"The next-generation of the KDE open source project, version 4.0, has been touted as the beginning of a new era in desktop computing, but only two months from the first release some users are wondering if it's just all hype. KDE 4.0 will bring a collection of new technologies to the Linux and Unix desktop, but there are uncertainties around how much of it will be included in the initial release. KDE user Andreas Pakulat expressed doubt about how the release will take shape in a blog post titled 'Where's the KDE4 desktop?'." KDE's Aaron Seigo also shares his thoughts on this.
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Member since:2007-06-06
Why not? It worked for the human race (though some may disagree with this xD).
I dunno i've always found well thought out, gradual additions to software a 'better' approach. Admittedly you do need to break away from legacy code sometimes but if you dont need to you just end up causing a huge amount of work, bug creation yet more frameworks doing things that have already been solved. I'm not saying if that applies to KDE4 though, because I simply don't know much about the upcoming release (i've not had time to look at it yet).
The demos and such I have seen look promising though. It looks like a lot of new ideas(and old ideas, implemented well) are coming out of the next revision.
The question is, what will stick and what will fall by the wayside? I think that will answer the revolution vs hype vs evolution question. Right now it seems a mixture of all of them.
Edited 2007-08-29 15:49
Member since:2005-07-07
Have a good look at your biology. There are several words for the concept ('adaptive radiation', jump-wise evolution etc) but scientists haven't thought evolution to go all gradually for a long time.
And sure, it's a mix of evolution and revolution. As I said somewhere else in this page, you need both. It's about exploring new possibilities while exploiting current capabilities.
Member since:
2005-07-07
You can't get all the way with only evolution. Sometimes, you get stuck somewhere, and you need to shake things up. We discussed this, btw:
http://troy-at-kde.livejournal.com/5647.html?view=34575#t34575