KDE going native on Windows... what's next

[Derek Djons]

An interesting article I crossed today during my 'morning cup of coffee checking the news'


A native Windows port for KDE's graphical framework is under development and could help the Linux desktop environment attract Microsoft users, but some fear the move will harm Linux

Full article (http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39187111,00.htm)

How do you think about this project and possible other upcoming projects. Are these project not only possible harmful for the Linux community but also useless. Please state your opinion.

[iansyngin]

in other words.
is this just not a kde theme for windows ??

[BoyOfDestiny]

in other words.
is this just not a kde theme for windows ??

It's not just a theme, it would allow many qt/kde apps to be run in Windows. Basically you could have KDE running on top of Windows...

There is also gnome for cygwin...

http://cygnome.sourceforge.net/

I'd looked into this stuff before, but doesn't matter now since I'm linux only :)

EDIT: Just for kicks though, I will mention that the KDE dev who thinks windows users shouldn't get open office, firefox, etc is wrong (at least for me). This goes along with the wine myths... My switching to linux was made much easier by having 99% of the gpl apps I use available on linux too... The only thing that I dislike is when a useful gpl app is windows only, I'm a fan of multi-platform... It'd be nice knowing you can use your favorite app whatever system you are running (or "forced" to use...)

[Vlammetje]

I think it may actually help in raising awareness for linux ans oss in general, so I hope it will take off. I still run XP on a virtual disk and I will deffo give it a go.... if I like it I'll suggest it to all windows users who I think may wanna try it.

[Marshall2day]

I think this is pretty useless. If 90% of the windows users are not able or don't have the will to even install a custom browser, they sure ain't going to install a custom desktop environment.

[egon spengler]

I don't really see how this would either help or hinder Linux. I'd be surprised if many people switch to Linux for any specific apps so I don't think that having kde apps available on Windows will cause many people to put off migrating

[Lovechild]

I can't honestly see a big userbase for this, but it's their time they can do with it what they want.

[bulldogzerofive]

It certainly won't hurt... the other applications that the article mentions (OO.org, Firefox), have been available on windows for a long time (since the beginning?), so simply adding more probably will not hurt.

Honestly, though, KDE's interface is not up to the standards that the windows interface is. In general, windows looks snazzy and is easy to use, but what is under the hood is crap, whereas Linux tends to have a more difficult interface but a much more going for it under the hood. By porting KDE for windows, you get all the disadvantages of Linux and all the disadvantages of windows.

Anybody who is interested enough to install KDE on windows will try out Linux anyway, methinks.

[fuscia]

it may encourage people on the fence to convert, but i doubt it would get any more. using stuff like firefox and gimp for windows lured me over. no one else will care. if continued indifference by the general populace hurts linux, then this will hurt linux.

[bloodborne]

Sounds like it will at least those willing to a taste of Linux's usability, but the quote at the end makes sense too. If Microsoft pursues and actively supports the porting of FOSS to Windows, then in the end people have less reason to move to Linux because they have the best of both worlds in terms of software, both proprietary and free.

[BSDFreak]

KDE runs on Opensolaris, the various bsd's and linux, it's main goal is not to limit the user by removing options (as gnome does) and now it runs on Windows too, this isn't good or bad news, it's a yawn because the lack of functionality of the OS in itself limits KDE so bad it would be like running Gnome.


IOW, it's boring stuff.

[commodore]

THIS IS CRAP!! If all the good things in UNIX based OS's will be made available for Windows there will be no reason to use UNIX based OS's. Now I'm never going to use KDE.

[GeneralZod]

THIS IS CRAP!! If all the good things in UNIX based OS's will be made available for Windows there will be no reason to use UNIX based OS's. Now I'm never going to use KDE.

As far as I'm aware, Freedom 1.0 hasn't been portted to Windows, yet ;)

And if you're boycotting KDE, you probably want to boycott bash and most of the Unix utils (www.cygwin.com), gaim, and a whole bunch of other apps and utilities that have been ported to Windows.

[BSDFreak]

THIS IS CRAP!! If all the good things in UNIX based OS's will be made available for Windows there will be no reason to use UNIX based OS's. Now I'm never going to use KDE.

