Ok kids, this has been going on for some time and a slow economy gives me just enough time to throw in my 2 cents . . . (so if you're busy - stop reading now - nothing new here - just my rant) First, we must remember this is OPEN Suse, not Novel enterprise. The purpose of this OS is for implementing new features and functions, working out bugs, all in a "live environment." We all use this OS and the millions of lines of code, written in hundreds of thousands of man hours, - for free. My first exposure to Linux was "RedHat 7.1". Some business associates and I were trying to develop a web application. The only programmer in group explained that developing in a "LAMP" format would save us thousands on the front end. (easy decision) I installed RedHat in a dual boot configuration on my desktop. After a few weeks I realized I was doing most of my "Office" work Linux because it was a pain to switch back and forth - and I noticed that it almost never crashed. I eventually use RedHat as my main desktop OS, then switched to Suse 9.0. Back then it didn't recognize my usb ports at all. The available browsers all had bugs so you had to have an array of Opera, Mozilla, Konq, to view many websites - even so many just said - sorry you need MSIE to view this site. Video ? forget it. Wireless ? not a chance. Laptop support ? minimal. Sync a cell phone? Don't even think about it. Now . . . I can't remember the last time a web site didn't render correctly. USB support is great. Video? - its a snap. Laptop and wireless? way easier than Windows. Cell phones still take some work. Yeah, KDE 4.3 is buggy. But you know what ? I love it. I love it because I'm shallow and it looks so freakin good ! After years of watching people show off their MAC and Windows "eye candy" - I love watching their response to my plazmoids, spinning desktop, wobbly windows, and various effects - to which they have NO equal - in fact not even close. (Actually I find the "Cube" and translucent windows very helpful in "syncing" my brain with the open apps and windows on various desktops - not just eye candy) Yes, it frustrates me when it locks up, or the plazmoids go wacky. But then I remember - this is OPEN Suse, it's free, and the developers will continue to work on it. In summary, sure we all need to identify the bugs, complain about the ones that have been neglected, and continue to work towards improving the OpenSuse OS; but to assert that it's current state is inferior to the "good ole days" is to purposely ignore the vast expansion in both depth and breadth of features and functions that have taken place in only a few short years. <rant off> Regis On Thu, 2009-09-03 at 09:12 +0200, Sven Burmeister wrote:
Am Montag, 31. August 2009 02:14:22 schrieb Doug McGarrett:
it's an ever changing world.
One thing that's often forgotten is that change does not always mean better.
Change means: difference If you like it or not, has nother to do with being better or not.
If, for one reason, you decide KDE-3.5 is "better", no one will stop you from becoming an additional maintainer for kde-3.5 for 11.3, 12.0 and so on! Wasn't that one of the pradigms of opensource: "use the Source,Luke" ;-)
What makes you think that all of us are programmers?
You do not need to be a programmer to get a kde3 repo going, just interest and time. If you cannot supply the latter two, why should others do so if you do not pay them? Further, elsewhere in this mailinglist users demand an official kde3 repo because it is "static" and not much work to handle. If so, where are the users that do so? Is there not even one user around of those millions that prefer kde3 over 4?
I've done a little bit of BASIC, and an even smaller bit of Pascal, and that was quite a while ago. It would seem to me that the old Anne Landers regime, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," applies here.
Broken for who? KDE3 was broken by design and hence not fixable in many areas, especially the desktop and panel. Those that spend their free time on the software you use for free decided they did not want to work on such bad code anymore but have a proper basis for the future.
But even if we leave the programming bit aside. Just because KDE3 was not broken for you does not mean it was not broken for others. So while you can continue to use your not broken KDE3 with a little bit of effort (which you do not seem willing to invest), you want to force others to do the same and not create KDE4 although those are the ones that supply you with free software and also gave you your beloved KDE3. How selfish of them to make their own decisions about their own life and timespending!
Just because what somebody in SuSE-land thinks KDE could look prettier, or sexier, or just different is no excuse to make it obsolete. There are so many things that guys bitch about, that really _are_ broke, and seem never to get addressed in spite of bug reports--why bother with bug reports at all, if the clowns screwing up a perfectly good desktop don't address them?
"Perfectly good" is more than debatable. People just got used to its bugs and issues. Open source is about voluntarily spending your free time on software others use for free. So either you do so to get the software you want or you have no right to claim anything. Of course you can also replace spending your free time with spending money on people that do what you want, but as long as you do not supply any resources, those that do decide.
Sven
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