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List:       kde-promo
Subject:    Re: [kde-promo] [Campkde-organizers] Be Free contest judging
From:       Troy Unrau <troy.unrau () gmail ! com>
Date:       2009-12-25 9:24:51
Message-ID: 73eea3980912250124g43318c62secc74c89a5e1a186 () mail ! gmail ! com
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Here are the contest entries (with names removed, although they could
be found by those on the campkde internal lists). I suggest that we
have this sorted out by the 26th so that the e.V. can work their
magic. I personally apologize for being so busy and doing such a poor
job at promoting this contest. The fact that we only got three
submissions is pretty much my fault alone.

Entry #3 is officially withdrawn, but I figured I'd share it with you
folks anyway. If there's any way we can get these people further
involved in the community, then KDE wins. It's as Martin said: if you
spend 45 minutes talking to someone and they end up contributing to
KDE, then the time (and in this case, money) is well spent.

I suggest we only recommend one flight to the e.V. board. My
impression is that entry #2 might be more akin to the message we're
trying to send to the north american audience. #1 seems to play to the
geeks, and the geeks we can win through existing channels. #2 can be
used as a case study, if we convince him to help us with some details.
Ergo, I vote #2.

On a related note, it looks like I won't be able to afford to attend
the event myself. My tuition was due at the start of January, which
leaves me unable to front the money for a flight. I will try to do my
best with regard to marketing surrounding the event without being in
attendance.

Cheers

Entry #1:

Before KDE+Linux, I'd been a lifelong MacOS user, and I was happy using
MacOS.  I knew all the keyboard shortcuts, the obscure backend hacks,
and I was efficient and comfortable.  I first installed KDE over OS X,
just curiously exploring a little free novelty.

It didn't take long to notice that KDE was something different, unique,
and powerful.  Immediately, I was comfortable with KDE's astonishing
level of integration; from one app to the next, there was a familiar
layout and feel.  After I'd learned something simple like KMail, I found
I could learn any other KDE Application because the menus were laid out
logically and predictably, the convention of tabs and toggled panels
persisted through many different apps, the dialogue boxes and popup
windows looked and acted the same from app to app.  And as for the old
keyboard shortcuts and conventions I'd grown accustomed to in Mac OS --
I could re-implement them on my KDE Desktop! plus exciting new features
that MacOS will never implement.

As a freelance video editor and multimedia creator, Slackware+KDE have
made my workflow simpler, more modular, efficient, and more intelligent.
I utilize many KDE Applications in my work (Krita, Kdenlive, Qtractor,
KOffice 2, Konqueror, KMail, etc...), but one of the most powerful parts
of KDE is KDE Plasma Desktop with its contextual popup menus,
customizable Dolphin views, powerful system tray, useful plasmoids, and
its intuitive design, it makes a mere freelance artist like myself feel
like a real computer nerd.  In short, KDE's power lies with the power
that it gives to the user.  When the user is in control, the user can
MAKE their environment efficient, rather than modifying their workflow
to fit someone else's environment.  That's KDE, that's the spirit of
GNU+Linux, and it's why I'm a Linux geek today.


Entry #2:

Moving to KDE for Realestatepointe.com

Realestatepointe.com is the company I work for, as Sales Director. We
provide solutions for real estate Brokers and agents to get more
property listings, showings, and sales.

One of our biggest problems was that we had a core module,
Showingpointe, that was written ahead of it's time as a web
application tying mobile agents back to the call desk at the Broker's
office(s). Unfortunately ShowingPointe could only be viewed via the
dreaded IE. In comes KDE and free software to the rescue.

Having experience with KDE via Kubuntu in my personal life, I was able
to direct our technology department to look to alternatives via open
standards to make sure our web solutions were deployable
cross-platform. So we set about to make our office computers more open
source friendly.

We installed Kubuntu 9.04 with KDE SC 4 on our machines and evaluated
ways to move our software on both the server-side and client-side to a
more open and compliant architecture. What a disservice to have
limited out clients to a Windows only, IE only solution!

Our current goals:

using Kubuntu on all of our employee's computers
using open source solutions for our client's blogging tools (Drupal
blog sites are standard for agents to host blogs on their homepage)
Moving from Microsoft Exchange, which was causing headaches
Encouraging the use of Konqueror or Firefox for web surfing at work
and blogilo for blogging

The acceptance levels have been very high! We are now much more
efficient, much more compliant, and poised to adapt by providing
netbook tools, mobile tools, and end-user tools much faster and for
lower cost than we ever could have had we stayed trapped in a Windows
environment.

My experiences with the KDE community have also prompted me to blog
about KDE at http://thebluemint.blogspot.com


Entry #3 (withdrawn):

I first was introduced to KDE in the fall of 2007, and despite the
alpha state of KDE's software at the time, I was hooked.  I love
Plasma's use of widgets to create a modular and unified design,
allowing me to customize my workspace to fit my needs in ways that
proprietary desktops still can't, even with third-party hacks.  The
simple base applications (e.g. KCalc, KWrite) are made with thought
and care, and are far more flexible and featureful than their
relatively useless counterparts in proprietary operating systems.  I
like this, both because it shows the pride the KDE Community takes in
its work, and because it means I don't have to go hunting for a
third-party application to replace something that I already have.
While KDevelop4 is still young, it already has features that blow the
proverbial socks off of offerings from commercial vendors.  Semantic
highlighting greatly improves the readability of the code, allowing me
to see things at a glance when quickly scanning down a file.  I can
tune every bit of it, from the editor shortcuts to the source code
formatting settings.  I've tried many other IDEs, including several
proprietary programs during high school and university, and KDevelop
is the first one that has truly been a pleasure to use.  One of my
favourite things about KDE's software in general, and what I feel is
one of their strengths, is the attention to "the little things".
Where proprietary operating systems and software are constrained by
the vision of a few, the KDE community demonstrates their unfettered
nature by continually implementing small features that greatly improve
the user experience... just because somebody thought it would be
useful, and were encouraged to make it a reality.  In short, the KDE
Software Compilation has freed me to make my computer work how *I*
want it to, has saved me much time by letting me fit it to my personal
workflow, and has shown a level of innovation that is nothing short of
astounding.

-- 
Troy Unrau, B.Sc.G.Sc.(Hons.)
Planetary sciences M.Sc. candidate - University of Western Ontario
http://cpsx.es.uwo.ca
 
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