Linux Journal article on KDE on Windows

[Stuart Jarvis]

Ah, I just saw you sent a second email - I will come to that one now

On Tuesday 03 November 2009 09:05:07 Bernhard Reiter wrote:
> 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.

I like "because we can!". That's always a great answer :-)
> 
> > 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.
> 
I think I'll have to look in to this more when I have some time and seriously 
think about an article. Please drop an email to kde-promo at kde.org any time 
there is something significant to report from this (such as a new release 
/updated installer of Kontact for Windows from Kolab).

> > 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.
> 
Actually, I need to look in to Kleopatra a bit more too (I don't think 
anyone's done a dot article about that, it seems to have just appeared 
silently) but I like what I think it provides.

> 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.

It all looks very modern to me :-) I was still using POP for email until a 
couple of years ago and only discovered the Kolab calendar via IMAP stuff a few 
months ago.

So, thanks again. A few things for me to think about for potential future 
articles, one day, when I have time.

Btw, I'll be signing up for the mailing list shortly so I can keep a bit of a 
better eye on things in the KDE on Windows world.

Cheers,
Stuart