From kde-user Tue Jun 09 12:09:54 1998 From: Martin Konold Date: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 12:09:54 +0000 To: kde-user Subject: FWD: From Matthias Ettrich KDE Project Leader/Founder X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-user&m=90222097830043 >Subject: 5th International Linux Kongress >Hi, > >in the recent postings about the LinuxExpo (or should I say >RedHatExpo? ;-) some people mentioned that SuSE was the only booth >running KDE but at least several people have been running KDE in the >talks. > >It was a bit different at the 5th internationl linux kongress in >cologne: Almost all booths have been running KDE, including all >speakers. This includes Miguel as well :-) Well, to be honest: all >speakers shared one machine for the online presentation (Kalle used >--- the world's first public presentation! --- kpresenter for that. >Worked great except a hardware problem near the end of the talk which >caused even (k)ernel to hang....) Even kimp worked great. Well, I >couldn't resist to show a running version during my talk to proof the >multi-toolkit approach. Kimp is a good thing IMO, since it is just >1100 lines of codes which integrate the GIMP very well into the KDE >desktop by providing a KDE compliant user interface (toolbars, >statusbar, menubar) and using standard KDE dialogs (colorselector, >fileselector). This makes it almost unnecessary to start a new image >manipulation program for KDE from scratch, so we do not unncessarily >double effort. kimp also makes it possible to write extension modules >with KDE interface. Integration in the original gimp is easy as well >and could be achieved just by linking Qt (or some nice day in the >future: Harmony) > >Anyways, Miguel's talk was very interesting and he is certainly >entertaining. Actually, if you remove the paragraphs about gtk, you >could almost use his slides for a KDE talk. We have been a bit >dissapointed that he did not show any running stuff, though, neither >during his talk or later :-( > >The stuff about an object model (they intend to clone OLE2 from >Microsoft) was pretty interesting as well, especially after Torben >Weis showed the fully working OpenParts/KOM system with the >spreadsheet, image and chart component from KOffice during his talk a >few hours before. We believe that it's the technical better solution >than cloning the Microsoft API. Hopefully the gnomes will jump in the >boat, at least Miguel seemed to be very interested. Since >OpenPars/KOM are already usable and do not rely on Qt, they are a >perfect solution for any unix desktop. > >Last not least: there was no hard fight and everybody survived. Even >more, everybody agreed about the importance of a fair competition and >that freedom also means freedom of choice. I really wish that the >advocates in the usenet and on slashdot could take the developers as a >modell how to deal with each other. These senseless flamewars lead to >nothing. > >Before I forget it: Bruce Perens also said in his talk at the panel >discussion at the end of the kongress, that he is aware of the fact >that KDE itself is indeed free (which means: open source) software. He >also mentioned that if RedHat or Debian say that they "cannot" ship >KDE, this does not mean they cannot ship KDE due to some juridical >licensing problems like having to pay anything to anybody, but simply >that shipping KDE will not confirm to their policies. I wish they >would not use the term "cannot" in this context, since many people >seemed to have been confused by this. We noticed this everytime, when >people have been surprised that it is indeed legal to get money for >developing Qt-software with the FreeEdition of Qt and even to sell >this software, as long as it remains free software. This is pretty >much what is required by the GPL as well, btw. > >So the positions are pretty clear and it will depend on the users >wether technical issues or personal policies will determine the >decision what flavor of Linux and what flavor of interface will be it >at the end. At least we developers consider the linux market big >enough for both. > >So keep on hacking, it seems that distributors and the press hold >their breath to finally see KDE-1.0. After that we can finally start >with the really kewl features, I guess a lot of code is already >waiting on several hard discs out there ;-) > > Matthias