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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: easy-to-get KDE svn accounts (was: qt-firefox.. again!)
From:       Guillaume Laurent <glaurent () telegraph-road ! org>
Date:       2007-07-20 9:21:48
Message-ID: 200707201121.48702.glaurent () telegraph-road ! org
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On Friday 20 July 2007, Ian Wadham wrote:
> Here's another scenario.  The software team leader for product Z is
> hauled over the coals by his boss because the KZ application is taking
> away sales: it is better than Z, it is free with KDE and it works with MS
> Windows.

Great intro.

> Our hero is desperate, humiliated and very afraid.  He has a wife, a young
> family and a mortgage to support.  He gets a KDE SVN account and joins
> the KZ team, initially to gain some inside knowledge of KZ.  No problem
> so far - this is open software.  Then one day he succumbs to temptation,
> perhaps after another bad day with the boss, and he plants some problems
> in KZ that will be activated only after the release by distros.

Ooooh, tension ! suspense !

> KZ 5.0 comes out and starts causing all sorts of problems in user land.
> Confidence in KZ and the rest of KDE plummets.  The media have a field
> day speculating about whether Open Source software is safe.  There are
> even headlines about software terrorists.  CEO's of McAffee and other
> such companies make public statements.  KDE's reputation is destroyed.

OK, great ending, very dramatic, but you need to add some sort of opening for 
a "return of KDE" sequel.

Now, I don't know what's the color of the sky on your planet, but on this one, 
KDE's major problem (like most free software projects) has been to attract 
and keep contributors, not to defend itself against hypothetic attacks 
because it would somehow start to pose a threat to Windows. It's been 10 
years of "this is the year of linux on the desktop", perhaps we can lay this 
one to rest once and for all and grow up, please ?

-- 
Guillaume.
http://telegraph-road.org
 
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