KDE-CVS-Digest for August 29, 2003

In this week's Digest: It's been a very busy week. Some new applications: Knot,
a service location server, Kickme, a lightweight DCOP messenger and event viewer,
an LDAP kioslave, KWiFiManager, for monitoring wireless cards,
the new Plastik widget style,
an SNMP plugin for KSim.
aRts adds
Media Application Server output support.
KDevelop adds Haskell and Mozilla XUL language support.
KStars supports electrical telescope focusers. Security fixes for KDM.
KAddressBook has phone calling support.
Spell checking support in KOffice is complete, and improved elsewhere. The
KitchenSync plugin is added to Kontact.
KOrganizer printing system is improved.
Safari render_layer code is ported to KHTML.
More new CrystalSVG icons. Improvements for running KDE on laptops. And a huge number of bugfixes.

Dot Categories: 

Comments

by Anonymous Coward (not verified)

Ignore Neil, sadly he's blinded by right-wing politics.

by aleXXX (not verified)

Sorry, I can't remember any posting from you which made sense.

Alex

by Alex (not verified)

I understand what you're saying, but I think that is
quite different.

More than 600 websites of which many include important
OSS projects such as GNOME.ORG have participated in
this protest against patents in the EU.

Furthermore, this patent law will significantly affect
the OSS world and therefore it is of great interest
for KDE, GNOME, GIMP.ORG, Autopackage.org etc. to see
this law get shot down.

The US army does not affect OS software in any major
way and there is nothing the user can do anyway. KDE
called for action to actually make a difference, if
they were to be passive saying something like "The
new European patent law sucks ass!" and that was the
entire message, not asking people to try and shoot
down the law than I'm sure there would have been a lot
of negative reaction. Since saying this does not do
anything about the problem.

But, the biggest difference is again, that your thanks
to the army was actually in the credits of KDE
software while the US army didn't actually contribute
anything to your projects. It’s the same as if I listed
my programming teacher, my parents for giving me a home,
the local police for keeping me safe, the fire department for
keeping me safe also, GCC team for giving me a great
compiler for my software etc. at the credits of my software,
while he didn't directly have anything to do with it.
On the other hand this new law will impact OSS so it
is of much interest to everyone. It would not offend
KDE users or developers since if they are using KDE
they obviously don't want it to go away and this law
would hurt it.

Also, the protest only lasted a day (the website was
also still accessible through another address) and it
was a website not actual KDE software.

And as many others have mentioned, it was KDE's own interest to participate in the protest, since KDE and other OSS projects are facing problems because of abusive software patents. KDE would have participated in a demonstration like this regardless of what country would have wanted to introduced this law.

It is just like businesses will support laws that will make their profits higher.

This is *no* move away from a no-politics policy.

Your comment about the army was actually part of KDE
software and so if I installed the VS version of your
software I would have that comment for the entire time
I had that software installed.

by Yo (not verified)

Neil: You are an idiot and your software sucks real bad. Take a look a kboodle. Did you know many of us have uninstalled that piece of shit? It only wastes space on people harddrives. WE DON'T NEED YOU, WE DON'T NEED US ARMY. WE DON'T NEED YOUR COUNTRY.

by Mark Hannessen (not verified)

AND WE NEED NO PATENTS

by Mikkel Schubert (not verified)

AND WE NEED NO FARKING FLAMEWARS! GROW UP!

by Alex (not verified)

No, but you would be far beinhind without the US, besides your trolling makes nos ense, the issue was never whether the US was needed or the US army.

It's just about KDE's policy on politics. It's obvious politiics should not be here, because there are so many immature trolls just waiting to speak outa nd many people may take offense.

by Mathieu Chouinard (not verified)

Neil, it's actual concessus that you're a moron ... I'm a right winger too in Canada but I think you confuse USA foreign policies with FREEDOM to do OUR job as SOFTWARE DEVELOPER. so try to learn the difference between those 2 please.

by anon (not verified)

With the removal of Neil's CVS privaleges, I hope that some of his ideas don't die, although I disagreed with 95% of what he said. He brought an unique perspective to KDE developers. He was perhaps the most ultra-conservative (well, I guess he was probably ultra-libraterian) USA-patrotic KDE developer, heh.

