Corporate KDE

roomisigloomis writes "This article at CNET shows some headway being made in KDE development with aims at the corporate desktop. It's cool that it's funded by the German government."

Comments

kde

[minus_273]

3.1 was very nice. Kplan looks good. But for the love of god could they please drop the name "Kroupware". Its too bad Magellan and what ever that offshoot program was didnt work out the way it was planned. KDE really need evolution. Kplan looks like it might work if only we didnt kmailcool. Yes i know Kmail is mess but why do they expect us to download another app which does the exact same thing?

kde with gnome

[asv108]

I love the kde enviroment, I was finally able to get 3.1 to compile yesterday and I was very impressed. I use KDE as my window enviroment, but almost all my apps are gtk. With the notable exceptions of konq, konsole and koncd, all my other most used apps use gtk: evolution, gaim, eclipse. I would imagine that this is the norm for most KDE users. Why bother reinventing the wheel?

Re:kde with gnome

[purplebear]

I think I would consider myself an average KDE user. Most of my apps are KDE. The one thing I don't understand is those who push using GTK apps in KDE. Why reinvent the wheel? Because these wheels look and feel much better. GTK apps are some of the ugliest I have ever seen. Sure, a few, very few, seem to have all the features I may want in an app, but they look horrible, especially intermixed in a KDE desktop.
So, let's see:
evolution - absolutely hate it, kmail (particularly kmailcool) is so much better.
gaim - nice app, but I like kopete better. Heck, I even prefer Psi to it. Just for the integrated look, if nothing else.
Matter of fact, about the only non-KDE app I use on the desktop regularly is XMMS. Haven't tried it out yet, but if they remembered to remove that last lingering debug element from Noatun, I'll be using it from now on as well.
I'm sure gnome and gtk are great for some, but I can't stand the immature look and feel of them.

Very nice...

[MattCohn.com]

Looks very nice, but I'm sure that the comments are going to be flooded with comments claiming that KDE is only trying to be more like Windows. However, what people fail to see is that Linux isn't trying to replace the desktop metaphore, the conventional UI. What I've thought of Linux to be is an open, reliable, stable Windows. One created by anyone with the skill and time, for anyone. Started on the server, it didn't need big buttons and pretty colors. However now that it is being developed for everyone, the way KDE is developing just showes that it's moving in the right direction. Towards an open, stable Windows.

Open source + government interest = ?

[vano2001]

Does anyone else see the possibility that major OSS and specially the Linux OS will end up being managed (or controlled big time) by governments? The level of funding a government can have surpasses that of copmanies or donations. Will this have any impact on the direction development will take? Can this have any negative impact on the long run? (of course it is all advantage for the forseeable future)

Re:Open source + government interest = ?

[Malcontent]

You are so mistaken as to be beyond belief. Please read first before posting.

In this case the project isn't "being managed or controlled" by the govt. From the FAQ posted in the Kroupware web site.

"1.3. Is the German government sponsoring/supporting the project?
To be very precise the project is _not_ "funded", "supported" or "sponsored" by the German Government. This would missrepresent that fact that the Kroupware project is a regular commercial business contract after we've won the tender to deliver a solution for the groupware needs of the BSI (compare answer 1.1). The participating companies organise the open development of this Free Software aiming to create the best technical result for the BSI regarding the contract."

It's being developed by commercial companies who won a contract with the govt. In this case the govt and the companies don't mind releasing the resultant product under the GPL.

Win-Win-Win for everybody (except MS of course). The govt gets what they want, the development is done in the commercial sector, the consumers benefit by having access to high quality software.

Re:Excellent move

[diablobynight]

Hate to say this, but on a corporate desktop, I don't want to see linux. windows 2000 is very stable here at work and it is very manageable from the administration end. Plus active directory is something we use so that people from all over the country can go to any other facility, log in, and have everything work just as it did at their desk.

Could run afoul of US Laws

[Anonymous Coward]

People need to be careful here since US trade laws
could be used by MS against Linux with KDE since the product could be claimed to be Govt. subsidized.

There were some reports earlier that MS did exactly
this to put a stop to the NSA adding strong
security features to Linux.

Re:Except that we germans say ..

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm German and I'm not impressed, I'm depressed.
Many German people are more and more convinced that Schröder and his party (the SPD) are bad for us.
First he promised to not raise taxes and one week after the election he did it anyway. And one week after the election they "suddenly" knew that we've got much less money then we were told shortly before. Surprise, surprise.
The Euro made the prices higher, higher taxes decrease our money, the amount of money owed still increases and our economy grows just fast enough to be able to say that it grows.
And we still have much more jobless people than he promised to have by now.
He says no to war but wants UN to continue searching, but if they find what they search we cannot do anything because we said no to war. How stupid is that? You can't say that war is inevitable but how can you disqualify war as a counter action before the UN finished searching?