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Announcing the KDE Quality Team Project

Quique writes "The KDE Community is pleased to announce the launch of the Quality Team Project, a community of contributors who will serve as a gateway between developers and users in the KDE Project, and as a new way for people to begin contributing. KDE is a very attractive project, offering high quality software and is freely available. There is a lot of people who feel the urge to give something back, but stop in the middle of the way, frustrated by the steep learning curve. The aim of the project is to reduce these barriers by welcoming these potential contributors, and by offering documentation, support, and even guidance if requested. The objective is to support the new contributors, (programmers, documenters, testers, artists...). Have you ever wished to help KDE in some way, but never knew how? Keep reading!"

389 comments

  1. Shouldn't that be... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    the KDE Kuality Team?

    1. Re:Shouldn't that be... by Megaslow · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think you mean the
      KDE Kuality Klan
      aka, the KKK.. wait, nevermind :)

    2. Re:Shouldn't that be... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Qu is a symbol in itself really, kwality would be the german-spelling equivalent, just as cualite would be the saxon version.

    3. Re:Shouldn't that be... by pbox · · Score: 4, Interesting

      No, I think they should be called pet lamas. To ensure open-source quality.

      I had this idea after reading Eric Raymond's "Luxury of Ignorance".

      At absolute minimum all open-source projects should have (pet) lamas assigned to them, and a continuously rotating basis (to prevent tainting them with knowledge) and their whining should be taken as the word of authority...

      --
      Code poet, espresso fiend, starter upper.
    4. Re:Shouldn't that be... by frodo+from+middle+ea · · Score: 1
      Try Kwality..

      Mmmm...

      --
      for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
    5. Re:Shouldn't that be... by ciroknight · · Score: 1

      Could call them Kuala's, would go well with the whole QT (cue-tee; cute or cutie =) name system..

      Maybe it was just me who thought kuala bears are cute.... (I KNOW THEY ARENT BEARS!!!!!!!)

      --
      "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
    6. Re:Shouldn't that be... by jdray · · Score: 1

      I think you mean "llamas."

      --
      The Spoon
      Updated 6/28/2011
    7. Re:Shouldn't that be... by jdray · · Score: 1

      What is it with /.'ers not being able to spell animal names today? It's "koalas."

      --
      The Spoon
      Updated 6/28/2011
    8. Re:Shouldn't that be... by pbox · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, actually lamers...

      --
      Code poet, espresso fiend, starter upper.
    9. Re:Shouldn't that be... by tverbeek · · Score: 1
      I think that's supposed to be:
      Quality Team -> Q.T. -> Qt (the graphics toolkit used by KDE)

      (-1, Pedantic)

      --
      http://alternatives.rzero.com/
    10. Re:Shouldn't that be... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wonder what Talib Kweli (with his Kwelity CD) would say about this...

    11. Re:Shouldn't that be... by SPrintF · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sorry, no. It should be the "KDE Koalas." Because they ensure koala-ty!

      --

      Honesty. Loyalty. Kindness. Laughter. Generosity. Magic!

    12. Re:Shouldn't that be... by yomegaman · · Score: 1

      This is my pet lama. Isn't he adorable?

      --
      ...wearing a skin-tight topless leather jumpsuit, with cutaway buttocks and transparent crotch panel.
    13. Re:Shouldn't that be... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why don't you ask him and get back to us?

    14. Re:Shouldn't that be... by Frizzle+Fry · · Score: 1

      This spelling looks to me like a cross between koala and Kahlua.

      --
      I'd rather be lucky than good.
  2. This is EXACTLY what open source needs! by FortKnox · · Score: 5, Insightful

    QA? Testing? This is what open source needs!

    Allow me to use Slashdot as an example. Wednesday nights = push development into production. Anyone on the slashteam want to tell me what regression testing tools and system testers they use? Sure, usually (not always) there isn't a crash-and-burn build, but occasionally there is annoyances and such that are just 'thrown into' the build that people didn't know was coming and other things.

    Granted, this is Robs code, let him do what he wants with it, but with a 'QA' step it just makes for a better product.

    --
    Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
    1. Re:This is EXACTLY what open source needs! by millahtime · · Score: 5, Insightful

      QA is also something the US government requires for many things. Especially the military. If there is a good QA process in place that can help improve US government acceptance.

      Not to mention, produce a better product for the rest of us.

    2. Re:This is EXACTLY what open source needs! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Regression testing? You're implying a level of professionalism that is absent in Slashdot development. I mean, they don't even spell check - you expect that they regression test?

    3. Re:This is EXACTLY what open source needs! by pbox · · Score: 4, Funny

      That be the day when the might US government will adapt to german (ungood) open-source (plus ungood) quality (double-plus ungood) software...

      --
      Code poet, espresso fiend, starter upper.
    4. Re:This is EXACTLY what open source needs! by Frymaster · · Score: 4, Insightful
      QA? Testing? This is what open source needs!

      more importantly is the new developer relations.

      lots of big oss projects suffer from poor developer doco, wildly-divergent coding standards and a lack of anything vaguely looking like project management. have you ever tried to bust into the mozilla code? it's easier to become a mason!

      in the proprietary world of software, new hires get weeks of training to explain the ins and outs of the source tree, the preferred tools, the internal standards &c. this is done not just to get said hires up to speed and productive as quickly as possible but also to ensure that their contributions don't damage the conceptual integrity of the project.

      smart move kde.

    5. Re:This is EXACTLY what open source needs! by bogie · · Score: 2, Insightful

      " QA? Testing? This is what open source needs!"

      Kind of an obvious statement don't you think? Every major OSS project that I know of does what they can with regards to QA and Testing. They all do alphas/betas and encourage users to test their products and report bugs.

      Saying that QA/Testing is what OSS needs is a bit of naive statment, unless of course your talking about what KDE in particular is doing. But the way I read it is you were just trying to make some blanket statement about OSS software in general.

      --
      If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
    6. Re:This is EXACTLY what open source needs! by BigJimSlade · · Score: 2, Funny

      have you ever tried to bust into the mozilla code? it's easier to become a mason!

      If you mean Perl Mason, then that's *really* saying something!

    7. Re:This is EXACTLY what open source needs! by jbohumil · · Score: 1
      it's easier to become a mason!


      It's very easy to become a Mason, they even have a little geek speak they put on bumperstickers. "2B1ASK1." You guys just might enjoy it, I do. :) But then, I enjoy old rooms, symbols and secret words. Sounds like programming when I put it that way.

    8. Re:This is EXACTLY what open source needs! by k_head · · Score: 1

      I think what open source really really needs is a version control system that forces code review and testing. For each project there should be coders, reviewers and testers. When the coder check in code it's not committed until the reviewer reviews it and the tester tests it.

      It's just good sound practice but people don't do it because they don't have to. If their revision control system made it easy and mandatory then more of it might get done.

      --
      The best way to support the US war effort is to continue buying American products.
    9. Re:This is EXACTLY what open source needs! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course, Mozilla started out from within a company -- presumably one with a Process and stuff. Ditto for OpenOffice. And those two must be the most incomprehensible projects out in the wild.

      And as for training new hires... When I started working on Krita, it took about a month of nagging Patrick about the design, of diving into the code, of writing documentation, code comments and small bits of new code to test whether my ideas conformed to reality before I started getting productive. Oh, and I had to learn C++, too at the same time. And Krita is considered a difficult codebase by some...

      It doesn't seem too different from what you descibe, does it? Actually, I've worked for ten years in proprietary software houses, and never, ever have I been given the kind of intro you describe. In two out of three companies, there was a binder with coding guidelines, but that was all. It was mostly a matter of "here's your desk, sit down. We'll get you a computer -- maybe next week. Anyway, get working and be productive, won't you?"

      Boudewijn at work (too lazy to search for his Slashdot password).

    10. Re:This is EXACTLY what open source needs! by __past__ · · Score: 1
      I think what open source really really needs is a version control system that forces code review and testing.
      It's not as if such a thing weren't available. People just don't want to use it.
    11. Re:This is EXACTLY what open source needs! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      have you ever tried to bust into the mozilla code? it's easier to become a mason!

      Interestingly, this is why Apple chose KHTML as a basis for Safari (KHTML is part of Konqueror, which is part of KDE).

      I think KDE is already a good example of open-source development, I hope this makes it an excellent one.

  3. KDE Quality Team? by MoobY · · Score: 5, Funny

    What abbreviation will this project get? KDE-Qt?

    --
    --- Sigmentation Fault - Comments Dumped
    1. Re:KDE Quality Team? by mav[LAG] · · Score: 1

      They should have just called it the Kwality Team - we would have known immediately what project they were working on.

      --
      --- Hot Shot City is particularly good.
  4. Bout Time by ErichTheWebGuy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've been waiting for this. Last time I filed a bug report with KDE I got some snotty reply from some programmer who said I was wrong (the bug got fixed in the next release and was listed in the changelog).

    --
    bash: rtfm: command not found
    1. Re:Bout Time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Your experience is not unique. You're lucky to get a snotty reply. Most submissions I've made to bugzillas usually go ignored, no matter the depth of information I've supplied about the problem.

    2. Re:Bout Time by Tack · · Score: 1
      I've been waiting for this. Last time I filed a bug report with KDE I got some snotty reply from some programmer who said I was wrong (the bug got fixed in the next release and was listed in the changelog).

      Which bug?

      Jason.

    3. Re:Bout Time by RPoet · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't know where you guys are coming from. I've submitted a few bugs to bugs.kde.org, and I've never gotten harsh feedback. Even once when I committed the death sin of accidentally posting a duplicate (bug that were already submitted, but I didn't notice), I was still treated kindly and pointed to the other bug where, in the comments, one of the core developers pasted in my somewhat different suggestion for a solution for the record.

      It is my experience also from the IRC channel that the KDE developers are great guys and girls -- a few of them even hang out and help users with their stupid problems (ok, s/users/me/, s/their/my/ ;).

      --
      "Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
    4. Re:Bout Time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I agree. I've submitted a number of bug reports and comments on existing bugs, and not only were they fixed promptly, but my privileges were raised so that I could close bug reports/mark duplicates/etc.

      It sounds like the other two posters don't realise that absolutely anybody can put a comment on an existing bug report.

    5. Re:Bout Time by ErichTheWebGuy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      About Konqueror crashing when adding a button to the toolbar (it was a long time ago, I think like 2000 - 2001)

      Also, anonymous coward said that anyone can add comments to the bug system, and I indeed did not know that.

      Anyway, the point was that there needs to be an interface layer between hard-core developers and people like me who posess enough programming skill to get simple stuff done, but are not developers and want to contribute.

      The bugtracking system is somewhat adequate, but people can easily be confused and a better overall experience is achieved when average everyday end-users get to talk to someone that will help them submit bug reports and fix things.

      --
      bash: rtfm: command not found
    6. Re:Bout Time by twener · · Score: 1

      Developers' time is limited. And reports can get lost under a pile of over 5700 other bug reports. That's why there is a need for such a team.

    7. Re:Bout Time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They need a Bug Master.
      See the gcc-team for an example!

  5. i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redhat by darthcamaro · · Score: 4, Interesting

    i still haven't got the newest KDE 3.2 to work on my RH 7.X boxes..There's a sourceforge project called KDE-Redhat that's supposed to fill the gap but... it sure would be great if this new effort made it easy for lazy admins like me.

  6. On the heels of ESR by LittleLebowskiUrbanA · · Score: 5, Informative

    This seems like it's follwing on ESR's remarks on CUPS the other day but it's not. They've put a lot of planning into this including how to maintain your own CVS and which part of KDE to target for improvement first (KDE PIM).
    I'd like to see some of the numerous UI critics take part in this. You know, the ones who write scathing reviews of widgets and fonts like Eurgenia?

    1. Re:On the heels of ESR by LittleLebowskiUrbanA · · Score: 3, Informative

      Here's who I was talking about.

    2. Re:On the heels of ESR by RoLi · · Score: 2, Insightful
      This seems like it's follwing on ESR's remarks on CUPS the other day but it's not.

      The sad part about all this is that ESR will test only Gnome but will bash ALL open source environments, just as he tested only one distribution but bashed ALL Linux, also those distributions which have seamless CUPS configuration.

      I certainly don't agree with much Eugenia sais, but at least she doesn't bash A for mistakes B made.

    3. Re:On the heels of ESR by bonch · · Score: 0, Troll

      If you want a usable interface, use Gnome. A simple Applications menu and Actions menu at the top by default.

      KDE wants one huge, super-long list with absolutely redundant things like Settings, System, Preferences, and then thirty-thousand other menus seperated by bars.

      And then within each group, a "More Programs" link for some bizarre reason.

      And then you fire up Control Center and there are 100,000 items to choose from, and the cursor always changes to that awful hand icon with the finger that's too long. Cursor changes are confusing to users and diorients them. The cursor also changes for some reason on taskbar buttons.

      I could go on and on.

    4. Re:On the heels of ESR by LittleLebowskiUrbanA · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You're right but have you tried 3.2? Those issues are still there but certainly have been lessened a bit. Also, the speed, man :) Much faster than Gnome but still can't hold a candle to good old Fluxbox.

    5. Re:On the heels of ESR by michrech · · Score: 1

      I agree with everything she said about Konq. All of it's parts should be seperated into seperate programs. That thing is just horrible.

      Pretty much everything else I can see her point, but I don't agree with bits here or there.

      Konq though.. Shesh!

      --
      bork bork bork!
    6. Re:On the heels of ESR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You obviously haven't used modern versions of KDE.

      KDE 3.2, especially, has done a marvelous job in creating a "mental model" for users. Everything works in extremely consistant way; something that was a fundamental design goal of the classic MacOS.

      GNOME on the other hand, seems to going the way of OSX: creating specific implementations that work quite weel for specific goals, but are inherently unusable since they don't work consistantly throughout the environment. This seems to be much more of the old UNIX-hacker approach, and is the WRONG way for the further adoption of the Linux desktop.

    7. Re:On the heels of ESR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      3.2 is FAST! It felt like I got a brand new computer after I upgraded from 3.1.

    8. Re:On the heels of ESR by Minna+Kirai · · Score: 1

      ESR will test only Gnome but will bash ALL open source environments

      And once again, a slashdotter is up-modded for inventing lies about an article he didn't even read.

      Go to that link and read the 2nd, 28th, or 57th paragraphs to check just how wrong RoLi was.

    9. Re:On the heels of ESR by bonch · · Score: 1

      Those "scathing reviews" need to be listened to. Compare a screenshot of KDE and apps with a screenshot of, say, OS X with apps and see the difference. They're about 20 years of desktop design experience apart.

      I always find it amusing when people bitch about Eugenia's review of widgets and such, when meanwhile newbies are always pointing out how ugly Linux is. Most people try to point to www.kde-look.org as some sort of retort, which is just a bunch of even uglier desktops with horrible colors that look great in a static shot but could not be used all day without a headache.

    10. Re:On the heels of ESR by be-fan · · Score: 1

      What the fuck is wrong with you? You've posted the same thing dozens of times already. We get the picture!

      And I've got 20 total entries in the root of my KMenu. I'd like to see how you get 20 = 30,000. Hell, a well-outfitted GNOME setup has at least a dozen!

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    11. Re:On the heels of ESR by Luke-Jr · · Score: 1

      Technically, all the parts *are* seperate as KParts. This setup basicly allows you to have seperate "programs" within one window (via tabs or splitters). I think the problem is with the menu not changing based on the part...

      --
      Luke-Jr
    12. Re:On the heels of ESR by be-fan · · Score: 1

      Eugenia did a review of KDE 3.2-beta2 a while back. It was actually quite spot-on. As a KDE user, disagree with her ideologically on some points (eg. the configure menu comment) but on the whole I think it was a balanced evaluation of KDE, from a traditional UI designer's point of view.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    13. Re:On the heels of ESR by RoLi · · Score: 1
      Of course I read it:

      This kind of crap is exactly why Linux has had such trouble gaining traction among nontechnical users

      How is this not generalizing from one distro to all? Even worse, CUPS' config wizard is merely an add-on, a nifty extra feature, it's still the distro's responsability to manage printer configuration. Fedora fails at this while other distros do it fine.

    14. Re:On the heels of ESR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OS X might have a few things going for it but it ain't the looks. And the rest of it can be done better with any free *nix.

    15. Re:On the heels of ESR by bonch · · Score: 1

      Faster than Gnome?

      Gnome = 1 second to open a folder. Maybe 4 to load an app.

      KDE = 4 seconds just to open a folder. I've waited 10-12 seconds for an app to load.

      This is on a Gentoo Stage 1 compiled laptop. KDE 3.2 did not fix any of the core usability issues.

  7. Sounds Good by moberry · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just stating MY opinion, but i prefer KDE over GNOME. KDE is pretty stable, although i do still have problems with (seemingly) random crashes of Konqueror, etc. This program sounds like it will make already great software even better. Sort of like the customer comment card at resturants, although i dont think they read those.

    1. Re:Sounds Good by zurab · · Score: 3, Informative
      Sort of like the customer comment card at resturants


      I think it's a little different. Consider this:

      Start subscribing to the KDE Quality Team Mailing List and announce yourself...

      If you know what application you want to work with, and what you want to do, check the KDE Quality Team HOWTO for tips and information about the task you want to perform. If you don't know yet, you mask the list for guidance, and read the Quality Team Tasks Page to find out what kind of activity you like best and the requirements to perform this task. Each activity has a different set of requirements. For instance, to be a KDE unstable tester, it is necessary to know how to compile KDE unstable.


      First of all, in my [somewhat limited] experience with QA, technical writing, and other non-development tasks, these people in general are not really friendly with mailing lists. That's a first turn off. I think an NNTP server would be a better solution. Second, this is targeted towards developers and extremely advanced users who will read all of the HOWTOs, rules, directions, etc. and memorize them to avoid getting flamed by others. Regular users don't do these things, they just click on pretty buttons.

      I'm not saying this is wrong, it's just not for average joes out there.
    2. Re:Sounds Good by LMCBoy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's not meant to be for "average joes"! It's a mechanism for people who are very interested in contributing to KDE, but are not developers. Note the adverb-adjective pair in "people who are very interested".

      --
      Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
    3. Re:Sounds Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sort of like the customer comment card at resturants, although i dont think they read those.

      You have probably never worked any retail or customer service job. I used to be a meat department counter person at a grocery store as a teenager. I saw people I worked with get written up and disciplined as a result of people filling out negative things on those cards. The sad thing is that most of the problems that customers bitch about and blame on employees are really the fault of management and yet the front line employees are the ones who take all the heat. Retail sucks. Customers suck. Management sucks. Thank god I was smart enough to go to college and get the hell out of that business.

    4. Re:Sounds Good by zurab · · Score: 1
      Note the adverb-adjective pair in "people who are very interested".

      Well, I am not disputing that you would be "very interested" if you were to contribute to this effort. But interest alone is not sufficient. Anybody, including any number of average users, could be "very interested" in helping out but unable to due to the factors I pointed out. This was in response to an earlier statement that this effort/system was like leaving a comment card at restaurants. Well, it's not.
    5. Re:Sounds Good by Some+Bitch · · Score: 1
      This was in response to an earlier statement that this effort/system was like leaving a comment card at restaurants. Well, it's not.

      Yes it is. Even writing a comment card at a restaurant has certain minimum requirements (basic literacy for one), in the case of KQT the base level for being able to contribute intelligently (as opposed to "This sucks, you guys are crap") are just a little higher but still fall far short of the knowledge required for code contributions to (for example) the KDE core.

    6. Re:Sounds Good by Tukla · · Score: 1

      The QA people I've known were familiar with email but wouldn't know a newsgroup from a hole in the ground. I would think that people in general would be more experienced with email (or even chat) than news, but I'm just guessing.

  8. Kuality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's Kuality, damn in, don't pollute the brand.

    KDE Kuality Projekt

    1. Re:Kuality by Shut+the+fuck+up! · · Score: 0

      It's Kuality, damn in, don't pollute the brand.

      KDE Kuality Projekt


      Kome on guys. Kwit it with the 'K' kracks.

    2. Re:Kuality by Tukla · · Score: 1
      the 'K' kracks

      "Krakks"?

  9. Gnome is NOT a KDE alternative by chmod_localhost · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Everytime KDE is mentioned, gnome advocates try and convince me why is GNOME is better, when it is NOT! Here is a detailed description WHY GNOME SUCKS KDE RULES!

    1) The file dialog.
    KDE 0.x ALPHAs had a better file dialog than gnome! Today, the KDE one is the best file dialgog in existance, with influence from all desktops.

