Why KDE4 is called KDE?

[Dotan Cohen]

> I don't think older versions on KDE reflected some attitude that uber-
> customization is a Good Thing.  Rather, it was more like unchecked feature
> creep.  If someone wanted a configuration option for <whatever> and there
> wasn't a technical reason to avoid it, it was added.
>

I would hardly have called that unchecked feature creep. I personally
found 20% of the configuration options useful. It would be reasonable
to assume that 20% is an average figure, however, no two users have
the same 20%. Many of those features no other enivornment provides,
and users who depend on those features are now stuck with an
unsupported dependency on that environment.


> KDE 4 was meant to be a more "holistic" approach to the software than any
> previous version of KDE.  Design issues were actually considered and
> discussed.  A lot of "big picture" ideas were discussed, mulled, and discarded
> before (much) code was written.
>

So instead of taking the time to implement features, time was taken to
discuss, mull, and then discard them? What advantage does that have?


> The result is very different from older versions of KDE.  I've gotten used to
> it now.  I learned to live without some customizations, and different ways to
> apply others.  I think it is better, but it is certainly a shock.

Up to here I agree with a slight amendment: while KDE 4 is better for
you and me now that we have gotten used to them, KDE 4.4 cannot be
better for all KDE 3 users as it does not provide the same features as
KDE 3.5.10. And to really take this thread back on topic, if we had to
get used to KDE 4, and make sacrifices in our workflows, then why is
it called KDE? It really is a new project both in code an in
philospohy, as you have pointed out.


> I understand that having too many options presented to the user can result in
> confusion which make the user experience and productivity worse.  I don't
> think KDE 3.5.10 actually suffered from that problem.


Agreed!

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://what-is-what.com
http://gibberish.co.il
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