KDE 3.5.6 released w Kubuntu packages

[Angus Prune]

On 1/29/07, Donn <donn.ingle at gmail.com> wrote:
> > This is a new user, who hasn't made friends with his approach to this
> > list
> I was merely asking questions in order to learn. Making or losing friends was
> not the agenda. If I do not ask questions, even repeatedly until
> understanding dawns, then how can I learn? How can anyone? If the questions
> are in a tender area that draws flames, it becomes very tricky. Not my fault,
> but I am not a troll.
>
> > , but he was confused by what the Long Term Support version of our
> > operating system offered in terms of long term support.  Perhaps we
> > should take that away with us and work out whether this guy is just
> > dim or whether these issues aren't made clear to new users.
> Yes - please take that away and think on it. I really do feel that if Ubuntu
> want to draw users away from Windows that they *must* realize what they are
> up against. Here it is in one sentence: "I want to run any version of my apps
> on any version of the O/S I currently have". It is summed-up by
> saying, "users use apps not operating systems."

I'm not sure I'd expect the above users to be updating KDE anyway.
Surely to those users KDE is part of the operating system rather than
an app.


Now I don't understand packaging, but isn't it relatively trivial to
install 'unsupported' versions of apps on ubuntu by hand anyway
(whether from a deb or from source)?

So wouldn't those people who /really/ need the latest version of
something be able to get it despite it not being supported?

> Now -- I am saying *IF* Gnu/Linux makes it impossible to do this *THEN* it
> should be spelled-out and quite apparent in all Ubuntu documentation. If it's
> not spelled-out, then many users (and I have experienced one personally and
> read many more on the forums) will leave in disgust and confusion.
>
> I am saying full disclosure; here are our skeletons, watch them dance!

They aren't skeletons - in windows world you would get App v1.0
They would release a couple of intermediary versions, if at all.  I
few bug fixes and security updates.

Then 18 moths later they would release App v2.0 which may or may not
run on the same version of windows, may not save to the same file
format, may not be compatible with the same plug-ins etc etc.

Just try working in an office with old versions of MS Office on some
machines - its a nightmare.


In FOSS you will get several releases over that time which gradually
add features and enhancements.  This has several repercussions, it
means, for instance, KDE won't be backported to dapper, it also means
its harder to sell releases - there isn't a huge new feature set to
sell to the users as they've been getting the features as they were
produced.

It isn't (and this is what I think has offended some people) a
skeleton in the cupboard.  It works differently to windows, that is
all.

You have highlighted however this 'feature' / aspect / difference
about linux needs to be explained to new users more effectively.



James