i'm sitting in my hotel suite in bangalore. i have internet, i have bottled water and the shower is beckoning to me. it's been somewhere around one day since i actually started traveling to get here. i need to finish up my slides for the day after tomorrow's keynote presentation. i'll be linking to them from my blog once they are available.
but for now ... it's bed time. i'm not overly exhausted, but i am tired enough to take a good 4-5 hour nap. hopefully my next blog entry will be slightly more information and interesting. =)
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
dolphin in svn
the dolphin file manager is now in kde's svn in trunk/playground/utils ... peter penz has cmakified the build started porting to kde4. help out with the porting is welcome and then we can get crazy with the work on this file manager prototype for kde4. the legend himself, david faure, will be assisting with the framework bits building on the work he's already done on model-view'ing our file views. speed, consistency and beauty here we come!
btw, david loves it when your refer to him in person in superlative terms like "the legend". try it. and then give him a hug. he loves hugs too. totally.
i'm about to leave for the airport to attempt a trip to bangalore, india for the foss.in event. i'll be keynoting on the 25th and doing a hands-on workshop the next day. if everything goes well i'll be in my hotel somewhere in excess of 24 hours from now. i have a very tight connection flight gap in frankfurt which i'll make if the stars align and won't if they don't. wish me luck =)
i have news about that patch server thing i babbled about several months ago. it's pretty much there and ready to start deploying. but i'll save that for a blog entry when i'm not running out the door.
btw, david loves it when your refer to him in person in superlative terms like "the legend". try it. and then give him a hug. he loves hugs too. totally.
i'm about to leave for the airport to attempt a trip to bangalore, india for the foss.in event. i'll be keynoting on the 25th and doing a hands-on workshop the next day. if everything goes well i'll be in my hotel somewhere in excess of 24 hours from now. i have a very tight connection flight gap in frankfurt which i'll make if the stars align and won't if they don't. wish me luck =)
i have news about that patch server thing i babbled about several months ago. it's pretty much there and ready to start deploying. but i'll save that for a blog entry when i'm not running out the door.
kisses for cmake
the cmake team just announced the release of 2.4.4. seems like a good time to send some (free) kisses their way.
when we first started moving to cmake i kvetched about how much it was annoying me. since then, thanks in large part to alex and the cmake devs, it's come a long way (baby) and it's a dream to use.
faster than i ever remember autotools being. much less bloat in source packages. quite straightforward.
so ... kisses. =)
when we first started moving to cmake i kvetched about how much it was annoying me. since then, thanks in large part to alex and the cmake devs, it's come a long way (baby) and it's a dream to use.
faster than i ever remember autotools being. much less bloat in source packages. quite straightforward.
so ... kisses. =)
kde on t.v.
chris lee told zack rusin who told me about showtime's amazingly well written, if somewhat violent, new series about a serial killer called (both the show and the killer) "dexter".
watching this week's episode, here's what i saw:
hey! that's kde! or at least some hollywood version of it. seems that kde is increasingly popular with the t.v. shows. now we just need to get them running newer versions that look sexier and start turning this into some bankable promo ;)
watching this week's episode, here's what i saw:
hey! that's kde! or at least some hollywood version of it. seems that kde is increasingly popular with the t.v. shows. now we just need to get them running newer versions that look sexier and start turning this into some bankable promo ;)
Monday, November 20, 2006
thoughts on framing "kde"
for the last year or so there have been two sets of thoughts squirming in the back of my mind with regards to the name "kde" and how we're going to communicate what that means in a post-4.0 world.
the first set of thoughts revolve around the question: "what is kde's unique selling proposition?" the second concerns finding an answer to: "what is a 'kde application'?"
here are short notes on where i am on each of these questions. i've shared them before with others and the feedback provided by these people has been critical to shaping my thinking. i figure that with 4.0 really starting to take shape and a marketing meeting this month in darmstadt, germany this is a good time to discuss it a bit more publicly.
"why use kde and what is the special value in kde?" i've collected lots of answers ranging from technical descriptions to philosophical ones. the two that really stand out in my mind are this: our community and the resulting practical benefits of free(dom) software.
yes, kde4 needs to have lots of great and useful applications. yes, it needs to look gorgeous and introduce new, interesting concepts for the desktop. but honestly these are things that others can mimic given enough time and patience. we mimic some of the better ideas seen in our competitors' efforts, after all.
but what is unique about kde is a combination of our community and freedom. our community is an amazing resource that adds tremendous value to being a kde user. i won't go into lengthy details (i don't have time, nor do i wish to bore everyone all the way to death) but i think it is important that we highlight these items in our public communication of kde4.
the technical excellence of kde becomes a foundational basis upon which this rests. so it remains of prime importance, however it seems people do need something more than good technology to motivate them in their decisions. betamax vs vhs, blah blah blah. and our prime competitor (microsoft) can not compete with us effectively here without fundamentally changing their business model.
how do we communicate these ideas in ways that are impactful, understandable in 20 seconds by the average computer user and don't become some wishy-washy attempt at a lifestyle brand? that's the secret sauce, isn't it? =)
good news is that i've seen and heard some really solid ideas and examples for how to do this. hopefully we'll have "production ready" implementations start to appear soon from the likes of the promo teams.
as kde expands to include operating systems that don't need a workspace (panels, desktop icons, window manager, etc) because they already come with one bolted on the meaning of "kde" starts to queer a bit. we have historically said kde is a desktop. this has in turn caused problems for application teams both in and out of the primary kde project since it coupled their efforts with the kde workspace in the minds of the public a bit too tightly for some.
i'd like to see us position kde™ as a more generic concept: a free and open source consumer computing software brand. it would then become our umbrella name for many things, one of which is the kde workspace. in turn we elevate some of our already known names (or "brands") such as koffice, kde edu, etc. up a bit in relative importance. perhaps we even create one or two new names for things like "applications that come from kde project proper and are recommended as quality choices for a default desktop". the kde workspace itself becomes a "premiere location to run your kde software".
what are the consequences? it makes talking about kde apps on macos or windows simpler; it allows for greater independence for apps like kexi which values being able to run everywhere (kde, gnome, xfce, windows, mac...); it may even give us a clearer path by which to organize our public communication.
what do i mean by that last sentence? look at kde.org right now and click on the screenshots link. it takes one to a set of pages ordered by kde desktop release version number. but what if that's not what you're interested in specifically? what if you want to see screenshots of koffice? right now you have to navigate to the koffice website and hunt for them. you may even note that it says on the koffice main page that "koffice is a free, integrated office suite for KDE." but is it?
this very strongly communicates that "kde" is a desktop and that is its prime objective in life. projects like koffice are somehow subject to it. but is this reflective of reality? if we reinterpreted this communication in terms of "kde is a shared umbrella" perhaps it gets a lot clearer.
perhaps on our main kde page we'd direct people to portals for our office, workspace, etc ... products. from there they would reference being associated with the kde brand (and offer screenshots specific to that project), but that could now be communicated as not being equivalent to the workspace. the workspace would be the preferred, recommended and best place to run all your apps but certainly not the only choice.
it seems this would also give projects like kde edu, koffice, amarok, konqueror, etc. a level of respect and involvement that more accurately reflects their efforts (and the results of those efforts) in our universe.
i've had this conversation with a lot of people in kde as well as some who aren't. it seems to work well enough as a set of thoughts, but it's really not my call. i'm just one guy in a very large project and these aren't just my own personal ideas but the synthesis of the input from many others. to be of any use, though, these ideas need to be something that people in and around kde use as guidance points. this is why i'm sharing it publicly here: so that people can consider the ideas and decide for themselves.
we don't have to have some great project-wide agreement process for this to have positive effects nor am i suggesting any such bureaucratic approach. it just takes enough people adopting the concepts as their own; and i bet they can make the concepts better by doing so. right now feels like a good time to put it out there. whether anything results or not remains to be seen. =)
the first set of thoughts revolve around the question: "what is kde's unique selling proposition?" the second concerns finding an answer to: "what is a 'kde application'?"
here are short notes on where i am on each of these questions. i've shared them before with others and the feedback provided by these people has been critical to shaping my thinking. i figure that with 4.0 really starting to take shape and a marketing meeting this month in darmstadt, germany this is a good time to discuss it a bit more publicly.
kde: a reason to use it
"why use kde and what is the special value in kde?" i've collected lots of answers ranging from technical descriptions to philosophical ones. the two that really stand out in my mind are this: our community and the resulting practical benefits of free(dom) software.
yes, kde4 needs to have lots of great and useful applications. yes, it needs to look gorgeous and introduce new, interesting concepts for the desktop. but honestly these are things that others can mimic given enough time and patience. we mimic some of the better ideas seen in our competitors' efforts, after all.
but what is unique about kde is a combination of our community and freedom. our community is an amazing resource that adds tremendous value to being a kde user. i won't go into lengthy details (i don't have time, nor do i wish to bore everyone all the way to death) but i think it is important that we highlight these items in our public communication of kde4.
the technical excellence of kde becomes a foundational basis upon which this rests. so it remains of prime importance, however it seems people do need something more than good technology to motivate them in their decisions. betamax vs vhs, blah blah blah. and our prime competitor (microsoft) can not compete with us effectively here without fundamentally changing their business model.
how do we communicate these ideas in ways that are impactful, understandable in 20 seconds by the average computer user and don't become some wishy-washy attempt at a lifestyle brand? that's the secret sauce, isn't it? =)
good news is that i've seen and heard some really solid ideas and examples for how to do this. hopefully we'll have "production ready" implementations start to appear soon from the likes of the promo teams.
the meaning of "kde"
as kde expands to include operating systems that don't need a workspace (panels, desktop icons, window manager, etc) because they already come with one bolted on the meaning of "kde" starts to queer a bit. we have historically said kde is a desktop. this has in turn caused problems for application teams both in and out of the primary kde project since it coupled their efforts with the kde workspace in the minds of the public a bit too tightly for some.
i'd like to see us position kde™ as a more generic concept: a free and open source consumer computing software brand. it would then become our umbrella name for many things, one of which is the kde workspace. in turn we elevate some of our already known names (or "brands") such as koffice, kde edu, etc. up a bit in relative importance. perhaps we even create one or two new names for things like "applications that come from kde project proper and are recommended as quality choices for a default desktop". the kde workspace itself becomes a "premiere location to run your kde software".
what are the consequences? it makes talking about kde apps on macos or windows simpler; it allows for greater independence for apps like kexi which values being able to run everywhere (kde, gnome, xfce, windows, mac...); it may even give us a clearer path by which to organize our public communication.
what do i mean by that last sentence? look at kde.org right now and click on the screenshots link. it takes one to a set of pages ordered by kde desktop release version number. but what if that's not what you're interested in specifically? what if you want to see screenshots of koffice? right now you have to navigate to the koffice website and hunt for them. you may even note that it says on the koffice main page that "koffice is a free, integrated office suite for KDE." but is it?
this very strongly communicates that "kde" is a desktop and that is its prime objective in life. projects like koffice are somehow subject to it. but is this reflective of reality? if we reinterpreted this communication in terms of "kde is a shared umbrella" perhaps it gets a lot clearer.
perhaps on our main kde page we'd direct people to portals for our office, workspace, etc ... products. from there they would reference being associated with the kde brand (and offer screenshots specific to that project), but that could now be communicated as not being equivalent to the workspace. the workspace would be the preferred, recommended and best place to run all your apps but certainly not the only choice.
it seems this would also give projects like kde edu, koffice, amarok, konqueror, etc. a level of respect and involvement that more accurately reflects their efforts (and the results of those efforts) in our universe.
why now, and why in my blog?
i've had this conversation with a lot of people in kde as well as some who aren't. it seems to work well enough as a set of thoughts, but it's really not my call. i'm just one guy in a very large project and these aren't just my own personal ideas but the synthesis of the input from many others. to be of any use, though, these ideas need to be something that people in and around kde use as guidance points. this is why i'm sharing it publicly here: so that people can consider the ideas and decide for themselves.
we don't have to have some great project-wide agreement process for this to have positive effects nor am i suggesting any such bureaucratic approach. it just takes enough people adopting the concepts as their own; and i bet they can make the concepts better by doing so. right now feels like a good time to put it out there. whether anything results or not remains to be seen. =)
mission impossible: visa.in
you're travelling to the indian subcontinent in a little over 48 hours. you don't have the required travel documents, specifically a visa, yet since the indian consulate wasn't in town until yesterday and the other option was to ship documents (or yourself) to the nearest permanent consulate office nearly 700 kilometers away.
of course, you forgot to go yesterday due to over-enjoying the morning after attending a wonderful of la cenerentola the night before at the opera house. fortunately the consulate is in town for one more day.
you go to the center where they held court yesterday first thing in the morning only to find the doors locked. concerned, you phone the permanent offices and they too are closed. nobody answers the other phone numbers you have and most of the voice mail boxes are full and not accepting more messages.
you have little other option other than to wait and see if you get lucky. so you leave to get some breakfast and come back. no love. you eventually go for lunch and return. still no love. at 14:40 a couple of men arrive and open the doors to the center. you inquire where there visa proceedings are being held, if at all, and they inform you that they were moved to the ex-serviceman's association offices for the day. they don't have an address nor a phone number but do have some vague directions: "it's by the nortel building in the north east." they also say that they'll probably be there until 16:00, leaving you with well over an hour.
getting in your car you phone directory assistance and they help you find both the full name of the offices ("the indian ex-serviceman's association") as well as the phone number and address. while looking up the address on a map from the glove compartment you phone the number and to confirm when they will be there till. adrenaline kicks in big time as they inform you they are there until 15:00 which is now only 15 minutes away. you're earlier thoughts about jumping on an airplane for a day trip to the permanent offices on monday morning starts seeming like a possibility again.
