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Interview with David Faure of Mandrake & KDE
JigSaw writes: "OSNews features an interesting interview with David Faure, the french KDE developer who works for Mandrake Software. His code can be found on Konqueror, KFM, KWord and he is also the main bug hunter for KDE. David talks about KDE 3's enhancements and speed improvements, the future of KWord, the debugging tools under Linux, and even Gnome2, .NET, MacOSX and Mozilla."
How come that the very first beta of KDE 3 was so nice, and all the following betas are so unstable? :-)
KDE 3: The Windows Killer
I very much agree. I am pretty well versed in userland apps and setting them up (samba, etc) yet CUPS was a pain in the ass, a real big pain in the ass.
:(
Anytime I have to sit here and seriously think about what I have to install just is not right.
An additional complaint is that my HP960c still prints color like all-hell. I have to print over the network from my Win98 laptop if I really want to print some sort of color page if I want it to look at all like it should.
printtool worked wonders for my HP400 but not for this printer. Old printers aren't around anymore. We need some real support for some real printers
First: The average Windows user is highly unlikely to swap OSes in the first place. They use what came on their computer. "Hey dude, want to upgrade that toaster of yours to be able to handle bagels?" Uhm. no.
Second: I have both KDE and Gnome installed on the computers that I manage, and I allow the users to choose which to use, they always choose one based on their first 10 minutes of impression, or even based on which one I show them first. "Yeah, that's fine." They do not want to learn the workings of two window managers, one is hard enough for the "average user".
The choice that is afforded by having both Gnome and KDE is great--Depending on the work habits of the individual they'll find one of the two more comfortable and gravitate towards it. Applications work under both, so that's not really a deciding factor.
-Sara
We need some real support for some real printers :(
Just about every Epson is supported very well with the gimp-print CUPS drivers. This is because Epson printers are not stupid win-printers, like many of the new HP's, and because the Epson printer language is quite well documented and understood.
So, real printers are supported. Terrible printers aren't.
-- Help Digitise the Public Domain at DP.
using CUPS, using Debian. Still looks like shit when it prints color.
print to the printer in color using Windows, then print again using Linux. Tell me what you see.
Great, Epson printers are supported. But my HP printer is not. I could give a damn about Epson.
We need some real support for some real printers.
This statement is true, since the only real printers to me, are the ones that I own. HP, not Epson.
So, real printers are supported. Terrible printers aren't.
Calling HP Printers terrible is plain stupid, elitist, and damaging to the progress of Open Source. People like you are the reason that Linux advocates are seen as belligerant pompous assholes. The claim that the print support in Linux sucks is true until HP printers are supported. I don't care if the HP print language is obfuscated assembler. I care that Linux can't print.
Andrew
This is a good point; the appeal of Linux is ultimately the ease by which it can be tailored to different audiences. This is not to say that the audience should do the tailoring, but that an interested party *could* do it. For example, I'm still looking for a distribution tailored to the needs of a student. I.e., one containing a bunch of necessary mathematics and beginning programming applications, good mp3 and DVD support, ability to talk with Macs and Windows with equal ease, good word processing tools with automatic formatting of documents for English 101, etc.. All these packages already exist, but no one actually puts them together as an integrated solution. As a result you have students trying out Linux, but having to boot back into Winders to do their research paper in a pirated copy of Word.
>I'm sorry, but there's just a fine line here.
Indeed.
>If half the people out there can't read the article because it's Slashdotted.
This is the fine line. OSNews is *NOT* Slashdotted. Slashdot has linked us over *25 times* the last few months, and we were never down because of it. We are always prepared for Slashdot. We have the bandwidth needed for Slashdot's links and we delivered accordingly.
Each time I put a bigger article online, I calculate what we can handle and what not. If our bandwidth can't handle something, I just do not put it online, or I use one of our 4 mirrors (OSNews uses some mirrors for some of its images).
So, your excuse does not hold. At least in this case.
This is the fine line. OSNews is *NOT* Slashdotted.
