[kde-community] Statement of support for our devs?

[Carl Symons]

On Sunday, October 20, 2013 13:08 Alvaro Soliverez wrote:
> Hello,
> I think this post by Mark Shuttleworth (
> http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1295 ) deserves some kind of
> formal statement of support for our devs.
> It is an unequal statement, and it was a personal attack on one of
> KDEprojects because we made a decision based on technical grounds they
> don't like.

While I appreciate looking out for contributors in the KDE Community, I don't 
see this post as antagonistic towards KDE or KDE developers. There are some 
trollish flamebait bits, such as the stuff about SystemD. Lennart Poettering and 
Kay Sievers may take that personally. But it seems like a needless poke in the 
eye considering that Mark's baby uses Upstart instead of SystemD.

It's not clear to me what KDE project was attacked. What are you referring to?

I also think that it's odd that he writes "...competitors to Canonical..." in 
reference to those who have "NIH'd" Canonical's stack. I have not heard any 
KDE person refer to Canonical or any other free software project as a 
competitor. As far as I can tell, the common view is that we're all more or 
less together in our technology efforts. Quite clearly, that is not 
Shuttleworth's view.

He qualifies his statement about the "purely political" attacks on Canonical 
when he writes, "... you have to wonder what THEIR agenda is." Presumably that 
would leave out the responses from Martin Gräßlin about KWin and Wayland, as 
they are mostly technical.

Shuttleworth and Gates have both done a lot to promote the use of Linux and 
KDE. Their vanity and hubris are legendary, and they are not likely to realize 
the consequences.


> I don't want an answer to Mark, but a very firm statement that KDE
> makes decision based on technical reasons and not some ideological
> stance would be great. And that KDE (the community) stands behind
> every project.

Making such a firm statement would acknowledge that there might be a question. 
To anyone who has the slightest understanding of KDE, that's strange. KDE as a 
Community has not attacked Canonical/xUbuntu/Shuttleworth. Individuals within 
the KDE Community may have done so (I have no idea), but that is not something 
that the KDE Community needs to address.

And the KDE Community _does_ make decisions on ideological grounds, witness 
manifesto.kde.org. 

> 
> We know the kind of pressure that developers can go through, and
> support from the rest of the community would be nice.

I don't think that a response to Shuttleworth qualifies as support for KDE 
developers. In my view, his beside-the-point comments are to him as cackling 
to chickens, bleating to sheep, grunting to pigs...the thoughtless noises he 
makes occasionally.


> 
> Best Regards,
> Alvaro
> 
> PS. Someone going behind scenes and asking Mark to tone down his posts
> would be fine too, but the cat is out of the bag and a public balanced
> but firm statement is needed.

Asking Mark to tone down his posts is a waste of energy. He does what he 
wants. And he has every right to do so.

Carl