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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Re: koffice
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date:       2011-02-02 18:52:55
Message-ID: 201102021052.56358.aseigo () kde ! org
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On Wednesday, February 2, 2011, todd rme wrote:
> issue here.  By all appearances Calligra is making rapid progress,
> they are "getting down to work".  

yes, and they should rejoice in that, focus on it and limit the investment of 
energy into what is ultimately a distraction from that.

> don't see as any discussion or review requests about their progress
> coming through so I don't know.  So I don't quite understand exactly
> what the complaint is.

the complaint is three fold:

* people are wasting their own energy and putting the success of Calligra and 
KOffice needlessly into jeopardy in the process

* they are spreading discontent throughout KDE with this approach to things

* they are dragging themselves through hardships that they have no need to 
endure and paying a personal price they do not need to

(and yes, i know it's not my job to save others from themselves, but i 
consider many of these people friends. in my world, friends don't stand idly 
by while other friends tear themselves apart. i've tried offers of support, 
now i'm trying someting more like intervention. for me, that is far better 
than standing idly by and watching the train wreck unfold in silence.)
 
> At least by my perception, this is less an issue about the koffice
> name itself, and more an issue of sticking to prior agreements.  There

and those agreements have how much value for Calligra? seeing as they are 
about the KOffice name, probably as much value as the KOffice name. it may not 
be fair that agreements are not being stuck to, but there's a choice here:

* chase after justice for justice's sake, even if it means tearing down the 
walls to do so
* concentrate on the real value and find success in that

it's not quite a black-and-white as that, but it's pretty close.

> was an agreement to rename applications.  This has not happened.
> There was an agreement to follow an arbitration process.  This has not
> happened.  At least to me, even if I didn't care a lick about the
> koffice name, I would still oppose these moves simply because they
> violate prior agreements.
> 
> I also find it hard to understand you singling out the Calligra
> community for being petty on this, considering I would say they are
> simply reacting to an even more petty move by group A.  The attempts

first, you may have noticed i haven't been exactly gentle with Thomas either 
:) that said ...

if both sides retaliate against each other ad nauseum, nobody here will 
achieve what they ultimately want to. what will be achieved is more emotional 
pain and suffering.

a "winning move" in this case would have been to step aside from this 
particular battle in a show of patience and grace so as to allow the real 
goals to be reached.

and when both sides failed to do that, they ended up escalating things so that 
we now have our hard working and completely innocent sys admins being sucked 
unwillingly into the middle of it. that is just one of the negative 
consequences, and there are no truly positive ones to offset that.

in such matters it is not important who moved first or second, who responded 
to whom or who took the advantage and struck first. what matters are the 
results of the choices we each make. sometimes the cost of winning a "fair" 
result are just too high, and sometimes there are much more valuable things to 
be achieved. in this case, both statements are true.

> Also, as a user and not a developer, I feel the koffice name has much
> more value than you seem to. 

i know some people feel it has value, but that's a mistake.

go survey people about koffice vs just about any other office app name out 
there. no, the real value is the emotional investment people here have made. 
they are misidentifying that investment into the community and code with value 
in the name itself.

> Not intrinsic value, or value it has
> built itself.  It has value because the name implies this is THE
> official KDE office suite. 

amarok is not the official KDE music player. digikam is not the official KDE 
photo management suite. (to name just two)

there are KDE alternatives to both of these apps, but they are dominant in 
their categories anyways. it is not because KDE blesses them as such but 
because they focus on their results.

Calligra would profit by following that example.

-- 
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 Qt Development Frameworks

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