[Bug 233078] New: KAddressbook in KDE 4.4 is not feature-complete

[Kumaran Santhanam]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=233078

           Summary: KAddressbook in KDE 4.4 is not feature-complete
           Product: kaddressbook
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Fedora RPMs
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: crash
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
        AssignedTo: kdepim-bugs at kde.org
        ReportedBy: kumaran at alumni.stanford.org
                CC: tokoe at kde.org


Version:            (using KDE 4.4.1)
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Fedora RPMs

There have been many discussions about this topic, but this bug is intended to
consolidate the issues in one place.

The KAddressbook implemented in 4.4 is missing many features which users have
come to depend on in version 4.3 and prior:

Missing fields - bug 222678
Missing Apply button - bug 222677
Confusing search results - bug 222676
Missing columns - bug 222690
No checkboxes to select addressbooks
Missing SMS link in contact pane
Inability to search across multiple address books
...more...

The developer has stated that this version was implemented as part of the
migration to Akonadi.  However, the rest of KMail is not fully integrated with
Akonadi, so the new address book integration is of limited utility at this
point.

Most of the users of KDE are not developers, with many of them also being
business users who expect some degree of feature stability.  These users are
dependent on their distribution to provide package updates.  The distributions
are, in turn, dependent on the KDE project to provide updates.

There is general understanding in the community that minor version releases
(i.e. 4.3 -> 4.4) will not drastically break existing functionality.  For the
address book, this social contract has been ignored, causing a huge number of
issues downstream to both distributions and end users.

Here is a thread which describes a number of issues in detail:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdepim/+bug/507990

KDE is a great desktop environment and has produced a lot of technical
innovation.  However, there is sometimes an pattern of focusing too much on
core technology and not enough on user experience.

CalDAV support (bug 133614) is a good example of this.  The issue has been open
since 2006, with nobody to prioritize its implementation as a key competitive
feature.  When a simple KResource implementation was proposed, there were
suggestions to use the fledgling Akonadi framework because it would be
"easier".  The focus should be the user, not the technology.  We were able to
engage an external resource who created the KResource connector in under a
couple of person-weeks.  The benefit is that the software is usable today on a
mature platform.

With the user experience as a guide, I ask that the community to please
consider one of the following proposals: 1) roll back the addressbook
implementation to the 4.3 version, or 2) accelerate development so that the
addressbook is feature complete in 4.4.3.

Akonadi integration promises to bring many benefits to KDE users.  With a
properly staged approach, the transition can be made easier for everyone in the
community.

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