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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Ideas on mindshare
From:       Lotzi Boloni <boloni () cs ! purdue ! edu>
Date:       1999-03-05 18:25:32
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> I see a few more advantages in GNOME than kurt pointed out:  GNOME has
> more looks and feels to choose from than KDE.  KDE is locked either to
> windows or motif, while gnome has at least five including my favorite,
> the Java look and feel (Metal).  I think once Qt 2.0 is released and
> integrated, that won't be a problem.  

  Yes, one way of making KDE appeal to the "geekish" community would be
the variaty of high quality themes offered. We need to improve the
"coolness" factor of KDE. 

  BTW some ideas of this mindshare thing:

-although I hate to say it, we have to emphasize that we ARE in a WAR.
Otherwise, common marketing techniques from RedHat will create the
impression that it WAS a war. This doesn't mean that we have to be rude -
but the interview declarations should sound like "it is an intense
technical competition, there are some intelligent guys at Gnome who try
to match us feature by feature". We have to emphasize the company
independence of KDE against the RedHat oriented Gnome. We have to
emphasize the full-Unix orientation of KDE vs the Linux based Gnome. We
can set up a website of comparing feature to feature KDE applications vs.
Gnome applications. 

-having the impression of a competition makes the media to turn it's
attention to both sides. 

-a good relationship with the companies which jumped the Linux bandwagon.
Some of the help we can ask from them:
  -commit several graphic designers and technical writers (Corel, SGI)
  -ports: voice recognition (IBM), Java with KDE widgets (Sun - event on
Solaris machines!), KSwing etc. 

-about the leadership thing: we cannot artificially create a leader but we
can push the recognition of the developers. I am thinking something
in the genre of the "Hungry programmers" site. And than we have to push
the "group" idea. 

-even an "official" statement could be put on the webpage, related to the
KDE/Gnome conflict. 

  just my 0.02. 

         Lotzi

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