Oh well. bye neil :() I thank you for hayes. I don't think you for kinkatta/kaim never being in cvs compared to the bad client that's called kit. (good that kopete is replacing that piece of shit)

by ac (not verified)

Well JuK is in CVS now, so don't worry about Hayes. I think Kaboodle is forked since it is actually needed.

by anon (not verified)

I just hope neil finishes his "Space Indenters" game. Extremely elite.

(See http://www.hakubi.us/spaceindenters/spaceindenters.png)

by Pieter Bonne (not verified)

i think so too.. some of his perspective had an ultimately good influence on the kde community at times.. too bad freekde.org had to stop.. I didn't even know until today he was so patriotic about the US!

by Sleepless (not verified)

Yeap, me neither. And I really think it shouldn't matter.
I talked to him many times in #kde-users and saw him help many people there, he seemed like a cool guy. Such a mess over something like this is really stupid, it's just not worth it. I hope things calm down soon...

by Neil Stevens (not verified)

I'm not quitting software development, or even KDE software development. I quit cvs.kde.org development because of inconsistent policy enforcement.

If you like Hayes, keep using it same as ever: http://www.hakubi.us/hayes/

by dan (not verified)

What do you mean inconsistency, ar eoyu saying thet KDE developers didn't remove European political affilations in KDE software? If so, than that's not fair at all, but just because some other politics sneaked their wayinto KD does not make adding mroe right IMO.

Just like if one robber doesen't get caught stealing from the bank it doesen't make it right for anotehr robber to steal.

by Aaron J. Seigo (not verified)

not at all... there was a pro-Europe msg committed to CVS at one point in the past and it was met with the same response and was reverted.

by Janne (not verified)

I think he means that if KDE opposes software-patents (something that actually has something to do with KDE!) it means that it's OK to put in propaganda-messages about the glorious US Army (the protectors of freedom, saviors of mankind!) in to KDE as well. I mean, US Army is just as relevant to KDE as software-patents are, right?

In case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic.

by dan (not verified)

What do you mean inconsistency, ar eoyu saying thet KDE developers didn't remove European political affilations in KDE software? If so, than that's not fair at all, but just because some other politics sneaked their wayinto KD does not make adding mroe right IMO.

Just like if one robber doesen't get caught stealing from the bank it doesen't make it right for another robber to steal. Also, why quit CVS, I'm sure this political mess wil soon e worked out completely.

by Debian User (not verified)

Hello,

right wing activist and Free Software, oh man....

Of course they must get confused. They believe they can force others to accept credits for non-Freedom forces.

The US army has been prominent in keeping freedom from people. Since America is the land of DCMA, software patents, anybody can ruin/scare you through sueing, SCO, etc.... well, who would think it is Free?

Anyway, Free Software is used in China as well. Free Software helps to get society more free. Maybe best where it's worst.

All my disrespect for instrumenting KDE to gain some cheap attention to your non-issue.

Yours, Kay

by User (not verified)

It's great that plastik was added to CVS.. was a variation of knifty added too?

If you haven't seen/tried plastik yet, goto http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=7559

Very nice looking. hope they add thinkeramik and perhaps alloy too!

Plastik is a very good candidate for being KDE 4.0's new default widget set. The current one isn't used by very many ppl (it' aqua-like, but it's 100x bulkier than aqua)

by MxCl (not verified)

I can see some "Keramik should not be the default theme" posts coming. I hope not since this topic has been thrashed out all over the mailing lists. I don't get the fuss myself. Everyone I show KDE to says, "Wow! That's a fab interface," (regarding Keramik). Look at me fueling the fire.

Plastick's very nice though.

by anon (not verified)

Everyone I've showed Keramik to loves it in first site, but if I install KDE on their computers, I often see them switching to some other style within a few weeks of being comfortable.

