On Sunday 10 February 2002 3:08 am, Eric S. Raymond wrote: > Navindra Umanee : > > As far as I know, kab is being replaced by kabc which uses the > > RFC-defined VCard format by default, and has a kab->kabc db convertor > > included. See here for details: > > > > http://webcvs.kde.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/kdelibs/kabc/ > > That's good news. > > > By desktop battle, I take it you are referring to the competition > > between KDE and the likes of GNOME, Microsoft, and Apple? Other than > > what you've mentioned, what kind of strategy do you propose for KDE > > winning the desktop battle? > > Pay attention to users. End users. *Real* users. Hi Eric, When you say *real* users, what exactly do you mean? I am well aware that= many=20 programmers have no clue on the typical characteristics of a typical user= -=20 and do we assume that a typical KDE user is a programmer, an administrato= r, a=20 toilet cleaner? I think that most KDE hackers have an idea of the users - that is why KDE= is=20 percieved as being one of the easiest desktop's for UNIX. Add to this an=20 integrated design with address books, parts, actions and media, you have = a=20 mostly quite usable experience for the *real* user. What will win the desktop battle is real software that let's a user get t= heir=20 work done - but this can only happen with support and constructive=20 suggestions. Part of this project is KOffice, and although KOffice is a=20 maturing suite...it is making the right moves in the right direction. What is important is constructive suggestions to encourage developers to=20 continue working on improving the software - "If you think you can win th= e=20 desktop battle this way, you are smoking crack." - I am sorry, but this i= s=20 NOT constructive and I deem it insulting. I would have thought you of al= l=20 people would understand this as being an unadvisable remark. We like advice and suggestions like any other project...but please take y= our=20 words into consideration before you hit the reply button. :) =09Jono _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com