Thomas Olsen posted on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:14:36 +0200 as excerpted:
> On 17/10-2009 14:38 Anne Wilson <cannewilson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> On Saturday 17 October 2009 11:36:57 Thomas Olsen wrote:
>> >
>> > I started out customizing it to act and look like KDE3 but now I have
>> > a heavily customized workplace which serves my needs. The strength
>> > and weakness of KDE. I prefer the strength!
>> >
>> > (and I know the developers are trying to limit the options of
>> > customization but users demand it - it's a sharp edge to walk on)
>>
>> The funny thing is that in the past the criticism was often that it had
>> just too many options - IOW was too configurable. My own feeling has
>> that KDE has always appealed to individualists, who want maximum
>> possibilities ;-)
>
> My sentiment too, but I haven't really much to compare with bc I've used
> KDE exclusively since about 3 months after Matthias Ettrich started the
> project :-) '96-'97?
One of my feeds recently featured a "Two elephants" article, the thesis
of which was that significant new functionality is one "elephant", while
existing users are another, and the problem becomes one of trying to fit
them both in the same room at the same time, without forcing the old one
out in ordered to accommodate the new one. The author then proposed
three methods of trying to do this, including building a bigger room to
hold two elephants and trying to move them both in. KDE was the example
here, but the danger is that the original users won't like their new home
and will refuse to make the move, which is he said the problem KDE4 had,
that it's just now beginning to overcome.
... Unfortunately it seems Google hasn't picked up the piece yet (or my
googlefoo is bad today) as I don't find it, or I'd post the link.
But this the configurability is definitely one of the elements of old kde
that the old "elephant" enjoyed, in part because unlike the biggest
alternative, gnome, kde wasn't apologetic about making things
configurable. As a result, those that wanted to keep things simple and
have the developers choose sufficient defaults so it "just worked" tended
to gravitate toward gnome or something else, while those who seldom found
defaults that met their needs and weren't shy about changing them, and
demanding that the knobs and levers be available TO change them,
gravitated toward kde.
It's no secret, therefore, that most of the long-time kde users will NOT
be happy if they find configuration options disappearing on them, or even
if new features arrive without what they consider an appropriate level of
knobs and levers available to configure them. Should they get mad about
it, that elephant will simply pickup and leave...
--
Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman
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