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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: Usability and open source
From:       Tyler Regas <tyler () regas ! net>
Date:       2000-01-30 16:30:21
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On Sun, 30 Jan 2000, Waldo Bastian wrote:
> On Sun, 30 Jan 2000, Ben Last wrote:
> 
> > A second question: How radical is the KDE community prepared to be? 
> > To clarify; KDE looks to me like an excellent attempt to replicate
> > the features of the Mac and Windows desktops.  Is the KDE developer
> > community interested in moving KDE *ahead* of those other systems,
> > rather than tracking them?  I mean in terms of interface, of course;
> 
> I welcome every improvement whatever its origin is.

I'm pretty sure he's asking if the KDE developer community is prepared to
attack the HI problem head-on with radical new innovations or if it's merely
willing to siphon the features from the MacOS and Windows to essentially
be a clone.

Of course, Ben, what you're asking is that there be an HI R&D team or if
there is one. Apple used to retain a team for this very purpose, but has
since long disbanded it. The result? Copland. Phew! That was a commercial
success. I'm pretty sure that with Open Source development communities
behind something similar, though, it would probably work. As Apple taught
us it's difficult to build a door if you've never opened one.

OTOH, what's radical anymore? DnD was radical, but now people expect it.
Trash was stolen by Recycle Bin was stolen by Trash (Be) which was again
stolen by Trash (KDE) and so on and so forth. No radical innovation there.
Is Aqua radical? Can Aqua be radical, might be a better question. I'd say
that Window-specific dialogs is rather innovative, but by no means radical
or even new, more of an evolution.

So, what classifies as radical?

Tyler

-- 
Tyler C Regas
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