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  Can KDE Save a Dying Windows Platform?
KDE Advocacy, Discussions, and Rumors Posted by MrCopilot on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @01:12
from the provocative-question dept.
As a longtime KDE user forced to use Windows, is the recent announcement and availability of a port of KDE for Windows a dream come true? "KDE 4.0.0 was released and there again was much joy. More importantly an actual honest to goodness Windows port is released." Blogger MrCopilot gives us a hands on review with 50+ screenshots of KDE in action on that other operating system and tries to answer that question. KDE on Windows is not yet ready for the masses but hopes to be declared stable for KDE 4.1.


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 ·   Articles on KDE Advocacy, Discussions, and Rumors
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Over 40 comments listed. Printing out index only.
See
by Thomas on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @02:47
Where Mr. Ballmar accuses us to do medicide to his Windows thingy, we actually do livesaving... gotta love that arrogant approach to achieve world domination...
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dying windows platform !!
by djouallah mimoune on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @02:57
you are not serieus ;)
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If all goes...
by Kristho on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @03:12
If all goes according to the plan, then I'm a teacher in 7 years or so ;) I hope I can enjoy KDE-EDU on the school I have to work on - I hope it could be on a Linux platform, elso KDE4 on Win is okay too ;)
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Why?
by foobar on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @04:37
Honestly, i can't find a reason why the windows platform should be saved.
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It might sound
by Ben on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @04:57
It might sound strange but Windows is like television. So many of my friends including myself don't miss a TV set anymore. Unthinkable 12 years ago.

Apple is gaining market share, Vista does not really sell... Even Windows applications start to work out of the box with wine.

Windows is a large plattform with many developers and many users. KDE on Windows will be another step to get the choice of your OS irrelevant for most of the users. Most applications I used on Windows were free: firefox, thunderbird, azureus, freemind... They run out of the box on Linux as well.
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Portable KDE 4.0
by Vexorian on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @11:14
For when I am forced to use a computer without Linux, I love "portable" apps, it would be awesome if KDE could work as portable app.
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Nice Headline
by 3vi1 on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @12:15
Nice headline, but tell me something: What color is the sky in your world?
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NO!
by JRT on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @15:17
The reason is that KDE will not fix the security problems in MS-Windows. The internet security issues are the main thing that is killing MS-Windows. There are other problems with Vista, but the main issue is that the promissed security improvements simply aren't there.
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kde for windows?
by knifemonkey on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @17:15
no matter how hard it tries, windows just is not linux. and when linux tries to be windows, well, it just uses WINE. The funny thing is that ultimately one of these operating systems is superior and yet people and developers still waste their time and our security and enjoyment by supporting windows. I would like to say 'there can only be one' but that is not true, there will always be underdogs, like beos, windows however, I believe, with a little effort, will be wiped from the face of the earth and looked back apon only as a bad memory (0x05637e) from the time when micro$oft ruled our right to software freedom. KDE for windows?! Cool! Let people know how sweet linux managers are before giving them the real thing. and if this is not there thing show them bblean instead :) just my educated point of view i aint no flamer or prophet...

p.s. do something good for the environment.
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odd
by yman on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @21:39
for some reason, each time I read the title, I see "Can CDE Save a Dying Windows Platform?"

I have no idea why I get this weird effect.
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Nice...
by Jeremy on Sunday 03/Feb/2008, @22:13
Kde is getting quite alot of these reviews/interviews. I like them; gives me something to read once in a while. Keep up the good work, KDE; keep the press coming. ;)
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Irony
by Jonathan Riddell on Monday 04/Feb/2008, @05:34
Please note, the title contains irony.
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What !!!???
by Bob on Monday 04/Feb/2008, @08:21
What the heck is a dying Windows Platform? Is it my XP which is the only OS that performs as it should and is stable. Linux is intrinsically unstable and Vista appeared slow to me (so I've dumped it). I do use Linux whenever I want to waste some time - it is not entirely good and not entirely bad, but it simply won't beat XP because XP just runs and Linux might run if tweaked sufficiently. Before you guys are getting a heart attck - I am talking about laptops here. Except for Lenovos and a few other models you won't be able to deny that Linux is having a hard time to cope with my favorite travel companions.

Now to KDE: I have mainly used KDE, Gnome and XFCE - and there is no obvious reason why I should prefer either of them. Same applies to Windows - if you slow down my XP I could even live with Vista.

