[kde-linux] Another KDE 4.x print problem?

[Duncan]

Esben Mose Hansen posted on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:50:46 +0100 as excerpted:

> For my money, you are looking for something a lot more stable than
> Gentoo. I'd suggest running Debian stable, or perhaps Redhats
> "enterprise" branch. I think you'd be happier there.

Ummm... I think not!  I'm on gentoo ~arch (unstable) and testing stuff 
before it even gets in the main gentoo tree at times for a reason -- I 
like leading, even bleeding, edge.

That's rather the point.  I'm running gentoo, and a full kde4 now, 
/because/ I like leading/bleeding edge.  kde4 at 4.3 is pretty much the 
ideal time to cut over for people like me, those that actually like the 
sometimes bleeding edge, and are willing to deal with the issues it 
entails.  But 4.2 (even the last 4.2.4 which is when I got serious about 
the switch) was significantly stretching it, and I'd have waited for 4.3 
or even 4.4 if upstream kde3 support wasn't being dropped and "little" 
stuff like being able to compile it with the latest gcc and against the 
latest libs, and "little" things like security, becoming potential 
issues.  It was those "little" things that pushed me to kde4, while it 
was still rather early to switch even for someone who usually runs 
bleeding edge stuff and is accustomed to (and appreciates the challenge 
of) finding fixes and workarounds for all the broken stuff.

The biggest problem, therefore, isn't folks like me that are accustomed 
to working with bleeding edge, but those who want it to "just work", 
which is what kde has pretty much claimed for kde4, from 4.2.  If people 
like me are having problems, $DEITY help the folks who just want what 
they run to work.

Even then, the issues with kde4 wouldn't be as big a problem if kde3 was 
continuing to be properly maintained for both security and with/against 
newer compilers and system libs.  It does seem the situation isn't as 
drastic as it was initially turning out to be, with kde3 support 
apparently continuing due to KDAB sponsorship and etc, but apparently 
it's not at a level the major distributions seem to be comfortable with, 
as they're starting to drop it.  And the major distributions are exactly 
the types of places that these "ordinary users" are likely to be getting 
their kde, so if they're dropping it, from the user perspective, it's 
disappearing.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman