[kde-community] KDE Mission - let's do this!

[Alexander Neundorf]

On Sunday, April 24, 2016 15:15:17 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
> On Sonntag, 24. April 2016 11:36:54 CEST Clemens Toennies wrote:
...
> > I would go with the 4 points you mentioned:
> >   * end-user applications
> >   * a "classic" UNIX desktop
> >   * an SDK (currently mainly KF5)
> >   * a user interface for mobile/embedded Linux systems (currently Plasma
> >   
> >     Mobile)
> > 
> > Two suggestions:
> > How about combining the two points "classic unix desktop" and
> > "mobile/embedded", to clarify the team working "on the desktop" is
> > really sharing ~80% of the code via one base (plasma) and people could
> > use that plasma even in tv, car or aviation systems:
> > * a modern (unix) shell, that targets the classic desktop and can
> > converge towards mobile/embedded [somewhat like unity / android /
> > windows10]?
> 
> I would not go into too much detail about Plasma in KDE's mission. That's
> what Plasma's product vision is for.
> If we go into so much detail about the destkop in KDE's mission, it
> reinforces the popular perception that KDE is all about the desktop (or
> still /is/ the desktop), and those creating applications which are not tied
> to the desktop may not feel like they're part of KDE's mission.
> 
> I do agree that we should put convergence in our mission, though, because
> that applies to the desktop as well as applications.

I agree that we shouldn't put too much detail about Plasma into KDE's mission.

I think that stating clearly "we do (among others) a UNIX desktop" is good. 
That's a big part of what we do, and it is important to a big part of our 
users, so they are reassured that KDE still cares about the classic desktop.

About mobile/embedded: I would love to see widespread use of a KDE "desktop 
shell" there. Unfortunately I'm afraid this won't happen. There was almost no 
(public) response to Agustin's recent GENIVI-related email. As much as I'd 
like to see Plasma Mobile become successful, I'm afraid it won't be able to 
cut a significant piece off of Android's cake. We only partially managed to do 
that on the desktop, and with phones, tablets and other embedded platforms 
this is even harder, due to the non-standard ARM-based platforms, where you 
need an adapted OS for every board, basically.
So, realistically, if we put a desktop shell for embedded/mobile platforms in 
some way in our mission, I unfortunately would expect us to fail with this 
part of the mission. I'd love to be proved wrong.


Where I'd like to see a change in priorities, is support for non-free OS. I.e. 
get our applications to work "properly" e.g. on Windows, OSX, Android 
("properly" from the POV of the e.g. Windows user, not necessarily from the 
POV of a UNIX developer).
Fortunately some efforts into that direction are currently happening.

So, I'd like to see more importance put on portability.


> > Also let's mention "end-user webservices" to be included, as subpoint
> > under "end-user applications" (owncloud or wiki2learn), then this
> > mission imo would still very focused and clear with our goals laid out
> > in our vision.
> 
> +1
> We could even say that our /primary/ technology is Qt (because it is) if we
> want to position ourselves as the go-to community for everything Qt, without
> excluding non-Qt applications.

Sounds good.

Nevertheless a comment about the "end-user webservices": AFAIK OwnCloud and 
WikiToLearn are quite different. OwnCloud is a developing a software, while 
WikiToLearn is mainly about creating content (for a MediaWiki).
IMO creating content is not part of the core of what KDE is doing.
(I know not everbody agrees with this.)

Alex