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List:       kde-promo
Subject:    Re: [kde-promo] Who are KDE's main competitors?
From:       Olaf Schmidt <ojschmidt () kde ! org>
Date:       2004-12-05 14:46:21
Message-ID: 200412051546.44228 () amen-online ! org
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[Steven Giacomelli, Samstag, 4. Dezember 2004 21:12]
> No i completely understand and agree -- but in order to be able to see
> how KDE fits in the desktop product enviroment -- it is important to
> consider other products avaliable and to look at each critically --
> though in no way am i promoting negative tag-lines
>

Of course the analysis must include GNOME, but please be careful not to 
start this analysis with wrong assumptions.

> I'm not looking at KDE vs others in the context of free software
> politics -- to be fair i dont really care about that --
> and i dont think the average user cares either.
>

I have several comments on this sentence:

> KDE vs others

Looking at GNOME only from a point of view of comparing exclusive options 
would ignore the great potential that cooperation between KDE and other 
free desktop projects offers in comparision to closed systems like 
Windows.

Framing KDE and GNOME as oppositions would also be factually wrong, 
because a Linux/Unix desktop environment is not a static system. The KDE 
project is writing hundreds of applications that can all be used under 
different window managers and desktops. At the same time, dozens of KDE 
developers have spend time integrating other software (including GNOME 
applications) into the KDE desktop.

The difficult task is to find the right marketing language for this. Of 
course we are proud of the desktop and of the applications we have 
written, and we are happy if people use them rather than competing 
products. But part of this is that we want Windows users to know that if 
they switch from Windows to KDE, they can use a great number of other 
Linux/Unix software as well. We want them to know that we have a good 
browser and a good office solution, but that they can also keep using 
OpenOffice and Mozilla FireFox under KDE. And we want GNOME users to know 
that they can use our applications without having to switch the desktop, 
or that they can switch the desktop and still use their favourite 
applications.

> in the context of free software politics -- to be fair i dont really
> care about that -- 

I am convinced that the freedom of our software is one of our key 
strengths, and I don't see why it shouldn't be mentioned in marketing 
KDE, because there are users and developers who care about this.

The vast majority of KDE contributors have chosen to spend time on free 
software because they believe in it. We allow other developer to take our 
code and to reuse it in other free software projects, such as GNOME.

Of course no one forces you to agree with this, but keep in mind that 
marketing is not in aim in itself. Marketing for KDE should be benefitial 
to the KDE project, and this is why it must also reach possible future 
contributors, for whom the freedom to change and to contribute is 
essential. 

> and i dont think the average user cares either.

Our marketing should not only address end users. Marketing KDE as a 
developer platform is at last as important, because having new third 
party applications for KDE makes the KDE project much stronger than a new 
end user would.

Olaf

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