Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Mon 15th Dec 2003 07:07 UTC
The latest beta of KDE's 3.2, beta 2, was released a few days ago. I installed the provided Fedora RPMs and had a look in this early pre-release version of the popular X11 desktop environment. Six screenshots are included. We look at both the strengths and the weaknesses of the DE.
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You may know more about user interfaces than me, but I think I know more about marketing than you. KDE shouldn't diss its current market just because they could gain another. If they must gain the new one, they should at least accomodate their current userbase instead of alienating them.
When I download KDE, say in the form of RPMs or DEBs, or make it myself, I don't want to have all the tweak options hidden from me. I want them right at my face, because if I could install KDE by myself, and I even bothered to install KDE by myself and even more I know what KDE is - I don't want default. I may not like the default colour and theme, for example (which I don't, I loathe Keramik, and I don't quite like the blue used in the default colour scheme. Some people may like animation, but I don't, and would love a way to switch them off.
Without changing some XML document or something (ala GConf).
Now, what about the home users? As you say, KDE has a lot of flexiblity, and even more so, it is easy to develop for. If you want a clean control panel - get a distribution that does it well for you (like Xandros, which had a great product with 1.0). But leave us geeks alone.
With KDE, it isn't even near imposible to change contextual menus (Oh BTW, I do zip up the web sites I save, normally of news sites like New York Times which after a few days it goes cold and I need a subscription to read it again. But I save it in Opera first than zip it up to save space). The sky's the limit with changing KDE in and out. And still maintain compatiblity with the rest of the KDE world (well, in theory at least).
As a distributor, you don't have to bundle 3-4 text editors. Even if you have to keep the backend to run certain applications (IIRC, KDevelop needs Kate), on the menu you could put one text editor. And you can shed some applications here and there, and because of KDE's architecture, you can further integrate certain applications to fit your target market.
But, as for me, I don't want KDE to change into a GNOME. If Xandros or Lindows.com or any other company wants to simplify it to the point of OS X or Windows XP, be my guest. But for pure KDE from kde.org - please, leave it as it is. Sure, rearrange things if you like, but to kick out certain features. It is after all targeted towards geeks.