Repositioning the KDE Brand (KDE.News)

Integrated, yes, but not tightly coupled. The integration that is a definite feature and benefit of using multiple pieces of KDE software with each other gets confused with tight coupling, which is a state where you can't reasonably pull the pieces apart.

With KDE's software, you can run the various workspaces and applications independently from each other. There is user experience and even feature benefit from running them together, but even separate they work very well. We've also paid a lot of attention to getting our apps to work well in other workspaces, such as how the buttons change order in dialogs when run in a KDE, GNOME, MacOS or MS Windows workspace, or how we can now use the native file and print dialogs.

So, yes, integration is there. It's a great feature. We do recommend people take advantage of that by running lots of KDE software titles together ... but it's not a requirement.

"you can install parts of it, but how common *is* that?"

Very common, actually. On Linux, many people who use a GNOME workspace shell also use KDE apps like Amarok, K3B, Konqueror, Dolphin and Digikam.

"Probably either people install one KDE app they particularly like"

Exactly, and we're trying to help increase the occurrence of that by raising awareness that things are not tightly coupled and that the libraries underneath are also highly portable and modular themselves.

"the KDE desktop that you're trying to say doesn't exist, plasma and all. "

We're not saying that there is no such thing as a KDE desktop. We're saying that it's simply not the only thing we do, nor is it the most important thing we do (it's equally important, but not more). The KDE Plasma Desktop (and, for that matter, KDE Plasma Netbook) do indeed exist and you do indeed get a better experience running other KDE applications when you use a KDE workspace (file dialog, configuration and other basic feature consistency, for instance).

We're not saying it doesn't exist, we're simply saying that it's not the only configuration and that you can most definitely go ala cart if you wish, as many already do.

Instead of thinking of it as a binary operation (there is or there isn't a desktop) think of it as a system that integrates well as you bring the pieces together but where none the pieces *require* the others with the exception of the base libraries. This makes it more of a rainbow than a black and white situation, and that is something that appeals to a far wider audience.

We very, very happy when someone uses all of KDE's software and we will continue to encourage that "whole enchilada" approach. For those who that isn't appealing, though, we'd rather see them use at least some of our software than none of it, especially as that is already possible right now and works very well.