But I think keramik should still be default. It's alright if most users outgrow Keramik in a few weeks.

by Rayiner Hashem (not verified)

Plastik isn't very good as a default theme. It doesn't scale very well with resolution, and is rather low-contrast (like Mandrake Galaxy). As a result, its almost unusable on my 1600x1200 15" LCD. Similarly high res screens (1450x1050 is another common res for 14" and 15" screens) are actually rather common on laptops, and its important to take into account that laptops are outselling desktops these days.

by anon (not verified)

Not only that, but the removal of the contrast slider in CVS, it hurts themes like plastik.

by Kitty (not verified)

Why did they remove the contrast slider, taht makes no sense I loved and used that thing for msot of my themes! WHYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! MEAW MEAW MEA!!!!!!!!!NOOOOOOOOOOO!

by joost (not verified)

gets some milk for kitty.. calm down, its ok.

by Alex (not verified)

Why would they remove the contrast slider, that is a very very useful feature to me, I always set my contrast to the highest, it makes themes more usable and take sinto account people with disabilitiies which need very high or low contrasts.

by TomL (not verified)

I love alloy, too. It's very, very nice. I use the commercial alloy l&f for my java projects
and it's just gorgeous, so I was very happy to see an alloy theme for kde. I'd love to see it
as part of standard kde, if possible.

by too lazy (not verified)
by Daan (not verified)

It's Konqueror running on a remote PC using the (so much hated) X-Windows network transparency. The X-server namely displays an X in the systray.

It's not really that difficult, have tried it at home with the Cygwin X server - running Konqueror on the desktop and displaying it on the laptop with Windows.

by Anonymous (not verified)

You're wrong, no remote PC is involved. It's KDE running on Cygwin.

by ac (not verified)

Please don't post messages with titles or content that say things like "that nut called NEIL.." here again. They are not welcome. I'm sure you can find better ways of expressing yourself.

-N.
------ ------ ------ ------- --------
part of a post to core-devel of nut-neil:

> But it is. You can't have free software without freedom at home, and
> I couldn't have written any of those apps without the US Army's
> protection.

I read this 10 times and still can't believe one can tell such a shit.

Maybe that nut should try to get into the us army, instead of bothering
kde people and users

and btw, kaboodle sucked big time, I'm glad it's gone

by poor neil (not verified)

What's sad about this guy is that he really doesn't seem to understand that KDE is not the place for such controversial political statements.

by ac (not verified)

Yes he does, he understands that perfectly well. He added the credit line as a direct reaction to the fact that the KDE.org site was taken down for the Software Patents protest, which he viewed as a similarly political act.

What he doesn't understand are the differences between the webpage change and his About box changes, that make the former acceptable, and the latter ridiculous.

by Thomas (not verified)

umh... maybe the difference is that the protest against patents (yes, it's about patents in Europe not in the US, not in another part of the world...) was a community-wide effort... Homepages like that of the gimp took part in this protest, cause all OpenSource projects may be somehow affected by a stupid legislative about software patents (plz note that it's about _software_ patents, nothing about iraq, the taliban or international terrorism...) regardless of a specific continent (even if it "only" affects Europe).

I think that kde.org would would take part in a similar effort from let's say south american OpenSource contributors if they would face a similar threat (in terms of free software)...

Whereas any OpenSource project has to avoid politics and social statements (... that's what politcal parties are for.... )
Projects like kde are about developing better software (and that's what we can all agree on)

by ac (not verified)

for me neil corresponds to the typical american as some think of them in europe...

- he certainly likes "spray cheese"
- he thinks Michael Moore must be shut up and go to jail forever
- he thinks GWB is great, honest, competent and elected
- he had no strange feeling when he read "united we stand, in god we trust"
- he is perfectly fine with the following sentence (about us people)
"How can anyboy hate us? we are the greatest people in the world!"
- he knows that the us army, day by day fights against evil terrorists in iraq, as shown on cnn every day.

my advice: Neil, go GNOME

by Derek Kite (not verified)

Please take your political comments elsewhere.

