if it were used.

      Worst of all, the "aggrieved party" could then threaten to sue and would probably reach a favorable settlement. The settlement could include but not be limited to the project leaders' agreement to make bad design decisions, create slowdowns, leave critical or annoying bugs unfixed, or even a sign a contract to use only the monopolist's software.

    5. Re:No, it cannot by franimal · · Score: 1

      Off topic but interesting:

      The one of the largest contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary was locked away in an asylum.

      http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1358.htm

    6. Re:No, it cannot by Patoski · · Score: 2

      Another /.er said:
      "KDE can do without coding primadonnas".

      Sorry, I think I disagree.

      Primadonnas are a pain in the ass, ok.


      They are not only a pain in the ass but if you've been in open projects for any amount of time you know that they're huge time wasters as well. They're contributions are mitigated by the fact that they're such high maintenance and they eat up other ppl's valuable time.

      In the famous Lee Iacocca autobiographic book, he tells about having colleagues who complained about hardtimes with other people. He used to say, jokingly I guess, "Too bad, this company doesn't hire monkeys, or gorillas or tigers, we just got people!"

      And that's it, to put it simply.


      That quote you're using... It was Iocacca arguing why prima donnas aren't tolerated. He also goes on to say that if the prima dona is sufficiently talented he might be tolerated for a time but eventually their inability to get along with people will do them in. I don't understand your use of the quote as it just undermines your position.

      But KDE _is_ about people, too. Don't throw away competent people. Instead, put some buffer around their idiosyncrasies.

      Heck, keep them in an asylum if you need, but don't disregard their work. We lost too many geniuses because they were gay, and now we regret it.


      Ummm... Being gay and being a prima donna are two very different things. Its a fatally flawed analogy.

      So, get two people, the primadonna and someone who can interface him/her to the world.

      You mean get them a babysitter? Good luck finding one willing to babysit egos during their free time. =)

      That said it appears that Mosfet is playing nicely with everyone in the sandbox now. =)

      --
      G. Washington on Government "it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
    7. Re:No, it cannot by flacco · · Score: 2
      Heck, keep them in an asylum if you need, but don't disregard their work. We lost too many geniuses because they were gay, and now we regret it.

      There's a difference between being gay and being an insufferable asshole. If you need Primadonnas, use them. But their usefulness should not be used to rationalize derogatory behavior toward others.

      And no, I am not referring to Mosfet. I know nothing about him or the Mosfet/KDE thing.

      --
      pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
  12. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, you could argue that KDE is slow, just like you could argue that the sun is a tad warm. It's close, but doesn't quite do justice to the fact.

    (posting anonymously because I don't want my moderation of insightful to be undone to the parent comment of the whole thread)

  13. Didn't you hear? by robkore · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Did someone mention BSD? This story is bound to have about 30 or so "BSD is dying" posts from Linux users who recently converted from Windows only 10 days ago.

    '*BSD is dying' posts are dying

    Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered *BSD-is-dying community when last month slashdot confirmed that *BSD-is-dying posts account for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all posts. Coming on the heels of the latest slashdot survey which plainly states that *BSD-is-dying posts have lost more market share to option E, Cowboyneal, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD-is-dying posts are collapsing in complete disarray, as further exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive trolling test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD-is-dying's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD-is-dying posts face a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD-is-dying posts because *BSD-is-dying is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD-is-dying posts. As many of us are already aware, *BSD-is-dying posters continue to lose karma. Red ink flows like a river of blood. FreeBSD-is-dying is the most endangered of them all.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    BSD-is-dying leader Anonymous Coward states that there are 70 readers of BSD-is-dying posts.

    All major surveys show that *BSD-is-dying posts have steadily declined on slashdot. *BSD-is-dying is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD-is-dying is to survive at all it will be among OS hobbyist trolls. *BSD-is-dying continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD-is-dying is dead.