17 minutes later you arrive with your stomach in knots having raced down a series of highways before turning into a low-slung commercial area in the north east of the city. as you enter the office unit you're greeted by the sight of a large waiting room full of people waiting patiently. you go up to the front of the room and speak with a man who is managing the queueing process. he informs you they are no longer giving out the numbered chits used to organize the crowd. you patiently but eagerly explain how you are leaving in two days, that people are expecting you, etc... apparently you do a decent job of this as they not only allow you to join the line but put you at the head of it, sans-number.
the visa situation is finally (and for the first time all day) starting to look good.
until you go upstairs for the interview and as you present your papers, photos and supporting documentation they want more. in specific, something from the company you work for saying they are sending you. of course, this isn't how it works for you: you're a contractor and the company who is your primary client isn't directly involved in sending you to this event. the bureaucrats still want something like this, however. you decide the best thing to do is go home and scour the emails you saved for something that might look like an official "we're sending you" message.
you race back home (a 20-25 minute drive) and start printing out emails, conference schedules, etc. armed with another 30 pages of supporting information you pack up your laptop as well just in case and head back to the ex-serviceman's association headquarters. it's now evening.
when you arrive you are pointed upstairs almost immediately and the interview process starts again from where you left off over an hour ago. you start presenting the printed emails detailing what each one is. when you get to the one showing the approval for travel funding the interviewer smiles, staples it to the visa application form, says something in a language you don't understand to someone at another table who seems to nod an approval back. the interviewer starts filling out a payment receipt, asks for your $77 and that you're visa will be ready in 1-2 hours.
you celebrate by eating at a great little south indian restaurant around the corner, after which you return. as you enter one of the workers approaches and says, "he is coming down with your visa right now." finally your timing is working again as a box is brought down the stairs from the offices on the second floor and you walk to the front of the room and collect your visa.
back in your car with visa in hand you exhale a sigh of relief. now you just have to hope your connecting flights work out the day after next as they are uncomfortably close together.
this was how i spent my sunday yesterday. i look forward to seeing everyone in bangalore later this week for foss.in, but i have to admit i hate dealing with the details of travel.
of course, you forgot to go yesterday due to over-enjoying the morning after attending a wonderful of la cenerentola the night before at the opera house. fortunately the consulate is in town for one more day.
you go to the center where they held court yesterday first thing in the morning only to find the doors locked. concerned, you phone the permanent offices and they too are closed. nobody answers the other phone numbers you have and most of the voice mail boxes are full and not accepting more messages.
you have little other option other than to wait and see if you get lucky. so you leave to get some breakfast and come back. no love. you eventually go for lunch and return. still no love. at 14:40 a couple of men arrive and open the doors to the center. you inquire where there visa proceedings are being held, if at all, and they inform you that they were moved to the ex-serviceman's association offices for the day. they don't have an address nor a phone number but do have some vague directions: "it's by the nortel building in the north east." they also say that they'll probably be there until 16:00, leaving you with well over an hour.
getting in your car you phone directory assistance and they help you find both the full name of the offices ("the indian ex-serviceman's association") as well as the phone number and address. while looking up the address on a map from the glove compartment you phone the number and to confirm when they will be there till. adrenaline kicks in big time as they inform you they are there until 15:00 which is now only 15 minutes away. you're earlier thoughts about jumping on an airplane for a day trip to the permanent offices on monday morning starts seeming like a possibility again.
17 minutes later you arrive with your stomach in knots having raced down a series of highways before turning into a low-slung commercial area in the north east of the city. as you enter the office unit you're greeted by the sight of a large waiting room full of people waiting patiently. you go up to the front of the room and speak with a man who is managing the queueing process. he informs you they are no longer giving out the numbered chits used to organize the crowd. you patiently but eagerly explain how you are leaving in two days, that people are expecting you, etc... apparently you do a decent job of this as they not only allow you to join the line but put you at the head of it, sans-number.
the visa situation is finally (and for the first time all day) starting to look good.
until you go upstairs for the interview and as you present your papers, photos and supporting documentation they want more. in specific, something from the company you work for saying they are sending you. of course, this isn't how it works for you: you're a contractor and the company who is your primary client isn't directly involved in sending you to this event. the bureaucrats still want something like this, however. you decide the best thing to do is go home and scour the emails you saved for something that might look like an official "we're sending you" message.
you race back home (a 20-25 minute drive) and start printing out emails, conference schedules, etc. armed with another 30 pages of supporting information you pack up your laptop as well just in case and head back to the ex-serviceman's association headquarters. it's now evening.
when you arrive you are pointed upstairs almost immediately and the interview process starts again from where you left off over an hour ago. you start presenting the printed emails detailing what each one is. when you get to the one showing the approval for travel funding the interviewer smiles, staples it to the visa application form, says something in a language you don't understand to someone at another table who seems to nod an approval back. the interviewer starts filling out a payment receipt, asks for your $77 and that you're visa will be ready in 1-2 hours.
you celebrate by eating at a great little south indian restaurant around the corner, after which you return. as you enter one of the workers approaches and says, "he is coming down with your visa right now." finally your timing is working again as a box is brought down the stairs from the offices on the second floor and you walk to the front of the room and collect your visa.
back in your car with visa in hand you exhale a sigh of relief. now you just have to hope your connecting flights work out the day after next as they are uncomfortably close together.
this was how i spent my sunday yesterday. i look forward to seeing everyone in bangalore later this week for foss.in, but i have to admit i hate dealing with the details of travel.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
movie priemiere, lexi.net event
thursday night we went to the premiere screening of a friend's film called "the end". the writer/director jeremy also played a key role in the film due to a dearth of local male talent who come out for auditions for indipendant "zero-budget" films. it was shot on video but the quality was still excellent; amazing how far that technology has come. "the end" is a feature-length psychological thriller and played to a packed house of a few hundred people at a local theatre. hopefully it'll be hitting the upcoming festival circuits and get jeremy the recognition he and his crew deserves for their effort. it may not have been a hollywood blockbuster, but i enjoyed it thoroughly. it was sophisticated, funny, well shot and well acted.
yesterday i spoke at a small invitational conference lexi.net puts on each year for its clientele. i spoke about kde and online identity. a good portion of the presentation was dedicated to kwallet, though we also looked at encryption support in email, instant messaging and the web; web services integrated into desktop applications; and hardware and kernel level identity solutions. the presentation was kept fairly non-technical due to the mix of people attending though we did go into more technical details in a few places. a pdf of the slides i used can be found here.
the attendees seemed engaged and impressed, particularly by kwallet. the idea of a fully auditable code base for storing passwords and sensitive data really struck home for a lot of people. one person who deals with securities noted that it would be great for their work since they have a lot of online accounts they need to deal with on a daily basis which contain sensitive information. a privacy professional was nodding along the whole time as well. kwallet could certainly be improved, and i pointed out some of those improvement points such as being extending into a single sign on system, improved identification of applications on the bus, access control on information in the wallet, etc. george staikos has been the sole author of this stuff and it's really compelling. the code base isn't very large either so would make a great entry point for someone interested in these sorts of things to get involved with kde.
this morning an email arrived in my inbox from one of the attendees letting me know they had downloaded kubuntu to give it a try. they had a quick question about qemu as well. always great to see such quick results.
if you have a chance to promote kde and the free software desktop locally i totally recommend it. it's very energizing and rewarding. if you don't have a chance to do so, think about making one. universities usually have interest groups for computing and most cities have various technology and business social groups that are often looking for speakers and interesting topics.
yesterday i spoke at a small invitational conference lexi.net puts on each year for its clientele. i spoke about kde and online identity. a good portion of the presentation was dedicated to kwallet, though we also looked at encryption support in email, instant messaging and the web; web services integrated into desktop applications; and hardware and kernel level identity solutions. the presentation was kept fairly non-technical due to the mix of people attending though we did go into more technical details in a few places. a pdf of the slides i used can be found here.
