"Cornelius's grand plan" - Merging KDElibs into Qt

[Harri Porten]

Hi!

On Sun, 31 Oct 2010, Mark Kretschmann wrote:

> It's a very controversial idea. However, I think it is so refreshing
> that it deserves some more thought. Personally, I think the idea is
> great, if we can overcome some of the obvious road blocks. I would
> love to read some honest and direct thoughts from you guys.
>
> What do you think about it?

I think it's good occasion to congratulate Nokia's Community and Product 
Managers for their diligent and thought-through work of the last two 
years :)

Seriously. I don't see this idea being a benefit for KDE. Quite the 
opposite. Nokia has done a great job of bringing Qt on track for an open 
development model. Eventually the maintenance might be almost completely 
outsourced to volunteers or 3rd parties. But one should not forget that 
the vendor's target are mobile devices. Other platforms (desktop, older 
Unices, X11-specifics, Jambi etc.) are 2nd tier. Sure, the open model will 
allow for outsiders to maintain "exotic" platforms. But why should KDE 
accept the loss of effectiveness? The open model will also allow for 
completely independant companies/projects to offer their libraries. Why 
not via kde.org? Marketing people will also know why this can be 
important. Therefore I agree with those saying that we should have our 
libs modular and portable and market *those*.

I realize that those working for Nokia directly or indirectly in their 
"real life", i.e. dealing with work where KDE-specifics hurt have a 
different perspective. Having worked on Qt before I understand too well 
but it helps to take a step at the global perspective of KDE as a project 
with lots of different people and an independent identiy.

Harri.