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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Why we have created the KDE League
From:       Chris Schlaeger <cs () kde ! org>
Date:       2000-11-22 16:30:04
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Hi developers, translators, doc-writers and artists!

I just returned from Las Vegas  where we announced the creation of the
KDE League. Since  I was involved in setting it up  and was present at
the  initial board meeting  as well  as at  the press  conference, I'm
probably a good candidate to tell  you a little bit more about the KDE
League and it's purposes.

Since the creation  of the KDE Project in October 1996  we have made 5
official releases. With each release we found more users but also more
people  who are willing  to devote  their time  to improve  KDE.  This
growing popularity assured us that we were doing the right thing.

Moreover, the technology  behind KDE 2.0 would not  have been possible
without all those  excellent folks that joined the  project after they
discovered KDE 1.x.  The same is happening again. Since KDE 2.0 is out
we have new people getting interested in the project on a daily basis.
Many  of  them  will probably  be  key  contributors  to the  KDE  3.x
technology.

Why  are we  creating  KDE?  Simply for  the  fun of  it!  We spend  a
significant amount  of our time on  KDE simply because it  is fun. One
can write  a simple text editor  alone, but for  a network transparent
desktop  you need  many programmers.  The  more bright  people we  can
attract to the project the  more interesting stuff we can achieve. And
that's the reason  why it is important for us to  spread the word. The
more contributors the more challenges  can be met, the better KDE will
become and the more fun we will have.

So  promoting KDE is  almost as  important as  working on  KDE. Recent
studies show that  KDE is used on more the 70%  of all Linux desktops.
We could fight  for those remaining 30% but given  that Linux has less
than 5% of the overall desktop  market we should rather target the 95%
of desktop users than compete with our friends from the GNOME project.
Just converting  5% of Windows users  will get us more  KDE users than
converting all  GNOME users.  But  those users know little  about Open
Source, Linux  or KDE and posting  to some mailing  lists won't change
this.  To address  those users  we have  to communicate  through other
channels that we have little experience with.

This was the  motivation for us to create  a professional organization
that would  promote KDE to  those people. So  we started to work  on a
concept early this year but  then got distracted again. Working on KDE
2.0 was just so much more fun. When the GNOME Foundation was announced
it was a bit  of a wakeup call again. It was  not the GNOME Foundation
itself that bothered  me, but the fact that  many people believed that
KDE was doomed  because it had no commercial  backing.  Many companies
have been supporting KDE for years now,  so I felt it was time to make
some noise about it. So Kurt  Granroth, Andreas Pour and I resumed the
work on  the KDE League. Since  we all already had  full-time jobs, it
was  quite a  challenge  for us  to  establish contacts  with so  many
companies. We set COMDEX Fall 2000 as a deadline.

Obviously some of our contacts were as busy as we are, and we were not
able to get  a final answer from all the companies  that we have asked
in time for the announcement.  Since we felt that the group was strong
enough to justify  an announcement we went ahead  anyway. VA Linux and
Red Hat are  two of these companies who for  various reasons are still
considering joining the League.

In all announcements concerning the  KDE League we have emphasized the
fact  that  it is  purely  a  promotional  organization.  It  is  very
important to  bear this in mind.  We have taken  every precaution that
the League will not get involved in development issues. As I mentioned
earlier  we are  working on  KDE for  the joy  of it.  If you  are not
actively  involved in the  project this  may sound  absurd to  you.  A
bunch  of freaks  cannot create  a  desktop system,  a full-blown  web
browser  and  an object  model  simply  because  they have  fun  doing
so. Yet, KDE is living proof that this actually works.

Anything  that can  spoil the  fun  is potentially  dangerous for  the
health of the project. We do not want a steering committee or advisory
board that tells us what to do and what not to do. We also do not want
to have  people in the team that  work on KDE because  their boss told
them to do so.  They lack the  enthusiasm that we have and try to push
their corporate agenda. This causes friction and frustration that must
be avoided. Corporate developers  can certainly join and contribute if
they  get satisfaction  from  doing so,  just  like the  20  - 30  KDE
developers who have been hired by KDE friendly companies.

The KDE League  is a not-for-profit corporation controlled  by a board
of directors and an executive committee. Each member is represented in
the  board  of directors  and  KDE  representatives  hold 50%  of  the
votes. The  executive committee consists of 3  people (currently Eirik
Eng, Andreas Pour and me) that  control the daily business and have to
make decisions unanimously.

The  KDE  League has  a  budget of  around  US$120.000  for the  first
year. This is  ridiculously small by any corporate  standard given the
size of our project. From this  money we will hire a PR firm, organize
KDE  participation on  up  to 6  major  Linux shows,  pay a  part-time
employee and  some other expenses.  So  we do not intend  to annoy our
users with huge  marketing efforts. Instead we will  still rely on our
technical merits  and the  help of the  many volunteers out  there. We
simply are trying to reach a different kind of user that does not read
geek sites and mailing lists.

You may have noticed that KDE does not depend on any kind of cash flow
to survive. The  contributions from developers that are  hired to work
on  KDE are  spread  all over  our  core libraries.  If  any of  these
companies would discontinue their KDE support from one day to another,
it would hurt  us a bit, but it  would not be a disaster.  We will try
very hard  to protect our core  technology from any  kind of financial
dependency. Certainly the KDE League does not violate this guideline.

A  few people  have complained  that the  creation of  the  KDE League
wasn't discussed on the mailing lists. Forming a group such as the KDE
League  is a  very sensitive  process. One  has to  take all  kinds of
political dependencies into account  and pull some diplomatic strings.
Acting in a  corporate atmosphere does not match  our open development
process very well. Since the KDE League does not affect development we
believed  it was  acceptable to  act without  making much  noise about
it. We hope you will understand  this. Let me assure you that this was
an exception and  that we will continue our  open development process,
just like we have done very successfully in the past.

As you can see, the creation of the KDE League does not affect many of
us. If you have been promoting KDE in various ways, you are welcome to
continue  your efforts.   Your  support  has been  and  still is  very
valuable. We  will see how the  League can support KDE  User Groups in
the future.

I hope this will answer some  of the questions you might have. You can
find     more    information     about    the     KDE     League    at
http://www.kdeleague.org/.

Chris

-- 
KDE 2.0: Conquer your Desktop!
http://www.kde.org

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