the attendees seemed engaged and impressed, particularly by kwallet. the idea of a fully auditable code base for storing passwords and sensitive data really struck home for a lot of people. one person who deals with securities noted that it would be great for their work since they have a lot of online accounts they need to deal with on a daily basis which contain sensitive information. a privacy professional was nodding along the whole time as well. kwallet could certainly be improved, and i pointed out some of those improvement points such as being extending into a single sign on system, improved identification of applications on the bus, access control on information in the wallet, etc. george staikos has been the sole author of this stuff and it's really compelling. the code base isn't very large either so would make a great entry point for someone interested in these sorts of things to get involved with kde.
this morning an email arrived in my inbox from one of the attendees letting me know they had downloaded kubuntu to give it a try. they had a quick question about qemu as well. always great to see such quick results.
if you have a chance to promote kde and the free software desktop locally i totally recommend it. it's very energizing and rewarding. if you don't have a chance to do so, think about making one. universities usually have interest groups for computing and most cities have various technology and business social groups that are often looking for speakers and interesting topics.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
KDE job opportunity
i was made aware of a kde job opportunity in the silly valley. it has to do with printing. i don't have all the details other than "we're looking for someone with kde experience to ..." i think they are looking for a junior level developer.
if you think you might have the right stuff, please contact me privately via email. don't send me resumes, as i'm not an hr department ;) just tell me why you'd be decent for the position and i'll pass your name and contact info on.
humru othro a kohnu se.
if you think you might have the right stuff, please contact me privately via email. don't send me resumes, as i'm not an hr department ;) just tell me why you'd be decent for the position and i'll pass your name and contact info on.
humru othro a kohnu se.
a simple question
which would you rather chow down on:
i'm going to bet most of you picked the one on the plate rather than the one on the road. why? because it looks better. you can't smell it, you can't taste it ... but you know based upon how each one looks which you're probably going to prefer. you can guess how each smells and how each tastes.
the fancy plated meal may not even be real food. it could be a plastic display piece that offers zero nutrition that tastes even worse than our unfortunate reptilian road crosser, but you'd still pick it based on the pictures.
i have the pleasure and honor of going around and presenting kde to people in various places and venues. however, every once in a while i end up coming across roadkill in our interfaces and that is really not a happy event.
tomorrow i'm presenting to a fairly interesting crowd of people here in calgary that includes a healthy helping of both public and private sector policy makers from around north america.
i'm speaking about online identity and the Free software desktop (the event is about online identity) so as part of the first bit of my presentation i wanted to show some of the neat bits of online integration we have in the desktop. i want to use this opportunity to not only speak about how we handle identity in the Free software world, but also throw in some "hey, look how cool kde is!" bits.
well, i have to say that i've never quite seen so much roadkill as there is in our online integration interfaces. one in particular was so amazingly bad that while i really, really, really wanted to show the functionality it provides there was no way in hell i was going to show that interface.
so i spent an hour or so today porting it to a .ui file and making it look less like the reptile above ... it still doesn't look like that yummy meal, but i think i at least achieved edible status.
what i'm trying to say here is that when you're developing something really cool spend some time thinking about the interface. quite honestly, few people will use it if it looks like roadkill even if tastes like fillet mignon. if you don't have any design sensibilities please find someone who does.
as someone who goes to bat in front of the public for our project it would really help limit the embarrassing moments for me. as software developers it will get you a lot more users.
i'm going to bet most of you picked the one on the plate rather than the one on the road. why? because it looks better. you can't smell it, you can't taste it ... but you know based upon how each one looks which you're probably going to prefer. you can guess how each smells and how each tastes.
the fancy plated meal may not even be real food. it could be a plastic display piece that offers zero nutrition that tastes even worse than our unfortunate reptilian road crosser, but you'd still pick it based on the pictures.
i have the pleasure and honor of going around and presenting kde to people in various places and venues. however, every once in a while i end up coming across roadkill in our interfaces and that is really not a happy event.
tomorrow i'm presenting to a fairly interesting crowd of people here in calgary that includes a healthy helping of both public and private sector policy makers from around north america.
i'm speaking about online identity and the Free software desktop (the event is about online identity) so as part of the first bit of my presentation i wanted to show some of the neat bits of online integration we have in the desktop. i want to use this opportunity to not only speak about how we handle identity in the Free software world, but also throw in some "hey, look how cool kde is!" bits.
well, i have to say that i've never quite seen so much roadkill as there is in our online integration interfaces. one in particular was so amazingly bad that while i really, really, really wanted to show the functionality it provides there was no way in hell i was going to show that interface.
so i spent an hour or so today porting it to a .ui file and making it look less like the reptile above ... it still doesn't look like that yummy meal, but i think i at least achieved edible status.
what i'm trying to say here is that when you're developing something really cool spend some time thinking about the interface. quite honestly, few people will use it if it looks like roadkill even if tastes like fillet mignon. if you don't have any design sensibilities please find someone who does.
as someone who goes to bat in front of the public for our project it would really help limit the embarrassing moments for me. as software developers it will get you a lot more users.
obscure: [n] see "aseigo's .sig"
i realized my last email sig had run its course when people started using the words "undulate" and "wantonness" in casual conversation. the tshirt was a final sign: it was time to find something new. at the same time the bar had been set. high.
the other week i quietly swapped out the old for the new: humru othro a kohnu se.
it tickled me that there were only two occurrences of that phrase on the internet (according to google, anyways) and both from the same source. the peculiar and unique nature of having an adivasi phrase in my sig makes me happy. it's deliciously ... odd.
tribal/electronic. obscurity/communication. individualism/community. whee!
it's also associated, via its appearance on the web, to a political issue that is to me emblematic of our world in many ways.
it's also contextually appropriate for an email postscript of course: "that is all i/we have to say", though perhaps that's ironic since it's rarely all i have to say ;)
the other week i quietly swapped out the old for the new: humru othro a kohnu se.
it tickled me that there were only two occurrences of that phrase on the internet (according to google, anyways) and both from the same source. the peculiar and unique nature of having an adivasi phrase in my sig makes me happy. it's deliciously ... odd.
tribal/electronic. obscurity/communication. individualism/community. whee!
it's also associated, via its appearance on the web, to a political issue that is to me emblematic of our world in many ways.
it's also contextually appropriate for an email postscript of course: "that is all i/we have to say", though perhaps that's ironic since it's rarely all i have to say ;)
Monday, November 13, 2006
dbus viewer
in a recent blog entry about dbus reaching 1.0, havoc pennington said:
well, we can scratch this one of the TODO list. in qt4 one will find in the demos/ directory a project called "dbus-viewer". hey, it's even the same name the havoc used as his bullet point! =)
it's functional, as you can see in the above screenshot, though it could use some love such as having a menubar with some basic functions and some of the nicer ones from kdcop such as the drag'n'drop support for shell, python and c++ code snippets. i'm sure harald from trolltech, who as i recall wrote this app, could give us all sorts of suggestions from what he was thinking when writing it.
i've been speaking with trolltech people about installing it when one does a `make install` (prelim reaction is: yes, we will do that) and opening it up to greater community involvement.
p.s. hi havoc! =)
update: morty pointed out kdbus to me. it's a kde3 app and separates out the buses into two tabs: system and session. that's a nice idea. it has a menu bar ... but also a somewhat gratuitous toolbar. obviously needs a kde4 port ;)
"A lot of work remains though. Here are some of the major items:
...
