A few words about the Quality of KDE 4.2

[Martin (KDE)]

Am Sonntag, 22. März 2009 schrieb Samuel Kage:
> >Oh lord, does this thread ever die?
>
> I really hope it wont't die until Kde is competitive to Windows and
> Mac Os X in terms of quality!
>
> > KDE is great software.
>
> I completely agree with you!
> I feel misunderstood if you think you have to tell me that.
>
> > The way to fix the bugs in OSS is to get people to
> > work on things they don't want to and aren't sexy...like bugs. If
> > you can't, you hire people to do the un-sexy work. Since KDE
> > can't do that, the situation will remain as it is, I would
> > imagine.
>
> If I read the reponses in this thread I imagine the same. Sadly!
> I dont' know why it is so hard for some people to be honest to
> themself and see that Kde is really great but has just to many
> bugs.

There is no reason to become sad. Most developer are interested in 
getting their software better. Bugs are a multy way problem, most user 
can not understand that this and that bug was not fixed during beta 
and RC release. But as a software developer myself I know that there 
are many, to many, scenarios a developer can not test. That is the 
reason for big testing teams in professional and comercial companies. 
They do tests a developer has not even thought about someone will do 
with his software.

This will not explain some obvious bugs like mostly unusable https 
over proxys in current konqueror, but it will explain some ugly bugs 
like things working with version x.y of a server, but not with version 
a.b. And sometimes there are bugs in a distributor package, which is 
not there in the plain kde package due to pack and crossporting stuff.

> I've seen many people trying out linux, but resigning because of
> things that just don't work. For sure its no option for them to
> write bug reports and wait until it is fixed. So the only logical
> consequence to attract users is to make sure, that when a software
> is released, there is no need to write bug reports because ALL main
> things just work.

Most of your problems are not a problem with my KDE installation. 
Either I don't use the named programs, or they are working as 
expected. I use KDE4 since about four month day by day. Sometimes 
there are crashes from plasma or konqueror but those crashes are realy 
rare. From my point of view I can say: KDE4 (Version 4.2.1) is 
definitive usable.

There is a major german linux website (www.pro-linux.de) there are 
some user saying that KDE4 is not usable at all. This is a false point 
of view as it is not correct to say, that there are no problems. But 
KDE is a comunity product. And a community can only work and get 
prosperous if many people are working on it. This is not limited to 
software development. If there is a part of the community no one feels 
responsible for, this part will die. That is part of the reason some 
working KDE3 projects are missing in KDE4.

I don't like the pasionated KDE basher (I don't like Gnome basher 
either). I don't like those who say KDE is the best and if someone has 
found a bug it is either the incompetence of the user or the user has 
the responsibility to fix it (like eat or die).

And for filling bug reports: with one of the major linux distros there 
should be almost no reason to fill a bug report. The software is 
mostly double tested: First by developer, second by distributor. But 
sometimes there is no way arround.

> And you can't tell me that it is not possible with opensource
> software. Take a look at the kernel for example. Absolutely stable
> for me. And that for years. That's why I'm sure its not because of
> the kernel that Linux only has 1% market share

It is not only the kernel. There are many open source project out 
there, which are known to be rock stable. And I am sure, KDE4 will 
become rock stable and better than KDE3 was. May be that the current 
version is not, but next will be. There are may people out there 
working on it.

Martin

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