    2) More apps!
    KDE comes with over 150 Apps in the full install, with applications for all fields, plus its sleak integration with non kde apps (eg gimp, openoffice) make things more consistant.

    3) Configureable as hell.
    The KDE control center has loads of knobs/dials/sliders and boxes to fiddle with, yet keeps things elegent. In gnome, half the options don't exisit and you are rudley told "use gconf-editor n00b by gnome zealots" (not joking about this, telling the truth gets you a -1, troll and footnotes).

    4) I-kandy!
    The Kde eye candy is really powerful, with styles such as dotNEt, mosfet liquid, kermamik, Crystal and more. Looking at art.gnome.org [gnome.org] reveals the same old theme in different colours. Since gnome dosen't provide a colour changing dialog for its widgets most "themes" are just colour changes. The Crystal from CVS is an Aqua killer, your eyes will want to love it.

    5) Its development framework rocks.
    Take a good look at kioslaves, kparts, dcop, arts and qt and see why KDE is a programmer's dream. Modern c++, wonderful IDE [kdevelop.org], powerful command line scripting. Gnome gives you obsolete c, with a bunch of kludge libraries such as glib, Orbit, bonobo to hack together a application.

    6)The defacto choice on Linux. All major Distributions support it by default. This means Mandrake, SuSE, Xandros, ArkLinux, Jamd, Lindows, Slackware, Knoppix, Gentoo and more. How many gnome ones can you mention (Redhat, sure if you like using server distros as your desktop Debian, nope thats the old 1.4 branch Gnoppix, a retarded knoppix rip off.) Most distributions offer gnome as an unsupported alternative.

    Also, the only reason why gnome was created in the first place is null and void. Now that Novell has taken over Ximain you can expect VENDOR lock in. Want groupware for linux? Thats $300 a seat.

    Get the new Mandrake 9.2 and see the Quality of KDE vs the Sorry state of Gnome 2.4 (and, they STILL haven't fixed that ****ing file dialog), not to mention they REMOVED ALL THE FEATURES. Gnome 2.2 is probably the only gnome version remotley close to kde, that is, KDE 2.0, not the KDE 3.2. I tried the "brokenboring" alpha of it and when it is released this december it will finally put Gnome out of it's misery and kill it off the Linux desktop.

    1. Re:Gnome is NOT a KDE alternative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Must we go through this every time there is a KDE or Gnome topic?

      It's just like all the "BSD is dead" retards who post in every BSD-related thread.

      Frankly, I don't give a shit about the reasons why either of them are better. Just give me one that works.

    2. Re:Gnome is NOT a KDE alternative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice troll. +3, even.

    3. Re:Gnome is NOT a KDE alternative by bfree · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm only going to address one part of your post.

      Also, the only reason why gnome was created in the first place is null and void. Now that Novell has taken over Ximain you can expect VENDOR lock in. Want groupware for linux? Thats $300 a seat.
      Gnome was created because KDE was based on QT which was not free software. As far as I understand it, QT is now free though the port for windows in not, someone could port the GPL QT onto windows but no-one has (that I have heard of) and until that happens Gnome/GTK still has a reason to exist even if it is inferior.

      As for Novell's purchase of Ximian, there are multiple things to consider. First, Ximian is not Gnome like Trolltech is QT so Novell can do very little to impact Gnome. Secondly Novell have their original business, Ximian and Suse to bring into co-existance. I suspect that you will see them focusing on building a Suse product line which is based on Free software, but interoperates flawlessly with all the proprietary solutions they have. They will certainly be looking for per seat charges for supported solutions, whether proprietary or free, but I doubt you will see them dropping free software tools which they can exploit to provide a complete solution simply out of spite, surely their purchases show that they want to take advantage of the free software world, even if they mightn't want to give away their work (which is no problem as long as the work remains GPL, each recipient can decide what to do with it).

      --

      Never underestimate the dark side of the Source

    4. Re:Gnome is NOT a KDE alternative by MonoSynth · · Score: 2, Interesting

      1) The file dialog. KDE 0.x ALPHAs had a better file dialog than gnome! Today, the KDE one is the best file dialgog in existance, with influence from all desktops.

      See this screenshot for the fileselector for GNOME 2.6.

      And about the KDE file selector: horizontal scrolling is a bug, not a feature. Even if it is configurable, it's still a bug.

      2) More apps! KDE comes with over 150 Apps in the full install, with applications for all fields, plus its sleak integration with non kde apps (eg gimp, openoffice) make things more consistant.

      Remember, it's a d-e-s-k-t-o-p. And a standard desktop must be shipped with a minimum of apps (one for every task), just to keep it simple. A whole application suite is something different, something that scares off most people. GNOME's got Epiphany for web-browsing, and if you're a power user you can install Galeon. It's got Gedit because you'll use Vim or Emacs or some IDE anyway if you're serious about editing.

      3) Configureable as hell. The KDE control center has loads of knobs/dials/sliders and boxes to fiddle with, yet keeps things elegent. In gnome, half the options don't exisit and you are rudley told "use gconf-editor n00b by gnome zealots" (not joking about this, telling the truth gets you a -1, troll and footnotes).

      Or: Not enough knowledge to know what's good? GNOME doesn't have all these options, but I don't need them because the default is just usable. In return I get menu's that are clean and easy to read, speeding up my experience with the desktop. Even if I had taken the time to fully configure KDE, that wouldn't take the overload of options away.

      4) I-kandy! The Kde eye candy is really powerful, with styles such as dotNEt, mosfet liquid, kermamik, Crystal and more. Looking at art.gnome.org [gnome.org] reveals the same old theme in different colours. Since gnome dosen't provide a colour changing dialog for its widgets most "themes" are just colour changes. The Crystal from CVS is an Aqua killer, your eyes will want to love it.

      My eyes hate crystal-like themes with too many colours, but that's personal. Like I implied before, I like a desktop to be really on the background, not overwhelming me with options and colors and styles and configurabilities. I install a desktop to run applications, not to run the desktop itself. And btw, when I tried KDE 3.2 last week, I saw the same old icons as KDE 1.x for the control-center, and I could still choose between two old KDE1 themes (but that didn't work anymore afaik)

  10. Someone read ESR's rant by gatesh8r · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Now if the Gnome project (and quite honestly every large project) would make a quality team, we could get some serious usability issues ironed out.

    --
    Karma whorin' since 1999
    1. Re:Someone read ESR's rant by thesaur · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ESR did bring up a lot of good points. However, I doubt this team will have too much to do with that. From the article, it seems to me that it's mostly focused at lowering the entry level requirements for working on the KDE project. They are trying to get people to write documentation, etc. But that doesn't mean that they will actually focus on ensuring that it will all be as simple to use as Windows.

      As an open source author and member of a quality assurance team, experience tells me that the greatest effort will go into programming. QA teams generally have enough work to do just fixing bugs, writing documentation and testing releases ("important stuff"), that not enough time is left for making the user interface uniform or even intuitive. In this case, though they are asking users for direct input on the topic. That's a good sign.

    2. Re:Someone read ESR's rant by RPoet · · Score: 1

      The GNOME guys don't have their own "Quality" project like KDE has now, but they arrange "Love days". And actually, it's today! So if you want to become a GNOME hacker, head on over to #gnome-love on irc.gnome.org.

      --
      "Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
    3. Re:Someone read ESR's rant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be more correct, today is the first GNOME love day at all. But I'm confident that more will follow.

    4. Re:Someone read ESR's rant by Tukla · · Score: 1

      Heh. They've been setting up this team for months, so I doubt ESR's week-old rant has anything to do with it.

  11. Re:USABILITY - FINALLY ! by ehack · · Score: 0, Troll

    For 10 years the Desktop Linux user experience was so bad you literally couldn't give it away to anyone outside the industry. It seems that the hackers finally got the point. Better late than never !

    Post corrected to 10 years - although, frankly the Multics interface, the original Unix and the X-Windowed Sun stuff wasn't much better.

    --
    This is not a signature.
  12. Goddamit, gettit right! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    KDE K wality Klan

    You know, like a quake clan? Oh...

  13. Re:i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redha by LMCBoy · · Score: 4, Informative

    The KDE project itself doesn't do any packaging at all; they only release source-code tarballs. kde-redhat is an independent project.

    --
    Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
  14. Build it, and they won't come.. by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What was that open source code auditting thing that DARPA set up, but noone showed up to do the gruntwork?

    Sounds like KDE is looking for folks to come along and do all the thankless, boring shit. Spellchecking help files, testing obscure check boxes, applying different themes. Of course, all the cool design work and programming, and artistry, etc, will be done by the core team - who will, of course, accept all the credit.

    Noone wants to do the monkey work. I don't want to test constantly, read bug reports, track down insignificant bugs in code thats unused 99.9% of the time. I only do so because it's my job.

    Which is a shame for open source in general, because it's that QA step, all the thankless hours of gruntwork, that make the final product what it is.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    1. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by millahtime · · Score: 1, Funny

      QA is like the ass end of the work. No one wants to deal with what comes out and no one want's to really look at their own.

    2. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by ErichTheWebGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting


      I have done exactly that kind of shitty grunt work for a number of open source projects, without expecting any credit or whatever. For one reason, the one you stated:

      it's that QA step, all the thankless hours of gruntwork, that make the final product what it is

      I believe in open source, and am willing to further the cause just to further the cause, not to further my own ego.

      I, for one, will join the KDE Quality (Kuality?) Team.

      --
      bash: rtfm: command not found
    3. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by cookie_cutter · · Score: 1

      Maybe that means it's extra important for an open source project to have a good design from the start: few will want to fix it after it's done.

    4. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by LMCBoy · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's really cold, man. You paint the KDE project as extremely elitist, when it is actually totally the opposite. KDE isn't some exclusive club of core people, any developers are welcome to join the project at any time, and have always been welcome.

      Sounds like KDE is looking for folks to come along and do all the thankless, boring shit.

      You have it totally backward, actually. The Quality Team project was intiated to include the large number of non-developer people who have been saying that they've always wanted to help KDE, but don't know how. KDE-QT provides a framework to actually include these interested and passionate contributors into our project.
      They asked for a project like this.

      So you see the QT tasks as boring grunt-work. Fine, then maybe KDE-QT is not for you. But there are those who excel at this kind of thing, and actually enjoy it.

      --
      Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
    5. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by ErichTheWebGuy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Thank you!!! That's exactly what I was trying to say. I am a novice programmer, and have little if any to offer to the KDE codebase. But, I would love to contribute and have extensive experience in things like customer service and communication. The KDE-QT is a FANTASTIC idea!

      --
      bash: rtfm: command not found
    6. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by m.mascherpa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Noone wants to do the monkey work. I don't want to test constantly, read bug reports, track down insignificant bugs in code thats unused 99.9% of the time. I only do so because it's my job.

      Actually it seems someone do want: otherwise how could many open source projects like Apache, Samba, linux (!!!) become what they are?

    7. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by RoLi · · Score: 3, Insightful
      What nonsense. If you define quality as "doing what it is intended to do", open source is doing an excellent job. Just look at how many bugs and security leaks IS had and still has and how few Mozilla had. (I still have to witness a single Mozilla security hole that could be exploited with realistic chances success.) Just look at the great work the Apache-Team has done compared to IIS which it's many holes and bugs.

    8. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by bluGill · · Score: 2, Interesting

      To each his own. I personally consider the art work the hardest and most boring job that KDE has. Fortunatly someone (several in fact) is willing to do that work.

      For that matter someone in the last couple days has just steped up to make some nice sounds. Don't know if he will finish the job, but what he has created so far is nice.

      KDE tries to keep track of who submitted each fix. I'm sure some things slip through the cracks, but overall if you find a problem with KDE you can point that out latter as something you have done, and we can all go back into the archives and verify it really was you. There are far too many people helping with KDE for all but those who do the most work to get credit. That doesn't mean the credit is lost though.

    9. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by jazman_777 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Noone wants to do the monkey work.

      Well, they _are_ asking for volunteers. I'm sure somebody is better than nobody.

      --
      Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
    10. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Look at how much more polished and usable Windows XP is than any OSS desktop.

      Or OS/X. They took an OSS platform and layed a slick, highly integrated and very stylish UI on top of it. In about a quarter of the time that various linux desktop projects have been around. What's the difference?

      Legions of grunts whos daily bread relied on toeing the company line, testing what they were told to test, documenting what they were told to document.

      I wish this project all success, but I'm skeptical. Contributing programming or artistic skills for free makes sense. After all, programmers like programming, artists like drawing.

      But noone likes doing gruntwork. Noone really dances on their way to work at McDonalds. We'll see in the end.

      An aunt of mine was as veterinarian, she ran a small animal hospital. She'd have two or three high school girls apply to volunteer there each week, girls are goofy at the idea of hugging puppies.

      They wouldn't show up again after the first time they had to do the actual work, say, clean up after a Great Dane with a case of diarreah.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    11. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by luge · · Score: 1

      I don't know, we normally have 30-50 people at least drop by for GNOME bug day. It's not huge, but we've been proving for two years now that having a quality team can work and really improve the quality of the project, if the rest of the project takes it to heart. It's good to see KDE emulating us in that respect- I'm sure it'll keep us on our toes. :)

      --

      IAAL,BIANLY

    12. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone's been sippin' the Hater-ade.

      If this was a swamp you'd be an alli-hater.

      Don't take the stairs, take the ele-hater.

    13. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by happyfrogcow · · Score: 1

      I think it should be named the "KDE KoalaTeam". Say it and it sort of blurs together into Quality. This way they can have a nice little Koala mascot. Though, if there isn't already an existing Koala software product, i'll be damned.

      Kuality just looks cheap and wrong, like "Kwik-Stop" convenient stores.

      [rant]
      I hate modified spelling. A sign in the subway in NYC says something like "For late nite trains use such and such". They couldn't have just spelled "night" properly? i can tolerate it in informal writting like email, and my spelling isn't always th ebest, but something intentionally (or not! who knows?) spelled wrong that they had manufactured for public display? bah!
      [/rant]

    14. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by RoLi · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Look at how much more polished and usable Windows XP is than any OSS desktop. Or OS/X. They took an OSS platform and layed a slick, highly integrated and very stylish UI on top of it. In about a quarter of the time that various linux desktop projects have been around. What's the difference?

      Marketing.

      I HAVE tried WinXP and MacOSX and both leave a lot to be desired.

      There is just no good substitute for multiple desktops with good session management like KDE has. Also Unix-style copy/paste is much faster and more comfortable than MacOS-style (which was copied by Windows) because you don't have to switch nearly as often between keyboard and mouse. Of course KDE supports both copy/paste schemes, so you are not forced to use Unix-style. Real 3-button support is another thing. For example I can open a folder in the filemanager in a new tab with the MMB, or I can jump to a position on a scrollbar with the MMB, or I can push back a window with the MMB.

      But of course, marketing has told you that all those features are "for geeks" only and Windows/MacOS is the best there is - so often that people started to believe it. You don't even need examples, facts or reasons!

      KDE doesn't have any usability problems, period. I've seen newbies pull hairs because of the numerous single-click/double-click inconsistencies in Windows (why do I have to single-click an icon on a toolbar but double-click an icon on the desktop? What moron invented that scheme?) which don't exist in KDE, at least not in the default configuration.

      I have now presented 5 examples of KDE superiority (multiple desktops, session management, copy-paste, 3-mouse button support and single-click consistency), you have prestented nothing, zero, nada. Probably because you have never used KDE and have no idea what you are talking about.

      What indeed is a problem is missing and incomplete documentation. Another is missing Win32 binary compatibility especially for games. That and that alone is keeping Linux/KDE off the masses desktops.

    15. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Polished? I seriously have to disagree. I find the XP file manager to be a mess by default. It makes one jump through any number of hoops to get it to treat the user as anything other than an idiot. I like the tabs in konq, distros have the settings pointing to quality programs, and it actually trusts that I'm intelligent enough to see file extensions.

    16. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by RoLi · · Score: 1
      A 6th example:

      KDE allows you to use the "Alt"-key combined with the mouse. Alt+LMB let's you "grap" a window everywhere, making moving more comfortable and flexible (you can move windows off the top of the screen which is impossible in Windows), Alt+RMB let's you resize windows more easily because you only have to aim near the border/corner of a window.

      7th example:

      KDE doesn't force the active window on top of all others. This way you can simultaneously use overlapping windows.

    17. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please for the love of God, no!

    18. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by Brandybuck · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Of course, all the cool design work and programming, and artistry, etc, will be done by the core team - who will, of course, accept all the credit.

      Okay, here's an idea. The KDE About dialog is already has a "fill-in-the-blank" API. Why not add a Quality Team field to it? Make this an official part of the libs, and you suddenly get an official suggestion to credit the quality people for your application.

      --
      Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
    19. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by SmilingBoy · · Score: 2, Insightful
      What is it with OS/X?

      I used Windows for a long time, but then switched to Linux (Mandrake with KDE). I had no major problems whatsoever regarding usability - everything worked more or less like in Windows, but there were more nice things you could tweak and adjust. That's why I love KDE.

      Now, for the first time, I admit, I had to use a Mac, with OS/X. I had a hard time. Everything was different - hell, there wasn't even a freaking right mouse button!

      I didn't have to spend much time with it, and maybe, if you grow up with a Mac, it's great, but for someone used to Windows or KDE, it's a nightmare.

      Don't mod me Flamebait, I am dead serious.

    20. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by SmilingBoy · · Score: 1

      I agree - why do they hide the file extension in Windows 2000 and XP? It always makes me nervous and the first thing I do when I log on to a new Windows computer is to change the first 5 view settings in Windows Explorer.

    21. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by cubic6 · · Score: 3, Informative
      multiple desktops, session management, copy-paste, 3-mouse button support and single-click consistency

      These are things that KDE does the way you like. They're not examples of KDE superiority. Don't make the mistake of claiming that everybody likes the same things you do. I've used KDE, and while it's a decent desktop, there's no way in hell I could say that it has no usability problems.

      Example: The menus all have "More Programs" submenus. Why can't all the programs for a group be on the same level?

      I have used KDE, so I do know what I'm talking about. I don't use Windows because of the marketing. I use it because right now, it's not practical for me to switch to Linux and KDE. I do agree that documentation and binary compatibility are problems, but they're hardly the only ones facing KDE.

      --
      Karma: Contrapositive
    22. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by fault0 · · Score: 1

      Bug team != Quality Team, other than being a small part of it.. did ya read the announcement?

      A large amount of non developers have been triaging bugs in KDE (especially in khtml) since KDE switched to Bugzilla from debbugs. It was less practical to do it within debbugs because at that time, permissions weren't easily transferrable to many accounts.

    23. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Example: The menus all have "More Programs" submenus. Why can't all the programs for a group be on the same level?

      This was added to KDE 3.2 because people were complaing about clutter in the menus. So uncommonly used applications were moved.

    24. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Considering that the original proposal called it the "Janitors Team" I think there is a bit of elitism going on.

      Though the fact that they're welcoming the rest of us is a good first step.

    25. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      There is just no good substitute for multiple desktops with good session management like KDE has.

      Except that multiple desktops are highly confusing unless you are a power user and have mentally trained yourself to remember that there are programs open "somewhere else" in the computer. Even a power user like me gets confused with multiple desktops and has to scan each one. It requires holding a lot in your head, which is okay for a computer geek but not anybody else.

      My mom, as an example, doesn't even understand *multiple windows* she closes windows before opening new ones.

      KDE session management is terrible. Why? Because it only works with programs that are aware of it. Programs like gvim and Mozilla do not remember their state properly. So is a half-baked feature better than no feature at all? I would argue NO, because it will confuse the average computer user who doesn't understand why one program is memorized properly, but not another. They don't understand the mishmash of technology under the hood, and don't need to waste brain cells remembering which programs "work" and which don't.

      Also Unix-style copy/paste is much faster and more comfortable than MacOS-style

      X Windows has at least *TWO* clipboards, one cut/paste style, and the other done by clicking the middle mouse button. First, having two clipboards is confusing. Having a clipboard that works differently then the market leader (Windows) is confusing. Accidentally clicking the middle mouse button and pasting random stuff into your program is confusing.

      This is another power-user-only feature. I see many people that have problems with two-button mice.

      Maybe if there was a special "paste" button on the mouse, it could be a good feature, because then people could associate the button with pasting easier.

      I personally accidentally hit the middle mouse button into my text programs (like mutt) once a week at least, I really hate that. Am I stupid? No, I just hit the wrong button, why should I now have to undelete the mail and cancel the printer job, and whatever else those keystrokes did!

