KDE No Longer Competitive? Developer Calls It Quits

[ChrisXY]

I fix the computers for my rather computer illiterate friends and most of the times it are the Windows systems that are broken, not the Linux ones.

That's probably selection bias as the linux people often know a little bit more about how stuff works so they can fix more themeselves...

[rainbyte]

*sigh* What is alsamixer? And why can it select input and output devices for sounds? The reason we got pulse is because somebody wanted a more elaborated software mixer, where they theoretically could just have patched ALSA.
And it turns it didn't work, and they should have killed the project or gotten enough funding to actually make it work just after the first few failures(Ubuntu adopting it anybody?).
Just get yourself a teaspoon and some help.

Try to change the audio output on-the-fly while using the sound card... It isn't posible using alsa directly (alsamixer doesn't have that feature)...
You will have to modify asoundrc o use some wrapper... Also it will not work for all app's (seems like a hack)...

With pulseaudio you have that feature, and only doing two clicks, you can change the output on the fly, without stopping the music or a movie...
It can even coexist with jackd (I use it with my midi controller for low latency midi)...

Also with pulseaudio you can use other sound cards on your lan network transparently... Try to do that using alsa directly, at least you will need to touch config files by hand...
For us it's an usefull feature, because we have only one audio receiver (that it's better that the other little speakers) and it's not connected to the other PC's...

[TobiSGD]

However the problem is the people (leaving Windows and) trying Linux expect a perfectly stable, fast and bug-free system, and Linux is not such a system.

You realize that there is more than one Linux distribution? You want a fast, stable and bug-free (besdies the fact that no software ever will be 100% bug-free) system? Then maybe don't go for Ubuntu, Arch or other distros with short release cycle or rolling release. Go for the distros that are actually made to be fast stable and bug-free, like Slackware, Debian or RHEL/CentOS/SL. I fix the computers for my rather computer illiterate friends and most of the times it are the Windows systems that are broken, not the Linux ones.

[del_diablo]

What happens if you have a PC with 4 soundcards like the other desktop I have here? The user has to be able to select the soundcard without problems, that's why pulseaudio came to the scene...

*sigh* What is alsamixer? And why can it select input and output devices for sounds? The reason we got pulse is because somebody wanted a more elaborated software mixer, where they theoretically could just have patched ALSA.
And it turns it didn't work, and they should have killed the project or gotten enough funding to actually make it work just after the first few failures(Ubuntu adopting it anybody?).
Just get yourself a teaspoon and some help.

[m_gol]

If some people can't contribute with something as simple as reporting a bug then those people don't have the right to complain about our software.

1) It's not so simple if you have tens of them to report, do tests you're asked for etc. Many people don't know how to properly report a bug, too.
2) So, according to you, FOSS is only for programmers? Or at least people who know how to test the software they use? The rest has to go for Windows or OS X? If you say so...

[ninez]

"Our software"!? WHO the hell are you, that you get to decide that?

The basis of free software is that you are free from the shackles of proprietary software, and can do (almost-) anything you want.

So in your view, if a person just wants to USE his computer, he shouldn't use KDE. Maybe KDE should come with a license agreeement "By running this software, you will have to shut the fuck up about issues, or you HAVE to contribute. Otherwise, get back to windows, lemming".

I haven't contributed to KDE a lot, but people out there, feel free to ignore ASDX and FUCKING COMPLAIN about code I've written. And let it be known that I don't consider *MY* code to be *HIS* software.

Knuckles, just ignore ASDX.

He(she?) is pretty much just fanatical and a bit of a FOSS zealot. ...He's said a bunch of ridiculous crap in a few threads over the last while. Everything from him thinking the linux kernel should be forked, to writing 'fuck you, nvidia' over and over again ~ as if we didn't get the point the 1st time he wrote it.

he's also wrong to think that because he uses software, that it qualifies as being 'his', or his because he is apart of a community. I've made minor contributions to a few projects, but i don't consider that software to be mine, specifically. it's just software that i use, and when an opportunity presents itself - help improve.... I generally consider a project to be someone's when they lead a project and are the chief architect / designer of the software...

I don't know where adsx gets off thinking that as an end-user he has some ownership over a free software project. (?!)

it's kinda funny that he thinks he does though

[derdestiller]

KDE works quite nicely if you tweak it here and there (for instance use one database for amarok,digikam,akonadi), tune amarok to have a greater buffer, disable nepomuk, (for my machine: tune malloc). I wonder if there's a Tipps&Tricks Page to avoid the rougher edges... i definately don't like the defaults.

[devius]

Are You serious? It's just pure nonsense. Try to use latest linux software updates and You will see what breaks for no reason, linux or windows.

Funny... I have access to a Windows 7 system that is full of stuff that should work but doesn't and I still haven't figured it out how to unbreak it. I think it has something to do with a database that got corrupted but I still haven't got the time to actually try to fix it, and in the mean time there is software that just won't update with the system updates. So, yeah, all operating systems break and have bugs. It's normal, and Windows is no different and never was. Just because it's working for you doesn't mean it always works 100% for everybody in the world in every computer that exists. Also, if you don't believe me try to search for "Can't install windows 7 SP1", or "Can't install Internet Explorer 9 on Windows 7" and see how many hits that gets you :P

With that said, even with all the bugs that every operating system has I still find it amazing that the bloody things even work at all, considering the astronomic amount of code that goes into them and the inherent possibility for something going wrong since it was all done by humans that make mistakes.

[phoen1x]

because Windows likes to break for almost no reasons.

Are You serious? It's just pure nonsense. Try to use latest linux software updates and You will see what breaks for no reason, linux or windows. And Windows 7 is the most stable OS i've ever used. Seriously don't make this thread linux vs windows. One and biggest thing that KDE needs is User Interface polishing. Now it's grey with ugly (IMO) icons.

[[Knuckles]]

If some people can't contribute with something as simple as reporting a bug then those people don't have the right to complain about our software.

"Our software"!? WHO the hell are you, that you get to decide that?

The basis of free software is that you are free from the shackles of proprietary software, and can do (almost-) anything you want.

So in your view, if a person just wants to USE his computer, he shouldn't use KDE. Maybe KDE should come with a license agreeement "By running this software, you will have to shut the fuck up about issues, or you HAVE to contribute. Otherwise, get back to windows, lemming".

I haven't contributed to KDE a lot, but people out there, feel free to ignore ASDX and FUCKING COMPLAIN about code I've written. And let it be known that I don't consider *MY* code to be *HIS* software.