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KDE Contributor Conference 2003 "Kastle" Report
Last weekend the KDE Contributor Conference 2003 in Nove Hrady ("Kastle") ended. There's a conference report, all slides and papers have been published, and there are lots of photos including the obligatory group photo (use mouse pointer and look at the status bar to see the names!). Also part of kastle were the KOffice Developers' Meeting and the presentation of Qt 4.
Welcome to the KDE Kontributor Konference!
...
KKK? That's not good
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
8:00 am: Session 1: Why can't we get past using the letter K?
-j
and there are lots of photos including the obligatory group photo
Wow, look at all the chicks.
*crickets*
So I suppose becoming an Open Source developer isn't going to get me lots of hot action, huh?
--saint
I didn't think so.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
you just know he's thinging "whoa, there's a girl here. how'd she get in?!?! *stares*"
Blockquoth the poster...
But only in Internet Explorer, it would seem. Certainly not in Mozilla Firebird. It beggars belief that people who are trying to convince the world of the virtues of alternative and open systems can't even code cross-browser [d]HTML.
There are two women in that group photo. Clearly it is a fake designed to psychologically manipulate us into supporting KDE over Gnome.
Damn it, I think it's working.
I read the KOffice Developers' Meeting page and it says that they'll be switching to OpenOffice.org's file format for all major applications. As someone who occasionaly uses both OpenOffice.org and KOffice this is great news, and will also provide an easy way to translate between current KOffice formats and OpenOffice.org. Maybe we have on our hands a new, truly cross-platform file format.
Thank you.. thats a really good point.
Try to convince your boss that you should ditch the number #1 OS in the world with the #1 office suite in the world for a product called "GNU/Linux" that runs a desktop called "KDE" and an office suite called "KOffice" with tools like "KWord", "KPresenter", etc etc.
It gets silly when they ask what the things stand for. "KDE" stands for "Kool Desktop Environment". "GNU" stands for "GNU is Not Unix". Seriously. I've been made to look like a retard because of these silly names.
Say what you will about MS, but their names are at least bland and corporate friendly.
The developers own the software, so it is their good right to choose any name they like, whether or not it begins with a 'K'.
If you can't handle it, just use gnome, maybe the letter 'G' pleases you more.
Of course, you might also take that gun that you're talking about, shoot yourself and stop whining for good...
Put identity in the browser.
I mean, GUI development needs more women. You know its very difficult to find a man that has UI and aestetics capabilities (at least a straight one). If we want more friendly to use GUIs, we need women! Pronto!
Call on God, but row away from the rocks.
And the one wearing the skirt is not a girl, or is it...
Call on God, but row away from the rocks.
I recall a Simpsons episode where Krusty the Klown did himself a mischief trying to work in too many Komedy K's into a sentence ..... perhaps KDE are heading this way?!
..... like ..... er ..... oh ..... well, I'll just be off then. Seeya.
Still, Komedy K's really are no worse than aGNoying silent Gs on N words
I keep upto date with KDE from CVS (using Gentoo's excellent KDE CVS ebuilds) and noted, along with the large number of changes, that in the last week or so the default splash screen has been changed to the group photo. :)
It's nice an' all, but could we have it changed back please?
Just like the 2 guys on the left I was also like "whoa, there's a girl here. how'd she get in?!?! *stares*" (mrgreenfur).
Kudos to the KDE Developers too, some good work going on.
I'm not sure why you're so upset with KDE projects in particular. Free software is full of "cute" names: to make the whole bunch of them sound "professional" would affect a lot more than KDE.
Given this situation, I rather like KDE's project names. It makes it easier to tell that they are, in fact, KDE applications.
If the names are so bothersome, I'm sure you could just fork all the projects so you can rename them!
Look at the tomato! Isn't it sad? He can't dance! Poor tomato!
So what is your suggestion for an easy way to indicate that an application is written for one of the many de's available? Let's see... Gimp, Gnumeric, Konqueror, Kmail...It's easy. It's a system. Sorta like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, etc. JBoss, Jakarta. IMac IPod.
Derek (and yes I know that you can run gimp on kde)
In the photo, on the right of the konqi twins, theres a person called Klas Kallass! Looks like the K names got into his head!
Is it any worse than iBook, iMac, iPhoto, iTunes, etc?