      But of course, marketing has told you that all those features are "for geeks" only and Windows/MacOS is the best there is - so often that people started to believe it. You don't even need examples, facts or reasons!

      Have you ever sat down with someone to explain how the computer works? Someone who wants to get their job done? I guess not. I know people who don't use cut and paste at all, they just retype things. They don't mind, because it works for them. You are so beyond the average user and you don't realize it. What should they have to learn this, when it is possible to create a UI that they can use, AND the power users can use.

      There are basic principles in designing things, from doorknobs to computer interfaces. One thing is to keep the interface as *simple* as possible, and make all the "modes" obvious. All the things you described are power user features because they require an extra mental model of how the computer works.

      KDE doesn't have any usability problems, period.

      You've got to be shitting me. Here's one: in Konquerer (which I'm using now), opening a new browser tab when the tab bar is full pushes old tabs out of sight. Where did they go? Did the computer eat them? Oh look.. a couple little arrows.. click on them, now the tabs have jumped around (bad UI design, never move a control element!) This has so many levels of confusion (beyond the confusion of tabs themselves).

      Here's another one: my konqueror has three magnifying glasses at the top. If you squint you might realize one has little footprints, one has a "+", and one has a "-". Can you guess what they do based on my description? Why are they even *there*, I've never clicked on them. There are TWO printer icons. One has a printer, one has a printer and a square next to it. What do they do? Who knows and who cares! When I "print" a web page (maybe once a year), I

    26. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by bonch · · Score: 2, Insightful

      KDE doesn't have any usability problems, period.

      Give me a break. I could give you an entire list.

      From your post, it seems you are a KDE fan and that is good, but don't bash others just because they don't choose to use that system. I don't use it because it so slooooooow and has an extremely cramped interface. Way too many buttons going on.

    27. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by kundor · · Score: 1

      8th example: Maximize width-wise or height-wise. Lacking this in other environments is VERY annoying. 9th example: You can make any window always on top. The number of times this annoyed me in windows before i switched are without end. 10th example: (well, extension to a previous one, really) clipboard history: 10 items at a time so you can't lose your data by recopying.

    28. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by Kobayashi+Maru · · Score: 1

      Ya know, I actually WOULD be interested in doing something like this. I'm far to busy with other things to devote any substantial amount of time to a project. But I would like to help out, nonetheless. And if I can correct that small bug or grammatical error that annoys one user, then that's not wasted effort. Afterall, sometimes it is the little things that matter the most.

    29. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by IntergalacticWalrus · · Score: 1

      Or OS/X. They took an OSS platform and layed a slick, highly integrated and very stylish UI on top of it. In about a quarter of the time that various linux desktop projects have been around. What's the difference?

      Uh, no. The OSX GUI is the evolution of NeXT's GUI, aka. NeXTStep/OpenStep, which is over 15 years old if I recall well. And Apple was actively working on it ever since they bought NeXT (remember Rhapsody?). Hell, Carbon - the "migration toolkit" that was supposed to provide easy migration of apps from present Mac OS to "that future Mac OS" (ie. now called OS X) - was released way back in OS 8.

      Just because there's been a few dozen months between OS 9 and OS X doesn't mean OS X was developped in that time frame, silly. The Linux desktop environments are actually quite young compared to Apple's offering.

    30. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by imsabbel · · Score: 1

      because people dont understand file extensions.
      They dont know that .jpg or .gif are pictures and .exe are programs.
      There is a tab in the explorer where the filetype is shown in plaintext.
      People who dont understand the meaning of the extensions wouldnt benefit from seeing them, and people who understand them are smart enough to turn them on.

      --
      HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
    31. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by RoLi · · Score: 1
      These are things that KDE does the way you like. They're not examples of KDE superiority. Don't make the mistake of claiming that everybody likes the same things you do.

      KDE doesn't force multiple desktops on you. You can use just the first desktop and never know there are others.

      KDE doesn't force Unix copy/paste on you, you can use MacOS-style without ever realizing that there is a better way.

      The same goes for all the other examples I've brought. And that's why it is superior because you can use the features you like but are not forced to use them.

      I've used KDE, and while it's a decent desktop, there's no way in hell I could say that it has no usability problems.

      If that is so, why can't you come up with just one real example?

      Example: The menus all have "More Programs" submenus. Why can't all the programs for a group be on the same level?

      That's really the best you can come up with? Complaining about startmenu structure? And even an invalid complaint because desktop distributions like SuSE were never using that structure and were using their own instead (which makes sense because there are some non-KDE programs in the distro, too.), and in KDE3.2 stock it isn't even valid anymore.

      But even if it were still there, you can't compare fundamental usability features like Unix-style copy-paste with a startmenu-structure which can be changed by configuration.

    32. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by RoLi · · Score: 1
      Give me a break. I could give you an entire list.

      Then GODDAMN do it!. But please only verifyable things.

      So far the only thing on this subthread is complaining about startmenu structure and other stuff which isn't a core issue and has been fixed in KDE 3.2 anyway.

      The last poster even complained about bad usability for Konqueror's tabs. Well, d'oh, but neither Explorer nor Internet Explorer use any tabs at all. It's really funny to complain that Windows is better because a feature isn't perfect that isn't even in Windows. If you use Konqueror like Explorer, you would never even see the problem. But of course it was a problem and it was fixed in KDE 3.2. The tabs now shrink just like in Mozilla.

      The other complaints are equally moronic. How can multiple desktops be "confusing" when the user doesn't use them? You can use KDE for years without ever knowing that there are multiple desktops. Nobody is forcing them, so that complaint is just idiotic. But for many users it makes much sense and is very valuable.

    33. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      11th example:
      you can shade a window when you don't need it, which is largely more intuitive than minimising it (since it's closer to reality, and you don't need to recall the name of the app)

    34. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For always on top in windows, check out PowerMenu

    35. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by orcrist · · Score: 1

      KDE session management is terrible. Why? Because it only works with programs that are aware of it. Programs like gvim and Mozilla do not remember their state properly.

      And this is KDE's problem? As far as I know KDE uses an X standard for session management, meaning that non-KDE apps (e.g. nedit) can correctly restore their state when KDE restarts. IOW this isn't some KDE gimmick which only works with KDE apps. If those programs don't implement that capability then that's more of an indictment of those programs, not KDE.

      -chris

      --
      San Francisco values: compassion, tolerance, respect, intelligence
    36. Re:Build it, and they won't come.. by cubic6 · · Score: 1

      No, that's not the best I can come up with. It's the first thing I thought of, and the thing that bugged me the most. I'm not going to list any problems, because I'm sure you have a smartass response to each and every one about why they aren't actually problems, and how KDE is "superior" to everything else out there just because it supports your preferred method of doing things. If you want some, search on Google for "kde usability problem", no quotes.

      Even if it's perfect for you, it's just stupid to say that it has absolutely no usability problems for everyone. If KDE fits you, fine. It doesn't fit me, and, judging by the number of people who use other systems, it doesn't fit a lot of other people either. I'd love to dump Windows and switch to KDE if it was more polished and there weren't assholes like you who claim the software's perfect and there's no need to fix these "usability problems" that everybody else seems to have. The bottom line is, whether you'd like to admit it or not, KDE is not perfect. It's good, but there's lots of room for improvement.

      --
      Karma: Contrapositive
  15. Middlemen? Where have I heard this before..? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh yeah...

    Tom Smykowski: Well-well look. I already told you: I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?

    1. Re:Middlemen? Where have I heard this before..? by Sparky77 · · Score: 1

      Right... That'll be great... Thanks....

      --
      One bad monkey spoils the whole barrel.
    2. Re:Middlemen? Where have I heard this before..? by nsahoo · · Score: 1

      then also in "the fountainhead", "the shortest path between two people is through the middle man, not without him"

      --


      When a post becomes too insightful, it often becomes funny.
  16. Re:USABILITY - FINALLY ! by kfg · · Score: 2, Funny

    For 20 years the Desktop Linux user experience. . .

    I don't mean to be snide, really, this time I don't, but I do feel a bit compelled to ask which particular alternate universe you're living in?

    KFG

  17. This is what Open Source needs by mcx101 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think this is exactly what open source needs. It's one thing for programmers, sysadmins and advanced users to contribute to open source projects, but there's often no easy way for the average user to help out.

    With ideas like KDE Quality Team, the developers get to hear from the users and integrate features that they would like to see, as well as providing a means by which the average user can contribute. That's why Wikipedia works so well - it is possible for anybody to contribute. It's great to see the "anybody can contribute" idea extend to open source where up till now it's really only the advanced users who can contribute easily.

    --
    My operat~1 system unders~1 long filena~1 , does yours?
    1. Re:This is what Open Source needs by kenneth_martens · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think this is exactly what open source needs. It's one thing for programmers, sysadmins and advanced users to contribute to open source projects, but there's often no easy way for the average user to help out.

      There's a reason for that: average users can find bugs, but cannot report them without having a programmer or an advanced user looking over their shoulder. An average user doesn't think through things logically enough to be able to isolate problems or to come up with the steps needed to consistently reproduced a bug.

      You might say, "But the average user doesn't need to know those things! He just needs to report the bug and the programmers will research it and fix it." That's nonsense. A bug report from an average user (if he files one at all) is likely to be along the lines of "A program crashed when I clicked on a menu item." And when you ask for more details, he has forgotten which menu item he clicked on, he has forgotten the error message, he doesn't even know which version he was running. At best you might figure out which OS he uses, but that's it.

      QA testing can be done by average users only if they are closely monitored by programmers or advanced users. There needs to be an advanced, knowledgable user present to watch the novice use the program and see how he uses the software. The KDE Quality Team might get some work done--for example, average users could easily locate and point out misspellings or other errors in the help files or dialog box messages--but don't think for a moment that KDE is tapping a great heretofore unused resource. The quality of the feedback generated by the KDE Quality Team will likely be low.

      What we really need is to have local LUGs sponsor QA seminars. Get all the local geeks to bring a friend who has never used KDE. Sit them all down in front of a brand new installation of the latest KDE and ask them to perform simple tasks similar to what they would do at home using Windows. (Burn a CD, search the web, etc.) Watch them closely and take notes every time they find a bug or unexpected behavior. Compile that information and submit the necessary bug reports. Now that information will be truly useful.

      Disclaimer: I could be wrong about everything. It's not likely, but it's happened before.

    2. Re:This is what Open Source needs by Telex4 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What you say makes sense, but if you read my article that I wrote to explain the effects of the project in more depth, you'll see that (hopefully) you're wrong.

      The point of the project is not only to bring in this heretofore unused resource, and then train it, so that you get a growing number of people with little or no technical background becoming competent with things like Bugzilla, CVS, translation tools, promotion work, etc. These people can then act as a gateway between the developers and the users, to try to improve the quality of communication between these two groups.

      Your idea of LUG-based QAs is a great one, but it's not something the KDE Project can enforce, whereas the Quality Teams project is viable and will hopefully make a big difference.

    3. Re:This is what Open Source needs by Eivind · · Score: 1
      But not everyone is either an "average user" or a "programmer", there's all levels between too.

      And even those of us that are "programmers" in some settings, migth be "users" in others. Infact there's thousands of people *using* Linux and KDE and the various other Open Source stuff that know atleast a bit about programming, but still never contributed directly to Open Source themselves.

      While I personally, for example, don't know how to use qt for more than "hello worl", and indeed dislike C++ in general with a passion, that doesn't stop me from being able to report a bug in a more useful manner (i.e. complete version-info, how to reproduce, back-trace from version compiled with debug-info.)

      It'd take me more time than I care to use to learn say qt, kde and kmail to the point where I could fix the bug myself though.

      Plus, you're ignoring the bug-reports that don't need a technical explanation to make sense. There's tons of bug of the type: "When I close X, and restarts it, it forgets Y, forcing me to tell it again." in many cases that's a perfectly usable bug-report rigth there, even in the complete absence of version, os, compiler-info, and so on.

  18. Re:USABILITY - FINALLY ! by lambent · · Score: 5, Funny

    Linux version .01 was launched in September 1991. (timeline) Try 12.5 years.

    Rather, if you mean the relative amount of time it seems that I've been thrashing around in the 'quirkiness' (to be polite) that is the linux desktop ... then I think you've underestimated that figure by a few decades.

  19. Nice idea by HeLLLight · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Personally I think this is a very good idea. My programming skills are limited to simple BASH scripts so Im no use to most devel teams. But I do have good documentation/bug hunting skills. I do this as part of my job. So it is a good oppurtunity for those who do want to give something back to the OSS community but fall short in the programming area. Good Idea KDE.

  20. Re:i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redha by darthcamaro · · Score: 5, Insightful

    right you are - but should it be that way? for newbies and technophobes -packages are the way they get stuff onto their machines

  21. Got to give KDE credit.. by msimm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For fostering a community unlike any other. www.kde-look.org has been my first stop to see modern ideas on desktop design for years now. I am not nor have I ever been a KDE fanboy (I'm a Blackbox user) but they have managed to form a remarkable bond with the graphics design community (and the graphically inclined). They should be a model for more OSS projects and this is something we should look at as a community as a whole. There is more to good software then 1's and 0's.

    --
    Quack, quack.
    1. Re:Got to give KDE credit.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just took a look at that site you pointed out, and the top-rated theme, Crystal SVG, appears to have ripped its UI straight the fuck out of Mac OS X (the icons) and Windows XP (window frames). I mean, they're so perfectly copied it'd be stretching the lie to call them "derivative." Depressing.

      Hopefully the KDE Quality folks will be able to inject some originality into the project.

  22. What about USABILITY? by xutopia · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Seriously I hear all kind of good things with KDE but the thing still looks way too kluttered for the average Joe.

    1. Re:What about USABILITY? by millahtime · · Score: 1

      "...average Joe..."

      I remember him. His name was Evan. I think a power button on a computer may have been to difficult for him.

    2. Re:What about USABILITY? by EvanTaylor · · Score: 2, Funny

      I thought it was the volume button, sorry!

      --
      Sleep is for the weak.
    3. Re:What about USABILITY? by twener · · Score: 1
    4. Re:What about USABILITY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently the average joe can use KDE, and your preconceived notions about KDE are unfounded. Please leave usability to professionals, not the "arm chair" usability "experts" that are common with much of the OSS world.

    5. Re:What about USABILITY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Usability? Sorry, that doesn't contain a "K" or any other letter that can be turned into a "K", so KDE doesn't support it.

      Seriously, I would love to see KDE be at least as usable as Windows (don't even talk about OS X).

      Strip down all UI elements as much as possible. Each app should have 4-5 of the most important buttons ONLY.

      Remove all the silly confusing options. I don't really need to adjust the width of the handles on the dock thing.

      Strip down the app menus. PLEASE.

      Make it so if you have focus-follows-mouse, it doesn't take focus away from your current window when a new window opens. On my Mac, I start an app, then go back to what I'm doing, confident that the new app won't suddenly appear in front. In KDE I have to stop what I'm doing until the window appears, because I don't know where my next keystroke will appear. If focus-follows-mouse can't be fixed, REMOVE IT COMPLETELY.

      What the heck is "Ok"/"Apply"/"Cancel". I don't know if I should apply and then click okay, or if I click okay it dismisses the window without setting the settings, or if I click "apply" and then "cancel" it will apply the settings, but not save them for next time.. what the heck?? SIMPLIFY PLEASE!

      They need to completely redo that "arts" business. I don't know if that's still in 3.2 but it is a complex nightmare. About 1 out of every 3 times I start KDE, it claims it can't open the sound device. It eats up RAM. Apparently it is some kind of software synthesizer??

      They need to simplify simplify simplify, and not cater to every single Linux expert's favorite pet feature.

  23. Pffffftt! by msimm · · Score: 4, Funny

    What don't they read Slashdot? I thought we were the Quality Assurance!!

    --
    Quack, quack.
  24. Re:i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redha by RoLi · · Score: 1

    Use Konstruct (you don't even have to be root) or use a distribution that can be used on the desktop. (Like SuSE or Mandrake)

  25. Re:USABILITY - FINALLY ! by kfg · · Score: 2, Funny

    Post corrected to 10 years

    Ah, well, welcome back to our universe then, if not necessarily our reality. :)

    KFG

  26. Is this a... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    goddamn dilbert strip or what!

  27. Re:Found on GNOMEDESKTOP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's all about internal clichees, problems, might demonstrations, control etc.

    I think you meant "infernal cliches." Goddamn cliches have been the demise of many open source projects.

  28. I seriously doubt this will change anything by sn0wman3030 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    GNOME has had the Human Interface Guidelines for over a year and a half now. The whole project is dedicated toward usability. Don't get me wrong, KDE has some inovative technologies behind it, but even 3.2 is miserably lacking in terms of usability and style. IMHO, this "Quality Team Project" looks more like an after-thought or a lame side project than a redirection of the whole project.

    --
    Life is offtopic.
    1. Re:I seriously doubt this will change anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When will GNOME become usable ? I mean usable for the ordinary users.

    2. Re:I seriously doubt this will change anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you know so much about usability then hop on board and help. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and most of them stink.

    3. Re:I seriously doubt this will change anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow, what a surprise a post about KDE trying to improve their development community has ended in a petty flame war... gnomes better, no kde's better, no gnome's better ...

    4. Re:I seriously doubt this will change anything by bonch · · Score: 2, Informative

      Has anybody taken a look at the Gnome HIG? They're great, even specifying seemingly mundane aspects such as the amount of pixels between an alert icon and text message on a popup dialog box.

      These things do matter, whether consciously or not, to users.

    5. Re:I seriously doubt this will change anything by fault0 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Wow, that has been standardized in KDE since September 23, 1999 :)

      It's done directly inside of the code in KDE however.

      This is one of the reasons why the KDE style guide is shorter than GNOME's HIG; most of the GUI design aspects of KDE are enforced automatically while in GNOME, it is reliant on the programmer. I have to admit though, the HIG is great for PR :)

    6. Re:I seriously doubt this will change anything by twener · · Score: 1

      > GNOME has had the Human Interface Guidelines for over a year and a half now.

      And I can still point out violations up until the newest GNOME development version. So what is your point?

      > looks more like an after-thought or a lame side project

      You like to troll?

    7. Re:I seriously doubt this will change anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the reason the KDE HIG is shorter than GNOME's is because KDE has less to follow. the interface is too freaking cramped

    8. Re:I seriously doubt this will change anything by transient · · Score: 1
      the amount of pixels between an alert icon and text message on a popup dialog box

      That sort of thing belongs in a style manual, not a set of interface guidelines. It is important to have a consistent look across different programs (and part of that is establishing strict pixel-by-pixel layouts) but just putting all your icons the same distance from your text will not create a usable interface. Interface guidelines should be more along the lines of (all paraphrased from Raskin, 2000):

      • Check boxes can leave a user guessing what the alternative is; the best solution is often to use radio buttons instead
      • Any confirmation step that elicits a fixed response soon becomes useless; a more effective strategy is to allow users to undo erroneous commands
      • Having multiple ways to perform a single task shifts the user's attention from the task to choosing a method
      • When applying an action to an object, use noun-verb interaction rather than verb-noun (for example, select text then choose action, not vice versa)
      • Keep messages displayed until they are no longer needed, unless the user can apply the information immediately
      • Request user testing of your interface to see if people will use it as you predicted

      I haven't read the Gnome HIG so I don't know what else it encompasses, but your comment struck me as a misunderstanding of what interface guidelines should be.

      --

      irb(main):001:0>
    9. Re:I seriously doubt this will change anything by bonch · · Score: 1

      Uh, human interface guidelines are supposed to describe the ways a user and program interact with each other. Of course that belongs in there, along with everything else.

      It seems strange to make some sort of arbitrary distinction.

    10. Re:I seriously doubt this will change anything by sn0wman3030 · · Score: 1

      That's exactly the type of thing I'm talking about.

      --
      Life is offtopic.
    11. Re:I seriously doubt this will change anything by transient · · Score: 1
      Really, that doesn't even belong in a style manual. If all alert dialogs are supposed to have the same distance between their icon and text, the developer shouldn't be given a choice. The API should have a single function that displays an appropriately laid-out alert dialog.

      But what I was trying to point out is that you cannot create a usable interface by adhering solely to stylistic guidelines. Your programs may look good, and they may look like all the other programs on the system, but consistency of appearance is only one part of making a usable program.

      --

      irb(main):001:0>
    12. Re:I seriously doubt this will change anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      The whole project is dedicated toward usability.

      That explains Gnome's inferior technology, I suppose.

      The corporate takeover of Gnome hit full stride when Sun was allowed to dictate the dumbing-down of Gnome's UI.

