KDE 4.6 released

Posted Jan 31, 2011 22:24 UTC (Mon) by anselm (subscriber, #2796)
In reply to: KDE 4.6 released by halla
Parent article: KDE 4.6 released

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the KDE developers need to decide whether they want to produce a dependable desktop environment where users can rely on bugs or regressions being addressed (in which case some developers will eventually have to condescend to working on the unpopular tasks, too) or whether they want to provide a free-for-all for hobbyist developers (in which case every developer gets to do what they please), with users being allowed to tag along for the ride as long as they don't make themselves too obnoxious. In other words, is the KDE project's primary goal providing entertainment for its developers or a service for its users?

Summarily dissing people with legitimate claims about bugs in KDE as »whiners« who do not contribute is a cheap shot. KDE is a large and complicated body of code and it is not as if someone could, just like so, pull down the source and fix a few bugs that even the KDE developers themselves seem to be either afraid or else incapable of addressing. Also, for all you know, those »whiners« may be contributing to the FLOSS community at large in untold other ways.

KDE 4.6 released

Posted Jan 31, 2011 23:52 UTC (Mon) by jospoortvliet (guest, #33164) [Link]

problem is that we're talking about a niche issue here. Multihead is something very few people run - multiscreen on the other hand is used plenty (and works just fine). The developers simply can't fix every minority issue - they have to focus on big things. And keep fun in mind too, otherwise, why work on this in the first place?

So aseigo could of course tell ppl he won't accept new features but wants them to work on fixing every darn issue they don't personally care about - KDE would quickly wither and die.

So for the long term, KDE has to make sure it's products are good enough - and at the same time, keep working in and on KDE fun. It is a delicate balance and usually minor features and issues are the victim of it.

That's why it is good to have some corporate funding - they often pay for the boring, finishing touch ;-)