2005/11/9, Andreas Girardet
On Thu, Nov 10, 2005 at 8:49 am, in message <3a22cf80511091149g6dcf17d9v@mail.gmail.com>, mourguiart@gmail.com wrote:
"we are not dropping KDE entirely, we will make Gnome the default and the recommended platform but the plan is to continue to offer KDE as an option in all of the Linux products. We have had to implement a large restructuring in the product development area and needed to focus our efforts. We are working on a full FAQ on our desktop strategy that will be available to you, but we will not be eliminating KDE as a part of this plan. I hope this helps."
I think this helps hugely! And I am so happy the rumors are NOT true.
I don?t know any important distribution that have drop KDE or Gnome completely, I just don?t think that?s the point the thing is that SUSE is by now the best KDE distribution out there, that's why i'm a SUSE user and that my friend is going to change.
And i can see only two important reasons to focus on Gnome:
1. Mono, but why not to force Icaza to implement QT in Mono !!! He?s answers about it are ridiculous, is that more difficult than focus all SUSE on Gnome ??
Good point. But why would you re implement something in another toolkit? One toolkit is enough. I rather have the toolkits compatibilities between each other improved. From what I can follow via the KDE project, this is exactly what is going to happen anyhow.
Personally I can see why Gnome will be pushed more as it will leverage our large investment into Gnome. KDE is so well maintained by the non - suse KDE community that SUSE is going to continue to be the best KDE desktop, but additionally to that it will also be the best Gnome desktop. KDE standard packages are so good that hardly any real maintenance has to be done as many of the lead kde developers are part of the SUSE team and from what I can gather, they still will be.
There is nothing wrong with focusing on what is possible to be ready for the fight with M$ once Vista is out.
2. LGPL, Is easy to make closed applications using Gnome than using KDE.
I don't really know why that would be a bad thing. After all SUSE is already a mix of closed and open applications.
So yes, i thing this is a bad thing
KDE is still going to be around and SUSE is still going to be the best KDE desktop. We still are going to have a fully maintained KDE. I would think that in real world terms all that changes is that the gnome desktop will get better and more integrated, but in the end we as a SUSE community now have the reigns when it comes to making sure that KDE is going to be at a par.
I honestly think this is actually a good thing as it puts the control of a KDE desktop into our hands (as it should be) and we can make it even better. This is after all why the openSUSE community was founded, to allow certain parts of the product to be maintained by the community and allow us as Novell to concentrate as a business on those items that will make Linux a winner in the corporate environment and ultimately provide a clear choice to todays PC user.
I don't know when the FAQ will be available, but as soon as I know I let you all know.
KDE is NOT a gonner and is here to stay as intrinsically part of our products. SUSE will stay the best KDE desktop. I will do my part to ensure the latter. If we all as a community do our part than I have no doubt that SUSE is going to rule the Gnome/Enterprise market and the KDE/Home user market. After all it is up to us to make this happen. I am glad that this is still the case.
I can understand the frustration around these rumors and I am just mightily thankful they are just that.
Go SUSE go!
When Novell buy SUSE, i said "mmm SUSE is going to be more closed and i don´t like this", but the time have show me that SUSE become even more open than before ( Yast is now GPL, opensuse, etc ), so i think i can just wait and see if SUSE maintain the high quality in the KDE desktop. Thanks. pd: Sorry for my bad english -- Marcel Mourguiart