The case for a kdelibs 4.8

[Scott Kitterman]

On Thursday, September 29, 2011 03:27:58 PM Markus Slopianka wrote:
> On Donnerstag 29 September 2011 14:01:50 Kevin Kofler wrote:
> > 2. It will be confusing to our users, and even to some packagers, to
> > have a KDE SC 4.8 on kdelibs 4.7.
> 
> Since almost exactly 2 years we (esp. the promo team) are communicating that
> Platform/Frameworks, Applications and Workspaces are three separate
> products that just happen to be shipped on the same date.
> 
> One of the reasons why the rebranding still didn't get to everybody is that
> some distributions (mostly Fedora!) still spread the wrong message about
> some “KDE 4.7” to its users. (see eg.
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/KDE/KDE47Packaging#KDE_4.7_Packaging )
> 
> Users of other distributions do not have such problems and strangely
> shipping Kontact 4.4.11 with SC 4.5+ was also not confusing to most users.

We did this in Kubuntu and it was confusing.  It was also technically 
challenging.  Speaking as someone investing a lot of time in trying to do a 
high quality job of distributing KDE to end users: Please.  Never, ever, do 
this to us again.

I get what you want to communicate, but it's more complicated that that.  The 
integrated release process of KDE has value.  "Just happen to be shipped on 
the same date" isn't true.  Marketing materials saying this are exactly that.  
Marketing materials.

I agree with the goal of trying to make it easier to use pieces of KDE in 
different contexts, but the integrated delivery process that marketing wants to 
dispense with has real technical value that I hope KDE will not discard.

The transition from kdepim 4.4 -> 4.6/4.7 was a special case.  I hope it stays 
that way.  While there wasn't another way to do what had to be done in that 
case, it should not server as a general success story others should model 
themselves after.