D-Bus Viewer. KDE had a neat tool for DCOP that let you browse all the running apps and introspect their methods. This is really useful, and a D-Bus equivalent is needed. There was a start on one in CVS at one point, but it hadn't gotten very far.
"
well, we can scratch this one of the TODO list. in qt4 one will find in the demos/ directory a project called "dbus-viewer". hey, it's even the same name the havoc used as his bullet point! =)
it's functional, as you can see in the above screenshot, though it could use some love such as having a menubar with some basic functions and some of the nicer ones from kdcop such as the drag'n'drop support for shell, python and c++ code snippets. i'm sure harald from trolltech, who as i recall wrote this app, could give us all sorts of suggestions from what he was thinking when writing it.
i've been speaking with trolltech people about installing it when one does a `make install` (prelim reaction is: yes, we will do that) and opening it up to greater community involvement.
p.s. hi havoc! =)
update: morty pointed out kdbus to me. it's a kde3 app and separates out the buses into two tabs: system and session. that's a nice idea. it has a menu bar ... but also a somewhat gratuitous toolbar. obviously needs a kde4 port ;)
games and patches from red flag
one of my morning tasks has been to start looking through patches from red flag linux. this is the start of a better working relationship with this important asian distribution and is an outcome of the asia track at this year's akademy. the plan is to get some of the red flag developers working directly with upstream and to triage patches that they have more effectively, among other ways of working together. it's still a work in progress, but so far so good. as there is more concrete stuff to announce we'll be doing so.
i'll be posting various patches once i have permission to do so (forgot to ask, doh!). i never like to publicly post something someone sends me without asking, so... until then i'll just note that the tarball i was sent includes patches against 3.5 for kopete, ksmserver (adds theme support to the logout and unlock dialogs!), khtml/kjs, kicker and more. there's a number of xim fixes in there as well. a full list that came with the tarball can be downloaded here.
i was also sent an entire shisen-like game written for kde under the gpl. here's a screenshot:
llk from red flag linux
it's pretty hard, though i have to admit i didn't really have time to play much. apparently it's a very popular game in china, and i can understand why: simple but challenging.
it will be very interesting to see where this all goes. working better with distros and with regional groups has been something many in the kde project have been trying to do better with, and here's an opportunity to do both of those things. =)
i'll be posting various patches once i have permission to do so (forgot to ask, doh!). i never like to publicly post something someone sends me without asking, so... until then i'll just note that the tarball i was sent includes patches against 3.5 for kopete, ksmserver (adds theme support to the logout and unlock dialogs!), khtml/kjs, kicker and more. there's a number of xim fixes in there as well. a full list that came with the tarball can be downloaded here.
i was also sent an entire shisen-like game written for kde under the gpl. here's a screenshot:
llk from red flag linux
it's pretty hard, though i have to admit i didn't really have time to play much. apparently it's a very popular game in china, and i can understand why: simple but challenging.
it will be very interesting to see where this all goes. working better with distros and with regional groups has been something many in the kde project have been trying to do better with, and here's an opportunity to do both of those things. =)
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
value, 2
tom, first thanks for the thoughtful reply (you too, ade and zander).
you note two sorts of "value": use and exchange. you're right that i like to look at more than just the exchange value, and that there is intersection between the two ways of perceiving assigned value.
i would go so far to argue that in this case the exchange value of our software, which is to say the industry built up around free software, is directly attributable to its use value. without the open nature of free software (technical-, participation- and monetization- wise) i doubt many of the successful free software projects would even be around let alone successes.
i have a pet theory that it is the use value based on certain freedoms that helps differentiate between success and mediocrity when it comes to user base and market uptake of free software within a given market space. it's not cogent enough in my mind to elucidate it quite yet. perhaps give me another couple years. (in this day and age i can't even blame it on the lack of margin space relative to size of proof. ;)
this is one of the ways free software fascinates me: it is a point where use and exchange value become inextricably intertwined in a fairly unusual way to the improvement of both. this alters incentives in fundamental ways that encourages and even rewards benevolence and cooperation in an otherwise competitive market.
and so it bugs me when people describe open source in terms of exchange value only. it's like talking about cars in terms of paint colour. you can, and sometimes it may make sense to, but it's certainly not something that captures the important aspects of "carness".
i also recognize that some business models (e.g. ransoming binaries and bug fixes) will become marginalized by the change in incentives. but i figure that people are pretty resourceful creatures and we'll figure it out. many already have.
you note two sorts of "value": use and exchange. you're right that i like to look at more than just the exchange value, and that there is intersection between the two ways of perceiving assigned value.
i would go so far to argue that in this case the exchange value of our software, which is to say the industry built up around free software, is directly attributable to its use value. without the open nature of free software (technical-, participation- and monetization- wise) i doubt many of the successful free software projects would even be around let alone successes.
i have a pet theory that it is the use value based on certain freedoms that helps differentiate between success and mediocrity when it comes to user base and market uptake of free software within a given market space. it's not cogent enough in my mind to elucidate it quite yet. perhaps give me another couple years. (in this day and age i can't even blame it on the lack of margin space relative to size of proof. ;)
this is one of the ways free software fascinates me: it is a point where use and exchange value become inextricably intertwined in a fairly unusual way to the improvement of both. this alters incentives in fundamental ways that encourages and even rewards benevolence and cooperation in an otherwise competitive market.
and so it bugs me when people describe open source in terms of exchange value only. it's like talking about cars in terms of paint colour. you can, and sometimes it may make sense to, but it's certainly not something that captures the important aspects of "carness".
i also recognize that some business models (e.g. ransoming binaries and bug fixes) will become marginalized by the change in incentives. but i figure that people are pretty resourceful creatures and we'll figure it out. many already have.
Monday, November 06, 2006
khtml: kde, apple, nokia, .. adobe!
quick recap: khtml began as a kde project because we needed something open source, light weight, easily integratable and friendly to hack on. no such thing existed (and i'd argue no other such thing exists to this day) so several kde developers picked up this enormous task and proceeded towards success. some years later, apple picks it up and uses it to make webkit. several blunder later that mar feelings of good will, efforts emerge to make the community process work better because we all win if that happens. and then nokia steps up and starts using it, porting the code to a third platform. finally, this year project unity starts in an attempt to erase the divides that grew between various forks. that brings us to today more or less...
