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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: KDE-code in Win98!????!?!
From:       Bavo De Ridder <bavo () ace ! ulyssis ! student ! kuleuven ! ac ! be>
Date:       1998-12-08 15:56:05
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On Tue, 08 Dec 1998, Andreas Pour wrote:
>Carsten Pfeiffer wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I found the following text in fido.ger.linux (excerpt):
>>
>> The relevants parts translate into:
>> some KDE developers want to have found KDE code in Windows 98 (no wonder,
>> microsoft.com is record downloader on developer.kde.org.
>
>Hmmm, sounds hard to believe -- what code would they have taken?  What do
>these people base this accusation on?  This is an extremely serious
>accusation, whoever made it should provide support or retract it.  The last
>thing KDE needs is to be discredited for making such a serious accusation
>without substantial proof.
>
>Obviously if it is true the person writing the code could sue the pants off
>Microsoft.  (Of course, that statement is to be taken lightly, it's hard to
>sue $15billion of pants off).


I can personally testify that I was contacted by a Microsoft employee for a
copy of the KDE Foundation Classes. For some reason he couldn't download it
from my website.

As I stated: "a Microsoft employee" not "Microsoft", as I assume he was a Linux
hobbyist. The way the mail was formulated seems to strengthen the above remark.
Microsoft would have used lot's of juridicial-language, ...

Well, if it improves their products, why not. Besides, about 60% of the code of
the KDE used signal/slots, Windows doesn't have signal/slots. The other 40%
consists of code freely available to the web and not belonging to the KDE
(mimelib, ...). As a professional developer I yet have to see the first piece of
code Microsoft couldn't reproduce by themselves in 5 minutes, they *have*
written Windows NT 5.0 !!!! The only code worth steeling is KOM/Openparts and
perhaps the Javascript engine. Microsoft currently has a superior js-engine and
they don't use X-Window or CORBA so most of KOM/Openparts would be useless for
them.

So if they have stolen code, what code would it be ??? KEdit ? KPanel ? KFM ?

Be serious...



BDR

BDR

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