  29. Pay by 110010001000 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    How much do these positions pay? After all, KDE is an integral part of most Linux desktop systems, therefore there must be tremendous support for this from the commercial Linux providers (Redhat, IBM, etc). After all, IBM claims to have made over a billion dollars off of linux last year. So how much are they kicking in?

    Thanks!

    1. Re:Pay by LMCBoy · · Score: 1

      The positions pay nothing. There's this thing called "open source software", in which software is largely developed by a community of volunteer contributors. KDE is such a project. You may have heard of some others, such as GNU and the linux kernel.

      --
      Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
    2. Re:Pay by Sparky77 · · Score: 1

      We're sorry, but these positions pay in karma only. Thank you.

      --
      One bad monkey spoils the whole barrel.
    3. Re:Pay by 110010001000 · · Score: 0, Troll

      Wait, people volunteer to work on software that corporations make billions of dollars off of, like IBM and Redhat? Can't they at least kick in a living wage for the poor guy that is doing the testing for a product they offer? Isn't that how its supposed to work? Or not?

    4. Re:Pay by maevius · · Score: 1

      I believe that companies contribute to community anyway. But being paid to write open source code or/and contribute to open source project is just not the way to do it

    5. Re:Pay by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

      Maybe the CEO of IBM can kick in some of the $51.5 MILLION DOLLARS in bonuses and options he received last year to compensate these people. What do you think of that idea?

      Mark me as a troll (as usual), but isn't that how its supposed to work in OSS land? The corporations benefit from this work and therefore offer financial support? It is in their best interests after all.

    6. Re:Pay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you feel that you wouldn't benefit from / enjoy doing any contribution to open source projects then it's perfectly sensible of you to not get involved but you'll really have to learn to live with the fact that not everyone shares your lack of interest. Well, you could just stay bitter about it instead but that doesn't seem too healthy to me.

      IBM are as welcome to the benefits of free software as anyone else is.

    7. Re:Pay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe that companies contribute to community anyway. But being paid to write open source code or/and contribute to open source project is just not the way to do it

      Well, it is and it isn't :)

      IBM, Red Hat, SuSE and many many others pay people to write open source code and contribute to open source projects. Those people are employees.

      Others of us aren't their employees. IBM don't pay me and they don't get to decide what I work on or when or how I work on it. Seems fair enough to me. There are projects I chose to work on. Sometimes those projects might be ones that IBM would like to have work done on, and that's fine by me, why should I mind that? Sometimes they won't be, and that's good too.

    8. Re:Pay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why should IBM pay 3rd parties anything? They have no obligation to. They are following the letter and spirit of the license.

      IBM deals with mission critical systems for large risk-averse companies. They earned their billion dollars. If you can offer the same level of service from mom's basement, go for it.. IBM doesn't have any monopoly on Linux services.

      I've heard this "idea" from a lot of places, and frankly I don't understand. IBM does their business, open source developers do theirs, everybody is working voluntarily.

      Now that I think about it, I heard this idea mostly from closed-source developers that want to discredit open source and discourage developers from contributing....

    9. Re:Pay by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

      I am just warning the young programmers against getting included in such a ridiculous effort as OSS. The execs at Redhat and IBM are laughing themselves silly while raking in the millions. They cannot believe that they actually, finally, got the people to work for the corporations for free! It is an executives dream!

    10. Re:Pay by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

      Oh, I am not saying they have an OBLIGATION to - but that is how OSS is supposed to work right? The funny thing is I don't see any significant portion of that $1 BILLION being fed back into the "community". I do see the CEO of IBM getting $47.4 million in compensation last year though! Meanwhile the OSS projects are scraping by with their Paypal links, asking for donations from the "community".

    11. Re:Pay by LMCBoy · · Score: 1

      Maybe the CEO of IBM can kick in some of the $51.5 MILLION DOLLARS in bonuses and options he received last year to compensate these people. What do you think of that idea?

      That's totally up to the CEO of IBM, I guess.

      isn't that how its supposed to work in OSS land? The corporations benefit from this work and therefore offer financial support?

      No, absolutely not. Believe it or not, some things are orthogonal to traditional economics. As John Nash said, "Adam Smith needs revision". Anyone is free to benefit from OSS software, whether they are a corporation or not (as long as they play by the rules). That's the whole point. Part of "playing by the rules" for the GPL means that any changes they make must be contributed back. *This* is how companies can best support OSS: by *joining* our communities, not simply paying us off.

      --
      Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
    12. Re:Pay by Ilan+Volow · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It is recommended that companies spend 10% of their development budget on researching the usability of their products. Every dollar that is spent on usability saves $100 in support costs.

      Red Hat has spent over $700,000,000 buying out a compiler company and a few silly dot coms. They recently sold $500,000,000 in bonds. Their programmers tell me the reason why their software has so many usability problems is that they "can't afford to hire HCI people".

      SuSe was bought out for $200,000,000. From what I have heard from other user interaction people, the usability of YaST is an absolute disgrace. Doesn't seem like SuSe is spending money for a usability dept either.

      Both of these companies claim to be making desktop software that is perfectly usable and perfectly fit for a grandmother or a secretary. They are both going to try like hell to replace everyone's Windows desktop with Linux. Many of the desktops they are currently looking to replace are those in businesses, where the end-user won't have the "don't want to use it, don't choose it" recourse that most linux zealots claim people have.

      Both these companies already spend wads of money hiring people like kernel hackers and web server programmers. To ask these companies to spend equivalent amounts on usability is not, in my opinion, is perfectly justified. If they feel that only "important" technical fields like kernel hacking deserve funding, then should at least have the decency to pay to switch their existing desktop customers back to Windows.
      .

      --
      Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
    13. Re:Pay by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Paying you off? I am not saying they should pay you off and take the code and not "give back". I am saying they should kick in a bit of money into OSS so the projects don't need to ask for Paypal donations to survive.

      Also, you are confusing OSS with the GPL as usual.

  30. Re:i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redha by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    yes, but it is up to the distros what packages they want to provide; KDE shouldn't have to hunt down every distro they like and provide packages

  31. Quality Team? by Sparky77 · · Score: 3, Funny

    This sounds like a good idea for an Open Source project. However, it's funny to me, because not long ago my boss was tossing around the idea of dividing the development group I work in into "The Stability Team" and "The Feature Team". Luckily the silliness of this sunk in and the idea floated away into Dumb Idea Heaven. We still joke about it though because nobody wants to get stuck with the crap job on the Stability Team, where you have to answer all the phone calls and fix the bugs in everyone else's code.

    --
    One bad monkey spoils the whole barrel.
    1. Re:Quality Team? by Carewolf · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes it is crap for developers, but this initiative is for advanced users and not developers. Basicaly it tells users how to run the most recent and greatest KDE right out of CVS, and how to report bugs. From there they can do as always, run the most recent software just for the kick, and report the bugs they encounter. Or they can decide they want to do something good to pay back the KDE team for its hard work, and just try out every obscure feature and make sure it all works. Doesnt mean you have to code, it just mean you have to know how to use applications and think for yourself.

  32. GNOME has had a quality team for years. by luge · · Score: 4, Informative

    2-3, depending on how you want to count. It's good to see KDE catching up.

    --

    IAAL,BIANLY

    1. Re:GNOME has had a quality team for years. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, GNOME's quality team seems to be set up for reducing the number of outdated bug reports, while this KDE announcement is more about luring more new people into the documentation, designing and development progress overall. For that to notice you need to read the article though. ;)

    2. Re:GNOME has had a quality team for years. by Brandybuck · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The GNOME effort is directed solely at bugs. The KDE Quality Team is directed at bugs, documentation, usability, process, etc, etc. We're trying to go beyond the traditional Open Source mentality of "it doesn't crash so mark it 'release'".

      --
      Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
    3. Re:GNOME has had a quality team for years. by luge · · Score: 3, Informative
      The GNOME bugsquad works tightly with the usability, documentation, and accessibility teams to ensure that those issues are first priority issues for the community, and has for years. If you look through our recent 2.6.0 showstopper emails, the issues are mostly not crashes- they are usability issues, documentation and design issues, translation issues, and slightly further back accessibility issues. There are definitely crasher bugs on the list, of course, but we realize (anyone who is good at QA realizes) that those are only surface issues, and that other issues are just as important if not more so.

      Anyway, it's great for KDE that they are doing this- if it works anywhere near as ours has, it will make KDE a much more formidable competitor. But please stop telling the world that this is something new and innovative in free software. That's just as misleading as MS talking about innovation.

      --

      IAAL,BIANLY

    4. Re:GNOME has had a quality team for years. by fault0 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but going back to the grandparent post, the GNOME bugsquad still has to do with bugs. Hell, KDE has had people doing THAT for a long time as well.

      A group that bug triage and a quality team are different in levels of magnitude. Please read the announcement! :)

    5. Re:GNOME has had a quality team for years. by Nodatadj · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Weel, seeing as the KDE quality team seems to be a misnomer to me from the description it looks like its a combination of the gnome bugsquad and the gnome-love project.

    6. Re:GNOME has had a quality team for years. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Testify brother! GNOME has nevr done anything that KDE hasn't done at least 2 years before. KDE r00lz. GNOME is always behind KDE. Yeah. Yeah.

      And the Lord said, fault0... thou must reply to every post about GNOME, and claim that KDE is much better at it. So sayeth the Lord. Go forth and preach.

    7. Re:GNOME has had a quality team for years. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe GNOME can catch up soon too and be actually useable and as feature rich as KDE in a couple of decades.

    8. Re:GNOME has had a quality team for years. by Brandybuck · · Score: 1

      The GNOME bugsquad works tightly with the usability, documentation, and accessibility teams to ensure that those issues are first priority issues for the community, and has for years.

      That may be so, but their webpage is pretty much focused on just bugs.

      But please stop telling the world that this is something new and innovative in free software.

      While it may be relatively unusual in Free Software, I don't think KDE is claiming innovation.

      --
      Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
    9. Re:GNOME has had a quality team for years. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > thou must reply to every post about GNOME

      gUHHNOMEome sux0rs sh1t. h0h0h00h

  33. It's not terribly original. by luge · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I guess I'm going to post this all over until I get modded redundant, but this is not a KDE invention. GNOME has had such a team for two years now and mozilla had one before that.

    --

    IAAL,BIANLY

    1. Re:It's not terribly original. by msimm · · Score: 1

      I understand what your posting. But take a look at Kde-look. Its a very different thing, slightly OT, but its a working community site that *encourages* non-developer interaction, something I believe KDE has pioneered with some success here. Everyone has a bugzilla site (which can be pretty intimidating to newer users) but KDE has succeeded in fostering a peripherial community in kde-look and I think its an important and sometimes (often) over looked thing. We need to encourage more participation from the non-developer community and I think they have something of a good track record (Kde-look has a good design that encourages new ideas).

      --
      Quack, quack.
    2. Re:It's not terribly original. by luge · · Score: 1

      Did you read my link at all? We've been having online bug days and a bug channel for 2 1/2 years, where people get together on a daily basis to discuss bugs, help new bug volunteers, etc. And like I said, mozilla was doing it before GNOME was. Creating such a community is not new, and it's not rocket science.

      --

      IAAL,BIANLY

    3. Re:It's not terribly original. by msimm · · Score: 1

      Ouch. I did. But I think its too inaccessable for less technical. I think this is somewhere KDE has had success. Not knocking Gnome. I think its a paradigm thing.

      --
      Quack, quack.
    4. Re:It's not terribly original. by kundor · · Score: 1

      Did you read his link at all? kde-look.org is not a bug team, it's a theme site. The user community that has grown around making kde art is very different from bug days.

    5. Re:It's not terribly original. by inc_x · · Score: 1

      Boy, you seem really upset by this.

  34. Re:i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redha by vadim_t · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm sure the KDE people simply consider that their time is better spent on writing the code. The distributions already have lots of people who do packages, and could take care of that just fine.

  35. For a social scientist's perspective... by Telex4 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wrote this article for Newsforge, looking at the productive, social, political and spiritual aspects of the Quality Teams Project.

    Some people might find it interesting... :-)

    1. Re:For a social scientist's perspective... by luge · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Ugh. Please don't call yourself a scientist- you're just good at PR. GNOME has been building such a community for over two years, and Mozilla for nearly five. An actual social scientist of even the most basic sort would have found that out before writing things. Building such a community is a great idea, and even worthy of study, I agree, but it's hardly new.

      --

      IAAL,BIANLY

    2. Re:For a social scientist's perspective... by Telex4 · · Score: 1

      Rather than make wild accusations about the quality of my work and my level of competence, why not make substantive criticisms of my article?

      If you disagree with my reasons for thinking the Quality Teams project is new, perhaps even "radical", then state your refutation properly.

    3. Re:For a social scientist's perspective... by luge · · Score: 1

      What part of 'none of that is new' was not substantive? I didn't detail it point by point, but I shouldn't have to- if you'd actually done any research into how other groups do things (the way good social scientists do) you'd have discovered the many antecedents to what you're discussing. The bugsquad has been providing structural and social solutions to GNOME problems for some time now, encouraging and befriending new volunteers through QA. It's not rocket science. It's not just the bugsquad, either- any successful free software group with an actual thriving community provides social and 'spiritual' benefits, and, well, I've got a degree in political science- we can talk for hours about the political structure of free software projects, and how (again) any successful free software project has groups which facilitate structure and sane power arrangements. Free software projects that don't have these things tend to fail. Setting these as explicit goals is nice, and possibly necessary for a large group. But claiming that it is innovative is just not the case.

      --

      IAAL,BIANLY

    4. Re:For a social scientist's perspective... by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

      For the record, I think its a very good discussion of the topic. You can disregard the comments of the GNOME guy - he is just grumpy because KDE is getting attention.

    5. Re:For a social scientist's perspective... by Telex4 · · Score: 1

      But the GNOME bugsquad, as its name suggests, only tackles bugs.

      Where there are examples of projects reaching out to people who don't or can't code, they are always seen as initiatives to attract people to a specific task, whereas the Quality Teams Project is an initiative that seeks to create a new community and in doing so redefine the modes of participation in the project as a whole. To my knowledge, no other project has launched anything of the same kind.

      With your degree in political science, and being heavily involved in GNOME, you will appreciate and understand the role of social contracts and elections in many projects (perhaps most notable in Debian and GNOME). But KDE doesn't have a social contract, nor does it have an elected board (more's the pity IMO), and in fact most of the core developers resist these ideas, preferring a meritocracy on technical grounds.

      The Quality Teams Project is trying to facilitate more sane, transparent and (in a sense) democratic power arrangements without recourse to these traditional frameworks. Hopefully, if it takes off, the project will begin to change the shape of the existing power arrangements from the grassroots.

      Correct me if I'm wrong, but what, to take your example, GNOME has done so far and what KDE is doing now are quite radically different. I think you're simplifying things too much, to the point where everything that seeks to raise levels of non-coder participation is homogenous, if not identical.

    6. Re:For a social scientist's perspective... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If Guh-nome has all of these new-fangled, highly successful processes in place, why does it still suck?

  36. Gnome has a quality assurance team by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Gnome has a quality assurance team and has had one for a long time. See http://developer.gnome.org/projects/bugsquad/.

    Elijah

    1. Re:Gnome has a quality assurance team by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quality Team != Quality Assurance.. did you even bother to read the announcement before posting?

  37. Exemplary post, sir! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Very quality, sir! Quality! Yes, you have successfully taken the tone of a new user, or "newbie" in the colloquial parlance, in need. Then after you have their trust, you start in right away with text straight from our press releases. "Made by amateurs"! "Not professional"! Most excellent, sir. And nobody would suspect you were being less than honest, because you had already establish that you were a helpless "newbie". Good show!

    You've outdone yourself by seeming extra-clueless this time, however! I must remark on your excellent faux-pas: GDE, Knome, Lunix, colonel--all very good sir. And I admire your subtlety in showing that some people choose to do difficult things with Linux, such as using the BASH shell and working with the kernel. Very good sir. Keep reminding them that Linux has a command line option, and that's enough to scare most people away!

    I suggest we start working on a backup plan soon however. This plan of attack does not seem very successful against people who know even a little bit about Linux, and it seems there are rather more of these every day.

    I suggest we admit that there are people who are paid professionally to create Linux, but that they are paid by Colombian drug cartels! And we should counter the "GUI phenomenon" by stating that few Linux users actually use the command line anymore because it's so frightfully difficult! See? The reason they use the Linux GUI is because the Linux command line is so very frightening!

    Horrid! Horrid! How awful it must be to use a system where you encounter a choice between a bad thing and a good thing and have to choose the good thing. This is the thing we talked about at the stockholders meeting. If people aren't presented with a good thing, they are not really aware that the bad thing is truly bad--they see it as the "only" thing. Our DRM people are counting on you for this! Keep up the good work!

    1. Re:Exemplary post, sir! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You spent time and effort writing that, and you know what? No one cares. I, however, get paid by Darl for my anti Linux trolling.

      Proof, I believe, that Good Old American Capitalism>Whiny Liberal Communist Linux

  38. Re:Found on GNOMEDESKTOP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    > Hmm. That's not the GNOME that I've seen at all for the last
    > year and a half (the amount of time that I've been following
    > GNOME events). I've found people very helpful, very kind
    > and patient with me as I've learned, and very willing to help
    > me on my level.

    That depends in what ways you participate to GNOME and with what kind of people you had contacts with.

    I for my own speak about (well they know who I mean... to not namecall them here). I for my own had very bad expiriences with some individual people who made the entire GNOME project more than disgusting. I can tell you where some of these people where publicly namecalling me, slandering me, and simply caused a bad reputation around me.

    Not just me also others. Some of them left GNOME others still silently participate to it. I think with one year and a half you didn't participated well enough with those I had to deal with.

    GNOME is a big project there are a lot of people participating to it, from different countries, with different skils, with different well whatever. Some of these people who claim themselves to have some sort of 'god' status are more than ***** assholes (to name it the way it is). I feel sorry for all the people who want to do something good for GNOME and join the gnome-love channel for becoming part of GNOME but the only aim of this is to rip them off because the GNOME 2.6 release is close infront of the door and some urgent things should get fixed.

    None of these people will ever reach a status where they can shape GNOME or participate in a way to it so they get the feeling to be actually PART of it or their work being honoured.

    I sometimes really wish that there are more people within the GNOME community who stands up and let the world know what's really going on rather than keeping shut and have the stuff continue the way it currently continues.

    Well if you want more information I do reconsider emailing me I will forward everything required to you to make you understand me and get an own impression about what GNOME really is.

    In case anyone is seriously interested, please grab CVSGnome as script and dig out the eMail address inside and write me. I will forward everything that confirms what I say. It's hard to explain everything. Showing facts is what may help people understand.

  39. Maybe they should be called Kinetech by phosphorous · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    [Scene: Initech. Bob Slydell and Bob Porter are interviewing Tom.]
    Bob Slydell: So what you do is you take the specifications from the customers and you bring them down to the software engineers?
    Tom: That, that's right.
    Bob Porter: Well, then I gotta ask, then why can't the customers just take the specifications directly to the software people, huh?
    Tom: Well, uh, uh, uh, because, uh, engineers are not good at dealing with customers.
    Bob Slydell: You physically take the specs from the customer?
    Tom: Well, no, my, my secretary does that, or, or the fax.
    Bob Slydell: Ah.
    Bob Porter: Then you must physically bring them to the software people.
    Tom: Well...no. Yeah, I mean, sometimes.
    Bob Slydell: Well, what would you say you do here?
    Tom: Well, look, I already told you. I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don't have to!! I have people skills!! I am good at dealing with people!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!!!!!!!

  40. First thing to fix by bonch · · Score: 2, Interesting

    THE NAME.

    KDE is an awful name, as are:

    KOffice
    Killustrator
    Kougar
    Kroupware
    Kaller y
    KTetris ...and pretty much anything else obsessively beginning with "K" for absolutely no reason. Thank god Gnome isn't like this.

    1. Re:First thing to fix by Symbiosis · · Score: 1

      What are you talking about? it's the KOOL DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT! How much better can you get than kool?!

      --

      -------------------------------------------
      I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.
      -- Dr. Seuss
    2. Re:First thing to fix by ThisIsAnExampleAccou · · Score: 3, Funny

      "How much better can you get than kool?!"

      Ice Kold?

    3. Re:First thing to fix by MikeXpop · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yes, thank god Gnome isn't like that!

      Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go install Gaim, Gnumeric, Galeon, Grhino and Gtetrinet (gnome version of tetrinet, an internet tetris game).

