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List: kde-devel
Subject: Re: Fork of KDE4/Qt3?
From: Uwe Thiem <uwix () iway ! na>
Date: 2008-06-10 18:39:49
Message-ID: 200806101939.51079.uwix () iway ! na
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I am pretty tired of this whole "discussion". Actually, pretty sick of
it.
If KDE 3.5 suits you, why don't you stick to it and let others explore
new approaches to using a computer in KDE 4? Instead, you insist that
4 must mimick 3.5. No, it must not.
15 years ago, a desktop computer was mostly used as a glorified
typewriter, developer tool for developers, Internet access if you
were lucky (not so here in Namibia), email. Games. Music composing
had just started. Video cutting was in its infancy. So the
paradigm "desktop" - windows, icons, mouse (WIM) - was probably the
right approach. No, not probably. It was.
What do we have today?
First of all, the number of personal files has increased beyond
anything any of us has imagined 15 years ago. I have about 200,000
files under my home directory. Icons and hierarchical folders don't
scale for me anymore. I don't want to remember where I have stored
what. I want to ask the computer for uncle Billy's photo that came in
by an email from George. Same for the secretary that wants to ask the
computer for a quotation about vacuumer model A sent out to customer
B about three weeks ago. Let the bloody computer m0emorise all these
pesky details and don't bother me with it.
Second, computers have turned into entertainment centres. Did you see
hired DJs come to a private function with a laptop (and nothing
else), plug it into the stereo and work from there? What has that to
do with a "desktop"?
Third, computers have become knowledge centres. None of my friends has
a printed encyclopedia anymore. Wikipedia, google and such have
replaced that. When I think of an encyclopedia, I think of an
easychair rather than a desktop. Or, maybe, of the kitchen table. ;-)
Forth, computers are now multimedia production centres. Cutting
movies, mastering sounds, mixing autio. Desktop? Naw. Cutting room
and mixing board.
Fifth, gaming has become far closer to a driver's seat (land, water,
air) than a desktop.
And on and on.
So, where does it leave us?
It might well be that the times of one paradigm are over. Those using
computers in an enterprise environment might still be served best
with the desktop approach (minus icons and hierarchical folders).
The rest of us might need different approaches that blend in with what
we do with computers.
My take is, the "desktop" approach is a single-minded approach. It
must fracture into different GUIs that can satisfy people doing
utterly different things with computers.
KDE4's new technologies seem seem to fit this demand better than
anything else I have seen so far. Plasma just being the most visible
of them.
Speaking of plasma, it can simulate the old desktop apporach. Good for
the coporate users - and I mean it. It can also do a hundred other
things. Needed things! It can't do all of them right now but it has
the flexibility to do so. Great!
Again for those who are married to 3.5: Just stick to it. It's all
yours. In a years time, maybe two years time, try out KDE 4 and see
whether it does not meet your needs. Please let us, who are committed
to push it, explore future ways in KDE 4.
In the past, OSS was always playing catching up. KDE 3.5 was *pretty*
good at it. Somewhere between Windows and OSX in my book. With KDE 4
we have the have the opportunity for the first time to *lead* GUI
development.
So, let's do it rather than confine us to the past.
Uwe
(climbing down from his soap box)
--
Ignorance killed the cat, sir, curiosity was framed!
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