[kdenlive] Catching discussions from Kdenlive café #7

[Jesse DuBord]

I respectfully disagree on same look everywhere. I use the breeze dark 
theme on my desktop, and expect ALL my applications to have that theme 
applied. Someone else might prefer a different theme for their desktop, 
and expect that theme to be everywhere. Like it or not, desktops have 
themes, and there are as many variations as there are people using them. 
Even something as simple as layout... what I prefer is completely 
different from what you prefer. The beauty of kdenlive today it that it 
is _configurable_, so that you can get the look and layout that you 
want, and I can get the look and layout that _I_ want, and everybody is 
happy. Evert, I definitely understand where you're coming from. Themes 
are awesome! I remember back with XP on a laptop then I was a teen, and 
being able to customize the look for the first time. To make it my own 
-- that was just tops. Now GNU/Linux distros everywhere have soo much 
custom possibilities. Kdenlive has the same amazing array of 
customization options, thanks to JB and the team, and that's just swell. 
That said, Kdenlive does have a default layout (regardless that I think 
it's time for a new default layout). It does have an /intended /color 
scheme that works best for the interface and keeps the user focused on 
editing rather than being distracted by the empty space or wild array of 
icon colors. There are two main reasons I agree with Farid that there 
should be a universal *default* layout and theme across the board: (1) 
Some themes seriously jack up the look of Kdenlive, to the point where 
they can't even see some icons, buttons or options. A default theme 
(and, preferably, a dark theme in my opinion, for various reasons) that 
shows all functions, icons, etc. in a clean, professional and appealing 
way seems best to me. Again, all just opinion. (2) There are very real 
marketing & brand recognition purposes for a universal look. Lightworks 
looks the exact same across Windows, Mac and Linux. Adobe Premiere looks 
the same on Mac and Windows. It's the same with updating the desktop 
icon across different distros -- recognizing Kdenlive will bring much 
more unity in the community. Customize it? Absolutely! But have a 
default color scheme and theme? I think that'd be more advantageous.
The biggest detractor of Kdenlive today is that it is so buggy that you 
can't do any serious work on it. Of course I use the git version, so the 
set up bugs keep changing, and I do bug reports as quickly as I can 
ferret them out, but the list of bugs seem to be growing. At some point 
we have to stop adding features for a bit and squash bugs, which will 
improve the user experience much, much more than a nice set of icons. 
I'd have to agree. JB and the team have made huge leaps and bound in 
stability since my first encounter with Kdenlive back in 0.9.6. I still 
use the git master for my professional projects, and for the most part, 
it's working just fine. JB has been quick to fix my bugs reported in the 
git master PPA on Ubuntu (Linux Mint, specifically), for which I'm super 
grateful. But yest, I think there does need to be some considerable 
focus on fixing bugs rather than new implementation of features. 
Stability, in my opinion, takes priority over features. Again, just my 
opinion. I know it's difficult with one main developer on a project, and 
I'm sure it's felt by the dev's. Maybe there's a way we can get more 
developers on board the project? A campaign of some kind? I'd be happy 
to brainstorm ideas with you all on how to attract new and long-lasting 
commitments to Kdenlive. That'd make things much easier: some dedicated 
to fixing bugs, others to work on features, etc.

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