The future of KDE Development on Windows

[Ian Mac]

Hi all, some thoughts on KDE and windows from a random user.  Most 
people have Windows OS of various flavours installed on their machines. 
They have access to the internet. A lot of them search for a tool to 
undertake a task, manager their money or photos for example. They 
discover that such tools exist an for free but are Linux based, they 
then read about a version which will work on windows, it uses something 
called KDE. They don't care what or how KDE works or is, all they care 
about is can I run the tool I require on my machine and does it work 
reliably. In the perfect world it would do both. This could then be a 
Trojan horse to get then to adopt Linux.
Unfortunately the tool they choose does neither. This is a real shame 
given the amazing amount of effort which individuals have put into the 
project, but its still a fact, the tool & KDE do not work reliably on 
windows. The more geeky ones persevere and sometimes get the tool to 
work, given enough time and skill and luck. The evidence for this, are 
the occasional cries for help on this list, which mostly get ignored, 
because they are too generic to be helped.
  So what is needed, KDE is purely a means to an end it is not the end, 
particularly for Windows users.
  Most windows users want something which just installs the tool they 
need and then it runs reliably.
They do not care that it is efficient code, as long as it appears to run 
fast.
They do not care about frameworks etc.
They would not know about Plasma - in fact before I started reading this 
thread I had not heard of it.
If the installation process makes use of stuff they already have - so what.
99% of windows users get the OS with the box they buy and its the 
version that comes with it, if its a new box then it will have windows 8 
if its really old it will have 95 on it, they don't care as long as it 
does what they want it to.

All the above probably applies to most MAC users as well.

Allow tools such as Digikam KMyMoney to easily be installed, and to run 
reliably on windows OS.
Provide the tool code producers with the means of easily building exe 
and msi install files.
If the user wishes to build their own later version with say a beta 
release of the tool, have it so they can again easily do this.
This gives you the basic requirements for KDE as far as windows is 
concerned.
You need to understand which tools are being used, and by how many, and 
target the most popular ones first.
Watch the sales of computers Windows 8 is here, and selling well now. XP 
is a thing of the past.  64 bit processor are almost standard. Should we 
run on androids? Linux is still not mainstream.

Given this the KDE platform can be designed to flexibly move forwards.
  Plasma is not going to be something most windows users require, again 
its part of the trojan horse kit, but the horse has to work first, then 
the average user may move on to use the other bits. Oh look this 
presentation is far better than windows.