      --
      Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
    4. Re:First thing to fix by Sylvain · · Score: 2, Funny

      gppp
      gcalctool
      gtoaster
      gstreamer
      gclipboard
      gfontview
      ggDeskCal
      gchch
      gboard-edit
      gcompris
      gMaze
      ggv
      gunit
      guikachu
      gtranslator
      gedit

      Are you gsure?

    5. Re:First thing to fix by MBCook · · Score: 3, Funny
      Personally I don't think it's so bad, but I think it should be changed to things like "K-Illistrator". Why? Let's see what these names sound like if you tried to pronounce them...

      Koffice - A cough you get at the office?
      Killustrator - Shows you how to kill trators?
      Kougar - Another name for KMountainLion?
      Kroupware - For when you need to collaborate when you have a bad cough. Especially if it's that Koffice you cought (see above).
      Kallery - No idea. I can't think of a pun. It must be a bad name :)
      KTetris - No puns here either.

      -- A KDE user (and lover) with Karma to burn

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
    6. Re:First thing to fix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank god Gnome isn't like this.

      What, you mean like GConf, GNumeric, Gaim, Gabber, GDesklets, Gimp, ...

      EVERY article about KDE at least one idiot makes a remark about the naming scheme. I realy wish people would stop doing that and start focussing on the contents of the article.

    7. Re:First thing to fix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...and it got modded "Interesting". Sigh. Yes, I suppose I just hallucinated Gnumeric and gFTP. I think the reason Gnome gets off the hook is that Gnome users tend to use non-Gnome software most of the time (like OpenOffice and Mozilla). KDE users also use OpenOffice and Mozilla, but they also have the option of KOffice and Konqueror.

      Yes, K-named and G-named apps are dumb sounding. They should be gotten rid of. But this is hardly a KDE disease. Or if it is, it's contagious and Gnome has it now.

      The reason OpenOffice and Mozilla don't have G's in front of them isn't a sign that the Gnome team has self-restraint in the cutesy naming department. It just means they aren't Gnome apps.

    8. Re:First thing to fix by kilgortrout · · Score: 4, Funny

      kallery - an application for the weight conscious.

    9. Re:First thing to fix by gl4ss · · Score: 2, Interesting

      you know, they don't sound so bad if you're not a native english speaker. and I'd suppose that in many languages the natural way to say these is to pronounce the K seperately. (koo office, koo illustrator)

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    10. Re:First thing to fix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know this is off-topic somewhat but while we're on the subject of stupid open-source app names, I for one am tired of software names based on a cheesy acronym, or even worse, an acronym that is recursive.

      Just my two cents. But, you've got to admit, it's hard to get a non-techie to take names like "Konqueror" seriously. The same goes for stuff like "Gnumeric."

    11. Re:First thing to fix by MBCook · · Score: 1

      Why oh why didn't I think of that word. I spent five minutes saying "kallery" in my head and I couldn't think of any words like it (other than gallery, which is obviously it's base). All the time it WAS a word. Ug.

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
    12. Re:First thing to fix by Malek+the+Damned · · Score: 1

      Actually, I kind of like the idea of K's and G's in the naming scheme. Very very easy way of knowing which suite/desktop/whatever the apps are designed for/part of. Also adds an element of individuality to the two projects and their associated or contributed software.

      And let's not forget, Enlightenment does the same thing with "E"s. Evas, Epplets, Eterm, ESD, and so on. I just wish it had a suite more akin to KDE or Gnome for me to futz with...

      Admittedly, it can get a little out of hand.

    13. Re:First thing to fix by Malek+the+Damned · · Score: 1

      I'm fairly sure the idea of Konqueror came from:

      First was the Navigator
      Then was the Explorer
      Now is the Konqueror

      Cheesy as all hell, but explain it to n00b like that and they quit whinging =)

      I have no excuse for Gnumeric, however =)

    14. Re:First thing to fix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      apparently you aren't German :)

      I think the reason many KDE apps start with k is that early in it's history, nearly all KDE developers were German.. many translations of English words could be localized by replacing c's with k's. For example, console in English is localized in German as "konsole". Guess what KDE's terminal app is called? :)

      I guess it's just stuck around since then.

    15. Re:First thing to fix by bonch · · Score: 1

      I've thought about that myself. It makes more sense when you look at the amount of KDE developers who are not in the States.

    16. Re:First thing to fix by be-fan · · Score: 2, Interesting

      MS Office,
      MS Outlook,
      MS Excel,
      MS Access, etc.

      WinDVD,
      WinAMP
      WinRAR
      WinZIP,
      WinACE

      iDVD,
      iTunes,
      iMovie
      iPhoto,
      iLife.

      OpenOffice,
      OpenWriter,
      OpenImpress,
      OpenCalc .

      Jesus Christ. Its called pushing a brand.

      And how the *FUCK* is a giant foot cooler than a giant, shiny, metal K?

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    17. Re:First thing to fix by Rick+and+Roll · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      How can you draw the comparison of any of those things, to things like Gnibbles or Kallery? But then again you're just a gay ass troll so I'll let it be.

    18. Re:First thing to fix by Rick+and+Roll · · Score: 1

      Most of those are fine. They don't encourage you to pronounce them in an unnatural way. You just say the preceding letter and the following word. Gnibbles and Gnome, and the ones you mention, guikachu and gchch, which are just too many letters to read, are the stupid ones.

    19. Re:First thing to fix by be-fan · · Score: 1

      WTF?

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    20. Re:First thing to fix by Maimun · · Score: 1

      Kroup is, AFAIK, a huge metallurgy/machine building factory of Germany. When I hear "Kroup-something" I imagine hardware, not software.

    21. Re:First thing to fix by __past__ · · Score: 1
      I guess you refer to "Krupp". It is pronounced with a short "u", unlike "Kroup", so this particular misunderstanding seems unlikely.

      Which doesn't mean that this name, as well as many other K*-names, doesn't look stupid for many german native speakers.

    22. Re:First thing to fix by Maimun · · Score: 1

      Right!

  41. Re:Please KDE, make the announcement readable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Instead of bitching about it why dont you offer to clean it up for them? This is what OSS is about.

  42. KDE 2005 == Mac OS 7 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Come on guys, KDE has a LONG LONG way to go to match the precision, power, beauty, quality, and technological sophistication of Mac OS X. You're getting pretty close to MacOS 7. At this rate, maybe in 10 years or so you'll match the first beta drop of OS X.

    1. Re:KDE 2005 == Mac OS 7 by bonch · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I know this is a troll.

      But to everyone else, seriously, compare a screenshot of KDE with open apps to a screenshot of OS X with open apps. It's like night and day. We gotta work on an attractive and intuitive interface.

    2. Re:KDE 2005 == Mac OS 7 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      First you call me a troll, then you agree with me. How pathetic.

    3. Re:KDE 2005 == Mac OS 7 by bonch · · Score: 1

      The way you wrote it seemed to be only intended to cause a flamewar.

      If you feel my agreement with the underlying point is pathetic, I don't know what to say.

  43. UI critics by Ilan+Volow · · Score: 1

    The first criticism a UI critic would make is that KDE should have brought in UI critics and seriously listened to them at the inception of KDE in 1997, before any major code had been written. Decent usability requires that user interaction be considered from the beginning before any major code is written, not put in as an afterthought or as damage control. Once something has been released and had some history behind it, programmers are going to be damned reluctant to change it.

    Yes, they might form QA teams and say they want to make it more usable--up until the the point where you tell them that to fix all the usability problems and provide something consistent with a truly integrated feel they have to throw out half their codebase, rewrite 5 million lines, and send 30 years of entrenched Unix culture to /dev/null.

    Designing UI before writing code is not The Unix Way, which is why so many Unix desktops tend to fail.

    --
    Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
    1. Re:UI critics by LittleLebowskiUrbanA · · Score: 1

      Weren't they just emulating CDE at that time?

    2. Re:UI critics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, that is probably what should have been done. However, there weren't too many usability experts involved with OSS projects back in 1997 compared to developers.

      There are more these days however; and as such, positive pushes in usability are on the way. The OpenUsability will be launched sometime in the future to get more HCI engineers involved with OSS. The website was founded by relevantive, the company that did the original usability tests with KDE 3.1 (and whose recommendations were implemented in KDE 3.2), but the website won't be specific to KDE, although it'll certainly be one focus of it.

    3. Re:UI critics by __past__ · · Score: 1

      Even KDE 1 looked a lot more like Windows than like CDE, at least by default (screenshots). Their goal might have been replacing CDE, but obviously not by emulating its look and feel (unsurprisingly, because the look and feel is one of the things many people dislike about CDE). XFce is pretty CDE-like, but a lot younger than KDE AFAIK.

  44. Well, maybe not exactly... by gosand · · Score: 5, Interesting
    QA is also something the US government requires for many things. Especially the military. If there is a good QA process in place that can help improve US government acceptance.

    Being a 10 year veteran of QA/Testing and holding a CS degree, I have long wondered where QA would fit into OSS. And by "QA" I don't just mean testing, there is a lot more to it than that. Here are some topics that would need to be addressed:

    What is the development process? Is it documented?

    What types of estimation procedures do you do?

    What is the SCM process? Is it documented?

    What is the review/inspection process for all artifacts?

    Are there software requirements? Are they inspected/reviewed?

    Are there development plans/design docs? Are they inspected/reviewed?

    Are there code reviews?

    What are your defect escape rates?

    What is your plan for alpha/beta testing?

    What is your release schedule?

    I think I could go on, but you get the idea. If you want solid, defect-finding, QA people who can improve your product, you'll be asked questions like these. If you just want someone who will run a few regression tests against your product before you put it on a website, then you are looking for some software testers. I am not saying that all of those things are necessary, but they might be. Maybe all of this stuff is archaic and applies only to the proprietary model, I don't know. I know that is what I have worked in for the last 10 years. I don't know if anyone has asked these questions of an OSS project, or done any research into if they need to be asked.

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

    1. Re:Well, maybe not exactly... by jdray · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Bravo. As another long time veteran of Software QA and Change Management, I can say that I find both of those things lacking in most (not all) OSS projects that I've observed.

      It has been my experience as well that people often confuse "testing for defects" with "quality assurance." The former is doing something to figure out if what you made (note the past tense) is ready for release. The latter is a process or set of processes that assures (or attempts to) that the output of your development cycle has quality. Testing is really only a phase of the entire quality assurance process.

      --
      The Spoon
      Updated 6/28/2011
    2. Re:Well, maybe not exactly... by Minna+Kirai · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Here are some topics that would need to be addressed:

      I should point out that most of those topics are rather equivalent to just one:
      • Are we spending thirty times as many man-hours to develop this software as really required?

      It's worse than that for FOSS, because the available total man-hours must be scaled by the funness of the task. Programming is more fun than debugging, which is itself more fun than reviewing requirement documents or measuring escaped defects. In paid work, testers are cheaper to hire than coders; but on a volunteer basis, testers can be harder to attract because the job is less emotionally rewarding.

      But, always remember that in many Open Source efforts, the users are the testers. That's a valid viewpoint if something is free; Microsoft is excoriated when they periodically lure customers into paying to become testers, but the practice is more defensible when no money changes hands.

      If you want solid, defect-finding, QA people who can improve your product, you'll be asked questions like these.

      And yet, corporations that have an affirmative answer to everything you listed have still proven themselves fully capable of producing code that's absolute garbage. The public at large might not be aware of this, as the truely bad code dies before making it out the door. Someone who works in the industry will see veracity in the quote "Most software projects fail".

      Additionally, the themes of Superprogrammer vs The Horde" are relevant to understanding why. Having seen a few SEI CMM 5 shops in action, it's clear that to fill the man-hours for all the redudant tasks requires hiring a grade of developer that's frankly sub-par. Programming is the one field where a true 20x productivity differential between two professionals is unremarkable. It seems that the prominent Open Source projects have gotten more attention from generous SuperProgrammers than a typical commercial developement is able to attract.
    3. Re:Well, maybe not exactly... by GigsVT · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you try to shoehorn all that useless bureaucracy into OSS development, you'll quickly see why it doesn't work that way.

      --
      I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
    4. Re:Well, maybe not exactly... by porter235 · · Score: 1

      AMEN!
      QA can't tell if it is behaving as it should if it doesn't know EXACTLY what the software should and should not do. DOCUMENTATION. This is what OSS needs.. but this is by far the least fun so the least likely thing to ever find in a project. Oh well.

    5. Re:Well, maybe not exactly... by jhoger · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In general I'd say FOSS doesn't need any QA auditor role at all. That's for *large* corporations with huge projects and a bad tendency to push releases out to the buying public before they are ready... sort of a checks-and-balance system to mitigate management stupidity.

      FOSS tend to be small groups, with small projects. And there is no insane pressure from management to let releases escape to early.

      It would be nice to have some dedicated testers around to do smoke tests and general usablity tests. In general FOSS projects rely on the users to want to run the bleeding edge code and test that. But in my experience a group of good testers is the best bang for the buck beyond starting with great programmers.

      To the specific points:

      >What is the development process? Is it documented?
      The development process is pretty typical. Check out any successful project on SourceForge. No need for QA audit role. There's no management around to muck things up, the engineers are in charge.

      > What types of estimation procedures do you do?
      Irrelevant. It gets done when it gets done. If you pay for the development one can do better... you can audit those circumstances, but in general, don't need QA audit role here.

      > What is the SCM process? Is it documented?
      CVS or subversion and bugzilla or some such is typically the tool. Much of the SCM process probably depends on the distribution that actually packages the code. Might be Debian's release process. Anyway this is pretty well defined too...

      > What is the review/inspection process for all artifacts?
      There are usually a few "stars" writing all the code. They can tell crap from not. And if it's crap it probably doesn't work, so no one is going to use it. So you find out one way or another. Reviews of code might help but in general it doesn't matter. If it works well, and the people maintaining it can read it, we're OK. The project will die its natural death otherwise (just like proprietary software... actually its death is usually prolonged too far...).

      > Are there software requirements? Are they inspected/reviewed?
      What gets implemented is what the creator needs and sounds cool or seems OK and is contributed. Unless someone is paying, in which case this might be useful. But in general, no role for QA here.

      > Are there development plans/design docs? Are they inspected/reviewed?
      Informal probably. Small team, might trade mockups of screens or working prototype code around. Back of the napkin kind of stuff. Probably works OK for most projects. Wouldn't fly a plane that way though :-)

      > Are there code reviews?
      Hahah. And you and I both know they don't really matter anyway unless you're dealing with poor programming ability, in which case you're screwed anyway... what are you going to do, fire the volunteer programmer from his own project?

      Code reviews don't find bugs. You might be able to get more conformity to the coding guidelines if any that way. But in general, many projects enforce their guidelines by having few people allowed to check in. And good programmers go with the flow as far as code formatting anyway.

      > What are your defect escape rates?
      Escape rates? Must be some QA auditor speak. Does that mean bugs V&V didn't find before release? Anyway, Not interesting... If the stuff doesn't work people won't use it. It will die a natural death.

      > What is your plan for alpha/beta testing?
      Release early, release often but maintain a good stable release if you're changing things rapidly. Don't need QA to tell us engineers how to do that.

      > What is your release schedule?
      Irrelevant. It's done when it's done unless someone's paying.

    6. Re:Well, maybe not exactly... by gosand · · Score: 4, Interesting
      But, always remember that in many Open Source efforts, the users are the testers. That's a valid viewpoint if something is free; Microsoft is excoriated when they periodically lure customers into paying to become testers, but the practice is more defensible when no money changes hands.

      All of your points are of course valid - for the state of OSS today. I am more interested in the OSS of *tomorrow*. At least my hope for tomorrow - when OSS becomes more prevalent. How will QA/testing fit into OSS vs FOSS? When someone *IS* paying the bills, how will things change?

      Additionally, the themes of Superprogrammer vs The Horde" are relevant to understanding why. Having seen a few SEI CMM 5 shops in action, it's clear that to fill the man-hours for all the redudant tasks requires hiring a grade of developer that's frankly sub-par. Programming is the one field where a true 20x productivity differential between two professionals is unremarkable. It seems that the prominent Open Source projects have gotten more attention from generous SuperProgrammers than a typical commercial developement is able to attract.

      Of course. But those big projects have to ensure they can survive if their superstar programmer leaves. Or they do it because they are government regulated, or they are building software that could be life or death, and they can't afford to rely on someone's opinion. You have to remember that there is a LOT of software out there, it ain't all word processors and games. These are the applications where I question if open source is the way to go. I don't think it is the be-all-end-all of software development, just like being CMM level 5 isn't either. There is a reality out there, and I think Slashdot users could use a little check every now and then.

      --

      My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

    7. Re:Well, maybe not exactly... by jhoger · · Score: 1

      All software should be Free and Open.

      But not all software can, will or should be free of cost to produce and maintain it.

    8. Re:Well, maybe not exactly... by gosand · · Score: 1
      Are there code reviews?
      Hahah. And you and I both know they don't really matter anyway unless you're dealing with poor programming ability, in which case you're screwed anyway... what are you going to do, fire the volunteer programmer from his own project?

      Dude, this isn't the 90's. I'd like to see Open Source EVOLVE. People with your attitude will still be writing new versions of Xeyes out of their basement.

      Code reviews don't find bugs. You might be able to get more conformity to the coding guidelines if any that way. But in general, many projects enforce their guidelines by having few people allowed to check in. And good programmers go with the flow as far as code formatting anyway.

      The reason I am answering this point of your post is because it is probably the dumbest thing you said. Code reviews DO find bugs, that is their entire purpose. If you choose not to do them, that is your call. If Open Source is going to grow up, then code reviews will have to happen. I am sure there are millions of good programmers out there who are cringing at your "go with the flow" comment.

      What are your defect escape rates?
      Escape rates? Must be some QA auditor speak.

      I'll answer this not because it was dumb, but because it was ignorant. QA is not auditing. SQA is process auditing and improvement. QA is Quality Assurance. Big difference. Just like there is a big difference between programming and software engineering. But I am sure you don't understand the difference there either.

      Does that mean bugs V&V didn't find before release? Anyway, Not interesting... If the stuff doesn't work people won't use it. It will die a natural death.

      You mean testing? V&V is very specific, and I think it would be hard to do on an Open Source product the way they are developed today. For those that don't know, V&V is Verification and Validation. These can be summed up in these two questions: Are we building the correct product? Are we building the product correctly?

      Those questions would be very hard to answer for an Open Source project, because unless you define your requirements up front, you don't know if you are building the right product. If you don't have anything to test against (requirements/design/something) then you really don't know if you have built it correctly. You are just doing testing, and relying on the tester's ability to cover all the functionality, know what it should do, and be able to determine if there is a problem. If you think getting an email from some beta testers that say "looks good", then you aren't even close to V&V, and probably are barely on the edge of having it tested.

      I am not as interested in how QA pertains to small Open Source projects, I would like to hear how OSS development/rollout works at places like IBM or RedHat. I am sure they don't have such a lax attitute towards QA there.

      --

      My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

    9. Re:Well, maybe not exactly... by Minna+Kirai · · Score: 1

      When someone *IS* paying the bills, how will things change?

      Today there are already some people paying bills, of course- many OSS contributors are salaried corp employees. But sadly, those bill-payers generally have no reason to want software to be easier to use correctly. In fact, their profit margins could be best protected by keeping Linux desktops maximally challenging to install!

      This is what's called the "perverse incentive of Free Software". Look at companies like RedHat or certain branches of IBM: they get their revenues from "service and support". When the software itself is free, a company can still charge to configure and maintain it. But that company will have no motivation to make the software easier or more reliable for non-experts, as this would enable users to survive without paid support contracts.

      Publishers of traditional strongly copy-prohibited software, by contrast, have incentive to make the software maintenance brain-dead easy: they're paid up front, and later tech-support calls eat away their money.

      So any "Open Source" oriented company can never be expected to go all the way and make usable software. The laws of capitalism dictate they'll do as much as necessary to allow their trained technicians to install it easily, but stop well short of allowing a novice customer to do the same.

      You have to remember that there is a LOT of software out there, it ain't all word processors and games.

      Commercial games face more stringent QA than a usual corporate DB application (the reasons are varied but include cost of post-release bugfixes and customer vs employee loyalty).

