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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Qtopia Developer contest
From:       Vadim Plessky <lucy-ples () mtu-net ! ru>
Date:       2001-12-05 22:18:38
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On Tuesday 04 December 2001 10:15, Andreas Pour wrote:
|   Simon Hausmann wrote:
|   > The final contestants will be given a free Sharp Zaurus
|   > to do the final port (which is usually nothing more but recompiling
|   > with a cross compiler) .
|
|   Well, in terms of what's at stake for the prize sponsors, this strike me
|   as pretty lame.  Sharp gets a lot of apps, which helps it compete with
|   Windows CE/Palm handhelds and, if successfull, will make it tens of
|   millions if not more; TT sells proprietary licenses at $1,500 a pop; and
|   the developers that help set this money-making machine in motion get
|   what -- a prototype for beta testing?  The $10,000 cash sounds more
|   interesting :-), but I hope they consider upping the ante for Open
|   Source apps (for commercial ones I don't care, their reward will be
|   selling what they have).  And you should also note that by submitting
|   your prize you authorize Sharp to use your likeness, etc. for marketing
|   -- and, in fact, if they use you in a TV ad, the total amount in value
|   of all prizes does not equal what they should rightfully pay you just
|   for the TV ad (never mind the code).

very well said :-)
|
|   E.g., I would be much more excited if they offered $10,000 for someone
|   to port KOffice to the Zaurus.  Or similar initiatives.  The
|   restrictions do not permit people to contribute bazaar-style projects.

Great idea!
I guess $10 000 for porting KOffice and $10 000 to enhance Konqueror/Konq-E 
would be better, though. These products are key for Sharp's success with new 
PDA - so they need to invest a little bit ;))
 
|
|   And I am not sure I understand why they chose Opera over Konq-e.  Sure,
|   Opera is better in some ways, but Konqueror is better in others; and why
|   not spend the money paid to Opera to fund Konqueror JS development (like
|   letting Harri work on it full-time, if he cares to, or funding others)?
|   That way the benefits come not only to Zaurus users but all KDE users.

JavaScript and DOM support sucks in Opera.
Besides,  Opera5 doesn't support Unicode (and Cyrillic) - I was not able to 
view any Cyrillic web site with my Opera5/Linux.
Yes, Opera6 has better NLS support but I guess that Opera for Zaurus is based 
on older (ver.5) codebase.
In my opinion, Konqueror is superior to Opera in XSS, DOM and JS support.
Opera is a good browser - and it's the only reasonable browser I can 
recommend to users with Windows and low-powered computer (like 32MB of RAM; 
Mozilla requires 64MB of RAM)

|   > > It appears to be aimed at commercial developers more than us free
|   > > stuff developers.
|   >
|   > I see it just the other way around. Everyone is free to contribute,
|   > the software for development is free software (GPL) and there are a
|   > hell of a lot of attractive prices.
|
|   Not to knock the prizes, but except for the cash ones, they are all
|   Sharp promotional items -- so the cost to Sharp could be shipping only
|   (since e.g. they could likely be overstock or items which for some
|   insignificant reason do not meet quality control for sale).  Not that
|   I'm knocking the prizes, but I think what Sharp is giving the community,
|   and what they are asking for in return, needs to be kept in perspective.

Frankly speaking, this contest doesn't offer good motivation to develop apps 
fro Zaurus.
$10K is nice, but what are your chances to win it? Quite low.
As about other prizes - I own several SONY and Philips TVs and don't need new 
one (except it's with Konq/Embedded inside :-)
I think 10 prizes of $1000 each is much better than one $10K one.

|
|   Please don't take this as knocking Sharp.  They are being very smart,
|   and I am very happy they have gone with Qt/Linux.  OTOH, I don't know
|   why we should not be smart as well, and explore ways Sharp can
|   contribute back, particularly if the Zaurus becomes very successful.  A
|   sort of arrangement between Sharp and the community -- if the community
|   helps Sharp launch a successful product, Sharp will contribute back to
|   the community, such as by sponsoring Open Source projects which will
|   work on the Zaurus and with KDE.  It's important to get this commitment
|   early, otherwise it won't happen.

I guess Sharp should create 3-4 paid jobs for KDE.
It's not too much but will show their commitment.

|
|   An example where such a commitment is lacking is the choice to go with
|   Opera over Konqueror, or the proprietary SDK over KDevelop.  If the
|   argument is, "Konqueror/KDevelop is not ready", then the question is,

I guess they just didn't know about Konqueror. Opera is very visible - thanks 
to Windows version of their browser. Opera/Linux is not very popular, real 
driver in their business is Opera/Windows.

|   "What are you doing to help get it ready?"  I know Simon has been
|   working hard on Konq-E and Ralf has been working hard to support Zaurus
|   development with KDevelop -- who's paying for their efforts?
|
|   > And it's not that you loose your rights with submitting an entry. All
|   > you do is grating the right to distribute and publish your entry.
|   > And well, anyone disagreeing with that is likely not to be interested
|   > in free software anyway ;)
|
|   Ciao,
|
|   Dre

-- 

Vadim Plessky
http://kde2.newmail.ru  (English)
33 Window Decorations and 6 Widget Styles for KDE
http://kde2.newmail.ru/kde_themes.html
KDE mini-Themes
http://kde2.newmail.ru/themes/
 
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