KDE4

[Tony Alfrey]

Andrew Gould wrote:
> On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 9:21 AM, Tony Alfrey <tonyalfrey at earthlink.net>wrote:

>> Many are simply saying that KDE4 and KDE3.5 are simply two different
>> products and that they want one and not the other.  Developers (or perhaps
>> marketers) are saying "we'll fix KED4".  Customers are saying "Fine, go fix
>> it all you like, but we don't want it."  I think this may be closer to the
>> heart of the issue.


> 
> There's a delicate balance between catering to your market and developing
> your market.  I'm glad I never have to make that decision.

Yes on all counts.  "developing your market" is what marketers are 
supposed to do.  And I think Step 1 in that process is to actually *ask* 
customers what they want.  ;-)

> 
> Let's keep in mind, however, that KDE didn't decide how/when to push KDE4
> into each os/distribution release.

Yes, of course.  But I still get the sense that, even if all parts of 
4.x would have been essentially finished on release, there would still 
have been complaints.  For example, it is becoming increasingly 
difficult to buy a car with a manual transmission.  I want to *buy* a 
manual transmission.  I'm told a variety of things by car manufacturers; 
"they're obsolete", "new automatics are better", etc.  But I'm the 
customer;  I want a manual transmission.

Now replace the word "car" with the words "linux distribution", the word 
"transmission" with "desktop environment", the words "manual" and 
"automatic" with "KDE3.5" and "KDE4.x".  This is the crux of my argument 
about the two things being two different products.  I think many users 
are saying two things:
a.  "KDE4.early_release is broken."
b.  "I don't want KDE4.fixed"



-- 
Tony Alfrey
tonyalfrey at earthlink.net
"I'd Rather Be Sailing"