    *BSD is dying is dying

    who wanted karma anyway...

  14. please? by djocyko · · Score: 2

    would someone mind copying the list of contributions he has recently made here? (the article is nicely /.ed)

    thanks!

  15. Mosfet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Mosfet eats the cock! Liquid sucks balls.

  16. The Odd Thing About Open Source by quakeaddict · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The odd thing about open source is that the few who get paid doing it can be just as unreliable as a corporation. Its amazing to me watching how people fall over guys like Mosfet, in gratitude, after he basically walked out on the project a few months earlier saying "its my ball and i'm going home."

    --
    I'm still working on a clever footer.
    1. Re:The Odd Thing About Open Source by jallen02 · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Mosfet is a SHE!.

      ...

      Jeremy

    2. Re:The Odd Thing About Open Source by naasking · · Score: 1
      You sure? http://www.mosfet.org/about.html says:
      My name is Daniel M. Duley

      Daniel is a male name, Danielle is female. Why do you think Mosfet is a woman? (Besides the weird image banners)

  17. Mosfet vs Rasterman! by HanzoSan · · Score: 1

    Interesting!

    --
    If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
  18. Re:please? dot front page mirror by quist · · Score: 1

    As long as I have a bit of bandwidth to burn, (should last a few hours) you can see the dot front page here.

  19. Re:oh boy! by kitts · · Score: 1

    "Yah, you do that"

    Miller's Crossing?

    --
    -------------------------------------------------- ----
    charlton heston is more of a man than yo
  20. Let us not forget ... by ez76 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nobody doubts the impact Mosfet has had on KDE, but we would be remiss if we neglected the many contributions of Bipolar and Jfet as well.

    They too have played a big role in making KDE what it is today.

    1. Re:Let us not forget ... by moreati · · Score: 1

      It's good to see people being complimentary about Mosfet.

      Sorry, had to be done.

      Alex

  21. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe he knows. I dont know the difference. What is the difference? Maybe I am missing a lot know, i dont know. Ok, you could use different window mangers in a desktop enviroment, but what else is the difference? Why is KDE so big? It got the K and i can start the apps there and i could configure it an i could use themes... I could do the same things with a window manager, so where is the difference?

    I only want to know, i dont want to troll here. It is just a question.

  22. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    sit "Most people" in front of a computer running KDE and they could actually do things in it.

    sit "Most people" in front of a computer running some of the "lite" window managers (like windowmaker, blackbox, icewm, etc..), and they'd be hopelessly lost.

  23. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    I am amazed by how I absolutely couldn't give one tiny little fuck about this.

    GNOME is for cocksmokers.

    Get with the program. Kde roxors haxors.

  24. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >sit "Most people" in front of a computer running some of the "lite" window managers (like windowmaker, blackbox, icewm, etc..), and they'd be hopelessly lost.

    Do you think so?
    What is difficult in using icewm? You klick on the button on the left lower corner of your monitor go to programs and start your desired app... hmm, not so difficult. Or is it?

  25. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    lol, don't you realize that slashdot is a very pro-KDE group? go post your filthy pro-GNOME comments on gnotices.

  26. Wow. How original... by wazzzup · · Score: 0, Troll

    ...another piece of open-source software that poorly mimics an established commercial variant. It has become apparent that where open source is concerned, the ratio of cheap-knockoff to innovative software is highly lopsided.

    Go ahead and mod me down as a troll but you know it's true.

  27. Hurrah! by sgage · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Everybody's carrying on as if this is some sort of important event in the history of KDE. The Liquid theme is pretty, but jaysus, it's a friggin' theme! Let's get some perspective.

    1. Re:Hurrah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He's done more than just the liquid theme.

      let's see..

      1). the kde2 styles engine
      2). many of the kde2 styles/themes
      3). pixie
      etc..

    2. Re:Hurrah! by davidsmind · · Score: 0

      ah but lest we forget that mosfet's theme is only the most resent thing he has done(besides pixie), he also did most of the coding for kicker and the KDE system tray.

      --
      I'll Sig you!
    3. Re:Hurrah! by Decimal · · Score: 1

      Everybody's carrying on as if this is some sort of important event in the history of KDE. The Liquid theme is pretty, but jaysus, it's a friggin' theme! Let's get some perspective.

      Right. Let's also not ignore the fact that it's a clear clone of Apple's "Aqua" theme, right down to the (IMNSHO annoying) horizontal line pattern in window backgrounds.

      --

      Remember "Bring 'em on"? *sigh
    4. Re:Hurrah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And Aqua was a clear clone of 60s plastic-tastic. Sure, Aqua popularised it again, and they got all their ideas from it -- wait, I was going somewhere with this. No, sorry, I've lost it. I'm really sorry.

  28. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't think icewm should be included in that list, but I think he was right about things like windowmaker and blackbox. another window manager to add to that list is fvwm(2). I've tried for a long time to make a really good fvwmrc, but have failed.

  29. Mosfet is a woman? :) by Ch_Omega · · Score: 1

    "Is this what Mosfet looks like? Is this him in drag? Who is that in the picture!?"

    I heard on a numerous occations that Mosfet actually is a woman, so if that is true, no it isn't mosfet in "drag". ;) She looks abit kinky, though.

    .. Or someone might be pulling my leg or something. :)

    1. Re:Mosfet is a woman? :) by Ch_Omega · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ehm... Cancel that..

      From the Mosfet's homepage: "My name is Daniel M. Duley. I'm a 26 yr/old application developer and system admin living in Indiana, USA."... And I who just loves geekgirls... Damn! ;)

  30. They forgot to mention his brother by joeflies · · Score: 1

    Boba Fet(t)

  31. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > I don't think icewm should be included in that list, but I think he was right about things like windowmaker and blackbox. another window manager to add to that list is fvwm(2). I've tried for a long time to make a really good fvwmrc, but have failed.

    Yes. The only thing i wanted to mention is that there are window managers that could be used by new users and where nobody get lost. Of cause there are window managers too where new user could get lost in.

    KDE and GNOME are not the only GUIs that could be used by new users, my girlfriend for example (she is a winXP User) uses icewm when she is at my computer. And she tried KDE and GNOME (and many window managers), but icewm is easier/suitable for her. Dont ask me why, i dont really know, i use enlightenment.

  32. karma whore by willum448 · · Score: 1

    Mosfet Contributes Code to KDE (Again)
    [Graphics and Art] Posted by Dre on Monday December 31, @08:34AM
    from the one-big-happy-family dept.
    Many in the KDE community are aware of some rocky history between KDE hacker Mosfet and other KDE developers. Fortunately, it looks like things have taken a great turn for the better: Mosfet wrote in to tell us that "I've decided to donate 20 effects I ported to KDE/Qt for PixiePlus to KDE3". Waldo Bastian promptly added them to CVS. The new effects include normalize, equalize, solarize, threshold, emboss, despeckle, charcoal, rotate, sample, addNoise, blur, edge, implode, oil paint, sharpen, spread, shade, swirl, wave, and contrastHSV. All will be available under a BSD-type license in the KImageEffect class in kdelibs. According to Mosfet, these effects will be useful not only for image viewers and editors, but also for things like style engines. Except for the simple rotate, Mosfet ported the effects from ImageMagick to work directly on QImages and Qt scanlines. Nice job, Mosfet! (For those who have not yet heard the news, PixiePlus is the successor to Pixie; more information is available here.)

  33. KDE is Kluttered by dezzo · · Score: 0, Troll

    Gnome's purity is much better from an engineers POV. Should come up with beautiful schemes like "Liquid" for Gnome. I just wish Gnome/KDE hackers would learn from BeOS & OSX and cease trying to imitate Windows.