I like the K. It instantly lets me know what platform the app is for.
By the way, KDE does not stand for Kool desktop environment.
...KOffice is switching to OASIS, the OOo file format.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Are you sure that wasn't a mingers conference?
Very corporate friendly. And then of course there's TFPC. (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Um, no it doesn't.
OTOH, putting the name of a seriously debilitating illness in front of all program names is OK? I guess it's fitting that billg talked about the Digital Nervous System a few year's back... MS is a disease.Money for nothing, pix for free
Quickly sed'ed for correctness : http://mksp.zerodeux.net/contributors.html.
Granting there is the slightest grain of truth in your post, next time ask your boss if you can sit in on the meeting with his boss as he explains why he didn't investigate a powerful and free software alternative because he didn't like the letter 'K'. Watch as one of the last remaning dot-commers learns to say 'biggie size?".
Two stupid posts in one! Now go back to your unfunny cave.
True its often over done, but at its root it makes a LOT of sense.
If its prefixed with K, you pretty much can guess its integrated with KDE..
Don't forget, G goes with Gnome.. I don't see people bitching about that, and its just as effective/silly/etc.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Hello group, my name is Klark... As is the kase with many of you, I love komputers and was about to embark on a kareer in the field of information and kommunikation teknology... but my troubles started when I got into KDE development... it wasn't really konspikuous at first when I started to spell everything with a k, sometimes even with a kapital K, but soon my kolleagues began to wonder whether I kouldn't spell... they asked me, "Are you on krack? Kut the krap!"... some even went as far as kalling me kompletely krazy! What kould I do? I must admit, I'm a kolerik person, kwick-tempered as you might say... sometimes I got inkredibly angry, and I kussed and kursed at my ko-workers... People should judge me by the kontent of my karakter instead of just kriticizing my kurious spelling! However, when I was sacked for being unkooperative, I developed an inferiority komplex and finally realized I had to kome to terms with my problem... so here I am, this is my koming-out... I know my kase is a komplex one, but I do hope it is kurable...
"krack"
"kwick"
"kriticizing"
"sacked"
Do you see what I see
Well, I don't see how it's any different from the windows world, where 80% of the app names start with "win"...
A great way to capitalize all the discussions at the Kastle: the devs are starting the 3.2 release cycle now . The integration of PIM stuff in 3.2 will make for a complete, extremely consistent desktop environment (except for KOffice that will need onesome extra time to mature, incorporate the OpenOffice filters, etc.)
Kan we kwit kawlling things by these unkool K knames? It's kounterintuitive :P
KromeDome
This is a valid point, but with KDE it's becoming pathological. I think it makes sense to use the K prefix for KDE's core applications (like Konqueror, KMail, KNode, Kicker, KOffice, ...), also because it guarantees a certain level of KDE integration and (hopefully) quality standards.
But there are hundreds of mini-applications for KDE that are unfinished or abandoned or don't work at all starting with K, thus the "K" doesn't work as an indicator of quality (as -arguably- does the Win prefix).
And there seems to exist a deep dislike of the English language and aesthetic brand names, thus leading to - imho - awful creations like Kemistry, Koffle or Kolorizer.
yeah, we all know it stands for Krap
While there were indeed 3 girls there, one of them has had a bit too much to drink as you can see
here.
Blah Blah. Again with the stupid arguement that names matter...
/. at least you'll now why. :-/
From now on I'm just putting all of you down as enemies so that you will be forever modded to -6 and I won't have to read this pointless arguement about names anymore.
When you see a shiny colored button in the comments while your reading
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
"KDE" stands for "Kool Desktop Environment".
Where did you get that from? I think the K does not stand for anything, just like the X in the X Window System does not (and nobody seems to matter the many X programs starting by X, by the way).
Yeah! About time they threw that PNAC Nazi out!
This is Neil/Rob trying to get on Google again.
Notice the ?slashdot after the URL. Losers.
Immediately, I was thinking of "Klo" (toilet) and "Kacke" (look it up yourself) when I saw this....ah the possiblities that good knowledge of the German language can open!
But soon we might have "Krap" as well....
Just wanted to point that out. But I guess these days, mods don't reply to you when they disagree. They just mark you as "Troll" or "Flamebait" and go on to mod up the latest random SCO reference post or "you're new here, aren't you?" post.
