A few words about KDE SC 4.4

[Anne Wilson]

On Saturday 13 February 2010 22:08:31 Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On February 13, 2010, Anne Wilson wrote:
> > Yes, we are losing a section of users.  I used to say that KDE was the
> > right desktop for Windows migrants, in that they would settle in quite
> > quickly. That's no longer the case.
> 
> a) i don't think that's been the case at all since 4.3. 4.0->4.2 had
> difficulties; but the jump to 4.3/4.4 from Windows is pretty insignificant
> measured to alternative jumps (even perhaps including e.g. XP -> Win7). if
> there are actual change issues, please communicate these to us. i do hope
> they aren't of the nature "kickoff isn't like the xp menu" given we have a
> classic menu available and the windows vista or 7 menu isn't exactly like
> the earlier windows versions either.
> 
If they have successfully changed to Vista or Win7, they may well have no 
problems - I've no experience either way on that.  If they are leaving XP, 
then KDE 3.5 would seem familiar.  SC 4.x won't.

If they are the sort of user that is happy to explore and experiment, I'd say 
go for KDE.  If they are the sort of user where I can set up a minimum 
environment for the very few applications they need, I'd say go for KDE.  If 
they are the 'I only want a tool - I don't play with any of that stuff' user, 
and there are many of them, I wouldn't recommend KDE software.

Take my family as an example.  Daughter 1 is a heavy computer user, but of the 
third kind - she avoids any technicality.  She still uses XP, and there's no 
way I'd install Linux on her laptop.  She also lives 100 miles away and relies 
on telephoning me for support issues.  Daughter 2 is somewhere between type 
one and two - more capable than she thinks, and will handle basic file 
management, etc.  She uses Mandriva with KDE 4.3, and copes reasonably well, 
with a panic every now and then when she sees something she hasn't met before.   
She lives next door, and supporting her is easy.  Husband is the total 
technophobe.  He has Mandriva 4.3 with a minimum setup - basically, kde-pim, 
konqueror and firefox (he does actually use both, for different sites), the 
OpenOffice.org suite, amarok and kpat.  It's all he needs.  He accepts 
automatic updates and yells for instructions if he sees an information 
message.

The main reason for feeling that way is not that 'things are different', but 
that they are neither self-evident nor well-documented.  The first, I think, 
is incompatible with the aims of KDE software, but if that's so, then the 
second is a very big problem.  To ship something as advanced as SC 4.4 with 
manuals that are years out of date, or even no manuals at all, is simply 
unacceptable.  Many of the screams I deal with on a daily basis simply 
wouldn't happen if documentation was available.

Plasma itself is a very good example of this.  I've seen significant changes 
between releases, but unless I picked information up from Aaron's blog I would 
not know what was happening.  Is there any user-centric information about how 
these changes affect us?  I haven't found it.  I've read in several places 
that Plasma-netbook is now available.  Nowhere have I read what is necessary 
to install or use it.  I'm sure I would find out how to, if I weren't so busy 
with other things, but then I'm prepared to spend a lot of time that simply 
isn't  available to most users.

This is not an attack on Plasma, or the Plasma team.  Plasma is so central to 
the KDE experience, though, that we really do need to do something about this.  
Get this right, in terms of letting the user find his own way quickly by using 
easily found guidance, and we can really get back to recommending KDE 
environments to all users with all the confidence we had before.  

> or put another way: what desktop would you recommend instead for a Windows
> migrant and why?
> 
Frankly, for those users, I'd keep quiet.  I wouldn't make any recommendations 
at all.

As many people know, a huge part of my life is spent working with and for KDE.  
That's a measure of my love and esteem of our developers and their work.  I 
truly believe that documentation is the one thing that we are doing wrong - 
really wrong.  I know it's not fun, and I can understand the reasons that many 
people don't 'get around to it', but I think we are letting ourselves down 
badly here.

> (and if you could answer on plasma-devel at kde.org that'd be even better,
> because those really aren't kde-ev-membership topics :)
> 
CC'd.  I'm not subscribed, of course.

> b) KDE is not a desktop ;)

It is how the user (of the kind I'm talking about) perceives it, and therefore 
in that context it was the right expression to use.

Anne
-- 
KDE Community Working Group
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