Does the End of KOffice Mean the End of KDE? 233
jfruhlinger writes "Venerable Linux office suite KOffice has been reborn as "Calligra," a name meant to evoke calligraphy but perhaps a bit too close to the neme of a deranged Roman emperor. Perhaps more importantly, Calligra seems to be cooperating with the future MeeGo mobile Linux distro. Could this be the beginning of the end of the KDE desktop, at least under its current branding?"
Oh no (Score:5, Insightful)
not just the end of KDE - but the end of all life on earth!
What a stupid headline. Page views, clicks, etc. Yeah I know.
Tag: Troll (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, totally. (Score:3, Insightful)
Did anyone actually use KOffice? (Score:5, Insightful)
I know I never have, and I use KDE quite a lot. I don't know anyone that has. It's usually OpenOffice.org that's being use.
Re:Why should it? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm all for government transparency and accountability
You are all for it, as long as those words mean nothing specific. Just a lofty goal "government transparency - yeah I'm for it". Reporting government wrongdoing or dubious activity, if said government would rather nobody found out ... well that would take things too far. Transparency is only for those cases when the government likes being transparent, it appears.
I'm assuming PayPal was pressured a bit in this matter.
Poor PayPal. Were they sued? Was there a court order? Or is it enough when some government agency makes threatening phone calls?
Re:Kalligra (Score:4, Insightful)
It makes for horrible alphabetical clustering in menus and file managers!
I can't find anything at a glance, among K* or i* - or g[????]*.
Just as bad - if not worse is the sorting on Windows machines "My" everything and "Microsoft" everything. Real visual cluster fart.
Wow! Total junk news (Score:4, Insightful)
This is a horrible junk news editorial. This speculation is not just wild, it is more annoying than those toads in Australia... too much of this around and we just can't kill them all.
I welcome the name change from KOffice to just about anything else including Caligula. KOffice is not the same as K-Office. KOffice sounds too much like a bronchial condition. And the propensity to name things with a K in front is just ridiculous. I know, Gnome is somewhat guilty of that but not to the same extent. Worse, K is associated n my mind with K-Mart which was the brand of K-rap. (Their shoes were cheap and only lasted for 5 minutes on my feet when I was a kid.) I know... my association with K is my problem, but still. Too much K already. At least "G" is more often silent.
Re:Oh no (Score:4, Insightful)
Ob. SMBC [smbc-comics.com]
Maybe that should go for Slashdot headlines as well.
Re:Did anyone actually use KOffice? (Score:5, Insightful)
I know I never have, and I use KDE quite a lot. I don't know anyone that has. It's usually OpenOffice.org that's being use.
I've tried to use KOffice. Lord, how I've tried. I hate OpenOffice with a passion, but I just keep coming back to it.
There's really only one thing holding KOffice back from general recognition as an Office contender: the font rendering/kerning is abysmal.
The history behind this is tragic: someone in both the KDE and KOffice projects made it a principle that these projects should always use Qt libraries whenever possible instead of re-inventing the wheel. On paper, this sounds good. The problem is that there are still areas where the current Qt libraries....well, suck. Font rendering is one, printing is another. Thus, KOffice sucks and fonts and KDE sucks at printing (KDE3 was great at this because they used their own libraries).
This is not usually a big deal because bugs can be fixed, right? Not in this case. The KDE and KOffice people point at the guiding principle (use Qt libraries) and say it's a Qt problem--ask Qt for a fix. The Qt people say that these features are not important to include in their libraries (because neither KDE nor KOffice are their bread and butter). And nobody fixes the problem.
Actually that's not entirely true. The Scribus team created their own font rendering library for their Qt-based app. Because they don't want to produce crap, even if they have to re-invent the wheel to avoid producing crap.
Re:Why should it? (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't you dare conflate the privacy and integrity of the civilian on the street with the secrecy of a government infested with powertripping psychopaths who are supposed to represent you, whom are employed by you, and are committing illegal acts in your name and trying to protect their own sorry asses by extensive misuse of secrecy.
I duly note that you ignored every single question I asked, especially about Ellsberg and the NYT, which speaks volumes of you and how well thought out your position is. And frankly, using the rest of the "reply" for nothing but a couple of lame ad hominem attacks tells the rest.
I like my democracy thank you very much, I'm sorry it makes me a zealot that I want to keep it. I suggest you take your neo-fascist tyranny and shove it up your ass. I'm sure you'll like it.
And btw, I'm NOT the AC who were refering to your wife, my original reason for posting AC is that I can't be bothered to find out a username that is't already used, only to get another password to track. So much for that assumption, smart ass.
Better question... (Score:3, Insightful)
How am I supposed to know Plasma and Dolphin are KDE apps now?
Here's a better question. Why should I need to know whether Dolphin (I'll leave out Plasma, since it's functionality is so KDE-specific) is a KDE app? If I like it, I should be able to use it seamlessly regardless of which DE I prefer. To the extent that I can't, the 'open desktop' has failed. To the extent that it's becoming easier and easier, the OD is inching (not fast enough, IMHO) toward (the potential for) success.
Re:Does it really matter any longer? (Score:3, Insightful)
RedHat helped found Gnome in reaction to KDE when it first came out. They were always hostile as opposed to Caldera which was very pro-KDE.
Ubuntu was always part of Gnome, they had to pick and they picked Gnome because they agreed with the goal of interface simplicity which was part of the Gnome 2 project.
The real kick in the teeth was Suse and Mandriva/Mandrake supporting Gnome fully.
Re:Rebranding (Score:1, Insightful)
When (if) Ubuntu breaks from Gnome it will be the start of the decline of Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is the first distribution that gets normal people using Linux. And that is because they can use it. It is simple and uncluttered enough to be usable for them. Once they get comfortable they might discover more about the underlying system. With KDE as desktop you don't have that. It is way more in your face and it simply isn't workable out of the box.
You know it, I know it. So let's not pretend, OK?