[kde-linux] Users guide to KDE?

[Gaffer.]

Hi Kevin,

On Sunday 06 July 2008 14:55, Kevin Krammer wrote:
> On Saturday 05 July 2008, Gaffer. wrote:
> > There seems to be a gap between what the goals are and what is
> > promised.  End user expectation has been created by whoever, that
> > generated enthusiasm and excitement about how much better KDE4
> > would be when it arrived.
>
> The main problem seem to be communicating the timeframe.
> As some tried to explain, KDE4 is not just KDE 4.0 and I am not
> aware of any goal for KDE 4 which has been abandoned.
>
> Since the new major release allowed certain forms of changes, e.g.
> removing architectural limitations, implementation road blocks,
> replacing legacy subsystems, etc., the developers who were
> previously limited by the old platform started to think what they
> could achieve with the new one and started to share these ideas.
>
> Given finite resources, it was at least clear to developers that
> this would mean adding these new stuff step-by-step and I
> personally would have never expected that anyone would anticipate
> all of it on the very beginning of the product development cycle.
>
> But it seems that sharing insight into the ongoing development
> process is sometimes interpreted as some kind of release
> announcement, dispite release announcement usually being marked as
> such.

Enthusiastic journalism, maybe ?

> I am afraid that it currently looks like the user base has expanded
> beyond those who value first hand information about what is going
> on and will move the information culture away from community style
> to top-down controlled coporate style.

I take your point.  The user base is expanding and must continue to do 
so.  In this respect I am guilty of pushing this expansion.  Most 
users are not interested in involvement, just getting a job done 
without the baggage that comes with using M$ products !

> Which means that those of us who like to get excited by things to
> come will have to spend a lot more time hunting down information
> themselves. And I was so looking forward to spend less time reading
> tens of mailinglists but rather reading a couple of "planet" blog
> aggregators.

I have no suggestions how to handle this.  The whole OSS ethos is that 
its open, open to all.

> Maybe there is a way in between, like having invite-only planets
> for those who value in-depth information and just have release
> announcements for those who want to think in terms of finished
> products.

That may be one way to go !   At least then you have a conduit where 
you can feed relevant information to the end users.

> Anyone seeing other options?
>
> Cheers,
> Kevin

Referring to the subject I came across this link this morning.

<http://en.opensuse.org/KDE/Ideas/11.1>

Hopefully it will be/become something that new users can be pointed 
to !

-- 
Best Regards:
             Derrick.