New Prosal [was Re: policy change related to kdelibs snapshots]

[Jaison Lee]

On 7/14/06, Stephan Kulow <coolo at kde.org> wrote:
> Did everyone forget we're trying to create a new generation of KDE?

It's exactly this argument that scares me. A lot. See, I kinda like
the *current* version of KDE. I hate to lose things that I use and
like now for some mysterious future that doesn't exist yet.

I'm sure Plasma is gonna be just wonderful and that it will
incorporate systray like elements which may eliminate the need for one
at all. It also doesn't exist yet so I can't make an informed decision
on whether or not I'll use it or like any of its features. Some people
like to work differently than other people; one size does not fit all.
I understand that there is a heated antipathy towards the system tray
for some reason but I enjoy it exactly the way it is.

There's also a big question of how many plasmoids are going to be
ready to go in time. The argument "that should be turned into a
plasmoid" may not be false but it also does not magically increase
developer availability and productivity.

I don't think that new future stuff should remove currently existing
stuff if it is even remotely possible to retain. I shouldn't have to
sacrifice current features to upgrade. That's not even an "upgrade."
That's a "switch." Aaron has already blogged about how many tens of
thousands of new users KDE is getting these days. If KDE4 looks and
acts completely differently than KDE3 and there is no way to restore a
more classic environment are all of these users are going to want to
switch? Even Windows XP lets you put it into classic mode.

And no, I'm not advocating for mousewheel in systray, although I do
think it should be there (and I think it's likely that we'll hear
about it again and again until it is returned). I'm just hoping that
when KDE4 is finished I'll actually want to use it.