talking bluntly of KDE 3.5 and 4.0
Now that 4.0.0 is tagged and out and that bit of worry and concern is behind me for the moment, I wanted to take a moment to talk really bluntly about 4.0. In particular, I'm going to address some of the common memes in fairly random order that i see about kde 3.5 and 4.0. I'm going to speak bluntly (though not rudely =) so prepare yourself
Meme 1: What is the future of 3.5?
This year, as with most years since KDE3 emerge, there have been huge deployments of KDE 3 based software. These deployments will not shift for years to come, no matter what KDE4 is. This is because large institutional deployments (government, corporate, educational, etc) typically have 3-7 year cycles (sometimes even longer) between major changes. Patches and security fixes? Sure. Major revamps? No. This alone ensures that KDE3 will remain supported for years. Why? Because there are users. That is how the open source dev model works: where there are users, there are developers; as one declines so does the other. The developers tend to be a step ahead of the users for software that is progressive, but you'll also find the have a foot in here and now (as well as the past, often).
KDE3 is still open in our svn so that bug fixes, security fixes, etc. can continue to be made. KDE 3.5.x is a rather solid desktop system and really doesn't need a huge amount of work given what it is today; the work to move it to the next level is what we refer to as KDE4, of course. This means that the efforts needed to put into it aren't huge to keep it viable. However, efforts that do go into it are welcome.
While the core KDE team will continue to concentrate our work on KDE4 since that is the long term direction of things, it is fully expected that our partners (which also include some core team members among them) will continue supporting and even developing on KDE3 issues. The central project will also be around to lend helping hand with advice and what not; I did that for a person the week before I left for holidays in December, actually, so it's not wild hypothesis but solid theory.
For those familiar with the open source method, the above probably sounds .. well .. obvious. That's because it is .. for those familiar with the open source method. We will find in this blog entry that many of the concerns people raise come from not acknowledging how Free(dom) software is created via the open source method.
Meme 2: KDE 4.0 isn't what a business would do
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today's howtos
|
best of both worlds :)
I love the direction KDE4 is taking, been using the builds on openSuSE and it just keeps getting better and better as the first stable approaches.
I will have KDE4 installed and be moving to KDE4.1 cvs builds as soon as it starts to be developed on largely.
However...
I WILL be keeping KDE3 installed for many reasons.
These are:
1) That killer app that keeps me addicted to KDE.
(there are a few of these)
2) The Stability of KDE4 is not quite as good as KDE3.
3) Loads of apps integrated within KDE3 very nicely.
4) Compiz-Fusion works better in KDE3 I find (not used it in KDE4 for a while as the effects I got were, well... lacking)
5) wireless networking a LOT easier to use (at least for me)
Good reasons to have KDE4.x installed alongside:
1) konqueror/dolphin just GOT to have the latest version
2) plasma looks COOL!!!
(Ok not as stable as I would like and I don't have OpenGL shaders... ATI grrr)
3) latest Amarok... not a huge fan of Amarok but it's looking NICE in KDE4
4) Startmenu... (not a biggy as I use SuSE, but I do like it)
5) having parallel sessions means I can log into KDE of choice
In summary, I recommend giving it a try, seeing how it feels, seriously consider KDE4.1 but if you want something approaching rock solid KDE3 is still your best bet
good luck with all of you Linux users
KDE 4.0 - why now?
After a few posts about why we release KDE 4.0 while it's in a not-yet-perfect state, Aaron wrote an excellent post about it. Even though is post was pretty much perfect, I want to add a little thing to it - maybe obvious to most, but probably insightful to others.
More Here
Another month for KDE 4.0 release -- better?
Still I think they should have waited another month and a half (end of February release), to give plasma some more features, polish, and bug fixing. I'll see if it's good enough for daily use (on my experimental machine) when it's released next week. I'll continue to use 3.5.8 on my production machine. Imagine many others have similar plans.
Wait for 4.1?
A month won't turn brass into gold. If this is too cutting edge, wait for 4.1 (later in 2008).
Things are still in flux with KDE 4.0.0
I've been keeping current with the latest openSUSE KDE 4 packages -- it seems there's an updated batch of them every day.
Within the last day or so, Dolphin got a "View hidden files" menu choice, which it really needed in order to call itself a File Manager. But Konqueror, which uses the Dolphin "KPart," does not yet have a menu choice allowing one to view hidden files.
Things are still changing. This will definitely make for an interesting review.
RTM on SVN?
I can imagine that this release will be more suitable for download as a nightly than a static...
Still, I'm a bit fan.