      Why, a typical PS2 release is held to enormously higher standards than the software driving NASA's twin Mars rovers. (No "console" game would be allowed to ship if it rebooted the system when the disk filled up)

    10. Re:Well, maybe not exactly... by atuk_daud · · Score: 1

      I am not and have not been a QA person. I am a simple 'coder'. But... in my experience QA begins with the coder. One of your points is 'Are there code reviews?' How about 'coding standards'? In addition to ensuring quality when the code 'goes out the door' we also need to ensure that the code is maintainable. As a former member, executive member, and award winner from the (now defunct?) Software Maintenance Association I have found many applications that fail not because the application failed to function but because it was too complex (code) to modify (read upgrade). Of the open source code that I have used (and provided enhancements to) most fail dismally to pass the simple test of clean, maintainable code. I spend as much time learning the style of the designers/coders as I do in applying simple enhancements to this code.

      --
      The truly loyal subject will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures
  45. Konstruct RULES! by linuxlover · · Score: 2, Informative

    I got tired waiting for kde 3.2 rpms for Mandrake 9.2. they were not available in the Mandrake-club, despite numerous votes for it. (Rant : Made me wonder what is the point of paying money for the club & voting for RPMs../rant)

    Anyways, downloaded Konstruct, told it where I want it to install, and
    cd meta/everything; make install
    that is it! The download/patch/compile/install went for 2 days!! And now I have a shiny kde 3.2 desktop to play around with.

    I didn't have to delete my stock Mandrake kde rpms (too much hassel with all the dependancies).

    Given how much trouble we have @ work on getting builds to work, I have gained enormous respect for Konstruct; it makes installing KDE a snap (okay a 2 day long snap:-)

  46. Guerilla Focus Groups? by crawdaddy · · Score: 1

    I like your idea about hosting seminars with KDE users bringing friends that have never used KDE before. Another idea would be to check with your local mall and see if they'll let you walk around with a laptop or setting up a machine on a table and just inviting random shoppers over to use it. If bugs come up, you're watching. This would also allow for the general public to become more aware of KDE or any other project, for that matter and would give them a chance to submit their own feature requests and usability complaints/compliments.

    This gives a few, possibly stupid/uninformed questions:

    1) Are there groups out there (aside from large companies) that are doing focus groups and similar research aimed at the general public? If so, are they publishing this information and where?

    2) Is there any kind of tool for submitting bug reports? I hate using Microsoft as an example, but when my Windows machines crash, there is an option to send Microsoft a bug report. What's contained in the reports, I have no idea, but I bet it's got more pertinent information than any general user would be able to give.

    1. Re:Guerilla Focus Groups? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Re 2) KDE has a "Help -> Report Bug..." menu entry in every of its applications allowing the user to report a bug with all technical informations (application name, version, used system) already filled out.

    2. Re:Guerilla Focus Groups? by McGarnacle · · Score: 1
      1) Are there groups out there (aside from large companies) that are doing focus groups and similar research aimed at the general public? If so, are they publishing this information and where?

      I know you said aside from large companies, but I think Sun's gnome usability study applies here.

      2) Is there any kind of tool for submitting bug reports? I hate using Microsoft as an example, but when my Windows machines crash, there is an option to send Microsoft a bug report.

      I don't use it, but that sounds the same as bug-buddy.

      Sorry, I don't know much about KDE, so I couldn't say whether or not they've had anything similar going on. It's not like they couldn't learn from the two cited examples though, that's what OSS is all about, right?

      --

      I disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to tell such LIES!

  47. Re:i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redha by bellings · · Score: 1

    newbies and technophobes -packages are the way they get stuff onto their machines

    For any sane human being, packages are the way to get stuff onto a machines. If you can't find a package that works for your distribution, you should roll your own package.

    The alternative is to do a make && make test && make install and hope like hell the make uninstall works the next time you want to upgrade. (Yeah, right).

    --
    Slashdot is jumping the shark. I'm just driving the boat.
  48. I'm thinking more of... by bonch · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Evolution, Abiword, and even Gnumeric (still better). Of all the apps on my default Gnome menu, only about two start with G.

    1. Re:I'm thinking more of... by fault0 · · Score: 1

      Application names are diminished in KDE 3.2 as the purpose of the applications is heightened in the kmenu.

    2. Re:I'm thinking more of... by bonch · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but that means you then get a bunch of:

      Do this (Ksomething)
      Do this (Ksomething)
      Do this (Ksomething)
      Do this (Ksomething)

      I've run KDE on my Gentoo-based laptop installation for people. They look for app names. "Where's the word processor?" I tell them to look for the functional description, but then everyone looks for different things. "Write a paper." "Word processor." "Paper writer."

      Either way, you're having to memorize the description referring the app--app name or the arbritrary description the KDE developers chose. People remember unique titles better than a bunch of multiple-word descriptions.

      I just don't see the following two things:

      1.) Why it's so hard to not use a K-prefix before every single thing--it looks completely amateurish and "hackerish." KDE itself is a horrible name, but it's ridiculous with entire changelogs consisting of "K-" prefixes.

      2.) Why the obsession begins in the first place, like a bad programmers' attempt at being cute with their app name in IRC. "Ooh, we'll call our picture gallery 'Kallery'!" "LOL!" "rofl" "lets do it"

    3. Re:I'm thinking more of... by fault0 · · Score: 1

      > -it looks completely amateurish and "hackerish."

      Perhaps in your culture, but it's completely natural elsewhere in the world. e.g, central europe.

      I suppose it'd be neutral elsewhere, like the letter 'g' and 'x'

    4. Re:I'm thinking more of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And so KDE has Noatun, Quanta, Apollon, ...

  49. I told you.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I deal with the CUSTOMERS, so the ENGINEERS don't have to!!

  50. I can't figure out if... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...your post should be "+1 Funny" or "-1 Stupid".

  51. Task allocation! by sl0wp0is0n · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, I guess I'm asking for ideas here. In an open-source proj like this, you obviously want people to choose what they want to do or how they want to contribute. When you do that, one of the biggest problem is that, there are some parts of the project that everybody tries to avoid.

    I've tried to manage a project, in a similar way, on a very small scale though (~30 people). Everybody wanted to own the coolest parts of the project. What I eventually ended up doing is tying cool parts with not-so-cool parts. So, if you choose the cool part, you automatically also own the corresponding not-so-cool part.

    I'm looking for more ideas. May be some brainstorming would help here.

    --
    My other dog is a Wienerschnitzel.
  52. Re:i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redha by DavidBartlett · · Score: 1

    No, for them, it needs to come with the distro they use... which it will.

    --

    -DB-
    E-mail is like a prison: a prison with no walls... and no toilet. -Strong Bad
  53. Oops, I misunderstood. You're right, of course by kenneth_martens · · Score: 1
    What you say makes sense, but if you read my article that I wrote to explain the effects of the project in more depth, you'll see that (hopefully) you're wrong.

    I read your article before posting (I saw the link on another website, so I knew all about it before the story appeared on Slashdot), but I'll go back and reread it. It is a good article, by the way.
    These people can then act as a gateway between the developers and the users, to try to improve the quality of communication between these two groups.

    That makes sense. I guess my misunderstanding was that these Quality Teams would be average end users, when in reality I think it more likely that they will be people like me: medium-to-advanced users with no programming experience*, who have a passion for Free software but who have never been involved in a serious open source project before. I've been looking at KDE for a while as something I might want to contribute to, but I'm still not sure if I can commit enough time. If I can find a nice small module that I can hack on and stress-test a couple hours a week then I'll sign up. Well, no time like the present I guess. *goes off to find out more about KDE Quality Team Project*

    * Well, I lied. I have programming experience, because that's my day job. But I have little or no programming experience on non-Windows platforms, except for one measly little university project.
  54. Re:Found on GNOMEDESKTOP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Showing facts is what may help people understand.

    As long as you show *all* facts, Ali. Your years trolling lists, forums and even bugzilla don't speak very well for you, and justify your reputation much more than any reaction from gnome developers.

    You cause your own problems, you're not a victim, even if you want to look as a martyr.

  55. A troll, but funny as hell by bonch · · Score: 1

    This is the cleverest troll I've ever seen.

  56. Re:Congratulations to KDE... by twener · · Score: 1

    After 14 hours you should have some minutes left for prelinking.

  57. Some backgound information about KDE and usability by falonaj · · Score: 5, Informative
    Being a KDE contributor myself, I feel the urge to correct some of your statements and agree to others.

    GNOME has had the Human Interface Guidelines for over a year and a half now.

    KDE has User Interface Guidelines since more than 4 years. These guidelines are a bit outdated, but they are followed by almost all applications within KDE. This is one of the reasons why KDE applications are quite consistent with each other. KDE has been dedicated towards usability since its foundation, but usability was never the only goal. KDE was never perfect, but its usability has been constantly improving every version. Compared to most other PC software, KDE has always been doing reasonably well in terms of usability.

    The whole project is dedicated toward usability.

    True. The GNOME project made a good decision when they introduced HIG, even if many GNOME users were very angry at the time. Removing functionality was one of the main methods of solving GNOME's early usability problems, which should only be done if there is really no other way to solve usability problems.

    Most people complaining about KDE's usability are suggesting the same strategy for KDE. I don't agree with this. Solving usability issues in other ways is more difficult and takes more time, but the end result will be better if we stop telling others "I know better than you that you don't need this". But anyway, I agree that having good user interface guidelines is important.

    Don't get me wrong, KDE has some inovative technologies behind it, but even 3.2 is miserably lacking in terms of usability and style. IMHO, this "Quality Team Project" looks more like an after-thought or a lame side project than a redirection of the whole project.

    My impression is very different. The Quality team idea has been greeted with a lot of very positive responses among the KDE developers. There is a lot of interest in this within the KDE project.

  58. Small Penis??????? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What does KDE have to do with Mozilla and GNOME?
    Why are you so hostile? Do you have a small penis? Don't worry! There is always help!

    1. Re:Small Penis??????? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wouldn't you have an inferiority complex if the project you spent all of your time working on was a distant second to a rival project?

  59. QT && Qt by Makarakalax · · Score: 1

    Please don't abbreviate it to KDE-QT, it's a nightmare of confusion waiting to happen! Of course if everyone spelled Qt correctly (lowercase t) it wouldn't be so bad. That's not likely though... thanks!

  60. What's missing by Brandybuck · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Reading through the site, I realize that two important elements of QA are missing. They won't be as fun to do, but it would be great if someone did them.

    1) Requirements and specifications. Also known as what you need before you start coding. Otherwise known as the official arbiter of whether the program is doing what it is supposed to be doing.

    This is thankless gruntwork, but it is very valuable. Some KDE apps already have some, but all need them. Take an email client for example. Go grab all the RFC's relevant to POP3, IMAP, etc, and distill them down into a set of requirements stating what the program is supposed to do. Open Source is informal enough that we could get away with combining requirements and specifications into one document.

    2) Test procedures. Now take that requirements document and write a comprehensive test procedure. Include regression testing. Now anyone can take this procedure and simply execute it to find out if the program follows its requirements. If a step fails, log a detailed bug that states which requirement is not met.

    Not only would these two things aid the the developer in creating and improving the application, they would also improve the quality of bug reports. Instead of bug reports saying "it doesn't do what I think it should do", you get bug reports saying "it does x but the requirements say do y." If the applications still doesn't do what you want it to do, examine the requirements yourself, and if they aren't complete, propose a new one.

    Requirements are your road map, and test procedures are the person in the passenger seat reading it to make sure you take the correct exit to Albuquerque.

    --
    Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
    1. Re:What's missing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you have a link to some example requirements for my analysis? I would appreciate any info. Thank you.

  61. The Quality Team is not a QA project by cwoelz · · Score: 5, Informative

    I am the one who is currently putting the most effort into the KDE Quality Team implementation, so I am qualified to speak for the project:

    Let's start by making something clear:
    The main idea is not to build a QA project inside KDE. The main idea is to support and embrace new contributors with any background, and help to organize their efforts. For instance: Any doubts about the docbook? We are glad to help. Do you want feedback on your work? We are happy to provide. Looking for guidance? Hop in!

    We don't want to point what is good for you: we try to present you with a long list of things one can do to help, and organize these efforts.

    The recommended approach for non programmers is different from other projects: it is more like the project manager in a company than of a task specialist. In other words think of acting upon the whole of Kontact instead of acting upon the context help for the whole KDE project. We recognize that the main tool for helping an application is knowing it well. A quick look at the activities list, presenting the requirements for performing the tasks, is sufficient to prove that.

    http://quality.kde.org/develop/modules/

    Yes, the activities include QA. But this is just one of the activities. Hope this helps to avoid confusion with GNOME's bugsquad (also nice, but not related: it is a different concept).

    1. Re:The Quality Team is not a QA project by Nodatadj · · Score: 1

      So its not related to the bugsquad, but rather, and almost direct copy of the gnome-love project instead.

      Fair enough.
      I still think "Quality team" is a complete misnomer

  62. You wanna know why? by bonch · · Score: 1

    Because time after time, people point out how 100% stupid the naming scheme is, yet it never changes.

    It will never be taken seriously with a name like "KDE" and 100 apps all starting with "K."

    People mention Gnome apps, but like I said, only a few on my Gnome menu start with G. Everything else is Abiword, Evolution, Epiphany (or Galeon), etc. ACTUAL NAMES.

    1. Re:You wanna know why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It will never be taken seriously with a name like "KDE" and 100 apps all starting with "K."

      How many applications are named WinXXXX or XXXX 2000 or XXXX XP?

    2. Re:You wanna know why? by kundor · · Score: 1

      What the hell? Abiword and Evolution and such aren't part of Gnome. They fit into KDE just as much as Gnome. Just because they use the Gtk toolkit doesn't somehow make them part of a Gnome paradigm as opposed to a KDE paradigm -- they're independent applications and have nothing to do with it.

    3. Re:You wanna know why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It IS being taken seriously by a lot of companies and has been for a long time. People who judge/bitch/moan about software just because of said software's name instead of the actual quality of the code itself are a few brain cells short of being an animate object.

      GNOME has a lot more than 'few' apps starting with G. Get the fuck over it.

    4. Re:You wanna know why? by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 3, Funny
      It will never be taken seriously with a name like "KDE" and 100 apps all starting with "K."

      KDE will never be taken seriously because its name is a TLA? I guess we'd better tell IBM, the FBI, the CIA, the DEA, CBS, the NFL and thousands of other organizations that they're doomed to failure because of their names.

      Maybe they should all rename themselves with words with meanings like "One of a fabled race of dwarflike creatures who live underground and guard treasure hoards." Then they'll be taken seriously.

    5. Re:You wanna know why? by __past__ · · Score: 1

      Both are part of the Gnome Office metaproject, and use (optionally, in the case of AbiWord) Gnome libraries, not just plain glib and Gtk.

  63. Neither of which have helped Gnome by sproketboy · · Score: 0, Troll
    GNOME Foundation Board
    GNOME Release Team

    Neither of these have helped Gnome's lousy inconsistent UI.

    Heck Miguel himself realizes the huge kludge that is the gnome API. Now he's wasting his time trying to "re-imagine" the API as a .NET clone. LOL. What a joke. He'll be following BG around with a roll of toilet paper for years before that goes anywhere!

    Sad really.... If Linux is going to make any headway on the desktop, Gnome's gotta go.

  64. One word: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Plastik

    Very good skin for kde! I only use a few kde applications (namely kate and lyx), but they don't look terribly out of place over remote X on my ibook running Panther.

    GNOME with Industrial is also very nice but it's apps not as good for my needs. I'd rather just run bbedit natively rather than gedit over remote X, while kate offers me a complelling featureset. I don't need any of the better GNOME apps like Evolution on OSX either; I'd rather just run Entourage.

  65. Will testing fix by bonch · · Score: 1

    Will QA testing fix:

    * The 5-10 second load-time for KDE apps
    * The 4 second load time just to open a folder
    * The cramped and embarrassing K menu, with a 100 different groups and completely illogical redundancies like "Preferences," "System Settings," and "Control Center"
    * The poor naming scheme that--despite close to five years of bitching--hasn't been changed in favor of something sane
    * The convoluted Control Center that is an example of poor interface design with 3,000 items and subitems, grouped together under a cursor that for some reason won't stop changing to the hand icon
    * The fact that the cursor changes to a hand icon when it moves over taskbar buttons (cursor changes are confusing, disorienting, and annoying to newbies and power users alike)
    * The fact that when you tell KDE to put application menus at the top like MacOS, it defeats the whole purpose by not registering a click if you have the cursor all the way to the top--apparently, there is a pixel of space between the top of the screen and the menu. Mac users are used to slamming the cursor all the way to the top and clicking, which is faster than slowing the cursor and pinpointing a menu in a floating window like in Windows
    * The seeming need for every new version of KDE to add five more sidebars, buttons, and features to KPanel/Konquerer/anything else beginning with K, instead of cleaning the interface and making things faster

    I could go on and on. I don't get why it is so slow. Windows XP does NOT take so long to load, say, a window. And I despise Windows in general. Yet Windows gets bashed for being bloated, and yet KDE is readily accept despite being slower and more bloated than Windows itself. It's the double-standard, and though some may label me a troll for pointing it out, nonetheless it is my opinion and you're welcome to disagree.

    1. Re:Will testing fix by kundor · · Score: 1
      Try compiling your own kde. I think you'll find a great improvement in speed.

      There is a brand-new Control Center ui in the works, by the way, as you can see here. There are screenshots. Based on your post, I think you'll like this new interface much better.

    2. Re:Will testing fix by bonch · · Score: 0, Troll

      Regarding compilation: I'm using Gentoo. :) Took me 14 hours for KDE. And, yes, believe it or not, it does take 4 seconds for the Home folder to open, and I did have my correct optimizations and everything.

      As for that new Control Center, my god--when can we expect that?

    3. Re:Will testing fix by kundor · · Score: 1
      Hmm. Well, I don't use Konqueror much, but yeah, it's pretty slow. I've never had much problem with the rest of KDE though. At least they don't "fix" the problem Windows-style by keeping konqueror loaded in memory the whole time kde is running!

      I don't know when the new Control Center will hit the streets, but apparently it's working pretty well in cvs. I'd give it a few months.

    4. Re:Will testing fix by be-fan · · Score: 4, Informative

      * The 5-10 second load-time for KDE apps
      This is a legitimate problem, though getting much better. With prelinking, load times are closer to 2-3 seconds rather than 5-10.

      * The 4 second load time just to open a folder
      Depends on the size of the folder. Normal-sized folders open pretty much instantly on my machine. Performance on large folders (/usr/bin with thousands of items) could be improved, though.

      * The cramped and embarrassing K menu, with a 100 different groups and completely illogical redundancies like "Preferences," "System Settings," and "Control Center"
      Um, my stock Debian KMenu has a dozen folders. "Preferences" is gone in 3.2. There is a "settings" folder and a "system" folder, which is logical --- one is for preferences, the other is for system utilities. Kinda analagous to Windows's "Control Panel" and "Accessories/System Tools" And "Control Center" is an entry in "Settings"! Are you sure you're not mistaking the quick- access area at the top for default menu items? And the categories seem perfectly logical to me. "Graphics," "internet," "multimedia," etc. Sounds perfectly logical to me. Certainly, more logical than the Windows method of giving each company a top-level entry in the menu.

      * The poor naming scheme that--despite close to five years of bitching--hasn't been changed in favor of something sane
      KDE will drop the 'k' when GNOME drops the 'g', Apple drops the 'i', and Microsoft drops the 'MS'. Remember, its "MS Word" not just "Word."

      * The convoluted Control Center that is an example of poor interface design with 3,000 items and subitems, grouped together under a cursor that for some reason won't stop changing to the hand icon
      Actually, having all preferences in one program seems a lot more easy to navigate for me than a folder full of applets, one for each task. Work is on-going to make KControl more logical (there was an OSNews entry recently) but the "centralized control" aspect will remain. And Microsoft does it too --- consider the Windows NT administration console.

      * The fact that the cursor changes to a hand icon when it moves over taskbar buttons (cursor changes are confusing, disorienting, and annoying to newbies and power users alike)
      The cursor changes to know when you can click on something. And you pulled that "cursor changes are confusing" thing out of your ass. People manage to use Internet Explorer on a daily basis with the cursor changing over links. You just don't like it because its different from what you're used to.

      * The fact that when you tell KDE to put application menus at the top like MacOS...which is faster than slowing the cursor and pinpointing a menu in a floating window like in WindowsWorks fine on my machine. I'm guessing that you're not running 3.2...

      * The seeming need for every new version of KDE to add five more sidebars, buttons, and features to KPanel/Konquerer/anything else beginning with K, instead of cleaning the interface and making things faster
      Every release of KDE since 2.0 has gotten faster. Every release of KDE since 3.0 has become more streamlined.

