Voting rights - the GNOME way

Fri, 22 Nov 2002 22:00:51 +0300

No, I am not a member.
I even don't have @kde.org e-mail address, which can be a constrain to join 
:-)
// not sure about this, though.

In fact, I was thinking wether I need something like @kde.org address or not.
And, from my point of view, it's more important to *contribute* to some 
project than to speak about it, get nice business cards, etc.
(i have enough bullshit like "business cards", "corporate meetings", etc. in 
daily/business time)

None was working on KDE themes - I did a few ones.
With KDE 3.1beta2 release I finally understood that icons wouldn't be fixed 
for 3.1 release - so I am working on SVG icons now.
Also, I have some fonts waiting "final touch" (and FT 2.1.3 release).
As FT 2.13 was released few days ago, and I am happy with its quality - I may 
release fonts pretty soon.

|
|  > Frankly, I'd like to avoid any kind of *elections* or *politics* in KDE
|  > as long as possible.
|  > I really enjoy KDE's non-political nature.
|
|  Not being a native English speaker I might have a different understanding
|  of the word "political" so I'm not sure whether to agree with you or not.
|
|  I *do* want to see some ethics and guidelines in KDE. Many already exist

Yes, sure!  We should keep certan level in our community, and try to avoid 
potential problems.

|  but they are often not expressed explicitly and therefore unclear to
|  existing and new members of the project. In some areas we definitely lack
|  an open, fair and transparent procedure. Like determining who the
|  next release manager will be. 

I always was very curious to know *how* those people are selected. :-)
But so far, I had no concerns about current release coordinators.

| Or a decision about the inclusion of a new
|  icon theme. 

Ah, this is indeed _unclear_ and _funny_ thing!..
There is no clear understanding (both among developers, and among users) *how* 
nice icon theme should look like.
Or what's wrong (if anything, except the fact that "it's dated") with Hicolor 
icons.
it's the fact that MS Windows is widely used.
And WIndows icons, while terrible in design (and very small in size, 16x16 I 
guess) can be recognized by potential, new KDE users pretty well.
On the other side, many people like Eyy Candy of MacOS X.
And they think that KDE should become more like MacOS X.
I am somewhat *in between* of those two groups.
I think that optimal icon size for *current, existing* users is from 32x32 to 
96x96 (and not 16x16 like in Windows, or 128x128 in MacOS)
And, instead of getting photo-like quality (which is *nice*, but requires 
128x128, not less!), I prefer SVG-based design with just *few* basic colors, 
and gardients built *around* those basic colors (so, final icon in PNG format 
somewhat about 600-800 RGBA colors)

| Settling such issues might require a formalized decision
|  making process. As little formal as possible, of course.

Would be nice to hear your proposal on such process.

|
|  > |    http://foundation.gnome.org/membership-policy.html
|  >
|  > Recent threads on <kde-cafe> demonstrated, that while KDE developer
|  > community (and long-time KDE users) is quite stable, many people have
|  > quite different opinions on "real life" issues (like politics, religion,
|  > etc.). We will face all those issues immediately, if we go for "KDE
|  > committee/board".
|
|  I wasn't after a board. I just point to an example of "how to assign
|  voting rights" definition. See above for examples why this might be
|  required.

I see some problems with "assigning  voting rights".
Let's suppose, for example, that both you and me have voting rights (about KDE 
future/policy, etc.), and we voted *for* decision "KDE should support CSS3".
And than Dirk Mueller comes and says: "guys! you want CSS3?  Code it on your 
own. I don't want to spend my time on that crap"
//  I used Dirk's name just as na example, I don't know his opinion on CSS3.
So what?  We maid decision to get CSS3 in, and nobody would work on it.

KDE is really bazaar-style project.
The more I work on it, the more I am impressed and admired.
And I think we get new users and new developers not because "GNOME is crap" or 
"GNOME doesn't deliver stable releases", but becuase people like KDE nature, 
KDE Community.
May be I am wrong here, though.

|
|  > Are you sure that we would be able to overcome those issues?
|
|  It would actually be a top priority to emphasise that KDE is agnostic
|  of any religion and politics - or the contrary. But to find that out you
|  have to somehow find out what others think about this issue, no ? And on
|  what basis do you make this the "official" KDE statement ? Make a Slashdot
|  poll ?

I can tell you the truth:  I haven't seen *any* KDE statement for the last 2 
years (since Aug.2000), except that famous "we couldn't care less" press 
release on kde.org (don't remember exactly what that was response to, I guess 
- to GNOME foundation?)

I also agree with you we *should* have a way to find out what others think 
about _this, that and that_.
But it is dangerous.
Are you aware that <kde-cafe> was forced to leave KDE server, and list 
archives have been deleted on kde.org (upon request of KDE E.v., IIRC)?
I see ++ and --  in that decision.
May be, right solution was *not to have* OT mailing list on kde.org, from the 
beginning.  Solution to kick off kde-cafe from kde.org was BAD, inmy opinion, 
and not in line with KDE's open-source nature.
But as I had a lot of things to do except <kde-cafe>, I was somewhat silent 
about this.

|
|  > I am not so confident in this.
|
|  This list is the right place to express your doubts :)

:-)
|
|  Harri.
|  _______________________________________________
|  Kde-policies mailing list
|  Kde-policies@mail.kde.org
|  http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-policies

-- 

Vadim Plessky
SVG Icons
http://svgicons.sourceforge.net
My KDE page
http://kde2.newmail.ru  (English)
KDE mini-Themes
http://kde2.newmail.ru/themes/