Like all red blooded sexually potent male Linux Geeks, I too hate KDE 4, but KDE 3 is not going anywhere, so there's no need to panic, and there's no reason for anyone to lose sight of the mutual respect needed to foster a community.

I think we owe a debt of gratitude to Aaron and to SJVN for being the respective lightning rods for the recent airing of anxieties. I can't imagine what it would be like to be demonized in the GNU/Linux online community as both these men have been. Aaron was helpful and as patient as could be expected, taking the time to answer individual users concerns when he had enough on his plate. He personally helped me understand the situation and to calm the hell down more than any one person. SJVN is often misunderstood, in my opinion. People think he's trying to manipulate hits, but so many others have resorted to cheap tricks without having anything interesting to say. It's easy to generate hits with a provocative headline, but SJVN seems to have a gift for provocative ideas, ideas that generate discussion as well as page hits. As far as I can know, neither of these men behaved dishonorably at any time, and we are lucky to have both of them.

I think what happened was that many people suddenly realized that their misgivings about KDE4 were not theirs alone, and a great communal outpouring of emotion followed... and of course, that touched off conflict in turn. It was bound to happen, the sooner the better.

Honestly, I haven't a clue how I'm going to feel about KDE4 a year from now. Let's just wait and see, because that's what needs to be done. Now that cooler heads seem to be carrying the day. I doubt that anyone seriously expects KDE to take a U-turn before KDE 4 is fully deployed. I don't anticipate that a fork will be required, but if it is, we'll talk about it then. I'm glad it's all out in the open, and I thank the vast majority of the community for not resorting to the disrespect for others that a minority resorted to.