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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Further integration of theKompany projects with KDE
From:       Hetz Ben Hamo <hetz () il ! linuxqa ! com>
Date:       2001-02-21 16:52:42
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> Aethera as a core application will always be free and open source, it might
> not stay GPL, but it will have an open source license.  Our model with
> Aethera is writing plug in applications that we will charge for.  The free
> (in all senses of the word) version of Aethera will do email, todo lists,
> sticky notes, newsgroups, calendar, palm synchronization.  As you can see
> that is a tremendous amount of overlap with a number of KDE projects that
> are out there now.  So the question is, do the people of those other
> projects have an interest in joining forces and really accelerating the
> development of a final app that would be a real killer that could be part
> of KDE standard?

Umm, according to the features you're stepping over too many toes (knode,
kpilot, kmail are some of them)..

I would suggest something what Microsoft did (sorry for mentioning them): The
KDE team with thekompany will create a "KDE Plus pack" that can be downloaded
seperately (and can be decided by the various Linux distributions whether to
include it or not - probably they will decide to include it - AS LONG as the
license doesn't conflict with the KDE licnese). The idea to seperate it is
two-fold:

1. Not to "step on toes" of the developers of programs like KMail, KNode etc and
let them have their program stays with the official KDE
2. Permit non GPL'd (LGPL? BSD?) license programs to be bundled, but not with
the main KDE branch...

> This brings to mind kab to a certain degree.  Both Aethera and Kapital have
> an address book, they address rather different things, and quite frankly
> there is probably little overlap in the information they would store - so I
> would like to at least discuss what might make sense.

That really depends on when Arthea will be out. I think that Arthea should be
able to import KAB address book, and maybe even kmail emails and filters so
users can move from KMail to arthea. Moving from Arthea to KMail is really
depending on the good will of thekompany to provide the structure of data
format, so they can built import filters for it..

> Adriaan just asked an interesting question about KPilot and Kapital.  I
> gave a smart ass response to the grovel comment, because I thought the
> comment was rude, but the question is interesting.  Kapital will never be
> GPL, it might have a restricted open source license.  As you can imagine
> Kapital is an important revenue stream for us, so I have to think carefully
> about what we give away and how it might make sense.  I haven't really
> given Palm support a lot of thought for Kapital, although we are thinking
> about a 'lite' version of Kapital for Qt Embedded.  I would like to think
> on this and discuss it further to see what might make sense for us and for
> everyone else.

Ho Ho Ho Shawn, you're going a bit too far, aren't you? :)

I think most people are interested in sycronizing their Palm with Kapital. MUCH
more then using an "Embedded Kapital" version, and frankly, I have checked here
at Aduva with people who do all the market research, and creating an "Embedded
Kapital" will surely make you loose money MUCH more then making money. Linux
applications on Embedded QT is still in the stages of "nice idea" and doesn't
create any profit. I think syncing with Palm pilot (and maybe Windows CE PDA's?
they're selling very strong these days) will make Kapital much more attractive
points to end users to buy a copy.

Kapital export filter to incoporate into Kspread could be a good idea for a
start.

> 
> Let's talk about it, write me privately or publicly, I'm usually pretty
> responsive and I am honestly interested in what is best for all of us, so
> let's have a productive dialog.  With 2.1 in the can, there is more
> opportunity to talk about this now.

Umm, not exactly. KDE 2.2 still have to maintain binary compatibility, so the
wild ideas should be kept (IMHO) to KDE 3

Thanks,
-- 
Hetz Ben Hamo
Hardware Research dept.
Aduva Inc.

> 
> Regards,
> 
> Shawn Gordon
> President
> theKompany.com
> www.thekompany.com
> 949-713-3276
> 
> 
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