I know this is offtopic; I turned off Karma Bonus accordingly.
"Sufferin' succotash."
The K in KDE does not stand for anything. It is the character that comes before L in the Latin alphabet, which stands for Linux. It was chosen because KDE runs on many types of UNIX (and perfectly well on FreeBSD).
It is true, or at least reasonably true, to say that the K doesn't stand for anything now. Claiming that it was chosen for any reason other than because KDE was originally called the Kool Desktop Environment is not true.
Seriously, they started with a bad name. They very sensibly ditched it. No need to go on about it but no reason to pretend it never happened either.
Well, you could always use FreeBSD instead.
"What does BSD stand for?"
"Berkeley Software Distribution. It's the UNIX developed at UC Berkeley."
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
This is Neil/Rob trying to get on Google again.
Notice the ?slashdot after the URL. Losers.
I *REALLY* hope he gets on google. He'll be not-so-happy to discover people from the US right wing is not a majority on internet.
I agree the more esoteric K-apps is silly.. if they would stick to common words ( + the K ) then things would be better..
Kmail, Koffice, etc are good examples.
Kopete, Konqueror are bad examples..
Then you have things like Aethera.. Geezh.. I will hate to have to explain to clients about that one.. Aside from the question, 'is it KDE compliant?', its just really really poorly named.. ( unless its some german thing that we here in the USA use differently )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Not even a tolken black guy? C'mon!
This is SO typical of OSS development! People only see the few things that's good and overlook ALL the rest that's so dreadful.
I mean, sure there's chicks in the photo. But MAN look at all the ugly geeks!? Shivers.
OTOH, maybe that's a sign that interoperability is coming to the desktop.
(-1: Troll, sheesh what did I SAY??)
Hmmm.. if the startup tip really says that stuff about the "L", the startup tip is wrong.
from the letter-K dept.
How is KDE any different from CDE, which corporations ran for a long time?
How is KWord any different from MS Word?
The K is just branding. If you notice, most Windows apps have an MS (or a full Microsoft) in front of them:
It's not IE, but MSIE
It's not Word, but MS Word,
etc.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
popular with the chicks then?
I count 1?
Slashdot has been pretty Anti-GNOME for the last ~3 years or so.. It was _extremely_ pro-KDE for a while, when the editors, especially Taco appended every Mozilla article with "of course, Mozilla suX0rz and Konqueror rOOlez".
But it's become more neutal as most of the slashdot editors have moved from Linux to OSX anyways.
Exactly.
After the core KDE developers did it in their base apps, a lot of other third party KDE app developers did it too. After Microsoft prepended "95" to their apps after the release, many companies added "95" to theirs. Same thing with the "win"-prefix.
Same thing with apple and the "i"- prefix and the "Mac"- prefix.
Just a way of branding. Get over it nigger trolls.
> Remember. Defend KDE, don't let it get HIGified
w0rd b1tch.
one havoc penniggerton desktop is enough
What?
If your bosses choose software based on their NAMES of all things, you must be working in a pretty fucked up company. They won't last.
Proper companies make their decision based on stability, security, etc. etc. etc. If having lots of "K"s is somehow a "problem", the company has no long term chance of survival.
You have to also realize the history behind the acronym "KDE"
Yes, Kool Desktop Environment was the origional name. But it was a play off of CDE, the Common Desktop Environment. You see, back when KDE started, CDE was all there was, and GNOME did not exist. People were sick of fvwm95 which was the default desktop in redhat, and other linux distros, and when they saw KDE (similar in name to CDE, which everyone knew) they could relate...
Kool didn't just come out of thin air. They couldn't name it the Cool Desktop Environment, otherwise it would have been CDE. Obviously, its a pretty lame name, and so it was promptly changed to the "K Desktop Environment" even before KDE 1.0 was released. Origionally, KDE was (at least somewhat) ment to be a CDE like desktop. Also, another reason why Sun chose GNOME insted of KDE for their new desktop. KDE was their CDE competition, and when GNOME came out, was KDE's competition and CDE had already (mostly) died. At the time Sun made the decision, It made sence.
Two infinite things: your stupidity and mine. But I'm not sure about the latter. If my sig offends you, I'm sorry.