The issue isn't having political views. Everyone has them. But there are times and places for expressing them.

Derek

by CE (not verified)

It isn't only an political issue.

by Kitty (not verified)

Well, abotu teh patent thing: http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5068007.html?tag=fd_top

Over 700 websites participated in the protest and the outcome of this ruling directly affects FSS, the US army doesen't.

by Thomas (not verified)

first: Gnome has (like kde) a lot of contributors from all over the world (e.g. from spain and from france). Don't think the Gnome camp will welcome any obtrusions of political opinions...
second: please discuss politics on a forum with a topic like "foreign policies / diplomacy / affairs / whatever"

by CE (not verified)

Read the-amazing.us.
Neil is everything, except intelligent and sensible.
The good thing of that site is that it show the madness behind it.

He doesn't understand why the Europeans don't wanted to support an injust war.
He is a supporter of murder.

I don't want to talk about politics here, but it is a good proof that he is very unfair to people with a different position.

by Jim (not verified)

I'm confused, I didn't know Gnome was American & KDE was European. I was going to upgade to Mandrake 9.2 when it comes out & load KDE desktop only(I've been using Redhat9/Gnome), the reason I'm confused is I'm not from USA or Europe I'm from Australia is there a desktop for the South Pacific area with no political smell to it? By the way the reason I'm going back to KDE is the Kmail its the best Mail box there is. Cheers Jim

by Thomas (not verified)

> I'm confused, I didn't know Gnome was American & KDE was European

yeah, interesting ... not even KDE or Gnome know it...

by ac (not verified)

- he knows that the us army, day by day fights against evil terrorists in iraq, as shown on cnn every day.

ah no. Neil will not be watching cnn. Instead he will be watching "Fair and Balanced" Fox news ran by ex-reagan people.

by CE (not verified)

There is no big fair and balanced news channel in the US.

Watch BBC!

PS: This war wasn't a just war becuae the Iraq was evil.
There is still no proof of a connection to Al-Quaida and there won't be one.

by anon (not verified)

Hate to have a political discussion here on kde.org, but BBC as fair and balanced as Fox and CNN are. I get all of them, and all of them are biased in one way or the other.

by ac (not verified)

>There is no big fair and balanced news channel in the US.

IMHO, CNN is probably one of the more F&B of any major news station in the world, but I would tend to agree that BBC is probably better at when dealing with American issues.

>Watch BBC!

If you are implying that BBC is "fair and balanced", then you are way off in left field. No station can truely be fair and balanced. There will be biases built in from the reporter to the editor to the owner.
When I use to work as an EMT running ambulances in a small city (Ft. Collins, CO USA), I was shocked at what was reported in the news vs. what we would see. Several times, I saw accidents that were totally reported in wild fashions in the paper. Likewise, I saw a true gang hit that made 1 sentance in the paper even though it was huge news (the city was trying to deny that gangs were a problem for Ft. Collins).

Personally, I have watched BBC and do like that they tend to be more "F&B" when dealing with America. But, IMHO, the BBC tends to be more than slightly biased when dealing with Europe/UK or European/UK vs America.

>There is still no proof of a connection to Al-Quaida and there won't be one.

You must have me confused with somebody else. But I find it funny that this is even an issue. [O|U]BL hated Sadaam more than he hated America. I laugh when I hear ppl even insinuate that relationship. The hatred there is very intense.

by CE (not verified)

I didn't state that BBC isn't biased. ;-)

> You must have me confused with somebody else.

It wasn't answer to anything you have written, but I read the-amazing.us before.

by frizzo (not verified)

>>[O|U]BL hated Sadaam more than he hated America. I laugh when I hear ppl even insinuate that relationship. The hatred there is very intense.<<

Are you completely off your rocker? The planes on 9/11 must have flown into the oil fields in Iraq instead of WTC and Pentagon. Reality check!!!

by CE (not verified)

Why? It worked perfectly.

With the attack the end of Saddam's regime was caused.