[kde-linux] Kget "My Downloads" [Is this MS Windows?]

[Duncan]

Doug posted on Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:47:08 -0400 as excerpted:

> I haven't been following this thread since I don't recognize the command
> "kget" but I looked at this one, and see the statement that there
> probably will not be a KDE5. Does this mean that KDE will be phased out
> and replaced with something else? I hope that the KDE folks are not
> going the way of Ubuntu! Without KDE, I might very well be driven back
> to Windows.

No fear!  (Tho I don't blame you as I'd be alarmed too if I just came in 
in the middle of the thread, to THAT!)

KDE's not disappearing, just changing a bit. =:^)

The new kde (which would be kde5) is now being called kde-frameworks, 
with the name reflecting the new release plan and style.

What Kevin was referring to saying it's unlikely there will be a kde5, is 
the old release method used in the past and now used for kde4, with a 
whole bunch of otherwise unrelated kde packages released together, as say 
4.10.0 for the latest six-month-cycle feature release and 4.10.2 for a 
monthly bugfix release, thereby being bound to the same six-month/one-
month release cycle whether it's appropriate for that individual package 
or not, as well as encouraging people to think of what are really 
independent projects that share a common base, as dependent parts of the 
same project.  Another undesired effect is that it effectively creates 
two classes of kde project, those in "core", bound to the 6/1 cycle and 
updated with it, and "everyone else", including major kde packages such 
as amarok, k3b, kaffeine, etc, that ship separately, but seem almost like 
second class citizens because they don't ship and update with the main kde 
cycle nor are they versioned the same.

The kde-frameworks that is replacing what would have been kde5, 
meanwhile, is far more modular, with the plan being that individual 
packages will be released in an update cycle that fits each individual 
package, instead of forcing them all into the same cycle.

I mentioned the comparison with xorg-x11, which used to be monolithic and 
still does occasional everything-at-once releases (where kde is by 
contrast planning to go "cold turkey and do away with the all-at-once 
releases with the eventual deprecation of kde4), but those big everything-
at-once releases really aren't a big deal now at all, because individual 
packages have often updated several times between big-project releases 
(xf86-video-intel actually releases weekly, I believe), and even the core 
xorg-server has generally updated several times, with the new versions 
widely available and shipping in distros before they ever become a part 
of a big-project release.

kde-frameworks is supposed to be similar in concept, except as mentioned, 
they're not planning on doing the big releases at all, with the new 
framework (tho kde4 will apparently continue the old all-in-one releases 
until its end-of-life, tho they'll likely slow down a bit from the six-
month cycle at some point).

So the ultimate effect in end-user terms is going to be that there will 
be a much smaller kdelibs core (with some of what's now kdelibs actually 
moving down into qt5), with the various applications now being 
installable and updatable independently, so say konqueror, a web browser 
that may well need frequent updates for security reasons, may well be 
version 20-something, by the time kedit, a basic text no-frills text 
editor that is a mature product as it is and only needs occasional 
updates to continue to build and work on a modern system with a modern 
compiler and libraries, hits 5.3.  They will no longer be forced into the 
same six/one month release cycles, or into sharing the same kde version 
numbers.

Plus, it'll be much easier for those that want to, to not install say 
konqueror at all, while still installing say kmail and running a plasma 
based desktop.

Meanwhile, it has always been possible to run kde with a different window 
manager, say compiz, replacing kwin.  It was though a bit weird, but some 
distros did it in ordered to standardize on the same window manager 
acrosss multiple desktops.

And it has always been sort of possible to do the same thing with the 
desktop itself, replacing kde's plasma-desktop with the lighter weight 
razor-qt (still qt-based but independent from kde), for instance.

With kde-frameworks both of those will be easier for end users (as 
opposed to distros and experts) to do, picking and choosing the 
components they want from a broader range, instead of there being the one 
"kde way", then with a variable amount of hacking as necessary, everyone 
else.

So kde isn't disappearing!  It's simply changing.  kde-frameworks will be 
MUCH more flexible for end users, distros, and developers, all three, and 
that's a GOOD thing.  But it /will/ mean an end to the old "everything in 
sync" release model we've come to know with kde 3 and 4 over the years, 
so choosing to call it something else other than kde5 does make a lot of 
sense, even if it's momentarily panic inducing to folks like you that see 
the out of context statement that there's not going to be a kde5, and do 
just that, PANIC!

-- 
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