    1. Re:KDE is Kluttered by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      while i agree, you may note that beos is gone and osx is only alive because of its dedicated community. you do what works, not what looks the best.

    2. Re:KDE is Kluttered by Jayzz · · Score: 1

      So, you logic is Windows won because it works and others don't. I'd say it is not a so popular view. If you say "follow the way most people are used to", it's more reasonalble, (which still I don't agree but it's just my opinion).

  34. Re:In My Darkest Hour by Ozzy+Osbourne · · Score: 0

    Oi! Pppp po po post som om some o o of m m m m my le le lyr lyrics, p please!

  35. My Opinion.. by JasonKB · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I would appreciate it if people would read my opinion on freekde.org... thanks!

    --
    --------- The 'gui' in 'penguin' is pronounced K-D-E .
  36. BSD/GPL License Conflicts by evilviper · · Score: 2

    Someone help me out here... This article brought up the point that the code was under the BSD license. However, I don't understand how the BSD and GPL could possibly be compatible. The BSD license states that copyright info must be kept intact, and the GPL has no such stipulation, so it would obviously be illegial to use BSD licensed software under the GPL. Alternatively, the GPL says no software may be released with GPLed code if it imposes additional restrictions beyond those imposed by the GPL itself, so BSD licensed software may not be used in a GPLed program under it's original license.

    Did I get something wrong there?

    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    1. Re:BSD/GPL License Conflicts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *sigh* Didn't we just have to deal with this same issue not too long ago? I recall a long, ugly mess before QT was GPLed. That was a good part of the reason we have a (quite decent, IMNSHO) competing desktop environemnt, not so?

    2. Re:BSD/GPL License Conflicts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I have no clue, but it seems that so much time is spent nigeling over these details about what free means..I wish someone would just spend more time figuring out what Linux means.
      OK lets take some time and anser the obvious retorts from the sandbox..
      • Yeah I know I should RTFM But when all I want to do is install the damn thing and spend some time using it on a regular basis who wnat to RTFM. Its bad enough that the damn help buttons on most of the programs dont link to any obvious help.
      • Yeah I know I should contribute to the program to write and implement these features so that I will help the community. Shit No, the community doesn't exist. Distributions can't agree on a commen procedure for installing programs in a commen directory structure. Give me a freakin break..There is no earthly reason that If I want to download a program for Linux that it should matter which distribution of Linux I am running and for that matter which incremental version of a particular Disribution I mean come on a different download for version 7.1, 7.2, etc.. I can almost just barely see the need for a differentiation between a 7.0 and 8.0 Distribution but even that is stretching it a bit.
      • GUI's WTF is up with the stupid proliferation of incomplete just about useful aps for two different GUI's. Come on lets just shake hands and meet in the middle somewhere
      • Yup I know I can RMO and proffer up a distribution that meets my needs but if so many people much more experienced than I have been using this next greatest thing since SB whay can't we get a consensis of the essential contributions to include in a baase distribution that even my grandma could use.
      • How many browsers and editors and file managers and updaters does someone need? 1 of each that does a really good job is better than 7 of each that combined does a good job but individually each has some little thing that just doesn't work right.
      Posting annon because I moderated in here earlier today, Even though the slashcode for somerason has forgotten that I moderated and is giving me the option of moderating again on the two comments I had previously modded. As well as giving me the option of posting under my screen name.
    3. Re:BSD/GPL License Conflicts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Posting annon because I moderated in here earlier today, Even though the slashcode for somerason has forgotten that I moderated and is giving me the option of moderating again on the two comments I had previously modded. As well as giving me the option of posting under my screen name.
      Must be a new feture that allows this to happen, I guess I should have RTFM
      Undoing moderation to Comment #277xxxx Undoing moderation to Comment #277xxxx
    4. Re:BSD/GPL License Conflicts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Yes, you got something wrong there.

