Yet another failed KDE release?

[Kevin Krammer]

On Sunday, 2013-03-24, Renaud (Ron) Olgiati wrote:
> On Sunday 24 Mar 2013 11:41 my mailbox was graced by a message from Kevin
> 
> Krammer who wrote:
> > For example, if we look at KMail, one can easily fall into the trap of
> > thinking of it as just an program for writing and reading emails and thus
> > compare it too closely with other products that do that but only that.
> > 
> > However, if one considers the additional requirements, it becomes often
> > quickly obvious that other product's features for those requirements are
> > either quite crude or not existant at all.
> 
> Thank $DEITY the other products do not, or they would be bloatware in the
> same way Kmail has become.

Well, it is not bloatware, it contains features required for certain use 
cases.
One of the reasons there are many different products for similar tasks is that 
not all users have the same tasks and can thus use applications more tailored 
to their specific use case.

From the point of view of people working with console tools any software with 
graphical interface could be called bloatware, while other users would find it 
an absolute necessity.

Especially Free Software allows a lot of sharing underlying technology, making 
it very viable to have different products for different needs.

> Given that most users only need a simple email client, with attached
> addressbook, what about a Kmail-lite, that would be smaller, faster and
> simpler, for those users who do not feel the need to have a complete
> petrochemical works for preparing a cup of tea....

Sure, anyone if free to do that, all libraries used by KMail proper are Free 
Software and can be used independent of the program they were originally 
created for.
However, there seem to be quite some programs out there that fill that use 
case already, so it might not be best possible choice for investing time :)

Cheers,
Kevin
-- 
Kevin Krammer, KDE developer, xdg-utils developer
KDE user support, developer mentoring
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