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

[Alexander Neundorf]

On Tuesday, May 10, 2016 17:18:39 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
> On Montag, 9. Mai 2016 22:49:15 CEST Alexander Neundorf wrote:
...
> > * I don't like the term "reach <somebody> where they are", to me this
> > always kind of implies that the person in question is currently somehow
> > in a wrong place (in German: "die Leute da abholen, wo sie sind" :-/ )
> > Basically this is the "everyone" from the vision.
> > So maybe
> > "To be able to make the software available to everyone, KDE"... ?
> 
> There are actually slightly different underlying positions concerning
> priorities:
> I assume that for both of us, a perfect world would be one where everybody
> used exclusively free software/hardware/services/content. We both know that
> this will probably never happen, so we have to aim for something more
> realistic. And this is where our priorities diverge:
> - For me, it's more important to get people away from as much non-Free stuff
> as possible
> - For you, it's more important to get our Free stuff to as many people as
> possible

Yes, kind of. But actually it's both very very similar.
I mean, with every piece of free software we get somebody to use, we get this 
person away from one piece of non-free software. :-)

> Both positions are perfectly valid, of course. Now the problem is: How can
> we tell what KDE as a whole puts more emphasis on, when nobody but us
> voices their opinion?

Maybe post to a few more mailing lists, e.g. kde-devel, plasma-devel, kde-
core-devel, kde-frameworks-devel, is there a calligra-dvel ?


> > * To me, "classic desktop" does not really fit into "reach users where
> > they
> > are"
> 
> Ok, so where would you put it? I'm open to any suggestion here.
> 
> > * One could argue that to provide control, freedom and privacy for users,
> > KDE's products do not only need to have those properties, but the products
> > actually need to cover a substantial range of the users needs.
> > IOW, e.g. by offering a range of niche nerdy applications, let's say 3D
> > printer software and a desktop ruler, we wouldn't do much to achieve our
> > vision.
> > So, should there be some mention of what we want to "produce" ?
> > Something like desktop, office, education, creation, etc. ?
> 
> Even "niche nerdy applications" do contribute to our vision, but of course
> the more users, the bigger the impact.
> 
> The question is, though: Does the "substantial range of the users needs"
> really need to be covered by KDE software? For example, there is still no
> advanced photo editing software from KDE, because the Krita team decided
> that GIMP has that need covered just fine and Krita should focus on digital
> painting instead.

That's indeed a good question. We can continue this list e.g. with a state-of-
the-art web browser and a production-ready word processor...

> I, personally, think that the goal should be that /Free Software/ covers all
> common user needs. Whether that software is made by KDE, GNOME, GNU, TDF,
> Apache, any other organization or an independent project does not matter
> that much to me.
> 
> Of course there are some applications which greatly benefit from a very
> tight integration with the desktop environment or other applications, and
> it makes sense to offer these from one source, but that group might not
> actually be all that big.
> 
> That said, I have nothing against offering some examples of areas we think
> we should cover, I just won't be the one to provide them.

It would be nice if more people would contribute to the discussion...

My impression (and also my opinion): our goal as KDE is not to be known for a 
few odd applications for special use-cases, but as the primary source for the 
applications "normal" users use every day: the "desktop" (plasma + kwin), the 
basic applications (text editor, terminal, file manager, image viewer, media 
player, etc.) and "advanced" applications (office, IDE, edu, games).

IOW, creating just a few cool applications is not our mission, but covering 
(more or less) the full spectrum. I think this view is supported by the 
concerns many contributors raise that they want KDE to become more "relevant" 
again.

Alex