.. which is when i read about "apollo" from adobe which is, in their words, a "rich internet application" creation tool for desktop apps. in other words, browserless web apps you can run on the desktop. it supports flash, html and javascript in any mix you'd like and is cross-platform (windows, mac thus far; i'm hoping to see free operating systems added to the mix in the future).
and guess what they use for the html/javascript bits? yep, webkit. why? here's a quote from the faq that asks this question:
the first and third requirements are some of the exact issues the kde developers were motivated by originally as well, and the other two requirements are a testament to the success of their (and those who have since joined) efforts.
perhaps one of the most interesting bits of apollo is that it shows webkit running on microsoft windows. woah! we all knew it was possible, but now it is a reality. with adobe stating they wish to work directly with upstream i wonder how long before this code hits webkit's svn for general usage?
i also wonder who else (and on what platforms) is using khtml?
update: ok, posting before 08:00 and without coffee is not good for the spelling and grammar ;) having fixed that, i also emailed one of the people at adobe quickly and that resulted in them adding mention of kde to the faq's. =)
update2: i was sent a link to this blog entry which notes that maccontrol (hey, an all-lowercase name, i like them already! ;) are using webkit for the interface on their ipod-looking remote control device. anyone else know of other users of webkit? =)
.. which is when i read about "apollo" from adobe which is, in their words, a "rich internet application" creation tool for desktop apps. in other words, browserless web apps you can run on the desktop. it supports flash, html and javascript in any mix you'd like and is cross-platform (windows, mac thus far; i'm hoping to see free operating systems added to the mix in the future).
and guess what they use for the html/javascript bits? yep, webkit. why? here's a quote from the faq that asks this question:
"We had four main criteria, all of which WebKit met:
- Open project that we could contribute to
- Proven technology, that web developers and end users are familiar with
- Minimum effect on Apollo runtime size
- Proven ability to run on mobile devices
While the final decision was difficult, we felt that WebKit is the best match for Apollo at this time."
the first and third requirements are some of the exact issues the kde developers were motivated by originally as well, and the other two requirements are a testament to the success of their (and those who have since joined) efforts.
perhaps one of the most interesting bits of apollo is that it shows webkit running on microsoft windows. woah! we all knew it was possible, but now it is a reality. with adobe stating they wish to work directly with upstream i wonder how long before this code hits webkit's svn for general usage?
i also wonder who else (and on what platforms) is using khtml?
update: ok, posting before 08:00 and without coffee is not good for the spelling and grammar ;) having fixed that, i also emailed one of the people at adobe quickly and that resulted in them adding mention of kde to the faq's. =)
update2: i was sent a link to this blog entry which notes that maccontrol (hey, an all-lowercase name, i like them already! ;) are using webkit for the interface on their ipod-looking remote control device. anyone else know of other users of webkit? =)
open communities: you can't win even when you fight
i just chuckled when i read this. essentially a guy with a bone to pick with wikipedia claims there's probably lots of plagiarism. to back it up he does the necessary research and then shares it with the world. this is supposed to show that the collective editing process doesn't work.
but wait! with the evidence shown wikipedia editors start combing through them and cleaning up the actual offenders. which actually shows the collective editing process does work. in this case it was someone trying to show how messed up it was but the only way to do so was to (inadvertently) get involved and in the end help things improve.
and how long before someone comes up with a way to (largely?) automate the process he went through so that plagiarism is watched for and caught in a systemic manner?
i suppose he could have made the claim without proof. but then would the claim have been credible? no. so he could have not said anything, which would have made his point true but nobody would know about it.
self-balancing systems that have systemic defense and reaction mechanisms are a bitch, aren't they? you can join us or you can join us, them's your options. ;)
but wait! with the evidence shown wikipedia editors start combing through them and cleaning up the actual offenders. which actually shows the collective editing process does work. in this case it was someone trying to show how messed up it was but the only way to do so was to (inadvertently) get involved and in the end help things improve.
and how long before someone comes up with a way to (largely?) automate the process he went through so that plagiarism is watched for and caught in a systemic manner?
i suppose he could have made the claim without proof. but then would the claim have been credible? no. so he could have not said anything, which would have made his point true but nobody would know about it.
self-balancing systems that have systemic defense and reaction mechanisms are a bitch, aren't they? you can join us or you can join us, them's your options. ;)
sunshine!
a chinook blew in and the temperature went up by somewhere north of 20 degrees. it was -15 in the morning not too many days ago and this afternoon it was +10. and best of all there was sunshine to accompany the warmth.
i spent some time outside in this unexpected brilliance.
i also spent some time working on ksnapshot in trunk and dolphin. tomorrow is a plasma day and i'll be back to regular blogging about that methinks. today was the day to write copious notes that draw together the last two years of thought on managing the kde brands and an open source marketing collective as well. productive, to say the least. it came at the expense of doing the housework i planned on doing today and the free hugs thing i expected to spend the first chinook doing. i blame the sunshine.
have i mentioned in my blog yet how kevin ottens came up with a great way to solve the issues with things like media:/ and remote:/ without getting rid of them? well, he did. using redirects we can deliver plain ol' standard URLs to apps and still keep the wonders of media:/ and what not in the file manager. best we can really abstract out a lot of complexity involved by using a combination of sensible bookmarks and the breadcrumb widget.
i'm quite excited about this .. amidst all the calls for removing those urls because they either messed up apps that are written by people who don't seem to grok kio or because they don't follow some industry spec out there i kept thinking that this would be throwing the baby out with the bath water. there are well documented use cases for these views of the computer and doing them via ioslaves allows us to quite easily provide for nice solutions without tons of ugly custom code for that.
something i would like to see is handling of a more sophisticated data type for visualizations that some of our ioslaves would return. for instance, there's the system information slave in suse which, while really cool, sucks more than it rightfully should because the options are pretty well limited to html since that gives them layout and interaction. would be nice to see svg based interaction views and select ioslaves that take advantage of that.
and on a final note, while working on ksnapshot i noticed how much faster kde4 apps seem to start up. so i measured it quickly in a very non-scientific manner and the difference is impressive. i was wondering if i was noticing things, but nope .. seems knsapshot starts up from a command line something like 2x faster in kde4. wow. now, perhaps there's more settings and cruft being loaded in my kde3 ksnapshot (as i said, this was not a scientific test) but then i've never noticed ksnapshot open that fast even on a "blank slate" account. neat. hopefully this trend persists through to the 4.0 release. or, as richard moore noted, this just means we have room for features that take one more second of start up time in ksnapshot ;)
if you're curious what i was doing with ksnapshot (and you shouldn't be, it's boring stuff ;):
an "open with" button feature had been committed but it opened up a dialog and had a number of oddnesses to it. so i quickly changed it to a button with a menu. next will be to add actions like "mail to" to the button, which really calls for servicemenus. but that means being able to query for more than just the mimetypes. it also really needs the long overdue upgrade of servicemenus to their own class that can be instantiated and used anywhere without duplicating code everywhere. i need to think a bit about what precise feature enhancements (and removal?) should happen there and how to achieve it. i haven't put an ounce of thought into it to this point beyond, "this needs some love".
i spent some time outside in this unexpected brilliance.
i also spent some time working on ksnapshot in trunk and dolphin. tomorrow is a plasma day and i'll be back to regular blogging about that methinks. today was the day to write copious notes that draw together the last two years of thought on managing the kde brands and an open source marketing collective as well. productive, to say the least. it came at the expense of doing the housework i planned on doing today and the free hugs thing i expected to spend the first chinook doing. i blame the sunshine.
have i mentioned in my blog yet how kevin ottens came up with a great way to solve the issues with things like media:/ and remote:/ without getting rid of them? well, he did. using redirects we can deliver plain ol' standard URLs to apps and still keep the wonders of media:/ and what not in the file manager. best we can really abstract out a lot of complexity involved by using a combination of sensible bookmarks and the breadcrumb widget.
i'm quite excited about this .. amidst all the calls for removing those urls because they either messed up apps that are written by people who don't seem to grok kio or because they don't follow some industry spec out there i kept thinking that this would be throwing the baby out with the bath water. there are well documented use cases for these views of the computer and doing them via ioslaves allows us to quite easily provide for nice solutions without tons of ugly custom code for that.
