[KDE/Mac] Re: KDE vs Macports (Was: trouble with snow leopard)

[Steven Britton]

I'm fairly new to this list, but I do feel I need to make a statement
at this point, given the lack of agreement in this exchange here.

The fact is that the moment something becomes publicly availably, be
it alpha, beta, gamma, omega, whatever, segments of the public are
going to begin using it, especially when the product is a dependency
for  something else.

I came to KDE because I found KdenLive, a nice video editing package
which, until KDE version 4.5.4 came out, worked very well.  4.5.4 has
broken, from what I can see in the MacPorts bug tracker, every
KDE-dependent package out there.  This is a serious issue.  That is
why I am now here, subscribing to this list, and also why I am trying
to squeeze in a few minutes each day manually reinstalling 4.5.3.

I have asked about this in multiple places, and no one seems to know
anything - or care enough to actually respond - which, from an
"end-user's" perspective, extremely disappointing and frustrating.
People want to attract devs, and that's all fine and good, but without
"end-users", the dev work becomes rather pointless beyond development
for the sake of development - "because I can."

If the issue posed by an "end user" is a simple one, a simple answer
will suffice.  I don't think that people who knowingly install a free,
open-source package expect paid-software level support, or a feeding
frenzy on every minor bug in the system; many times, a friendly nudge
in the right direction is all that is needed.

My point? This may be a dev community, but don't write off the end users.

On 2011-01-04, at 5:14 AM, Mike McQuaid <mike at mikemcquaid.com> wrote

> No, I don't agree here I'm afraid. Most of the Macports patches can
> and should go upstream, I've been talking with the maintainers and
> trying to do this last week.
>
> I think you'd get a similar (but perhaps more polite) reaction if you
> posted a bug with installing distro KDE packages on other development
> lists, you'd be told to file a bug with your distro rather than
> discussing it on list. Those of us who don't use Macports don't want
> to be on a mailing list that becomes a Macports support forum. If it's
> desirable to have this, perhaps we should get a kde-macports list
> instead (but I'd think Macports would prefer if people just used their
> bugtracker).
>
> If KDE on Mac is to become a success then there needs to be a team
> with a clearer sense of direction than just fixing the latest bug and
> people who want to build KDE on Mac applications that appear
> completely native to OSX users and work fantastically. We are
> basically in an alpha stage currently where you can get the
> applications to work but they don't work that well. We need to fix the
> technical issues and attract developers rather than users at this
> stage as more users just mean we spend more time fixing simple issues
> and less time doing actual development.
>
> --
> Mike McQuaid
> http://mikemcquaid.com
> _______________________________________________
> kde-mac at kde.org
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