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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: PROPOSAL: "Mac" menubar as default
From:       "Steven D'Aprano" <dippy () mikka ! net ! au>
Date:       2000-05-01 17:54:18
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"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
<insert-WM-of-your-choice-here>-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

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