      You can turn BSD code into GPL code, and not the other way around. The copyright will be in the source code, not in a big banner upon bootup.

    5. Re:BSD/GPL License Conflicts by evilviper · · Score: 2

      But the GPL does not stipulate that the copyright notice must remain intact as tne BSD does... In other words, an addiotinal restriction which the GPL does not allow.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  37. Is he a chick? No.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It would be cool, but alas.. it appears (S)he is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

  38. Nope, you're wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It was the original BSD licence's advertising clause that was incompatable with the GPL. The GPL itself specifies that you must keep correct copyright notices with any work covered by it, so therefore, they are compatable.

    1. Re:Nope, you're wrong by evilviper · · Score: 2

      http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

      Feel free to point out where it says you may not modify or delete the existing copyright notices in a GPLed program.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    2. Re:Nope, you're wrong by eggnet · · Score: 1

      Ok, a quick glance reveals:

      1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.

      and

      2. b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.

    3. Re:Nope, you're wrong by evilviper · · Score: 2

      I don't see how '2.' even relates to this discussion.

      '1.' only applies to those wishing to distribute the source without making modifications, so doesn't apply to this discussion.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  39. Mosfet, not a woman! by davidsmind · · Score: 0

    quote from mosfet.org: "I also hang out at several goth clubs and have been involved in some performance art shows and a model for several fetish clothing fashion shows in Chicago, IL USA." Those pictures are of HIM and he is in drag. Why you people thought he was a woman is beyond me. P.S. I have no problem with what D.M.D does on his own time.

    --
    I'll Sig you!
  40. another advancement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A few months (a year?) ago, KDE added a small icon to the mouse pointer that animated whenever an app was launching. I considered that tiny act quite innovative -- it solved a usability problem (re-clicking an icon because you think it hasn't launched) that has existed for decades. Now Windows XP does it. Similarly, one of the things I have hated about file managers in many systems (Gnome, KDE, Windows, Macintosh) is that they don't manage files very well. I want to be able to enter a regex into a field and watch the file list shrink to match my entry. I want to have much more fine-grained search control (my Windows box here won't let me search for files modified within the last 5 minutes, only the "last 1 days").

    So what's my point? Well, according to Mosfet, "Similiar image finding will be in 0.2 [of PixelPlus], due next week. It is based on findimagedupe's excellent algorithm and uses a persistant database." This is excellent -- it is highly useful for file management. I'd love to see the concept extended. If Konqueror could show me all files of exactly the same size or same file name (can it do this already? I don't see the interface for it), or if it could steal a concept from a Mac app called File Buddy -- it'll find files with the same "bytecode" or "checksum" or something like that -- whatever it is, it seems accurate to me when I use it. I've managed to de-dupe over 40,000 files I have nested in a few folders using that tool. I'd like to see a nice, super-simple interface for sifting through files and weeding out duplicates and near-duplicates. One idea I had to build myself on Linux was a Perl script that would strip all kinds of markup from text files -- XML, HTML, RTF, etc. -- and then compare the actual content, the words, to find the same content even it is marked up differently. The biggest problem is holding it all in memory in a big array. I ended up having the app iterate file-by-file overnight. But I would love to see this kind of file management technology integrated into the file management tools. KDE may be the best hope of seeing this stuff -- they appear to be the ones actually innovating on the desktop in practical, sensible ways.

    1. Re:another advancement by spectecjr · · Score: 1

      A few months (a year?) ago, KDE added a small icon to the mouse pointer that animated whenever an app was launching. I considered that tiny act quite innovative -- it solved a usability problem (re-clicking an icon because you think it hasn't launched) that has existed for decades. Now Windows XP does it.

      I think you'll find that Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 all did it too.