Nah, it's not starting with obvious things like kwin. The Havoc-ification of KDE started with XDG Desktop Files, then it'll be DBUS, then it'll be GConf.
Canopy Group is the one to worry about. Canopy owns SCO and SCO wouldn't be doing it with out Canopy's approval. The way to get at Canopy is by kicking them in the wallet. Unfortuneatley that means letting Trolltech know what we think about Canopy.
Yay. Boycott KDE and QT. If Trolltech can't pressure Canopy Group to call off the dogs, then we haven't put enough pressure on Trolltech.
Trolltech needs to come clean and explain exactly what their relationship is with Canopy. Particulary, do any Canopy group members sit on their Board of Directors and does canopy have special rights to purchase more shares and a special rate. If so, the picking on Trolltech is completely fair.
It is unfortuneate that some people are scoring calls for Trolltech to come clean as "troll". This needs to be debated, not shouted down.
Let me get this straight: KDE protested against software-patents. Now, software-patents are an issue that relates directly to KDE (and all open-source software for that matter). How did they protest? They closed their website for one day. Then an american KDE-developer decided that since KDE protests against software-patents by closing their website, it's perfectly OK to embed pro-US Army proganda right in to KDE itself. Obviously other KDE-developers disagreed.
Protesting against software-patents (a thing that can have direct implications on the project) is completely different from putting propaganda about US Army in to the desktop itself.
The KDE-developer in question is a moron that has previously been at odds with the other developers (with friends like him, who needs enemies?), and the website you linked to is downright stupid.
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
Some people claim that KDE stands for Kalle Dalheimer Experience.
Website links are only a very small part of PageRank. If you still believe link whoring matters, you're sadly mistaken. Besides, if I were trying to inflate my page rank in such a way, it wouldn't make sense to link a *different* URL, would it?
Furthermore, "again" looks a bit silly given the fact my sites have had decent Google (and MSN Search) ratings for quite a while. We've been top ten for "governor schwarzenegger" for months without a single incoming link to said pages. Why? Because we've had regular updates on the recall elections with a diverse content in a technically organized manner.
Yes, I am aware that the way my I build my websites seems to be the way Googlebot likes them. And that's also what happened: I tuned my content engine to be more strict in what it sent, and Google picked up my efforts to be a responsible webmaster. I didn't trick Googlebot, it just happened to agree with the way I present my content.
I cannot speak for Neil, but I did not post that link, nor would I do so anonymously. You don't seem to know me at all. (especially not since I actually disagreed with Neil's opinion that KDE is full of anti-Americanism on SA)
For the last time (not!): it's the Klingon Desktop Environment. Only ~130 strings translated though, if only I'd get some help!
but you're right in a way. Males and females differ neurologically. The presense of male hormones discourages neurological development in 'subsystems', leaving the higher-function area of the brain to do more processing. This means males are usually not as good as females in certain areas of perceptability, unless they're more neurologically female than normal or have got a psychological makeup that drives them to develop these skills.
:)
Getting more female developers is not going to fix things. The reason why is that most female programmers are autistic. Programming simply will not (can not?) interest a neuroglocailly normal female brain when there are more interesting social-centric persuits out there. Most male programmers are autistic. People with autistic spectrum disorders have got poor perceptability with these neurological skills. That's why GUIs made by the average programmer are, almost without ever an exception, intensely bad - if you've got a neurological setup that makes programming and maths interesting to you, you almost certainly have got neurological deficits in areas of brain function, whereas a neurologically-normal brain would make programming more tedious than watching paint dry.
Anybody who is a good programmer and has got the above-average level of social-comprehension required to make a good GUI is truly extremely rare. I doubt more than a hundred such individuals exist in the entire planet. I make no understatement when I say that.
These are books on GUI design, and professional GUI designers, but that's like reading a book on how to tell peoples' emotions by looking at their face. Nothing can properly make up for the autism-related neurological-deficits programmers possess. No book or PHB sitting next to you can help with your every subtle decision in GUI design. If you even begin to 'need' a book, then you don't have what it takes.
If you want good GUI design, don't have it designed by programmers, full stop.
I've got some of these problems myself, so don't think I am being an ignorant anti-autistic troll
... the KDE Kontributor Konference abbreviation wouldn't go very well. Just ask Krusty how well his Krusty Komedy Klassics went over at the Apollo...