Robert Pogson

The bazaar approach to Free Software development is hard to understand/categorize. If you want something done, you either do it yourself or get someone else to do it. When no one is in charge, that gets interesting.

KDE was my first GNU/Linux desktop environment. I still remember the silliness of accidentally clicking on the hole in the gear and nothing would happen… It was utterly solid compared to that other OS I was using at the time. Then there were the library wars and I went with the flow to GNOME. On some older PCs I find in homes and schools, I use XFCE4 because it does what is necessary and not much more.

While I wandered in the forest looking for mushrooms, KDE evolved, or someone turned the wheel of the bus in the direction of a “new desktop paradigm” etc. Stuff I cannot imagine. I naturally clutter any flat stop with stuff so I can see what I am currently using. The old paradigm worked for me. Even the ancient MacOS of the 1970s worked better for me than some of these new ideas. I have no memory, at least not one that works in real time, so I need to see clutter. Eliminating clutter eliminates the usefulness of a desktop for me.

Others, though, are driving the bus of KDE and have chosen to “improve” the desktop. Others, who feel as I do are trying to preserve the look and feel of the 3.5 version. Whether the group doing the work can sustain an independent branch of KDE is a question. KDE is large and complex and the libraries it depends upon changed, causing some of the development of the 4 branch.

Apparently, I am not alone. The site of the developers, http://www.pearsoncomputing.net, was /.ed… Perhaps the group will get enough support to make a second KDE branch work. There are those who love change for the sake of change or for some particular features, but “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” applies to software, too.