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List:       kde-promo
Subject:    Re: Licensing (Was: [kde-promo] What's the community up to?)
From:       Cornelius Schumacher <schumacher () kde ! org>
Date:       2004-12-08 23:31:26
Message-ID: 200412090031.26607.schumacher () kde ! org
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On Wednesday 08 December 2004 20:36, Steven Giacomelli wrote:
> My only point is that it is important to have a focus -- if you
> decide to go head to head against Windows' DE in Windows you are
> likely only going to get "specialized" users using KDE instead of the
> current DE or Aero Glass.

We are not talking about porting the complete desktop environment to 
Windows. It's only about key applications and the development 
framework, that means Kontact, Quanta, Konqueror, not the window 
manager or the panel.

So would not compee with Windows, but with Outlook, Internet Explorer, 
Firefox etc. With the applications which also run on Linux we already 
compete, but we have a bad position because some of them also run on 
Windows (see Firefox).

> If the goal is to have mainstream adoption of KDE on Unix like
> enviroments then there needs to be a concerted effort to build links
> with ISVs, large IT companies, consultants etc in the Unix like
> enviroment.

I think our goal should be to get our great Free Software to as many 
people as possible. As the Free Software aspect is very important, 
Linux as a Free operating system is of course preferable, but having 
our software available on Windows opens us a much larger market and 
provides a great migration path for users who don't want to abandon 
their operating system at once. If we sneak enough applications onto 
their Windows desktop they will realize at some point in time that 
there is no need to run Windows anymore and they can just switch.

> Companies like HP, Sun, Novell etc use Unix like enviroments to
> compete with Microsoft -- its Unix vs Windows -- if you stradle the
> fence you will not get Microsoft's support and risk upsetting key
> Unix centric allies.

I don't think we will ever get Microsoft's support regardless of what we 
do. For companies competing with Microsoft on the desktop operating 
system market applications like OpenOffice or Mozilla are some of the 
best arguments, one reason is that they provide a smooth migration 
path. If we could add some of our applications to the list of these 
arguments I don't think we would lose any support or would upset any 
existing allies.

-- 
Cornelius Schumacher <schumacher@kde.org>
 
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