Linux Journal article on KDE on Windows

[Bernhard Reiter]

Am Samstag, 31. Oktober 2009 17:11:54 schrieb Ralf Habacker:
> does anyone answered this request in a private mail ? 

At least I didn't.

> If not, it would be for interest why nobody answered.

Hmm I found some questions hard to be answered or a little beside the point -
beside having not time so I thought I'd better not answer.

Here my quick thoughts on the questions, if that is helpful to anyone:

Am Mittwoch, 21. Oktober 2009 11:40:59 schrieb Stuart Jarvis:
> How did the project get started - who started the project?
> What were the aims?
> Have these aims been met? Will they be?

(No answers to the first three as I've stopped calling ever ongoing 
initiatives a "project", beside I do not know.)
A initiative like KDE on Windows will draw people with different aims.

My personal aim is to get a cross plattform Kolab Groupware client available
and I am coordinating a group which had some contracts that partly fund our 
work on this. Also I am interested in a cross plattform crypto certificate 
manager. So its Kontact, Kleopatra an all libraries below that were 
interesting for my developers from Intevation and KDAB. 

Kontact for windows is in Beta, the last installer is here 
http://wiki.kolab.org/index.php/Kontact_for_Windows_(beta-huge-debug)
(We've done many improvements since then, but did not new installer.)

Gpg4win 2.0.1 is published in production quality: http://www.gpg4win.org/

> Do you have any idea of which are the most popular applications among
> Windows users?

I guess Kleopatra from Gpg4win - if that counts: 
We currently have about 3000 downloads a day
and the installer also came on CDs (like the Heise security edition) and 
can be aquired from other download portals. However while that would 
extrapolate towards about 1 Million users trying a Gpg4win revision, I have 
no idea what the download rates for the KDE on Windows installer with all
the other applications is.

> Has the core KDE community been supportive? (for example, the e.V.,
> upstream developers of applications you package)

Our developers are doing kdepim and kleopatra, so we are upstream for that 
cause and have been supportive of ourself. ;) 

> Has the KDE community as a whole been supportive? (Including users)

It seems Windows users have different expectations from KDE users on other 
plattforms. So those people fresh to KDE would need a different explanation
and motivation to give feedback. So more help could come on the communication 
and testing side of things, but this really depends on the application I 
believe.

> Has KDE on Windows brought new users or developers or users to KDE? (I'd be
> particularly interested to hear from anyone who _started_ with KDE on
> Windows as a user or developer. The FAQ mentions an Amarok developer who
> apparently got involved through an interest in Amarok on Windows)

(Is using a product like Kleopatra, where a big bunch of KDE libraries coming 
with it, considered for the question? If so: Yes, lots of new users with 
Gpg4win2. :) )

> What have you learned about packaging for Windows users? For example, the
> Installer has seen some changes, with more splitting in to individual
> packages rather than KDE modules - was this in response to user feedback?

I've participated in a few packaging discussions and it is my conviction that 
packaging of Free Software on Windows is an issue and will likely continue to 
be an issue in general. Without repeating too much of the discussion:
* Most windows deployers just do  a single installer and put in a lot of 
testing into this one installer, may it be .msi or something else. Windows 
users expect this. We fail this expectation currently and we are bound to 
fail it because there are too many KDE applications.
* KDE with many libraries is different and Windows' native packaging system 
(Windows Installer aka .msi) does not cope with this well.

There is no good solution for packaging.

> Are there any exciting changes to KDE on Windows that will be arriving as a
> result of KDE 4.4?

(Cannot say at the moment, lacking the overview. My group does lot of work on 
the Kontact Prototype-E5 which is Akonadi based, but I am unsure how much of 
this will hit users with KDE 4.4. We have to work in branches often, because 
of the contracts which do set some limits, but everyhing is ported forward. 
The windows porting happend in trunk and so does the akonadi development 
right now.)

> Roughly how many people are actively involved in the KDE on Windows
> project?

(Hard to tell, it depends how you count, I mean the good part about a cross 
platform gui is that development improvements in the common code help all 
platforms. And then: What is active? I guess there are around 20 active 
people.)

Bernhard

-- 
Managing Director - Owner: www.intevation.net       (Free Software Company)
Germany Coordinator: fsfeurope.org. Coordinator: www.Kolab-Konsortium.com.
Intevation GmbH, Osnabrück, DE; Amtsgericht Osnabrück, HRB 18998
Geschäftsführer Frank Koormann, Bernhard Reiter, Dr. Jan-Oliver Wagner
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