The Critics are Wrong: KDE 4 Doesn't Need a Fork
Linked by David Adams on Wed 2nd Jul 2008 16:11 UTC, submitted by elsewhere
KDE "After the recent release KDE 4.1 beta 2 and openSUSE 11 with KDE 4.0.4, some critics have been especially vocal in expressing their displeasure with the KDE 4 user interface paradigms. The debate has grown increasingly caustic as critics and supporters engage in a war of words over the technology. The controversy has escalated to the point where some users are now advocating a fork in order to move forward the old KDE 3.5 UI paradigms. As an observer who has closely studied each new release of KDE 4, I'm convinced that the fork rhetoric is an absurdly unproductive direction for this debate."
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RE: Forks are good
by GeneralZod on Wed 2nd Jul 2008 18:47 UTC in reply to "Forks are good"
GeneralZod
Member since:
2007-08-03

"As long as there is no forking of the underlying core libraries I fail to see what the problem is."

The way I look at it, Plasma is *explicitly designed* to have a new "desktop" built on its technologies: the "desktop" background is designed to be replaceable; the panels are designed to be replaceable; core components like the taskbar, menu etc are designed to be replaceable; etc. As the scripting support and other core technologies mature, these items will eventually be able to be replaced simply by browsing with Hot New Stuff and seeing what pre-made desktops are available.

I'd look on a clone of OS X's dock - or indeed, of KDE3's kicker and kdesktop - written with libplasma as as much of a "fork" of Plasma as a new Firefox theme and an extension that grants it extra functionality is a "fork" of Firefox.

Edit:

Damnit, should've refreshed: Richard said everything I wanted to say already.

Edited 2008-07-02 18:48 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 5

RE[2]: Forks are good
by dagw on Wed 2nd Jul 2008 19:20 in reply to "RE: Forks are good"
dagw Member since:
2005-07-06

I'd look on a clone of OS X's dock - or indeed, of KDE3's kicker and kdesktop - written with libplasma as as much of a "fork" of Plasma as a new Firefox theme and an extension that grants it extra functionality is a "fork" of Firefox.

I'd like to see more the equivalent of Flock ( http://flock.com ) than simply a new theme. Basically someone took the Firefox render engine and codebase and wrote a browser trying something new and different on top of it. Take the seriously cool stuff underlying the KDE 4 project and see what you make it do by trying to build something different from the official desktop with it.

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[3]: Forks are good
by aseigo on Wed 2nd Jul 2008 19:26 in reply to "RE[2]: Forks are good"
aseigo Member since:
2005-07-06

see what you make it do by trying to build something different from the official desktop with it.


being tired of the one-true-way-of-doing-things in kde3 (e.g. icons on the desktop, "the" k menu, and *always* a panel!) with no recourse other than a complete rewrite of things, i started designing plasma.

so i would love to see what you describe above to happen as it is one of the motivations behind the project: make it easy to make new stuff with no assumptions forced upon you.

this is why there are something like 6 different application launchers (aka "application menus") in development in different places. diversify, experiment, realize that confining people to one way of doing things is Bad(tm) (even though you need to provide a default experience).

it seemed quite in line with the ideas of freedom otherwise embodied in our software.

Edited 2008-07-02 19:26 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 13