In The Beginning There was a Desktop ...
KDE wasn't always the shiniest tool in the shed. While KDE 1 certainly looked more coherent and generally nicer than most things on UNIX or Linux at the time, it wasn't .. you know .. gorgeous. Things got better over time, certainly, but with KDE 4 some of us decided to try something new and consciously grow the focus of KDE development to include a few key traits we'd been lacking.
At the end of March in 2005 a bunch of people (15, if I recall correctly) gathered for an ad-hoc meeting in Berlin, Germany. There were artists, usability experts, developers, business managers and users. We all had one thing in mind: the future of KDE.The meeting was by private invite and kept quiet until it was over. This pissed some people off, and rightfully so. KDE's inner culture wasn't as transparent then as it is now, and that showed in this case. But more than anything else, the people organizing it were concerned that it might fail completely ... or succeed in ways we couldn't imagine. It was such a wild experiment that nobody knew how it would turn out.
(Side note .. I do wish they'd carried it out in a more transparent manner from the start and had a bit more confidence in the whole process, but it was a good lesson for everyone. The greater transparency in general in KDE since that era is a nice sign of progress.)
... And Then We Took Berlin
Besides a cute wiki and a beautiful logo, what did we emerge with from that meeting? Well, a few projects that you might have heard of got their start there: Oxygen, Marble and Plasma to name three. Some usability innovations, such as solutions for the select-with-single-click-activation dilemma, also emerged during that meeting.
I summed the results up this way in the wrap-up story for theDot:
"This first APPEAL meeting provided a hot-house for focused, interdisciplinary KDE development. Looking forward, the group aims to grow organically in scope as others with a similar drive for realizing visual beauty, interface clarity and technical creativity in KDE come together. Additional APPEAL meetings are already being planned."
KDE already had a reputation for technical excellence at the framework level, showing prescience with DCOP (later inspiring D-Bus), KParts, KStandardDirs (leading eventually to Kiosk user and group management) and much more. We wanted to add "excellence at the interface level" to that, and to accomplish that we listened to users large and small, usability experts and artists.
We defined targets like "visual beauty", "interface clarity", "interdisciplinary development" and "technical creativity" nearly three and a half years ago as goals for KDE 4. We then set about to spread this meme throughout KDE.
We took an arguably slower bottom-up approach to this because we wanted the results to be sustainable and honest, not a splash of paint that gets done once in a hurry and then forgotten about, left to pixel-rot away over the years. We also didn't want to risk creating schisms in the various project teams in the process. This is the principle of "don't break what's working to fix what's broken".
The Results Are (Coming) In
When you look at what is going on today in KDE it's evident that we've been largely successful in getting this meme embedded in the DNA of the KDE team.
From in-application animations and window compositing to SVG theming and canvas centric applications to a much greater sensitivity towards usability issues it's become pervasive and noticeable. That is a success everyone involved with KDE is responsible for equally, not just the few people who trekked to Berlin in '05 and certainly not just the programmers.
(Speaking of programmers, we're still rocking the frameworks side of life with things like Solid, Phonon, ThreadWeaver and Nepomuk, of course.)
We are still working on coordinating all fronts equally well, but the jump in both looks and functionality between KDE 3.5 and KDE 4.1 are pretty compelling. While there are a few features in KDE 3.5 that aren't in 4.1, there are many, many more features that are in 4.1 which aren't in 3.5.
As for visuals, the two releases don't even compare: it's Apples to oranges (excuse the pun ;) with 4.1 being widely hailed as visually more satisfying. It's also more themable, brandable and adjustable than KDE 3 ever was despite the streamlining.
The jump from 4.0 to 4.1 to the bleeding edge development going into 4.2 right now clearly defines the vector we're on: a near vertical climb skywards.
Why this topic now?
I'm talking about this right now because there has been a growing murmur about beauty in Free software of late:
Mark Shuttleworth put out a call to make the user experience of desktop Linux even "prettier" than that of Apple's Mac OS.'
Analyst Stephen O'Grady agrees with Mark, and even notes that he wrote about this exact issue back in March of '06 in a blog entry entitled "Pretty is a Feature".
In one KDE 4.1 review written by Darryl Taft for eWeek, two and two were put together when Darryl wrote: 'Perhaps KDE is working toward that goal.'
And so we finally get to the punchline: Yes, we are working towards that goal.
We started building the necessary momentum and support structure for this push three and a half years ago when we we set for ourselves a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) at the Appeal meeting:
"Put people in front of two machines: one running KDE and the other MacOS. Let them experience both options from log in to shut down, and have them leave wanting KDE."
Are we there yet? I don't have empirical data to point to (though I personally feel "not yet"), but I think we're getting damn close. Most importantly we have the right mindset and the right trajectory to meet that BHAG. That's something very few other software projects can say with similar confidence right now, F/OSS or otherwise.
