On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 12:30, Daniel Mader
[SNIP]
At the same time, I feel very much unsettled about the path KDE4 goes. It is still miles away from enterprise desktop usage. It lacks both features and stabiliy: * printing is a joke. Compared to Windows, MacOS and Gnome, it is just downright broken. No one can tell, if it will ever improve again, since Nokia doesn't care. Them is very strong fighting words. It would be great to see the evidence that backs those words up.
* PIM is lacking features, such as synchronizing with syncML and the like. It doesn't even have plugins for Google stuff, which would greatly enhance popularity. Again, noone seems to care Again, I ask for evidence of those very strong words.
Gnome is attracting large portions of former hard core KDE3 users, that's a fact. Bashing those "poisonous users" may seem justified from the perspective of a volunteer developper from amarok and the like but it doesn't make the problem go away. KDE 4 is currently not an option for serious desktop usage. Period. What scares me, though, is the fact that it will still not be an option in 4.3 and thus 11.2. Intermediate version upgrades from factory are not an option, either, so that means, for openSUSE the first working KDE desktop is still about 1.5 yrs from now... I think I know where the problem lies. It lies not with the developers but the users. Hear/read me out. You must have heard the one about keeping up with the Joneses. That is exactly what is going on here. Users think KDE4 is a drop in replacement for _every_ part of KDE3 with added shiny bits. Well, that is not the case and we as users, need to stop thinking it is. We have been told, time and time again, that
[SNIP] things will eventually get there. It seems we refuse to believe the developers who tell us this. If we want to keep up with the Joneses, we have to be prepared for all the missteps along the way. KDE4 is not complete yet and still has a long way to go. It will get there, but it going to be long and bumpy ride for all the complainers.
We *need* better packaging, and we need stable, frequent and reliable KDE4 snapshots provided for the endusers' audience. If we don't, I see the KDE market share drop to 30% from once 90%. I do think you are going to get all three at once, you can get frequent or you can get stable and reliable. This is simply due to the fact that to get stable and reliable, only small changes can go into the code base, and those changes have to be fixes. What you will get are releases that implement functions that get stable over time. As for the KDE dropping, that may well happen, but I can assure you it will pick up again.
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