As a result: no, I do not think that KDE can save a dying Windows platform (whatever this might be). If those guys joined forces and created something like a KnomeFCE (combined advantages of course), you could try to ask me again.
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Fantasyland
by UncleMonkey777 on Monday 04/Feb/2008, @14:51
You're obviously new to Linux and its' many Distro's.

I've installed Linux over 300 times and NOT ONE of those computers have had ANY instability problems once the unstable code (Micro$oft products) was removed.

Over 50 of those systems were laptops, Toshiba included....

Sorry guy, I think that you're stuck in noob fantasyland....

-UncleMonkey
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Since when Windows is dying?
by Caemyr on Monday 04/Feb/2008, @15:06
Cmon... since when Windows platform is dying? Just because Vista hasn`t hit the spot (it`ll take its time), while XP is right now a rock-solid Ms columnt, supported by Win2k and 2k3 (soon 2k8)....

And what is supposed to "save" the "dying platform"? KDE and a bunch of 40 or so apps? Could you please cut out the FUD?

Now, dont take me wrong. I`m not anti or pro anything. I use both Linux and Windows, having BOTH of those systems working rock solid, 24/7, 3x days a month etc. No, i dont reboot Windows more often than once a month (Windows Update), neither I reinstall it once a half a year. It works fine, no bogging down.

I`m not against porting KDE to Win, why should i be? But KDE as a Windows savior? Who is gonna use it? Those who doubleboot Linux and Windows, maybe... It is not gonna replace Explorer on Windows. Most of Windows folk will just ignore it.

Just be realistic, am i asking for too much?
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Once again, the elitism of the Linux crowd
by Bob on Monday 04/Feb/2008, @18:02
As with a couple of the other not-anti-Windows crowd above, I use both Windows and Linux. A few years ago, I was one of the "Linux is obviously superior to Windows" crowd. That phase of my life ended when I started experimenting with Linux (FC3.)

I'm running OpenSuse 10.3 on this computer, and dual boot that with Windows XP on my laptop. Stability wise, I can't remember the last time Windows crashed on me since SP2 was installed on my old desktop a few years ago; my (new) desktop hasn't had issues with stability with Linux, but I have had some with my laptop.

Security? I'll start accepting comparisons when Linux has more than 1% of the client market penetration that Windows has. Seriously, who even tries writing viruses for Linux? You might knock out a server here and there, but the vast majority of the world wouldn't blink an eye.

The big difference, though, is that Windows Just Works. Linux doesn't. Part of it is the fact that I'm still fairly green with Linux, but if you want to get rid of Windows, then Linux better be easy enough to use that someone far less capable as an admin than myself can use it out of the box. On my laptop, I can't count the number of hours trying to get ndiswrapper to work properly (still haven't gotten it.) I built the desktop with an ATI card; no luck with fglrx to load properly. Motherboard died, decided to upgrade to a SLI system; no luck with nVidia's driver working properly either. CUPS I got working, but it took some digging (it was easier on my old desktop with Xubuntu than OpenSuse.) Yes, a lot of it is that drivers are first and foremost written for Windows. Nevertheless, I have gained an appreciation for the fact that, despite being a massive OS encumbered with a not-so-great historical code base, Windows has a phenomenal ability to cope with a massive range of apps and hardware and not bat an eye.

If all you're doing is basic office and internet stuff, Linux is fine. A step beyond, though, and you're headed into command line interfaces, dealing with hardware compatibility issues, and in general a bunch of stuff 95% of users are absolutely unwilling to deal with. I like Linux; I really want this computer to never see Windows (mainly to save the $110 on Vista Home Premium.) But it really isn't ready for the mainstream user yet, and it's annoying that half the websites I go to for Linux advice, news, etc. have people that are extreme OS elitists.
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Sounds good, but...
by Gray on Sunday 17/Feb/2008, @05:59
KDE is built into Linux at the moment, and rightly so too. Why put onto the unstable Windows OS when Linux looks as good has the same apps (with cheesier names). If you want an easy to use OS like window I would highly recommend PC Linux OS [ http://www,pclinuxos.com ] it is on both KDE and Gnome. It is very fast nand esier to use than Windows XP or Vista (wizard galore!)
In conclusion moving KDE to windows is daft. Particularly because Window's kernel32 is so unstable on less powerful machines it will crash continuously!

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