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greggh
October 30th, 2006, 03:22 PM
http://news.com.com/A+Linux+start-up+on+the+path+to+profits/2008-1012_3-6130484.html?tag=nefd.lede

I thought his comments about Gnome vs KDE on Ubuntu were interesting...


Q: You guys initially started out with GNOME, and then there's the separate variant Kubuntu with the KDE interface. What's your opinion on that user interface split between KDE and GNOME?


A: We picked GNOME first because they had a real commitment to usability. KDE had focused on other things. What's really nice about having both is that they get to compete.

On the other hand, from an ISV perspective it forces people to make what's really an unnecessary decision. I wish that there was more compatibility in terms of the licensing of them, and I wish that there was more compatibility in the points of interaction between ISVs and the desktop. Hopefully, that will come over time. Right now we see that KDE has about 30 percent (market share among Ubuntu users) and Gnome has about 60 percent.

hkgonra
October 30th, 2006, 04:04 PM
I think this is the most interesting.

Novell and Red Hat both selected the strategy where they have a slow-moving certified version and a fast-moving community version. You have a different strategy, where once every two to three versions, you'll offer long-term support, with the versions in between for including the cutting-edge features.
Exactly. There are a couple differences between our strategy and those of the other players. We would never characterize our six-month releases as beta releases or experimental releases. They are fully supported, and you can buy full contracts on them. They get security updates, which are freely available, so you don't have to subscribe to a network service to get them. They really are genuine, honest-to-goodness, high-quality releases, and they are being deployed in many cases in very high-volume enterprise environments.

I think many people around here have the opposite impression of releases like Edgy.

chaosgeisterchen
October 30th, 2006, 04:28 PM
I thought it was a lot less than 30% KDE users.

plb
October 30th, 2006, 05:49 PM
I thought it was a lot less than 30% KDE users.

Sounds about right, KDE is quite popular and I suspect that number to grow when KDE 4 is released

Lord Illidan
October 30th, 2006, 05:53 PM
I think this is the most interesting.

Novell and Red Hat both selected the strategy where they have a slow-moving certified version and a fast-moving community version. You have a different strategy, where once every two to three versions, you'll offer long-term support, with the versions in between for including the cutting-edge features.
Exactly. There are a couple differences between our strategy and those of the other players. We would never characterize our six-month releases as beta releases or experimental releases. They are fully supported, and you can buy full contracts on them. They get security updates, which are freely available, so you don't have to subscribe to a network service to get them. They really are genuine, honest-to-goodness, high-quality releases, and they are being deployed in many cases in very high-volume enterprise environments.

I think many people around here have the opposite impression of releases like Edgy.

I agree..