      Simon

      --
      Coming soon - pyrogyra
    2. Re:another advancement by JanusFury · · Score: 0

      Windows has done that since NT4 and 95.
      Also, Windows XP added a little 'cd' icon that appears next to the mouse cursor when it's reading your CD-rom drive or loading an autoplay app, solving another usability problem... for some reason, it doesn't let you CHANGE that cursor, though. :(

      --
      using namespace slashdot;
      troll::post();
    3. Re:another advancement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The "icon to the mouse pointer" is a bad interface idea that's persisted since forever because computers were once modal. If I can be launching two programs at once (and I should be able to, since the user has no desire from being restricted from doing so), then there are two operations that need their status to be indicated separately.

      A better idea is to highlight the icon in a special color (not animate, dammit...animation is *awful* since it wastes CPU time, requires you to see several frames to realize that the thing is actually animated, misses the point (since animation is designed to catch your eye, and in this case, it already has your eye...you just want to indicate state).

      This whole "animations for status" set of ideas came from Windows. The elegant "barber pole" from the MacOS for indicating ongoing status of a process of unknown duration was turned into an animated icon.

      Oh, and animation is distracting. If something's animated, at worst I should be able to make it stop by clicking on it or performing some other simple action (a la ICQ).

      It's really annoying when MS fucks up and the KDE people have more interest in sucking up to Windows users than in making a good desktop environment...

  41. Re:You are stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I love you.

  42. Slashdot Flash Story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    MOSFET has bipolar disorder. One minute he's CMOS, and the next, TTL.

  43. Oh no they didn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    With Winders you got a little hourglass, or some kind of thingy, depending on what you selected. It showed there was activity. KDE goes one step further and displays the icon of the app itself, so you know what is loading.

    1. Re:Oh no they didn't by spectecjr · · Score: 1

      With Winders you got a little hourglass, or some kind of thingy, depending on what you selected. It showed there was activity. KDE goes one step further and displays the icon of the app itself, so you know what is loading.

      Windows XP doesn't show an icon; and the original description indicated that what you have described is not what KDE does; c.f.:

      KDE added a small icon to the mouse pointer that animated whenever an app was launching.

      It certainly sounds like KDE does what Windows does from that description.

      --
      Coming soon - pyrogyra
  44. sheesh what a dunce by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    obviously you have not used KDE and have no idea what your talking about. Dork. I use KDE and I know what it does.

  45. Major News worthy of Slashdot by casiel · · Score: 0, Troll

    Developer plagiarizes Aqua really, really badly. Film at 11.

    Oh, wait, the story this time is: Developer contributes code to KDE. My mistake, obviously that's something that really warranted a story.

    Jeez.

  46. Linux/KDE/Gnome is still a shit ugly desktop. by SensitiveMale · · Score: 0

    Created and designed by people with no taste.

  47. You don't know how to read. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    obviously you have not used KDE and have no idea what your talking about. Dork. I use KDE and I know what it does.

    You seem to have reading comprehension problems.

    I was responding to what the original poster posted. I just explained that. Blame him for misadvertizing KDE -- not me. And stop being a fucking idiot.

  48. Re:Pretty? by Shadowin · · Score: 1

    Pretty is useful. The better you can make it look, the more the masses will flock to it. On the MS side of things, I feel DOS is much more useful than Windows 3.1, but back in the day that crappy shell got everyday people using the PC. I'm sure much of that was because of "ooh, look at the perty graphics" compared with the monotone command prompt that was DOS.

  49. Yeah, it takes a real WIZARD to REINVENT the WHEEL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    'nuff said.

  50. I wish we could get the questions... by Oswald · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...about this guy's sexuality sorted out. How the hell am I supposed to make an intelligent decision about open source GUIs and themes without this information?

    1. Re:I wish we could get the questions... by WWWWolf · · Score: 1
      ...about this guy's sexuality sorted out. How the hell am I supposed to make an intelligent decision about open source GUIs and themes without this information?

