KDE-cygwin / QTwin finds mention in interview

[Steven Boothe]

Linux Box Show Transcript: Aaron J. Seigo
"...
SP	Let's move away a little bit from the Appeal project and discuss another 
KDE related issue that I know you have strong feelings about. How do you feel 
about some of the work that people have been preparing to try and port KDE or 
at least parts of KDE to MS Windows from the new from-scratch Qt port that 
they've made for Windows?
AS	Yeah, I do have strong feelings about that. *laughter*
SP	It's just something I had to bring up because it was something you and I 
had had a discussion about previously.
AS	Right. Anyone who's read my blog probably knows my feelings on that. 
There's obviously good arguments to be made for Open Source applications on 
Windows, especially when it comes to migration issues. What I said in my blog 
last year that really kind of kicked up a caffufle, we really have to go with 
eyes wide open and realize that we're entering or working on a platform that 
we don't have a load of control over and that doesn't really like us. And it 
hasn't hasn't been above the people who control that platform to compete 
agressively.

I was talking with a fellow who is very high up in the IT organization of a 
Fortune 500 company and his whole opinion was, "Well, we can put Open Source 
applications on Windows but ... you know how long is that really going to 
last for us before Microsoft changes something on us." They don't really see 
it as a viable alternative in the long term.

When I look at that I go: if people want to work on that, if that's something 
that interests them and that's where they want to put their efforts, well 
great. That's one of the beautiful things about Open Source projects: you get 
to work on what interests you, scratch your itch. But there are potential 
issues that we have to be aware of if we go down this route so that we don't 
just line up like chearleaders behind it and go, "YAAAY!" *laughter* "this is 
great this is wonderful" without realizing all the things involved.

And it is a difficult issue because you have to say, well is Open Office on 
Windows a good thing because now people can migrate off? Is Firefox on 
Windows a good thing because that helps us establish standards on the Web? 
Yeah, those are probably good things. Is ite good to have Kexi on Windows, 
the KDE database application? Yeah, it could very well be because it allows 
people to start breaking that lock that Microsoft Access represents. So there 
definitely are situations where it does make sense.

Does it makes sense as an across-the-board strategy? Personally, I don't 
think so and I think there are some real long-term dangers there.
  ..."
http://aseigo.bddf.ca/?pID=1221