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List:       kde-promo
Subject:    Re: [kde-promo] About KDE
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date:       2007-12-12 18:40:12
Message-ID: 200712121140.13104.aseigo () kde ! org
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On Wednesday 12 December 2007, Jeff Mitchell wrote:
>     * "KDE is an international technology team" - not really, at least
>       not in the sense "KDE" is generally used in press releases
>
> True.  How about "KDE is *produced* by an international technology team..."

maybe it's just my own viewpoint, but KDE is the community that creates 
software, not the software itself.

is Toyota the cars with their logo on it, or is Toyota the management, 
engineering and production staff that creates those cars?

we have used the term "KDE" to describe The Product, which worked when The 
Product was an x11 desktop shell with the necessary supporting apps. KDE no 
longer describes The Product because we have diversified beyond that. but KDE 
continues to describe the team, the community.

by stating that KDE is a group of people it also puts forth the idea that we 
are about community, people and culture right out there in the open. it's a 
differentiator in my mind; not even Apple dares (anymore) to go down this 
path (they used to put engravings of the engineer's signatures on the inside 
of macs and have photos of the design team in the prom that could be brought 
up with a keystroke).

it's hard to get romantic about a piece of software, but it's easy to get 
people connecting with the idea of other people, of culture, of community.

looking at it another way: what is the difference between Microsoft and KDE? 
one is a close community (a company) that churns out proprietary software and 
technology, the other is an open community with a culture built around the 
ethics and practices of freedom which churns out open software and 
technology. the "churns out" (or, "produces" if you will) and "software and 
technology" parts are the same words. the community and ethics parts are 
different. that's why i like leading with it.

i think microsoft actually sort of gets this as well, with their blogging, 
videocasting and "no really, we do community too" smokescreens.

>     * "that creates integrated Free/Open Source Software" - the
>       capitalization is not helpful to most, integration need not be stated
>
> Agreed.  "...that creates free and open source software"

+1

>     * As a general matter the "About KDE" description should be about
>       KDE, not Qt or the platforms KDE runs on
>
> Agreed for the most part.  This was a special case.

yes

> > I'm || this close to commit it as new about_kde.inc (which I factored out
> > some time ago on our websites for easier reuse, and easier changing of
> > the current, hideous way of 'about us'.
>
> If you want to do that it's fine, but I wouldn't add in that translation
> sentence as is...having "built" twice is awkward, as is "op top"  :-)
> Also, building for ease of use implies usability.  How about this:
>
> "KDE software is translated into more than 60 languages and is built with
> ease of use and modern accessibility principles in mind."

getting closer =) hmm... "Translated into more than 60 world languages, KDE 
software is designed using modern usability and accessibility principles."

> Also, saying "KDE's products" makes it sound a bit too much like we're
> actually selling something.  I think "KDE's projects" fits nicely.

a project is something with a defined beginning and end, a work in progress. a 
product is something that can taken in packaged form and used. yes, it is a 
bit more economics oriented turn of phrase, but i'm not sure that's a bad 
thing either given our target markets or who we are competing with.

sometimes we are so concerned with losing our free software roots (which is a 
very good thing to be aware of!) we stray away from words and phrases that 
would actually be useful simply because we feel they are too associated with 
Corporate Greed(tm) or whatever =)

that said, if there is another word that means essentially the same 
as "product" that doesn't imply "work in progress" or "research toy", i'd be 
fine with swapping it out.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Trolltech

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