Just read another "forget desktop Linux" piece by a writer trying to cover Free software on a sight ostensibly doing the same. This is exactly the sort of thing I wrote about in a recent blog entry, and it's sad to see it continue.
First off, "world domination" is not the only metric, nor the most useful one in every case. We have tens of millions of users around the world and I'm sure they'd appreciate it if we didn't forget them. I am one of them, and I know I certainly feel that way. You may be as well.
There's another aspect to that article: it suggests concentrating on mobile. Now .. where have I heard that before? Oh, right: everyone saying the desktop is dead, long live the web, we should focus all our efforts there.
Wake up call #1: hundreds of millions of laptop and desktop systems are sold each year. It's a market that isn't going away. Nothing is "killing" it. It is being displaced to some extent, but it isn't going away. It's less interesting because it isn't growing, and the corporate drive for ever increasing profits thus stamps it as "mature, boring." This is different from "dead."
Wake up call #2: there is no reason we can't do desktop and mobile and web. Yes, "and", not "or". Free software projects could create very compelling horizontal integration between these sectors as long as we treat them as not being mutually exclusive choices. This is part of the strategy of both Apple and Microsoft (and others), and the market would berate either for saying that they were abandoning some of these tech segments to focus exclusively on one. In KDE, our focus on the desktop has been extended to devices and the web in the last few years, and that's a good thing, something that should be supported. Which brings me to:
Wake up call #3: If people engaged in supporting Free software can't manage to keep long term focus, not freak out and continue to support the efforts that are ongoing ... we're screwed. We are, and will be, our own best friends or our own worst enemies. It starts by not telling others to stop supporting the efforts of thousands of volunteers and companies from around the world. That is, simply put, a betrayal.
A sophisticated view would be an examination of how we can draw together the efforts and successes of mobile for the desktop to give it a boost; to analyze how Free software desktop products and Free software mobile and web products can integrate and work well together.
There are projects and teams out there doing exactly that right now. Several teams in KDE are doing exactly that, and we mean business. It would be nice to not have to keep pulling knives out of our backs from journalists as we continue pushing forward. Long live Free software on the desktop, mobile, web and server!
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13 comments:
i was a microsoft user since 1992
dos
win9.x=>win vista \ seven.
i hated virus and stupid stuff
=>tested madriva mandrake suse fedora archlinux chakra debian
=> switched to ubuntu ~6 months => switched to kubuntu
=> developed some stuff for my own fun.
i use linux for my desktop. i am fine with it.
and i appreciate open source software, maybe there is not a clear direction but it works.
i appreciate kde software i take advantage from it.... so who cares ? :D
This is part of the strategy of both Apple and Microsoft (and others)
Actually many criticize Microsoft for their "Metro" interface, which is apparently focusing more on mobile form factors, than on regular wide screen desktop. I'm not sure how this trend is justified, but the same thing can be noted in Gnome project. I appreciate that KDE distinguishes both use cases (desktop and mobile) and acknowledges that they need distinct design approaches. "One size fits all" is not going to cut it.
There's no better way to hear the support for the Linux/open software community and it's volunteers than from someone so involved in it. Vivaldi is a huge leap in the right direction and an even bigger player in the fight. I admire the work of everyone involved in making Vivaldi happen. I can't wait to receive the email telling me to pay for it!
Ow, wow. That is some really low-quality punditry, in that article. I agree a 100% with your words Aaron.
Luckily it's not the journalists who write the software. ;)
Thanks for this Aaron.
I find this whole "desktop is dead" theme to be maddening. People who own and use "smartphones" and tablets also own desktops/laptops. The mobile devices are great for their limited purposes but we use our KDE/Linux desktops/laptops for full blown computing.
I appreciate that the awesome KDE folks recognize this and doesn't force a limited "mobile" UI on my dual HD desktop.
Above all I appreciate that KDE SC gives users choice. That is the real strength of the best DE on the planet.
