An user point of view on KDE and the glib issue

[Waldo Bastian]

On Tuesday 11 March 2003 10:00, M. Fioretti wrote:
> This (and the underlying assumption that the active KDE developers
> know what is always better for all users, and want to deliver it as an
> "all or nothing" bundle) is as Microsoftish as it can get. Quite
> scary, if you ask me

I agree with that. I think the goal of KDE should be to pursue close 
integration but in an open fashion. You want to have close integration in the 
sense that when you click on an e-mail address in KFooBar that you get your 
KMail composer all set up, possibly with the subject line already filled out. 
But _AT THE SAME TIME_ you also want to have an open system that allows the 
user to replace KMail with the mailer of his choice.

This last aspect is what separates KDE from the monopoly-thinking so well 
known from Microsoft.

I have read some rather worrying arguments in this thread that basically seem 
to come down to "KDE applications have strong integration with the KDE 
environment, to give KDE applications a competive advantage such integration 
should be withheld from non-KDE applications". I see that slightly 
differently. 

I see KDE based upon three pilars: 
1) The development framework (Qt/kdelibs)
2) The runtime environment: Desktop, WM, panel etc. (kdebase)
3) Applications

I see interoperability and technology that enables strong integration mostly 
as features of 1) and 2) Applications build on the framework and running in 
the KDE environment benefit from this almost automatically which is a nice 
thing and a good reason to use the KDE development framework for your 
applications. However, I think it's still up to the applications themselves 
to provide features, functionality and ease of use that sets them apart from 
their competition. It might be nice for KDE applications if 1) and 2) play 
favourites towards KDE applications for political reasons, but 1) and 2) 
don't become any better by doing so, on the contrary.

Cheers,
Waldo
-- 
bastian at kde.org -=|[ SuSE, The Linux Desktop Experts ]|=- bastian at suse.com