      I could go on and on. I don't get why it is so slow.
      KDE isn't slow. Its got slow load-times for applications, but everything else is fast. In terms of user responsiveness, I find KDE to be faster than XP. In terms of redraw, KDE is even faster than XP. For example, try opening up two IE windows to Slashdot, one on top of the other. Resizing the top window will cause the bottom window blank --- for several seconds if you do it at the right speed. On my KDE, Konqueror doesn't do that.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    5. Re:Will testing fix by be-fan · · Score: 1

      How many items do you have in your home folder??? Mine has about a dozen (not counting hidden ones) and loads in less than a second (KDE 3.2, Debian, 2.0GHz P4)

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    6. Re:Will testing fix by be-fan · · Score: 1

      Actually, yes they do, at least as of 3.2 :)

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    7. Re:Will testing fix by kundor · · Score: 1
      I assume that it's an option though, so it's still not Windows-style. ;-)

      If it's not an option, gnome just got a new convert.

    8. Re:Will testing fix by viper66 · · Score: 1

      For example, try opening up two IE windows to Slashdot, one on top of the other. Resizing the top window will cause the bottom window blank --- for several seconds if you do it at the right speed.

      There is absolutely no blanking on my machine in XP. Its drawing so fast I don't even see a flicker in the lower app. There is some flickering in the scrollbars of the top window, though.

    9. Re:Will testing fix by FooBarWidget · · Score: 2, Informative

      "* The poor naming scheme that--despite close to five years of bitching--hasn't been changed in favor of something sane
      KDE will drop the 'k' when GNOME drops the 'g', Apple drops the 'i', and Microsoft drops the 'MS'. Remember, its "MS Word" not just "Word.""


      What poor naming scheme? When I open my menu I see items like Text Editor, Web Browser, Calculator, Image Viewer. They launch gedit, epiphany, gcalctool and eog, but the menu don't mention anything about the app names.
      In KDE, you see menu items like "Kate (Text Editr)" and "Konqueror (Web Browser)". The function is included right in the menu.

      I don't see the problem.

    10. Re:Will testing fix by Tukla · · Score: 1

      Yes, it's optional.

    11. Re:Will testing fix by be-fan · · Score: 1

      Are you using Luna or the classic engine? Cuz I've got 3 2.26GHz P4s running XP here, and they *all* blank.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    12. Re:Will testing fix by netsharc · · Score: 1

      Argh, what an ugly UI that is, it's so f-ing XP, and it takes 5-6 clicks to get to where you want, asking you dumb questions along the way, and no (as far as I can see) overview of the whole control center system, how do you change something else when you're done with the, say, Fonts setting?

      --
      What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
  66. I did, not applicable by bluGill · · Score: 1

    I did read his rant. It was focused on things not in KDE. KDE cannot fix Fedora, other than recommend you not use it. (A drastic step that isn't warrented)

    I'll grant there are problems with KDE, and we need to fix them. I hope someone on this project helps us do so. However no matter how good KDE gets, if a distribution uses something outside of KDE there is nothing KDE can do to make it work.

  67. coming soon!!! by SQLz · · Score: 1

    The GNOME Quality Team Project

  68. Sorry, but... by bonch · · Score: 1, Funny

    None of that matters when it takes 10 seconds to load anything, and 5 just to open your Home folder. Not to mention 25,000 items on one K Menu all starting with K, and 100,000 items in Control Center.

    Gnome works just fine and--gasp--is actually responsive and snappy. KDE wants more sidebar buttons with every release, because when you look at the code, there is a lot of unoptimized C++ going on.

  69. Doing a lot better by bluGill · · Score: 1

    IIRC mac OS7 was released about 1992. First Mac was 1984. KDE was started about 1997. So that gives about 8 years (after release, not start of development) to get mac OS7. KDE is at year 7, and by your own words really close to OS7. About 10 years after that to get OSX. Sounds like KDE is right on track, maybe even a little ahead.

    However that assumes you are correct. However, you obviously do not remember OS7 very well, because it wasn't that good everywhere. For instance the multitasking worked, but poorly you really didn't want to run two applications at once with it (part of this is the CPUs of the time, but not all). And it was slow, at least in the early versions I used, most of my machines dual booted to OS6 when they could because OS6 worked better. (Which was a trick in itself as apple didn't design those systems to dual boot) Not to mention it obviously looked like it was designed for a black and white screen, even when I had a color screen[1]. I remember many times reading a book in front of 3 macs, all with their hour glass on the screen, and the interface locked from other input while some work was being done. (desktop publishing work, a CPU bound problem in those days)

    Yes KDE has some work to do, but OSX has a lot to do too. I believe KDE is better. My opinion though.

    [1]Mental note: example KDE on a black and white monitor and make sure there is a scheme that looks good.

  70. I think I know that guy. by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 1

    Well, maybe not that exact guy, but one just like it. When I was testing our product, I would find a bug and Tell hime about it. He'd say I was a moron and didn't know what I was talking about. He'd tell me to try it again, I'd walk back into my office and retry. It would usually work, because he would jump on the network and replace my exe file. Suddenly, I had a different build and creation date.

    --
    Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
  71. Mods, this is a reposted troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I've seen this posted before. Hell, the last paragraph talks about some sort of alpha of Gnome and a new version that's going to be released in "December." Gnome 2.6 is due out this month.

    I'm sure we could all come up with the same kind of list for KDE. Both projects have endless usability issues.

  72. Those are bugs too by bonch · · Score: 1

    Documentation, usability problems, etc. *are* bugs.

  73. they need to lose the K thing by victorvodka · · Score: 1

    I love KDE 3.2 - it seems as usable and intuitive as Windows 2000 but without the downsides. But KDE has a serious liability that needs to be addressed. It's that whole thing with using K in plade of other letters. I don't know if people know this, but in the South this was frequently done as a code to reveal a company's KKK affiliations. I know some smart people who will not use KDE for this reason. For them, it's like having to deal with a UI full of swastikas. My wife is one of them. Painful though this might be, they need to lose the Ks. It can still be KDE but Konqueror needs a name change. It sounds like a synonym for Hitler.

    --

    The flag just makes more sense than the constitution. - Judas Gutenberg

    1. Re:they need to lose the K thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The South? You mean like the South in the United States? Well, that's a really local issue. KDE is used world-wide, and almost no one cares if it sounds like the KKK because, well, it's not an issue. Everyone knows KDE is not racist.

      Come on, man. Following your reasoning, Red Hat should stop using "Red" because it sounds communist, Blackbox Window Manager should erase the "Black" in the box because it threatens white races, and don't use the term "Recycled bin", because it reminds people of Bin Laden.

    2. Re:they need to lose the K thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know some smart people who will not use KDE for this reason.

      Then they are not that smart.

    3. Re:they need to lose the K thing by victorvodka · · Score: 1

      It's not that it is racist - it's that it looks creepy to a lot of people - people out in the world (and not just in the South). Hey - I'm not saying anything needs to be done about it immediately, but folks need to stop using Ks in place of Cs. It's a small price to pay for not freaking people out. Remember-it's little superficial things like this that make people decide one thing over another.

      --

      The flag just makes more sense than the constitution. - Judas Gutenberg

    4. Re:they need to lose the K thing by tackat · · Score: 1

      As long as people avoid other people (or their work) just because they are using "K"'s in their name or stars on their clothes (or because of their race or religion), then these people haven't learned any lessons from the past.

    5. Re:they need to lose the K thing by standsolid · · Score: 1

      Why on EARTH would the KDE project want to lose it's most recognized form of branding? Because a few "smart" people get offended by it's "K" repetition?

      Let's say I was a garden gnome and was offended by the use GNOME's name?

      Should GNOME have to change their name? Hell no

      Should I be forced to use GNOME? Again...Hell No

      As to the plug on the usability and intuitiveness of windows 2000, I take that as an attack against the KDE project, not as praise.

      Does that mean you should take back what you said because I am offended?

      Hell No

      It's one's own choice to find an innocent naming scheme offensive. And I respect that choice -- Just as much as I should hope you'd respect the Naming Choice of KDE Software developers. //standsolid//

      --
      WTPOUAWYHTTOTWPA
      What's the point of using acronyms when you have to type out the whole phrase anyways?
    6. Re:they need to lose the K thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      South of what? South Pole, South Africa, South-Central LA?

      Sounds to me as if the problem's not with KDE but with some rather narrow-minded attitudes. They should reflect that the software they're avoiding is international, not USA-ian. ... Or should your post have simply been modded "Troll"?

  74. that's already taken. by NumbThumb · · Score: 1

    "Koala" is the name of the Java binding for KDE.

    --
    I have discovered a truly remarkable sig which this 120 chars is too small to contain.
  75. Mozilla and Linux - take heed! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    God how I wish other open source projects like Mozilla and the Linux desktop would focus on this. I've been following and using both for years but I have no idea who or where to talk to when I create a cool skin or a better help guide, etc.

    Giving back shouldn't allow for the pollution of a program but there should be some deviantart or wiki-style free-for-all that then gets narrowed down into a manageable soil of good graphics, plugins, ideas, and more so that core project developers never have to wonder what else can be done.

    Here's my solution, in this case a Wiki for Mozilla and Mozilla FireFox. Feel free to add!

  76. Ah yay another KDE/GNOME thread by BenjyD · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Why the hell does every single KDE or GNOME thread have to devolve into name calling between the two camps or attacks on the free Desktops? To save late comers time, most of the comments below are:
    -Gnome sucks, I used 1.4 or 2.0 for five minutes and KDE 3.2 is much better
    -KDE sucks, it's slow and non-free. Oh yeah, I only used it for five minutes. version 3.0_beta1 on a p-166.
    -Windows/OSX is better because they fix bugs. OSS is always buggy.

    Desktop environment isn't a religion. This is a story about KDE trying to make its development team more inclusive and improve its quality.

  77. Re:i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redha by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Last time I checked there were Debian packages being hosted by the KDE folks and IIRC they were created by a KDE developer.

  78. Re:Congratulations to KDE... by HeLLLight · · Score: 1

    Well in all honesty I now use Gnome 2.4. Basically for the same reasons. Very snapy. Click "boof" done. Although KDE 3.2 wasn't to bad; it still didn't do it for me :)

  79. Kuality? by barnaclebarnes · · Score: 1

    Nah, that's already taken by the Japanese KDE Quality Team. /b

    --
    [Please type your sig here.]
  80. That would be... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gnome Guality Team Projegt.

  81. Re:i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redha by Luke-Jr · · Score: 1

    Actually, packages *should* be maintained by the project authors, not by the distribution. Does Microsoft package all Windows applications? (something actually sensible about windoze) It makes a lot more sense for a group of programmers to make 3 or 4 packages (force RPM-distros to become compatible) than for each individual distro to package all 1000000 applications that can be run.

    --
    Luke-Jr
  82. Re:i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redha by vadim_t · · Score: 1

    Why?

    A distribution is a compilation of software. It appeared because somebody thought that they had a good idea about how to put some software together. People who create them don't go and email software authors "Could you package your program in this format I just came up with, and with this directory layout?". On the contrary, a distribution is what results when somebody takes a lot of software written by other people, and organizes it in some way.

    I don't see why would it be the KDE project's responsibility to seek every distribution that could include it, and make packages for them.

  83. How the hell did parent get modded up ? by phoxix · · Score: 1

    If you're going to make such a vague statement of: the thing still looks way too kluttered for the average Joe.

    Please give us an *EXAMPLE* of what it is that sucks. Blanket terms like the above do Nothing to help, nor are they in any way informative.

    Sunny Dubey

    1. Re:How the hell did parent get modded up ? by xutopia · · Score: 1
      I'll give just a few examples with Konqueror then.

      1. Why does the "View With Cervisia" button appear when the folder you are viewing isn't even a CVS directory? If your program can guess this faster than I can then I should have to see this at all.

      2. Now the menu bar (Location, Edit, View, ...). Why aren't these padded on the left and right? Why are they so close to one another?

      3. Why do you have so many different views? And most importantly why do you have "Info List View" and "Detailed List View". Isn't just one sufficient?

      4. why is it that the only place I can right-click to customize my toolbar is the go button? I happen to right-click on the tool bar to attempt any such customization.

      I may not be Jakob Nielsen but I happen to do Usability consulting for big players in the industry in Europe and in North America. The problem with KDE right now as I said is that it is too kluttered.

    2. Re:How the hell did parent get modded up ? by Roberto · · Score: 1

      1. Why on earth do you have servisia installed? You *do* know that it's possible to perform CVS operations on folders lacking a CVS subfolder, right? (hint: import, co)

      2. Switch to latest plastik

      3. Because I like it.

      4. Well, I would explain it, if it weren't false. Right-click on any place where there isn't a button.

      If you are a usability expert, the industry is in deep trouble.

    3. Re:How the hell did parent get modded up ? by Tukla · · Score: 1
      I happen to do Usability consulting

      It must be great to have a job with no objective foundation. Do you rate movies, too?

  84. KDE needs is own VISUAL BASIC by eille-la · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Kde or any other standard linux desktop environnement should have in common a really high level and *simple* programming language.
    Many not-so-skilled programmers are developing thousands of apps usefull-for-enduser under windows with visual basic.
    No one should underevalutate the number of VB-only coders.
    Maybe VB is not the most used language in big windows based apps projects, but some programmers begin with VB and eventually learn C and/or C++, ASM, Java.
    Even if the big projects arent coded in VB, there is actually a couple of good programs sold by vb coders.

    If there was an easy to use and learn language like VB under the linux desktops, the open source community could profit of many more (begginers)coders, which is good.

    i dont think it could be an enormous differance for the moment if we think about the linux desktop solution popularity, but it could for sure accelerate this solution visibility at middle-term, which is good.

    What do you think about it?

    1. Re:KDE needs is own VISUAL BASIC by twener · · Score: 2, Informative

      Gambas and HBasic are working in this direction.

    2. Re:KDE needs is own VISUAL BASIC by hyperstation · · Score: 1

      nice idea. but it's one that worries me, as well. the average quality of the many many vb apps out there is not very good - if the same sort of thing were to happen with a KDE based VB-like language, what would happen to the overall quality of KDE?

      i think VB instills bad habits and presumptions in newbie programmers....

  85. Re:Found on GNOMEDESKTOP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't worry my Anonymous friend. The time will come and people will understand me. My Mailbox is currently filling with feedback from people who fullheartly agree with me since they were also victims of the GNOME zealots. Yes my behaviour on Lists and on Bugzilla may be a needle in the eyes of certain individuals. That why they have butchered all my writings and replied there to make a big harrassment out of it. But one day people will understand me and all my publications that I have collected over the past will justify it.

    This for sure is nothing about me as person. Why should I bother for me or see things only happening around me. I see them happening for others as well. I for my own may not be able to justify myself but what I have collected even from others will.

    I will make people understand the TRUE face of GNOME not what you want to make others believe. I will show up all the jackasses and assholes who can't keep their fucking mouth and slander others whenever possible.

  86. oGALAXYo replies + heavy namecalling! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I am participating to GNOME since 1999/2000 and was responsible for quite some work such as on Balsa, Galeon, various Patches for GNOME in general, CVSGnome and Atlantis. I've been an active GNOME Foundation member and even member of the german GNOME co-operation.

    In the past years there have been very ugly people showing up working on GNOME, well most of the people are indeed very fine persons but a few people are really people one should avoid.

    Most of the problems began around 2 years ago or so where I wrote Atlantis Webbrowser for GNOME and had to deal with a handful of people who were totally disagreeing with my way of licensing it.

    The first to show up making very big trouble were Iain Holmes (known as Iain on IRC) who publicly made a huge mess out of it on gnomesupport.org giving really shitty comments about it and so on.

    I was really offended by him and that was one reason why I temporarely left GNOME (after a few years of actively contributing to it). In the meanwhile I participated to KDE and I found a lot of new cool friends there. But Iain and a few others (Mike Hearn, Jeff Waugh, Iain Holmes, Thomas Vander Stichle) (also known as the GANG in GNOME, a bunch of people who glue together like pattex) have been following my steps on KDE and continued made a mess whenever I wrote something on public places. You can be sure that I didn't had a big opinion about GNOME that time due to all these people who were permanently complaining.

    One day a Textfile showed up called Armageddon GNOME or something like that. I was not responsible for writing it but then this text somehow shown up on gnomesupport and gnomedesktop (I found out about it months later) where I was publicly namecalled by people like Iain Holmes, Thomas Vander Stichle and Jeff Waugh. They didn't even took the time contacting me asking me whether I was responsible for that mess or not. They simply started to write my name under every comment that gave negative feedback about GNOME be it written by someone from italy, japan, germany, uk, australia it doesn't even matter.

    You can be sure that it took me quite a lot of time fixing all these issues by contacting STRO from gnomedesktop.org and gnomesupport.org to have these things corrected (well he simply deleted the messages or replaced my name with X'es) (See attachment).

    I then came back to GNOME because I wanted to forget all the problems these few dumb people caused on my name but it was hard to get through all this because these few people were responsible for the huge damage they caused on my name. Other people who never heard about me started making foolish jokes or simply jumped on the wagoon for no reason. Anyways I ignored it and continued participating to GNOME.

    Different Scenario. Over the years I was working on CVSGnome and Jeff Waugh the guy who maintains GARNOME (but never ever written anything) is known to be a hard ass in the GNOME world. All he did in the past was slandering people. Pissing people like Alex Duggan (Aldug), Roman Beigelbock (Star) and Dr. Frickle (someone from IBM) totally off. The results we see today, Dr. Frickle left GNOME (a long years contributor) and Roman Beigelbock (Star) simply left GNOME some weeks ago because he couldn't stand all the stress anymore. Furthermore is Jeff a Hardheaded person who under really strange circumstances got a position in the Board (The GNOME Board and the Release coordinator Board). Maybe he managed it because of his better english since we here in germany are not all familar of best english. Anyways when I wrote CVSGnome Jeff did everything to simply IGNORE CVSGnome, have it leave out of announcements, ignored my requests (even via email) to have CVSGnome included etc. Sure he saw some sort of 'competition' project into it. Not to forget that I for my own have written CVSGnome from scratch while he has done nothing special.

    To say the truth, besides dictating people, commenting every freaking email he has done NOTHING for gnome. there is just to much hype around him

  87. oGALAXYo replies + heavy namecalling! Part 2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hello Tim,

    maybe you remember me, my name is XXXXX and I'm a GNOME foundation member and part of the german GNOME team. Last time I was consulting you relating the german GNOME e.V. situation which XXXXX asked me to do. This time I like to contact you because I wish to fill an official complaint regarding the public behaviour of one of your Board Directors named Jeff Waugh.

    In the past couple of months I was under regular attack from Jeff. He was constructing many really shitty situations which I have found trapped myself even accusing me for having done things that I was not responsible for. Today I was writing a normal comment on www.gnomedesktop.org where Jeff was attacking me as person again and I don't know anymore how I can defend myself besides contacting the authority of GNOME itself.

    Please read here:

    http://www.gnomedesktop.org/article.php?thold=-1 &m ode=thread&order=0&sid=1452

    I think that the public behaviour of Jeff is hurting the GNOME movement and I now like to file an official compliant against him for doing things like this. There must be a way for people, not just me to participate friendly in this community without being attacked permanently all the time. I don't know what I should do anymore. I even fear to write something without getting verbally attacked as person and stuff like this. If the authority of GNOME can't help me in this case anymore then I really need to consider filing a lawsuit against Mr. Waugh because his public behaviour is hurting my personal integrity. I must fear that my personal credit is being hurt by such actions and even more I must fear that I won't even get a job in this business anymore (you know stuff like this).

    I hope to not do this but on worst case I can bring up unambiguous proves in form of other chatlogs and people. I know I have been caught myself in bad situations every now and then due to my bad english it may have caused accidental problems which I have to excuse for but whenever I write something be it on Mailinglist os on public sites I usually take account for my writing and I'm responsible for what I write. There is no need for someone from the Foundation showing up and force escalation by constructing and forcing such things. You can read my blog entry on my webpage

    About other situations where Mr. Jeff Waugh name called and slandered me on public speeches.

    I seriously feel bad and do not know how this problem can find an end. Look I'm developer and I participated to GNOME for many years with a not less amount of patches and other contributions. With such an attitude from Jeff it only ends that people are going to leave this architecture.

  88. oGALAXYo replies + heavy namecalling! Part 3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 01:35, Tim Ney wrote:
    > I have just returned from a speaking tour in Brazil and Chile
    > today when I read your e-mail. GNOME is making great strides in
    > countries around the world.

    Hello Tim, these are very exciting news.

