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UserLinux Will Support KDE
kollum writes "Bruce Perens has revealed that UserLinux will now support KDE commercially. It seems there is a demand for a KDE plan afterall."
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...and I quote:
;)
"I already have a customer asking for Perens LLC to provide commercial support for KDE on the UserLinux platform. And we will do so, even though KDE is not the chosen GUI of the UserLinux project. This is an
option for any UserLinux service provider."
So, in other words, if your customers want it, you should provide it. Makes sense to me.
libertarianswag.com
Thats the one driving force, even above open source, that I think pulls people to GNU/Linux...
I mean people clammer about window manager themes almost as much as the window managers themselves...
Think of the solitary driving force, it's choice... Even as far to the point where if you don't like a certain aspect of a piece of software you can look at the source and change it...
So, to exclude any piece of software would, at heart, be hypocritical, given the open source method.
Just my two cents as a staunch Gnome user...
... which completely breaks Bruce's latest rationale for excluding KDE in the first place:
... inertia"
"it's just too hard to support both..."
also throws some cold water on the other ridiculous rationales he uses from time to time, depending upon if the mood suits him:
"Qt can't support a coveted cottage industry of proprietary developers..."
yah, well, except for the current 'cottage industry' that overwhelmingly has chosen Qt for commercial development...
so Bruce's is left with one rationale for his decision to exclude KDE from the default of UL:
"I've already made the choice
Perens has given a good deal of his time and energy to the open source community... and as another poster already mentioned, is a frequent /. contributor.
/. without ACs taking potshots at everyone...
Not to mention (near and dear to my heart) the fact that he's an active HAM radio guy.
Ah well, it wouldn't be
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
I think what Linux on the Desktop needs is something just like X, but with server-side widget-drawing and window management code. The client-server design is what makes X great, and should be kept. But with a default widget set, there'd be one place to change fonts, window decorations, colors, etc. And there'd be less repetition.
It wouldn't be inflexible. A good X replacemnt would have an X-server client so that X programs could run as part of it. So it would still be easy to use your own toolkit if you really wanted to. And the server would have a plugin system to allow a wide range of widget and window styles.
At the moment, I run KDE. I suppose X's architecture is better than Windows's putting everything in kernel-space, but it still pains me. I can't wait until I can easily run something like PicoGUI or Fresco on my desktop.
I finally had the chance to compare Gnome (2.4) and KDE (3.1.4) head-to-head. While there are things I like about Gnome, I came away feeling that KDE was the better desktop overall. Specifically:
.
While I prefer Mozilla as my browser, Konqueror is a good compliment to it as it will render Microsoft specific pages better than Mozilla. Galeon and Epiphany render the same as Mozilla.
.
I need to get to my office files via FTP and KDE is not only more intuitive, but I can't even get Nautilus to get to all my files because of the non-standard set up of the server.
.
.
Don't get me wrong, I think Gnome is good and I can even see some people prefering it. In fact, there are some things about Nautilus that I really like. However, KDE better suits my needs right now.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
You will find even more to like when 3.2 is out on Monday. I am running a pre-release here, and it is faster, Konqueror seems less dodgy on rendering sites, and there are a range of new facilities,
Nobody summarized them this time, so...
Gnome uses GTK+ which is LGPL. Both FSS and proprietary software writers can use it without paying anybody.
KDE uses QT which is dual-licensed GPL and "pay us if you sell an application":
- FSS developers MUST release their software as GPL.
- Proprietary developers MUST pay.
As a software developer, you are better with Gnome or Microsoft than with QT. If all you release is GPL, then it does not matter. If all you ever want to use is GPL, then it does not matter. But if you want to see Adobe Photoshop on Linux, expect your stupid QT license issues to matter, because Photoshop will not be sold with QT.
---
I spent the last week switching between Gnome (RedHat) and KDE (Slackware and a little SuSE) about hourly. I like KDE slightly better AS A USER, but I would not write commercial software for it.
I spend my life entertaining my brain.
the big deal is that this is supposed to be a unifying representative of the linux community- a professional and polished face to show the world.
it's not very representational if they don't at lease offer the choice one of the most widely used desktop environments.
I personally think it will be much more likely to be adopted if KDE is included. I base this off of a personal test I performed. when I switched my wife from windows to linux, I let her try several different DE's to see if she could find one she liked. she ended up choosing KDE because it was the most intuitive for a former windows user. This isn't to say that KDE isn't without it's flaws- far from it. it has lots of little problems that irritate the hell out of me.
It all comes down to what their main goal is- if they're trying to steal windows marketshare, they need to (sad to say it) emulate windows as much as possible. I'd bet, given the *choice* between kde and gnome, you're average geek might choose gnome... this this isn't about the average geek. it's a out secretaries and librarians, sales reps and architects. Try explaining "middle click" on a 2 button mouse to your grandfather- I had a hard enough time getting people to learn what "right-click" meant. They're gonna choose the path of lease resistance, and if kde is an *OPTION*, they may choose it simply because it looks and feels more like windows
As you said, Choice is good. But I think "Choice of a ______-only" anything is not a very good choice and will hence go the way of the dodo. It's sorta like getting spending $300 on an Ipod that could only play RealAudio files. userlinux needs every advantage they can get to compete with redhat, windows, and every other distro out there. I think kde *support* would be a great help. I'm not saying to make it the default, just keep include it.
The reason they'd not be including KDE is because of it's use of QT, so I doubt they'll be including QT, meaning kde-based apps won't run. This pretty much destroys your last comments chance of ever happening
This whole thing is a convoluted mess and I'll be the first to admit I don't fully understand WTF is going on. I am curious what the chances are of bruce being able to talk trolltech into releasing an lgpl license of QT, but I get the feeling it's very unlikely.
I'm all for learning so if anyone can help us understand the whole issue, let us know. That being said, back to my gnome workstation.
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