something i would like to see is handling of a more sophisticated data type for visualizations that some of our ioslaves would return. for instance, there's the system information slave in suse which, while really cool, sucks more than it rightfully should because the options are pretty well limited to html since that gives them layout and interaction. would be nice to see svg based interaction views and select ioslaves that take advantage of that.
and on a final note, while working on ksnapshot i noticed how much faster kde4 apps seem to start up. so i measured it quickly in a very non-scientific manner and the difference is impressive. i was wondering if i was noticing things, but nope .. seems knsapshot starts up from a command line something like 2x faster in kde4. wow. now, perhaps there's more settings and cruft being loaded in my kde3 ksnapshot (as i said, this was not a scientific test) but then i've never noticed ksnapshot open that fast even on a "blank slate" account. neat. hopefully this trend persists through to the 4.0 release. or, as richard moore noted, this just means we have room for features that take one more second of start up time in ksnapshot ;)
if you're curious what i was doing with ksnapshot (and you shouldn't be, it's boring stuff ;):
an "open with" button feature had been committed but it opened up a dialog and had a number of oddnesses to it. so i quickly changed it to a button with a menu. next will be to add actions like "mail to" to the button, which really calls for servicemenus. but that means being able to query for more than just the mimetypes. it also really needs the long overdue upgrade of servicemenus to their own class that can be instantiated and used anywhere without duplicating code everywhere. i need to think a bit about what precise feature enhancements (and removal?) should happen there and how to achieve it. i haven't put an ounce of thought into it to this point beyond, "this needs some love".
Thursday, November 02, 2006
kbabel needs you!
catching up with email on some lists in between compiles, i came across a thread noting that kbabel, the tool which our translators depend upon, has recently become unmaintained. as a result show stopper problems are starting to appear; for instance it was reported that the diff function no longer works properly in 3.5.5.
if you're looking for a project to get involved with that will have a big impact on kde users around the world, look no further: kbabel needs you! the kde 3.5.x version needs love as much as the kde4 version, so you don't need to be geared up for a kde4 development environment to make an impact. stephan johach has done work on the kde4 port, but he's asked for help as his time is limited.
if you're looking for a project to get involved with that will have a big impact on kde users around the world, look no further: kbabel needs you! the kde 3.5.x version needs love as much as the kde4 version, so you don't need to be geared up for a kde4 development environment to make an impact. stephan johach has done work on the kde4 port, but he's asked for help as his time is limited.
kde wins linux journal editors' choice award
congrats to all contributors and supporters of kde, we just won the 2006 linux journal editors' choice award for desktop environment! bust out the champagne and fireworks =)
they did ask an interesting question in the text that detailed this award:
here's my educated guess (or, amazingly long rant):
first off, ubuntu is not actually one of the most popular distributions (sorry distrowatch observers). in my travels i certainly don't find it to be dominant outside of the vocal online community. it's an extremely promising player in the global linux market and is growing at a terrific pace (i'm starting to see it pop up more often in deployments) but it still lacks the ubiquity of red hat, suse, debian, etc. i both use and like kubuntu, so i have no ax to grind here.
let's sidestep the ubuntu popularity question for a second, though, and address a more generic question: "how much do the software choices made by operating system vendors (OSVs) matter in the open source market?"
i believe kde has several assets when it comes to influencing usage decisions that offset OSV defaults.
perhaps our largest asset comes in the form of human resources: we have a terrific community of developers and users that form a self-organizing global mesh of voices that fairly consistently and quite accessibly support and promote the use of kde technologies in locally and globally relevant ways.
these individuals choose for themselves who they talk to and what "market segments" to address (even if they don't realize they are making such choices). this results in people who are appropriate for a corporate audience talking to companies while those who are NGO friendly talk to social change communities while those who are more university oriented ..... well, you get the picture. this happens without them getting in each other's way; in fact, it often serves to reinforce everyone's message and efforts.
some of kde's assets are undeniably technical. there are many applications and technologies in kde that simply rock the house. some speak to the media generation, like amarok and digikam. others speak to the sys admins of the world like kiosk. others speak to artists such as krita which has been getting a nice amount of attention with the release of koffice 1.6, and deservedly so as it's a very exciting project. some speak to educators like kalzium and kstars. and on and on.
people may try something because they heard good things, but they tend to stay when they discover good things. better yet, they tell others about those good things. kde has good things.
some of kde's assets are cultural. we tend to be accommodating of others, both technically and socially, while more than willing to share what we have. we have an immense population of translators who help make kde culturally accessible to billions of people on this planet who prefer something other than a handful of languages that originated in europe. we also have people that show up on a regular basis to events around the world to meet with people, talk with them, listen to them, share their personal interests and passions, invite them in to our cultural circles and who join their cultural circles.
now, i'm not saying kde is perfect or that other free software options have nothing to offer the world. au contraire! if that was true kde contributors could go on permanent hiatus and soak up the rays on a beach somewhere instead of working every day to improve things. we have technical, social and structural improvements to attend to that keep us very busy. and i'm happy that people have options besides kde so that those who like other approaches can still use free software and be satisfied without us having to mutate kde for them.
there are also some prevalent but questionable assumptions out there. for instance, users do try software out when given the chance. just because they get something by default when they install a particular operating system doesn't prevent them from trying out other things.
case in point: t.'s mom is looking into desktop linux right now with some of her online friends. they are surveying the landscape and trying a lot of things out. some are choosing gnome while others choose kde (and i'm sure some will make other selections such as xfce). they are deciding for themselves what they prefer. why? because they can. the only cost is some bandwidth, a blank cd and little bit of their time. for that small price they get to choose for themselves and that freedom is valuable to them.
there's also the implicit assumption that the distributions that really "matter" are the global ones. having travelled a bit in the last couple of years i've seen enough regional distributions and free software support efforts to have decided that this simply isn't true. local and global often stand on equal terms when there is true freedom, and many regional efforts (both of the OSV and 'grass roots' sort) make kde an important part of their strategy.
one of the most revolutionary things about free software is how it allows for profitable companies to exist, project planning to occur, grassroots social movements, personal choice and individual involvement all at the same time. it contains for many of the best parts of a "top down" society without sacrificing bottom-up control and participation. it thrives on diversity rather than optimizing towards uniformity and grows in direct relation to openness and human vibrancy all while creating new opportunities for science and business alike, two endeavours which have become increasingly linked with the diminishment of openness and humanity over the last century.
to me it is the fundamental strength of the free software model which explains why kde succeeds, regardless of people's expectations or predictions. put more simply: theory be damned when there's evidence at hand.
they did ask an interesting question in the text that detailed this award:
"According to research organizations such as Evans Data, KDE is the most popular desktop environment. How does that square with the fact that GNOME is the default desktop of one of the most popular distributions (Ubuntu)? We have no idea." - Linux Journal
here's my educated guess (or, amazingly long rant):
first off, ubuntu is not actually one of the most popular distributions (sorry distrowatch observers). in my travels i certainly don't find it to be dominant outside of the vocal online community. it's an extremely promising player in the global linux market and is growing at a terrific pace (i'm starting to see it pop up more often in deployments) but it still lacks the ubiquity of red hat, suse, debian, etc. i both use and like kubuntu, so i have no ax to grind here.
let's sidestep the ubuntu popularity question for a second, though, and address a more generic question: "how much do the software choices made by operating system vendors (OSVs) matter in the open source market?"
