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List:       kde
Subject:    Re: KDE - Does user opinion matter? (RE: Thoughts of a KDE sceptic)
From:       Rob Kaper <cap () capsi ! cx>
Date:       1999-11-18 0:46:40
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On Wed, Nov 17, 1999 at 07:17:36PM -0500, Cristian Tibirna wrote:
> >  If someone complains about one of the tools I create personally I can do
> > whatever I wish. However if it were an official GNU project for instance,
> > I'm just a programmer among others, and it should be GNU's decision on
> > whether it remains official, or if they no longer want anything to do with
> > it.
> What's your point? This is exactly what happens in KDE. Best code
> survives. Less than best gets dumped. Ask khtml developers. There are 3
> different versions of khtml in KDE, all very good, and only one is
> supported currently. But the selection is done by the good common sense
> and not by some crappy political organization.

If you have an improvement/add-on for any OSS project that doesn't like your
changes, noone prevents you from keeping your patches up-to-date with the
program (which is no different from if it would be accepted) and distribute
them yourself. Just look at the several kernel patches that are available
for download but not included in the official tree.

That freedom is basically what open source / GNU is all about and KDE is no
different.

Complaints about decision making within such a project and whether
developers listen to the users are quite ridiculous for most projects. KDE's
goal is to make UNIX desktop computing pleasant and productive. Almost
everyone I ever encountered who has seen or worked with KDE tells me "Wow,
that looks great. It seems easy. I can get work done with that". Maybe KDE
succeed in its goal so well _because_ of the way it is being managed and
developed.

I am often amazed by the rapid progess KDE seems to make. How almost
everything I do not like in a release is improved in the next.

Summary, everyone is free to release their own changes as patches in case
the KDE team refuses the changes. But in general I do not think the KDE
core developers are making many bad decisions. KDE is progressing too
rapidly.

Rob
-- 
Rob Kaper | mail: cap@capsi.com + cap@capsi.cx
          | web: http://capsi.com/ + http://capsi.cx/
          | "We continue to be guided by the most basic American values:
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