Linux Journal article on KDE on Windows

[Bernhard Reiter]

Am Montag, 2. November 2009 15:58:03 schrieb Bernhard Reiter:
> 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 

From the viewpoint of Free Software and KDE in general 
there are more aspects (getting deliberately carried away. :) ):

* Computing is there to aid the human in front of the machine 
and a major factor is learning how to use an application. 
If an application is available on many platforms there is much more incentive 
to study and make use of it for a longer period. KDE can make this possible.
* To me it is desirable to bring more people in touch with Free Software, open 
development and community. KDE offers great software and a thriving community 
so it can be a good ambassador for windows users into the Free Software 
world. Regarding the ability to actually influence the core of the software, 
KDE is much better than Iceweasel or OpenOffice.org.
* KDE on Windows is done, because we can! Qt is a good Free Software 
development framework, and Nokia's engagement to liberate it from Trolltech's 
proprietary business model and release under the GNU Lesser GPL even gave it 
a boost.

> is to get a cross plattform Kolab Groupware client 
> available

Together with Kolab Server, Kontact thus becomes a stronger Outlook/Exchange 
or Lotus Notes competitor in the business space. 

> 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/

Anyone interested in widely available protection for end-to-end communication 
(which means potential communication protection against organised crime and 
government suppression) will welcome that people on windows can be kept as 
communication partners to further OpenPGP or S/MIME email encryption and 
signatures with help of KDE and Kleopatra. 

How does privacy and computing works in the cloud? If you dislike the idea to 
just buy a locked-down device with a webbrowser and enter all your data into 
Giigle, being able to run your own software and personal data store which 
syncs into several divers directions is something you should look into.
Kdepim and Akonadi enables this form of computing. Some might call it 
old-fashioned, probably the same people that never used an email client, 
except on the web. But the virtues of privacy and a local running user 
interface are timeless.  By making KDE - which is offline-capable software - 
available on windows, we build an attractive offer.

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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