i believe kde has several assets when it comes to influencing usage decisions that offset OSV defaults.
the power of community, particularly when it extends across diverse demographics and interests, is immense
perhaps our largest asset comes in the form of human resources: we have a terrific community of developers and users that form a self-organizing global mesh of voices that fairly consistently and quite accessibly support and promote the use of kde technologies in locally and globally relevant ways.
these individuals choose for themselves who they talk to and what "market segments" to address (even if they don't realize they are making such choices). this results in people who are appropriate for a corporate audience talking to companies while those who are NGO friendly talk to social change communities while those who are more university oriented ..... well, you get the picture. this happens without them getting in each other's way; in fact, it often serves to reinforce everyone's message and efforts.
kde delivers technologies that 'speak' strongly to most people; thousands of people working on hundreds of software projects that are personally relevant results in software that is tuned for people with similar needs and desires
some of kde's assets are undeniably technical. there are many applications and technologies in kde that simply rock the house. some speak to the media generation, like amarok and digikam. others speak to the sys admins of the world like kiosk. others speak to artists such as krita which has been getting a nice amount of attention with the release of koffice 1.6, and deservedly so as it's a very exciting project. some speak to educators like kalzium and kstars. and on and on.
people may try something because they heard good things, but they tend to stay when they discover good things. better yet, they tell others about those good things. kde has good things.
culture is intertwined in all things used by humans. kde invests in culture and society because we appreciate the value inherent in them and this in turn makes kde attractive to human beings
some of kde's assets are cultural. we tend to be accommodating of others, both technically and socially, while more than willing to share what we have. we have an immense population of translators who help make kde culturally accessible to billions of people on this planet who prefer something other than a handful of languages that originated in europe. we also have people that show up on a regular basis to events around the world to meet with people, talk with them, listen to them, share their personal interests and passions, invite them in to our cultural circles and who join their cultural circles.
now, i'm not saying kde is perfect or that other free software options have nothing to offer the world. au contraire! if that was true kde contributors could go on permanent hiatus and soak up the rays on a beach somewhere instead of working every day to improve things. we have technical, social and structural improvements to attend to that keep us very busy. and i'm happy that people have options besides kde so that those who like other approaches can still use free software and be satisfied without us having to mutate kde for them.
there are also some prevalent but questionable assumptions out there. for instance, users do try software out when given the chance. just because they get something by default when they install a particular operating system doesn't prevent them from trying out other things.
case in point: t.'s mom is looking into desktop linux right now with some of her online friends. they are surveying the landscape and trying a lot of things out. some are choosing gnome while others choose kde (and i'm sure some will make other selections such as xfce). they are deciding for themselves what they prefer. why? because they can. the only cost is some bandwidth, a blank cd and little bit of their time. for that small price they get to choose for themselves and that freedom is valuable to them.
there's also the implicit assumption that the distributions that really "matter" are the global ones. having travelled a bit in the last couple of years i've seen enough regional distributions and free software support efforts to have decided that this simply isn't true. local and global often stand on equal terms when there is true freedom, and many regional efforts (both of the OSV and 'grass roots' sort) make kde an important part of their strategy.
one of the most revolutionary things about free software is how it allows for profitable companies to exist, project planning to occur, grassroots social movements, personal choice and individual involvement all at the same time. it contains for many of the best parts of a "top down" society without sacrificing bottom-up control and participation. it thrives on diversity rather than optimizing towards uniformity and grows in direct relation to openness and human vibrancy all while creating new opportunities for science and business alike, two endeavours which have become increasingly linked with the diminishment of openness and humanity over the last century.
to me it is the fundamental strength of the free software model which explains why kde succeeds, regardless of people's expectations or predictions. put more simply: theory be damned when there's evidence at hand.
free hugs!
woah! this campaign was practically made for me. i am so making a free hugs poster and hitting the streets as soon as the next chinook rolls in.
note to self: don't try it in china
url navigator meets the network
i hacked on dolphin some more today, concentrating mostly (though not exclusively) on the url navigator again. one of the goals was to experiment with communicating access to non-local data while retaining the "feels natural" attributes.
here's what i have thus far:
it automatically takes the protocol and host name when viewing a non-local data set and separates them out. the protocol combo is populated with file manager relevant protocols, though to achieve that i've had to monkey with the .protocol files a bit. that part needs more thought.
what isn't there yet is display of the username (if applicable) or eye candy. the combo box will be turning into the same sort of button as the rest of the path parts i think. this will look nicer and make it seem less clunky and separate. i'm still undecided what to do with the hostname part yet; perhaps also move it to the same flat style "button" with the added "feature" of turning into an editable text area when clicked on.
i also need to de-geekify the protocols combo a bit by offering humane labels when the drop down is clicked. i'm thinking of a multi-column drop down with names like "secure ftp" or "microsoft network share" next to the actual protocol. have a cool idea for this? send me a mock up =)
the trickiest bit by far though is getting the interaction right. this includes things like switching between local and remote or remote and local transports; typing in protocols not listed; typing paths after the hostname in the host box; flipping between editable and non-editable paths (where does the cursor end up?); changing protocols (switches to the host edit automatically rather than trying to load via the new protocol) .... devil's in the details. but so far the code is staying pretty clean and not overly gross as often happens when trying to work an interface element towards human expectations.
after tomorrow i should be ready to start usability testing on some human guinea pigs i've lined up here. yay!
here's what i have thus far:
it automatically takes the protocol and host name when viewing a non-local data set and separates them out. the protocol combo is populated with file manager relevant protocols, though to achieve that i've had to monkey with the .protocol files a bit. that part needs more thought.
what isn't there yet is display of the username (if applicable) or eye candy. the combo box will be turning into the same sort of button as the rest of the path parts i think. this will look nicer and make it seem less clunky and separate. i'm still undecided what to do with the hostname part yet; perhaps also move it to the same flat style "button" with the added "feature" of turning into an editable text area when clicked on.
i also need to de-geekify the protocols combo a bit by offering humane labels when the drop down is clicked. i'm thinking of a multi-column drop down with names like "secure ftp" or "microsoft network share" next to the actual protocol. have a cool idea for this? send me a mock up =)
the trickiest bit by far though is getting the interaction right. this includes things like switching between local and remote or remote and local transports; typing in protocols not listed; typing paths after the hostname in the host box; flipping between editable and non-editable paths (where does the cursor end up?); changing protocols (switches to the host edit automatically rather than trying to load via the new protocol) .... devil's in the details. but so far the code is staying pretty clean and not overly gross as often happens when trying to work an interface element towards human expectations.
after tomorrow i should be ready to start usability testing on some human guinea pigs i've lined up here. yay!
halloween
halloween was chilling this year. and not as in scary but as in "lose your fingers and toes from exposure". ok, maybe i'm a bit of a weather wuss compared to the brave souls who live deeper in the prairies where -15c is a warm afternoon. but after wandering about in the dark of winter's earling evenings for over an hour it was time to get indoors and into a hot shower.the p-man had a blast though and would've stayed out as long as we'd let him. his obi wan kenobi costume was a hit. there were a few darth vaders to be seen but he was the only jedi we came across. the force was strong with him as he collected more candy than he eats in a typical year last night.
the best house of the evening was the one with the fire pit for parents to huddle around. they were even handing out hot chocolate and bailies to the frigid adults. huzzah!
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