From kde-look Mon May 01 17:54:18 2000 From: "Steven D'Aprano" Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 17:54:18 +0000 To: kde-look Subject: Re: PROPOSAL: "Mac" menubar as default X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-look&m=95720365707525 "Andrew B. Arthur" wrote: > As desktops grow up, you are going to see good GNOME and KDE apps > avalible. Companies will have to choose what desktop they prefer, and > want to support Some companies will, no doubt, run a -only desktop. No doubt as the Linux platform continues to mature, people will offer distributions that are all KDE, all Gnome, or whichever. But I suspect that most small and medium sized companies, and almost all individuals, are nowhere near that organised. So long as there is any underlying compatability, many users will simply use whichever app best suits them or first catches their eye, or was recommended by a friend, without worrying about (or even understanding) what WM it belongs to. Outside of big companies (who will be, for the most part, the ones who will stay with Windows the longest), I don't expect terribly many users to religiously stick to apps for one particular WM or another. That's not to say that users won't stick to one specific WM. I believe they will. Promiscuous users who jump from Gnome to KDE to AfterStep will be in the minority. But, for the most part, I can't see the majority of KDE users (say) refusing to use the Gimp because its not a KDE app. > Don't be too surpised in 5 years if you see > both GNOME and KDE become their own unique platforms Five years in computing is a lifetime in most other fields. Break the Windows monopoly that stiffles innovation, and I expect that the computer industry in five years time will be as different from today as today's industry is from 1990 or even 1985. (Despite first appearances, this isn't a dig at Microsoft, although heaven knows they deserve it. Its just simple ecology. The computer industry dominated by Windows is close to a monoculture. It doesn't pay to do anything different because people won't accept it. But as the Win monopoly breaks, the computer ecology becomes more like a rainforest.) It took Apple (off the top of my head, don't quote me) maybe 3 years to go from the original Finder to Multifinder, another 8 years to integrate Multifinder with the OS, and a further 4 or 5 years to introduce true pre-emptive multitasking (OS-X). And that's with a dedicated (as in that they don't have other jobs to work on) full time paid staff. Microsoft even today still has a mainstream operating system based on DOS, and nobody is expecting Win2K to make Win98 obsolete any time soon. Compare that to Linux, which didn't exist before 1991, or KDE itself (version 1 was released in July 1998). It needs to be said. All you programmers working on KDE, you're doing a marvellous job. Thank you. -- Steven D'Aprano