      Yeah, if Sendmail would not be somewhat hard to configure, I'd use it instead of Postfix. Then I'd have less software in the computer written by those straight people... at least they should wash hands before coding - every time I send E-mail from my own machine I momentarily think of cars and beer and TV and bowling and stuff. Ack! Don't force me to use software that makes me lose Kinsey points! I never know when they come back!

      Well, seriously - who cares. =) I don't pick my programs based on author's sexual orientation - I have more important things to worry about when making that decision.

  51. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    do not feed the trolls

  52. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ok, than dont tell me.

    belive it or not, not everyone in this galaxy knows the difference. I tried to find it out but I dont found so much. Only the thing with look and feel integrated apps, is this the difference? And why is xfce a desktop enviroment, or is it only the fakt that you could load the xfce panel into any window manager? Please someone tell me the difference if you all know it, it couldnt be so hard to explain.

  53. Mandrake RPM packages? by ciryon · · Score: 1

    I can't find Mandrake RPMS on the site and am having problems building the source. Anyone know if there are any Mandrake packages somewhere?

    Ciryon

  54. Re:oh boy! by jonathan_ingram · · Score: 1

    All a window manager does is manage windows. No file manager, no web browser, no panels.

    Both KDE and Gnome (and XFCE) are desktop environments, and include within them a window manager (kwin for KDE, sawfish for GNOME, xfce's built in windowmanager for XFCE).

    Both the KDE and Gnome environments work perfectly well using different window managers (a lot of people used to run KDE with the Blackbox window manager, as with Gnome and a window manager called Enlightenment).

  55. Re:oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ok, thank you! I hoped it was some great thing... but doesnt matter. Is IceWM only a window manager or a desktop environment? It has a panel but no such other own apps like a webbrowser or file manager. Or could the icewm panel not be used with other window managers and thats why it is only a window manager?

    Thank you for the explanation.

  56. Liquid? Aqua? by Refrag · · Score: 0, Troll

    So, this guy basically makes a theme that makes KDE look like Apple's Aqua and you guys are making him out to be some kind of a hero?

    Did you do the same for the guy that ripped off Windows' look?

    --
    I have a website. It's about Macs.
    1. Re:Liquid? Aqua? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The word you are looking for is INFLUENCED. It is not a rip-off of Aqua, as can clearly be seen from all screenshots. Yes, it is influenced by Aqua, but it is all new code, and all new graphics. It is native code as well, not some pixmap theme. i.e., each shading, each anti-aliasing, each colouring, is drawn. This makes it very fast, and flexible.

    2. Re:Liquid? Aqua? by Refrag · · Score: 1

      Maybe EXTREMELY HEAVILY INFLUENCED would be more appropriate. Yes?

      --
      I have a website. It's about Macs.
    3. Re:Liquid? Aqua? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Steal from Apple, get sued and never able to pass an employment pre-check screening again. It's that simple.

  57. konqureor != mozilla. by Penguinoflight · · Score: 1

    Sorry, you loose, there's way too many shortcomings in konqueror to call it equal to mozilla. It's ahead of ie6, but that's about it.
    Konqueror's biggest fault is 0 javascript. I have made really clean javascript code that spans from ns 3.0-mozilla 0.9.7, and it doesn't even start to run on konqueror.

    If you really don't like the bloat in mozilla, check out skipstone, it's like galeon, but it actually delivers.

    --
    "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
    1 John 4:14
  58. But Aqua is lickable! by Yam-Koo · · Score: 1

    I'm in the same boat as you. :)

    Once you're a minor celebrity, news sites continue reporting things about you even though you may not matter anymore. :)

  59. KDE3 rules by timecop · · Score: 0, Funny

    Now that mosfet's back with contributing code to KDE, maybe that cool copyright-infringing aqua look is going to come back. KDE looks great in aqua.

  60. Re:Goatse.cx guy, dude with a loose anus, dead at by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Man, how many times does this poor guy have to die? Isn't it bad enough that his asshole is so wide you could drive a freight train through it?