I'm using KDE 4.8 on Slackware current-it's the best iteration of the Linux desktop I've ever seen. The fact that I can't get it preinstalled on a device (yet....) has nothing to do with it's actual capabilities, and everything to do with anticompetitive practices between certain software vendors and hardware manufacturers.
I totally agree the lapt tops and desktops are far from dead!. Ive been using linux for years now. Tablets are a fad nothing more in my opinion. Smart phones are meant to supplement home computers not replace them. Glad someone has spoken up about this.
Well said Aaron!!
The main problem in this kinde of discussion is always "who payed the knife thrower" in moste cases those who pay's the advertisement! How many good developed software products and development strategies have been replaced by bad ones with an excellent marketing machinery.
Surly it would be great to have the same environment and UI experience on all devices but to be sincere a useless waste of resources to gain this! A horse, a bicycle and a car have the same purpose, bring me from A to B and they have different UI's and no one clames for the same UI on this devices!! How dreary would that be ROFL!
So let's keep our differentiation within the UI on different devices but let us develop them so that the interoperability between them is much much much better then today!!
" ... can't wait to receive the mail telling me to pay for it" me toooo
There is this current hipster trend in support of mobile.
The whole GNOME 3 can be described as a mobilization - everything wants to be slick fast slender shiny, everything should run on mobiles, everything should support touch screen interfaces.
As a desktop user, none of that interests me. I think in due time, this trend will shrink again.
But we can not deny that this trend exists and that many developers focus on it. As a user, I felt left out here. I constantly have the impression that GNOME, but also KDE developers, ignore old long term users.
It gives me the feeling that my opinion is entirely irrelevant. I no longer have ANY input over the evolution of anything that is going on. I am put into a situation in where I was when I used MS too.
My biggest complain is not the trend towards something like mobile. My biggest complain is the trend AMONG the developers to flatly ignore input from USERS.
I can understand that developers want to do their own thing, but if MANY DIFFERENT USERS complain about something, why is this not adjusted? Even fat old corporations are not totally ignorant to user input.
To me it seems as if developers do not WANT to deal with users at all in any way.
In the days of github and social coding, I find such an arrogant attitude by developers a big problem and I hope that software will win whose developers ARE A PART OF THE COMMUNITY and not a sacrosanct, outside-standing group of people.
I also do not think that I am the only one with such complaints.
Perhaps rather than focusing on the trends in mobile, developers of big projects like KDE should start to listen very very closely to ALL sorts of user input AND make adjusting changes.
Perhaps rather than focusing on the trends in mobile, developers of big projects like KDE should start to listen very very closely to ALL sorts of user input AND make adjusting changes.
Hmmm, Which user they should listen to, the ones who went up in arms complaining about KDE 4 when devs were in the midst of major insightful paradigm?
I agree they should listen but the decision should remain with the developers. If they have listened to the roaring complainers, KDE 4 wouldn't have been completed and it wouldn't have been possible to support three, if not more, types of interfaces at the same time for different distinct devices. And the beauty of all is, as I understand it, whatever is developed or enhanced for one, will be backtracked to the others.
KDE tean should be congratulated on their tenacity, persistence, and insightful imagination.
When will Vivaldi come out?
I can't wait!
@shevy: a dictatorship by users doesn't work. the reply by "Unknown" notes some reasons why (too many different viewpoints, limitations in expertise, etc. etc.)
in collaborative efforts people, well, collaborate. everyone does not get their way every single time. working together, we can maximize the results, but it requires working together, something that happens in KDE every single day.
the disease of blame and expecting "whatever *i* say is what happens" creates contention and conflict. bringing up the topic of user feedback on a blog entry that has NOTHING to do with that whatsoever is a perfect example of this problem.
so here's my commitment to curbing it: in future, if people post off-topic "listen to the users, you clods!" comments on my blog i will simply delete them.
A small percentage of a large number can be significant. A Mac user praising Linux Desktop.
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