I used the link. It worked. I read the article on your site. I wouldn't even know OSNews.com existed if it weren't for Slashdot.
If a site is down, I *immediately* check the posts to see if there's a copy there, which I then read. This is probably what most people do.
If a site *IS* Slashdotted, only a few thousand people have it in their cache to post before its gone for 10-12 hours or more. He thought you wouldn't have the capacity, so he posted it WITH FULL CREDIT. Unlike most rubes who are probably just karma whoring, he actually had a reasonable reason - even though he was wrong.
I'm defending him because I often use posted articles - because I don't have some "Slashdot was just updated with an article!" indicator. I can't beat those people - by the time I check out a site sometimes, it's down. But I only check the posted version of an article if the original is down. If the site doesn't go down, the post is usually modded down and disappears.
The truth of the matter is that Slashdot is a forum where anything goes for as long as Slashdot exists. The DeCSS code is here, along with other copyrighted materials. If you don't want to be linked on Slashdot (and most likely have your article copied by anyone, even though it is illegal), then tell the maintainers and I'm sure they won't link you
There's always going to be someone that will post your story to Slashdot. People can post anything to Slashdot. It's a crime and it sucks, but it's the truth - and it's permanent.
----- rL
While I agree competition is good I find it important, that competition, once it has produced enough "critical mass" gets joined into both environments as a base, a standard.
However, I am a little sad to see the way things seem to work:
I hope this won't get interpretated as a troll. It is just a listing of negative impressions I have and feel they sting me.
On the one side we have many "conservative" developers (which I have sometimes the feeling is especially valid for KDE folks(who do not want to change too much, instead stay with the old and enhance it, read interview, and now I am going on thin ice, since KDE has some nice innovation built inI am really into Eye-Candy myself but it is not what makes my work being done. I see there are many MANY more issues both teams should address in a joint-venture:
I want a common base !(earth shakes ;-))
Now, I, as a user and developer, do that movement, that the ballet-dancers do (and which I lack the english expression for), that moment when they have their legs completely spread apart while touching the ground. I got some training in this myself, I touch the "Desk's Top" but it hurts me often, still.
I know this ain't easy. There have been huge flame-wars, not so long ago between both teams, software-fidelity is some sort of spiritual believe...(Emacs vs. Vi, KDE vs, Gnome, Windows vs. RestOfTheWorld, etc.). A slight hope on the horizon could be the Linux Standard Base LSB. In any case some head must be found both sides trust and we could have M$ struggle also on the desktop within four to five years. I tell you !!! :-D
Also, I am pretty sure, this all will happen sooner or later. But I find it disturbing to see not much sophisticated movement below the surface (which, in addition, would be quite easy to implement) and users wanting theme-engines and "the-looks congiguration" mainly.
Hello?? Fred?! Is this you?
This is hardly elitest or stupid or damaing to Open Source - this is reality.
Then it is an unfortunate one. One that will keep linux off of the desktop.
My anger stems from the fact that the grand parent of my original post stated that 'we need better support for hardware' a truism. He was flamed by jonathan_ingram who said (paraphrasing here) "your printer is terrible, buy a new printer, no one cares about your stupid HP printer, not linux, not me, not open source." (Okay, so that was a fairly liberal paraphrasing, but you get my point). The subtext of his statement (which I more or less fleshed out) IS elitist, stupid, and damaging.
This is of course a selfish and wrong way of looking at linux.
My statement may have been selfish, but it is was not wrong. For the user with the HP printer, Linux does indeed suck. My argument was not that "an operating system that does not support all hardware sucks," it was that the community that supports linux can be an arrogant one, and that the post I was replying to was not helping anyone and in fact, reflected poorly on the perceived attitudes of the Linux userbase. If Linux is unable to live up to the expectations of the average user (such as something simple like PRINTING) then to that user, Linux Sucks. Linux is unable to live up to the expectations of the user with the HP printer, therefore Linux Sucks (for that user). Windows works. It's a bitter pill.
Andrew