    > Please let me consult with the board on how such a complaint
    > will be handled.

    Thank you very much. Furthermore I would like to correct the link provided to you because Jeff managed to get my posting moderated -2 which implies that it is officially deleted.

    http://www.gnomedesktop.org/article.php?thold=-2 &m ode=thread&order=0&sid=1452

    I would like to add that my comment which I gave as oGALAXYo was based upon my very personal opinion. I know it's hard by times understanding all the stuff outside specially when it's written in a foreign language. But regardless of what I wrote I do belive that people should have the abillity to write openly and that their views should be respected the same way than the opinions of others. If people have problems in argumenting or if they are wrong or have misunderstood facts, that they should all deserve to get explained correctly. But Jeffs usuall behaviour (which he does in a regular base, not just in me) only causes to give me a really bad reputation in the public and I start to see other people attacking me as well due to these wrong things being seed in all these months. Please look at the way how Jeff replied to me in the public then later look at the next guy (XXX.t30.physik.tu-muenchen.de) who replied to this thread as well, while he is agreeing with me (he seem to have got the point that I liked to explain) his message was bravely answered while mine was rotten down to death there. Some replies I got from Kjartan Maraas or Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller contained valid and good points and can be considered as fair argumentation.

    I am kinda sick of such things and people who only seek for situations to show up and cause everything to destroy creditibility of someone else. Not long ago someone showed up by querying me in the irc channel and pointed me to an speech made by Jeff Waugh not long ago in the public infront of an Audience where my name was called as 'look at this biggest GNOME troll' or something. The Link is here:

    http://www.seawa.org.au/data/content/linux_conf_ 20 02/papers/Jeff_Waugh/Jeff_Waugh.spx

    You need to unpack this with Speex and then scroll forward to 11mins and 20seconds for the important part.

    In all the times I have been looking away from this 'problem' because I do belive that I made the one or other mistakes myself in the past - Yes I do not deny this - I'm far from being a perfect person after all. But now it's enough I think. I am a fair person and thus like to consult the Foundation first and hope you people can help here since I like to search for a friendly and good solution for this. After all I am trying to contribute to this community with my stuff as good I can but this doesn't mean that I have no own opinion and own sights of things and I do not belive that I need to ask Jeff for approval to raise my opinion. After all I am a free person on god's given planet and I don't want to feel that I am under permanent control by some morbid persons. Jeff has threatened a bunch of people really ugly in the recent past such as the Webdevelopment persons (it's no secret after all).

    I think - no I want - to participate to this community as a fair person. I want to go out and raise my opinion regardless of being right or wrong. People on this globe have the abilities and their right to prove one wrong or have a halfway normal conversation. This makes us individuals. We deal with all sorts of humans day in day out. People who do have problems, people who are nice, people with different skills, abilities and integrity. But we should try to get along somehow in a more or less respectful way.

    I do belive you fullhearthly agree here. But in the past a few p

  89. oGALAXYo replies + heavy namecalling! Part 4 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i am sitting here at home and reading the kde development lists and the conversation with havoc pennington. i like to tell you that i fully agree to you and please do everything (with argumentation) to avoid that havoc pennington is going to screw up kde. i used to be contributing to gnome for long time and know the underlaying code and the people itself more or less good and can tell you that many gnomers, this includes developers, contributors and those who work really close to gnome totally hate what happened with it during the 2.0 conversion. to say we don't like what happened to gnome, that's also the reason why many of my friends and a bunch of other people who worked close to gnome switched over to kde. because we think that gnome should have become what kde is today.

    kde for us is the last bastion for a hopefully future of cool, integrated, consistent and perfect looking desktop. not like the hack that gnome is today.

    full of wrapers, no documentation, only 2-3 people who decide it's target and so on. i don't say that some technology written by gnome is not good or something but it leads to nothing still no usable desktop. KDE on the otherhand is all this. so please try everything to avoid such a messy mixture of gnome and kde components, that's what i seriously do not like to see (and critically said gnome is taking over a lot of projects from other people already). please do everything to keep kde the way it is and belive me that many gnomer's hate what havoc pennington did with gnome. i hope this doesn't happen to kde because of his stupid way of thinking.

    he has the use what suits best way of thinking. this includes mixing all kind of applications under one plattform e.g. using openoffice, mozilla and other crap that doesn't integrate on gnome and this is more or less the most stupid way using a system. in this case it's questionable for what reason one should use gnome, they could use a simple windowmanager together with 3rd party apps. i belive that kde with it's integration is the right way and many other belive this too. kde office suite may not be as good as openoffice today but i belive with the rapid progress that goes in cvs that this issue will be a nonissue really soon. the rapid development and the good underlaying framework in kde warrants good and fast application development.

    one sentence to his claimed users feedback. there is no such thing as users feedback. maybe for redhat's paying customers but not the normal feedback on the gnome mailinglists. i had a bunch of conversations on the gnome mailinglists the years back and they always matured into heavy flames because of gnome core developers always disagreing to everything because it doesn't fit into their own vision of how to do things, regardless the fact that they are right or not. you should go and ask havoc which kind of user feedback he has listened at...

    anyways sorry for my bad english and bad grammar but english isn't my native language...

  90. oGALAXYo replies + heavy namecalling! Part 5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here another email I got from someone else. Sorry bud. I do hope you forgive me for publicating this but I think you gonna understand it. Please be sure that I have removed everything from this email that may lead to your name or something. ;-----

    just to tell that I read your message in gnomedesktop.org, about the gnome-love thing, and show you something I wrote in slashdot a week ago:

    "Fragments of my thoughts on the subject.

    - I totally agree with you. I too was part of the initial Gnome community, thriving to create the perfect GNU desktop (in my own limited way, of course). Since Gnome was still lacking in many aspects to KDE (In gnome 1.0 there were still icons missing), it was exciting to be a part of its evolution.

    - For a certain reason, I just left(was I ever in?), with a quick note to a mailing list. After the gnome2.0 hoopla, I was interested in the new gui, tried it, enjoyed (and still enjoy) the overall new feel of it, got frustrated with it when it did not satisfy my needs as a relative power user, and went back to kde (just as a user).

    -I think that being part of a project is not just doing work for it. Being able to contribute to it's future and direction is very important, or even essencial. Otherwise it just ends up being a job, except you don't even get paid."

    The reason me leaving the project, at the time I did icons, a lot of them back when a lot were missing (between gnome 1.0 and 1.4), and 1.4 come up, with a whole new set made by Tigert, with no consultation from any of the people who had worked during the previous release. I got the feeling of an existing "circle of friends", like you said. I quit after that.

    The gnome project got me hooked at the time with its talk, but the reality of it was somewhat diferent.

  91. Re:USABILITY - FINALLY ! by ehack · · Score: 1

    Well, I have a Ph.D in comp sci, lots of publications in AI, and extensive software reviewing experience. When you compare Desktop Linux to Mac OS X (which is sold for $100) it is so bad most users won't take it even if you give it to them. Of course people like me or you use it daily for our work, but we are *techies*.
    I guess anyone who says anything negative about Linux is a troll. No one listens to the, so the Linuxuser experience, which could be cleaned up in 1 year of hard work, never improves.

    --
    This is not a signature.
  92. oGALAXYo replies! The last words. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ok people were calling me to be a Troll ? Here I have you a reason to call me so because I am entirely fed up with all this shit coming up and around my person. This evil attitude some GNOME individuals are doing they don't just do at my person. They have done so on many others before me.

    Here you got a little excerpt of all the junk that really is going on behind the door within GNOME. Sure not everyone in GNOME is a bad person and the majority of these people for sure DO NOT deserve this. They do deserve to happily work on GNOME and make their normal day. They are as I am totally sick of all these games, intrigues, demonstration of power and might and all the shit that still goes on.

    I do have a shitload of Chatlogs here that people have sent me over time. A lot of interesting material where you can READ with your own eyes how these individuals (that I am refering here) are slandering other people, talking crap about other projects and behave like they come out of the trash. You can also be able to read about other peoples opinions about these persons (that I was refering to) and as long as the GNOME community is not willing to have a change, as long the same old structures remain and this is JUST hurting the project.

    I got taken to the shambles, I was embraced, I was really put down by the same handful people (yes always the same dumb fucking faggots). How can this be ? Why not someone else ? Why doesn't someone else from the core stand up and plug a knife up my ass ? Always the same fucking assholes that are responsible to demotivate people.

    The GNOME project today is nothing more than a masquerade. Only paid Wipro, RedHat, Sun, Ximian and Novell people are working on it. And a handfull of other people (yes the majority of these people are brave persons no doubt and I do feel bad that the whole GNOME project is affected by a few ignorant shitheads). Most of the good souls really deserve that their work is being honoured and even if it's just a fucking 'thank you' this can change worlds.

    Judge yourself,

    oGALAXYo

    1. Re:oGALAXYo replies! The last words. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Judge yourself

      People with personal disagreements with certain members of a project that vent them, not only publically, but in the hope of damaging the project itself's reputation, don't get my respect.

      And yes, you're a troll. If not, why are you posting all your personal critics on Slashdot? Grow up.

    2. Re:oGALAXYo replies! The last words. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The initial post wasn't from me. The initial post was made on gnomedesktop.org and had another reason and aim. Some dumbass faggot brought it up here with the intention to even cause more damage on my person. So what should I do, stick my head up my arse and say it's ok ?

      If then some faggot shows up here namecalling me in the public you will earn what you seed. If you respect me or not is your own personal problem not mine. I only show the masses what kind of stupid people there are in GNOME.

      oGALAXYo

    3. Re:oGALAXYo replies! The last words. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The initial post wasn't from me. The initial post was made on gnomedesktop.org and had another reason and aim. Some dumbass faggot brought it up here with the intention to even cause more damage on my person. So what should I do, stick my head up my arse and say it's ok ?

      Not publishing publically that kind of flames in the first place will prevent suplanters posting them later. If you think that's some kind of auto-imposed censorship, think about this:

      When you asked in the mailing list, Fernando Herrera explained to you *gently* why CVSGnome wasn't in the build tools list, with sensible reasons. But by that time, you already had stirred an unnecessary flamewar in gnomedesktop, where you even got Murray Cumming angry, even when he wasn't belicous.

      Are you gonna tell me the problem is Murray Cumming is Jeff's friend or something like that?

      I only show the masses what kind of stupid people there are in GNOME.

      That kind of attitude isn't the right one to work with a developer community. You should distinguish personal problems with some developers and the Gnome community if you don't want people to get the wrong impression. That is, if you consider that the wrong impression...

    4. Re:oGALAXYo replies! The last words. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > damaging the project itself's reputation

      I don't think that I can contribute anything more to cause damage to the GNOME project itself. It has caused damage on its own and alienated a lot of people. You should seriously READ what I wrote before replying then you would have figured out that I was not the first and probably not the last person that these few stupid people are going to take to the shambles. And if you continue that way I gonna make the Chatlogs public as well.

    5. Re:oGALAXYo replies! The last words. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think that I can contribute anything more to cause damage to the GNOME project itself.

      But you try hard anyway :P

      You should seriously READ what I wrote before replying then you would have figured out that I was not the first and probably not the last person that these few stupid people are going to take to the shambles.

      I read them. Your points are always the same, and always complain about the same people, angrying other developers in the process.

      And if you continue that way I gonna make the Chatlogs public as well.

      You know, I'm not the one to be affected by that. If that's your method to approach gnome developers and make friends of them, go ahead.

    6. Re:oGALAXYo replies! The last words. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Excuse me I have been replying to gnomedesktop.org In very first place and only cut&pasted the same stuff to the d-d-l mailinglist afterwards. So there wasn't anything like flames on gnomedesktop.org. I was only defending my very own work with the same rights that others take and have for their work. If a Murray Cumming get's angry or not is his very own problem not mine. With best will I can't do it right for everyone. The one agrees with me, the other not. The further comments there I only gave due to my very own personal experience I made with GNOME in general. You are NOT seeking for new people. You only want some minions to fix the outstanding GNOME 2.6 blockers.

      Yes you are the right ones talking about community, working with others, being part of them etc. So please explain me why so many people got offended and left GNOME ? Have you skipped the other replies I made here ? You only earn what you seed. And when you seed, anger, frustration, ignorance, elitism, might demonstrations. Then all you return is exactly this. So why do you feel so surprised if I complain now ? I have all the damn good right to feel pissed and to complain. Since I was treatened like an fucking asshole for quite some time by certain jerks who sit in the upper positions. I AM JUST DEFENDING MYSELF here. Don't forget that there were others before me who got treated the same way. Are they all like me ? Sorry, but if you do it with one then it may be understandable but if you do the same with a not less amount of people then there is something wrong.

      GNOME is not free anymore it's lead by zealots and selfish people. If it was free, then we all would get the same fair chance. I don't have any reasons to cause damage to a project. For what own benefits would I want to do this ?

      oGALAXYo

    7. Re:oGALAXYo replies! The last words. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > You know, I'm not the one to be affected by that.
      > If that's your method to approach gnome developers
      > and make friends of them, go ahead.

      Look I don't think that it would do any good if we continue on such a level. I for my own would have wanted that everything would be totally different in first place. But what can I do ? Whatever I do it still doesn't satisfy the 'gods' even kissing ass don't help.

      I don't want a special status, I don't want fame, I don't want to cause damage at all. All I want is the same fair chance to be part of that community in the same valid way than others. And I don't see any reason or point that gives people like named ones the right to judge about me and others. They have no right to judge about me as person, to judge whether I can be part of GNOME or not, whether someone else has to listen to what mr. 'god' says or whatever. We are all people with the same rights to work on that project. Everyone who likes to participate has the same rights.

      And thus I do believe that it is my very good right to make people understand what's going on in GNOME before they participate. As I said the majority of GNOMERS are fine people but those who sit there causing so much damage on those who like to contribute should re-consider. I for my own don't have to lose anything they killed my image. It's just payback.

      oGALAXYo

  93. Re: "useless bureaucracy" by some+guy+I+know · · Score: 1

    There is a difference between software written by employees for a company, and software written by volunteers on their own time.
    There is also a difference among software written by one person, software written by a tightly-knit group (all at one location), and software written by a loosely-knit group.

    Software (OSS or otherwise) written by a large, loosely-knit group of people who are employees for a company (and, thus, presumably, writing a commercial product that has deadlines) needs "useless bureaucracy" to (try to) keep things on schedule and going in the right direction.
    Software written by some guy/gal in his/her spare time may need very little "useless bureaucracy".

    My own personal stuff doesn't require process documentation, estimation procedures, release schedules, etc, but even I use the occasional design document (even if it's just scribblings on a piece of paper).
    OTOH, KDE is a big project, and may possibly profit from using some or many of the methods suggested by the G.P. (if it isn't already using them).

    "Use the right tool for the right job.", I always say.
    (Well, I don't always say that.
    Sometimes I say other things.
    And, sometimes, I say nothing at all (especially when I'm sleeping).
    But "Use the right tool for the right job." is something that I frequently say, or, at least, that I have said on more than one occasion.)

    --
    Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
  94. ELQ? by LoboRojo · · Score: 1

    > the ones who write scathing reviews of widgets and fonts like Eurgenia? Hum, when will she finally earn the acronym of ELQ?

    --

    ---
    All my submissions to Slashdot rejected... and proud of it!
  95. Not 100% classic Quality Assurance team? by saigon_from_europe · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This news was not quite new to me - I can't provide the link, but there was nice explanation on KDE traffic (i.e. digest of several KDE mailing lists).

    First, they were not sure about the name at all. They needed some "department" that will improve communication between users and developers. Some sort of people who know both sides, but who are not programmers. And they did not know how to call it. As I read now, they choose Q.T.

    For an OSS project, KDE is really well documented, you may really easily contact their programmers, support community seems to be nice and usefull; this should be "final touch".

    This team reminds me to my last position in my old company - I was kinda liaison officer between two teams. My team needed some stuff from them, and we needed someone to force them to make it work. It is much easier to have someone who is familiar with both products, than to depend on existing QA dept (maybe it was problem that we had poor QA team).

    Anyway, this new team seems like great idea. No matter that I like programming, it would be really hard to me to become so familiar with Qt/KDE enough to be usefull KDE programmer. But even at this stage, I believe that I already could be KDE QT member. So, there must be other people like me.
    Thus, KDE will be even better.

    --
    No sig today.
  96. Re: Names and the commercial world by some+guy+I+know · · Score: 1

    Flying Moose Systems (creators of 3D HOOPS) found that its sales increased dramatically after it changed its name to Ithaca Software.

    --
    Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
  97. Re:Found on GNOMEDESKTOP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My Mailbox is currently filling with feedback from people who fullheartly agree with me since they were also victims of the GNOME zealots.

    So that means only people who share your opinion with you since the beginning have shown interest. Not a surprise.

    Why should I bother for me or see things only happening around me. I see them happening for others as well. I for my own may not be able to justify myself but what I have collected even from others will.

    You're posting this because CVSGnome wasn't in the build systems list for gnome-love day. Stop pretending you're a messiah, it's just ridiculous.

    I will make people understand the TRUE face of GNOME not what you want to make others believe. I will show up all the jackasses and assholes who can't keep their fucking mouth and slander others whenever possible.

    Hello kettle. You're the one slandering others whenever a gnome or KDE related news appear. Your "enemies" in gnome community stopped caring about you some time ago.

  98. Re:Found on GNOMEDESKTOP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Get a social life. If they wouldn't care then why do I get so many replies from your kinds ?

    First people like you were responsible to kill my image in the public and yet you continue causing damage. I was chatting with someone about this and his reply was:

    i can see how your image has been destroyed by handfull of assholes.

    That's what you are a handful of assholes.

  99. Re:-1: Offtopic, but worth it by nietsch · · Score: 1

    You have never been to Europe have you?
    You could also stop driving your gas guzzling SUV and use a more fuel efficient car. If you cannot use all that engine power anyway, why lug it around in your car that is too big anyway?

    Ride a (push!) bike.

    Stop whinghing that you want to pollute more cheaply.

    --
    This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
  100. Re:i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redha by nietsch · · Score: 1

    kde-redhat is a load of crap if you ask me.
    I tried to upgrade to kde-3.2 with their repository, but it failed on dozens of unmet dependencies. (just do a apt-cache on it, you'll see) I had to do some serious remove-reinstall moves with apt-get to get back to my previous install.
    Building the fedora-src.rpm's that would not install and installing those that would was a lot easier. If I knew how, I would not mind sharing these rpms.

    If you pretend to maintain packages for some distro, you should not update the buildhost with all sorts of alpha quality software that has not been packaged correctly. KDE-redhat just stinks!

    --
    This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
  101. Re: Names and the commercial world by Tukla · · Score: 1

    I'd hate to be the sap trying to sell "Guh-nome".

  102. Dear mods by bonch · · Score: 1

    Why is my post a troll?

    I told them I compiled KDE, and then I said it takes 4 seconds to open any folder.

    Then I expressed my desire for the new control center.

    Someone's targetting me.

  103. Re:fp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean sadist.

  104. Re:i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redha by Tukla · · Score: 1
    I don't suppose there is a rule preventing a KDE developer from creating packages for a distribution, but that doesn't obligate the project as a whole to maintain packages for various distributions.

    I'm afraid I don't know anything WRT the hosting issue.

  105. Re:i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redha by Roberto · · Score: 1

    The better alternative is to do make && make test && checkinstall make install and have it be in your RPM database.

  106. Re:Some backgound information about KDE and usabil by krogoth · · Score: 1

    As someone who has written a KDE application, I don't think the existence of user interface guidelines is as important as the fact that the KDE libraries make it easiest to let them do all the boring work... incidentally causing all applications to follow the same guidelines since they aren't reimplementing the file save dialog box.

    User interface guidelines are for those who reimplement the user interface in every application.

    --

    They that quote Benjamin Franklin on liberty and safety deserve neither.
  107. Typo by Ilan+Volow · · Score: 1

    er, change "on usability is not, in my opinion, is perfectly justified" to "on usability is not unjustified".

    My bad.

    --
    Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
  108. newsforge article by xpyr · · Score: 1

    Here's a newsforge article posted by the first comment to the kde quality team article.

  109. Re:i hope these guys will integrate with kde-redha by Luke-Jr · · Score: 1

    If you want people to use your program, you should be willing to package it so they can install it easilly.
    If you want to start a new distro, you should either use an existing popular package format or if you have good reason to make a new one, be willing to package things yourself (or convert others) until your distro is popular enough for program authors to care about support.
    RPMs, DEBs, and Ebuilds are popular enough, IMO, that programs should take over packaging them.

    --
    Luke-Jr