LOL, yeah, because implementing KDE will make Win just like *nix. I'm glad that you wone't use KDE, that kind of idiocy is NOT needed int he mailing lists. so i guess i should say thank you.

[fuscia]

THIS IS CRAP!! If all the good things in UNIX based OS's will be made available for Windows there will be no reason to use UNIX based OS's. Now I'm never going to use KDE.

just think how effective spraying perfume on dogshit is and you won't be so worried.

[Lord Illidan]

Yes, the GIMP, the GTK toolkit, etc..

I don't think this is going to be very popular with Windows users.

1. Who knows what KDE means? Who knows that KDE exists?
2. It is one thing to install a browser, it is another thing to install something like KDE.
3. Probably, people who will use it already use Linux.
4. Might convert people? I don't think so. The slightest bug, and probably they will run screaming back to Windows, stupidly, and unfortunately too.

[Derek Djons]

After spending one whole day doing other things clearing my head I'm still feeling twitchy about this. We are not talking about just porting a IM app to Windows. No, this time we're porting a whole Desktop system.

The article mentioned that this could be possible harmful. I'm questioning myself how. The only mock up I can think of is Windows people going in dept about the graphics and layout... worshipping Windows above KDE.

Also the most of those people don't understand how *nix / opensource works and what's it about these days from technical and philosophical prospective.

But let's start with 'how usefull is it'. Will there be a serious audience for this. Is this something which was bound to happen, thousands of users worldwide were waiting for it?! For me, this is really out of the blue.

The reasons for me to switch were:
1. Hobby, toy (SuSE Linux back with the 7.x series)
2. Started really working on it (RedHat Linux)
3. Except gaming it's the ideal 100% customizable OS without much hassle (Ubuntu Linux).

If for some reason I was still working on Windows with all my previous Linux discovery journey's I sure as hell wouldn't be waiting to install KDE on my box. Most of the applications are availble for Windows or there's a suitable other Windows native app with the same or more functionality.

[xequence]

Honestly, though, KDE's interface is not up to the standards that the windows interface is. In general, windows looks snazzy and is easy to use, but what is under the hood is crap, whereas Linux tends to have a more difficult interface but a much more going for it under the hood. By porting KDE for windows, you get all the disadvantages of Linux and all the disadvantages of windows.

Windows looks snazzy? Are we talking about the same OS here? =P

If they give me a simple .exe I can press and have KDE installed (not just the libraries, but the whole DE) ill install it and probably use it.

[curuxz]

While my knee jerk reaction would be to say this is bad, since I dont want anything that could make windows better, I think ultimately its about freedom if you use kde or kde apps in windows you will still not get the security, stablity and safety of ubuntu, and the live disks already install windows versions of ubuntu apps so I think it cant hurt.

Windows is not as good however you look at it (in my view), personaly I think this is a bit of a waste of time but Im still hopefull it could lead to some more converts who wana see where their new windows toy realy comes from!

BTW commodore well done on yet another well thought out post with such well articulated arguments and reasoned thinking why would we ever need to disagree with you glad to see you were able to join the discussion without being stupid. I'll assist you in your boycot of KDE if you promiss to also boycot this site...

[awakatanka]

If they get windows users to work with kde prgs and they will use it a lot it will be easier to convert them to a free OS. Also it will be easier to import those data to a linux kde it could benefit if the users will adept it and use it.


But then again if they come to linux distro they will come in a hostile environment that says "no we don't want to have it easier and gui like , we want it geek like and go away go to mepis, linspire (they still use CLI in sitautions. but they forget to mention that) our go back and don't bug us with youre whinning because the opinion of a windows user isn't worth a penny. :P

[Virogenesis]

Freedom isn't about harming yourself if kde is shockly bad on windows it will strike users that linux could well be bad damaging the rep of linux at the end of the day if something crashes and the user don't understand then he'll blame the app when it could of been something else.
As for gaim I do dislike it running on windows as most complain and never will add input.
If users wish to use kde then they will be interested in running linux.

[jsgotangco]

This is still good news for free software irregardless of platform.

[SolidAndShade]

You'd have to have a hell of a CPU to run KDE smoothly on top of Windows. The only people to install it will be probably Windows power users, and it'll probably promote interest in Linux among that group so I think it'll be a good thing. The KDE team will have to do more work porting it to Vista if they want to keep the attention of Windows users.