[dot] The Person Behind KDE-Look.org and KDE-Apps.org

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1075252150/

From: Fabrice Mous <fabrice at kde.nl>
Dept: all-about-styling-and-compiling
Date: Wednesday 28/Jan/2004, @02:09

The Person Behind KDE-Look.org and KDE-Apps.org
===============================================

   Lately I see the name of Frank Karlitschek popping up and thought I
contact him to ask him about his role in the KDE project. The following
is an interview conducted by email.

     Please introduce yourself.

     My name is Frank Karlitschek. I'm 30 years old and live in
Stuttgart, Germany.

     What's your position within the KDE project?

     I build and run KDE-Look.org [http://www.kde-look.org/] and
KDE-Apps.org [http://www.kde-apps.org/]. I also work on the Crystal
icons [http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=8341], help to
polish KDE for the 3.2 release and do a few smaller things like writing
bug reports and trying to help organizing the 2004 KDE conference.

     How long has KDE-Look.org existed?

     The idea and the first version are from the summer of 2001, but I
try to improve the system constantly.

     Do you work alone on those websites or is there some kind of team
involved?

     At the beginning it was only me, but now I get a lot of help from
the community. People send me bug reports and suggestions to improve the
system. I also have a few users with editors' rights who help me to
write news and polls. If you want to help drop me a line. :-) And of
course there are the thousands of contributors who develop themes, icons
and applications -- they do the main work. :-)

     How do you pay for these services you provide to the KDE community?

     I have to finance the servers/hosting on my own, so the web sites
rely on sponsorship and advertising for support.

      We read in an interview
[http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=5758] that Lindows
[http://lindows.com/] is sponsoring KDE-Apps and KDE-Look. Can you tell
us a bit more about that? How did this happen and are there any terms?

     KDE-Look was in trouble at the end of 2002. The ISP who housed my
server for one year had quit the sponsorship because of the huge amount
of traffic that KDE-Look  generates. Lindows approached me after an
announcement that KDE-Look.org was looking for a sponsor. There aren't
any special terms; they just want a small banner on the site. Lindows
has no influence on the development of KDE-Look.org. One month ago
Lindows agreed to sponsor the new project KDE-Apps.org as well. I'm very
grateful for the great support from Lindows.

     When did you first hear about KDE? When did you start using it?

     I think it was in 1998. A friend showed me an early beta of KDE 1.0
-- it was amazing. It was the first time I realized that one day Open
Source Software could conquer the Desktop. I've been using KDE as my
main desktop at work since 1999.

     Can you tell us a bit about how many visitors and submissions
KDE.Look.org and kde-apps.org has?

     At the moment the two sites have about 65,000,000 hits and
13,000,000 page views a month, 7,500 active submissions and 13,500
registered users. The server creates over one terabyte of traffic a
month.

     Is there a difference between KDE-Apps.org and apps.kde.com?
 [http://apps.kde.com]
     I'm not sure because I don't know the internals of apps.kde.com,
but I think the main difference is that apps.kde.com has a more closed,
editor centric concept. KDE-Apps.org/KDE-Look.org are more open and
community driven systems. The idea is to create the rules for the base
system with the user registration, content voting, content filtering,
comments system, et cetera and in that way a community can evolve which
is self-adjusting. If it works the right way you don't need an editor in
chief or and administrator controlling the websites all the time.

     Is there something the comunity can do to support kde-apps.org and
kde-look.org?

     Upload your work or write constructive comments. You can also
donate a little money for the hosting of course. :-)

     How much time does KDE consume in your day?

     It depends. Normally 4-8 hours a week.

     I understand you work also on the icons in KDE. Does there exist
some kind of icon-design team?

     There is no official team at the moment, but there are of course a
few people who work on the icons.

     Who are these people?

     I think in the last few months the most active ones are Ken Wimer
from SUSE, Everaldo from Lindows and myself, but there are a lot more
artists contributing of course -- for example the people on the revived
kde-artists mailinglist
[https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-artists] and the KDE-Look
community.

     What should users do when they find an application has missing
icons?

     Write a bug report on bugs.kde.org.

     What do you like most about KDE?

     It is a very active and very open world-wide family of talented and
motivated developers improving this great desktop. It is an honor to be
part of this community.

     What do you like least about KDE?

     I think developers should pay a bit more attention to usability and
the visual appearance of the applications. There are really great
applications that an unskilled user can't understand.

     What other stuff do you do beside this KDE stuff?

     I work as the head of engineering in a multimedia company in
Germany. This consumes most of my time. On vacation I like to travel and
do scuba diving.