And this is why KDE is so valuable in the F/OSS ecosystem: we have a culture of anticipating the needs of the near future and working on quality solutions for them before most people even wake up to the issue.
Be Free .. (To Sell KDE)
Now if this sounds like I'm trying to sell the Shuttleworths, O'Gradys and Tafts of the world on our vision and our team, you're right. There it is, I've said it openly. =)
We have something hot going on: something that scales up and down the hardware spectrum, something that is looking sexier practically by the minute, and something that is built for the future ... something that we have oodles more room to explore within and well laid plans for executing on that.
Most importantly, the ability to create that "something" is part of our culture right alongside "make great library frameworks".
That culture is precisely what the F/OSS desktop needs right now, and we should be building our successes on it together.
p.s. Maybe it's time for a second (more open) Appeal meeting.
15 comments:
I must say that Mark Shuttleworth is already late with hes "comment". Linux desktops looks marvelous and shines like the sun on surface of the see.
The 3D effects have gone forward by big leaps and are long way ahead before Macosx and Windows.
KDE4 brought us nice effects, even that i'm waiting more of them and more settings, but we have now with 4.1 version better "eye candy" than competitors, gnome comes close with it's compiz, if not go ahead from us...? (it might be more question of taste).
Hop-damn! That's some throw-down you've whipped up.
This is what I love about KDE4. You can sit in front of it and actually enjoy using it. You can show it to friends without having to explain why it rocks. I'm especially impressed with applications like Gwenview, Dolphin and Okular, which do everything you want in a simple and visually pleasing way. And of course there is Plasma which is totally rocking and the best of it is that everything is improving in a breathtaking pace. Keep on rocking with KDE4!
@mikko: 'Mark Shuttleworth is already late with hes "comment"'
well, people often arrive at the same conclusions, just at different times.
what Mark isn't too late for is to take advantage of KDE 4 without cost to the Ubuntu brand.
they could, for instance, easily make Plasma look just like what they have now (or, as a more realistic goal, like an updated version of it) with all their lovely browns and dual panels and what not and place that under their current suite of applications (Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin, Nautilus, whatever).
with the Gtk QStyle in Qt4 they could make the two blend effortlessly and fairly seamlessly.
they could also include apps that just aren't available anywhere else, such as Marble (i just saw openstreetmap search code go into svn yesterday! wooo!), and improve the user experience.
it just takes dropping the desktop dogma drama and realizing that the Ubuntu brand is about a colour palette, bleeding edge software, a regimented development process and a user community that revolves around fantastic web forums and even off-line communication.
*that* is Ubuntu (something i really don't need to be point out to Mark or his team; i'm sure they know that already much better than i do =).
so perhaps the Canonical crew should be looking at ways to do everything possible to increase the value in that mix, including really taking advantage of things like Qt4 (particularly in the mobile space, particularly with Nokia moving in that direction) and KDE 4 (particularly on the desktop where we are already delivering solid product in the forms of a bevy of high quality applications).
replace "Canonical" in the above with the distribution of your choice. Mark just makes it an easy target with his willingness to speak his mind openly (something i applaud him for, and which i don't see many other distro CEOs doing)
dang. Well said.
Well sayed, Aaron. Thanks :)
well said, and it's all true. Thanks to all who contribute to KDE4 for what is truly a great desktop.
Sometimes when you read a post.. you say "Thats a vision..". This was one such post :)
Also.. is this the only way you are going to talk to MarkS.. via an RSS feed.. or have you written directly? Its in both your selfish goodness.
@Anil: "is this the only way you are going to talk to MarkS"
i've had the opportunity to talk to Mark a few times in person; i've attended UDS events as well been at several of the same conferences with him where we've had a chance to talk.
i do hope we manage to find an opportunity to discuss this particular set of matters in the near future.
I love KDE 4.1! The entire platform is awesome.
@mikko: "Linux desktops looks marvelous and shines like the sun on surface of the see.
The 3D effects have gone forward by big leaps and are long way ahead before Macosx and Windows."
I think you are mistaken. While I think that KDE4 is lightyears ahead in terms of both "pretty" and usability, the standard Ubuntu desktop running GNOME is far from a polished experience. It doesn't look as professional.
Also, 3D effects are not everything. Theming is a huge part of that. I like what Mark Shuttleworth talks about in terms of raising the bar for eye-candy, but when he's speaking, I often feel as though he's talking to the GNOME/GTK people. Although, I am a KDE user so I probably am just being a fanboy in that I feel KDE is already better than MacOS X.
@Aaron Seigo: This isn't a response to this particular post, but I was wondering something. A little while ago, I read on your blog that the future vision is to have plasma working on a variety of devices. Is there any kind of timetable for that work, and are there any projects currently in development. I am really excited to see a phone running KDE4. Especially because I think that running plasmoids on this type of device could be the killer app that could get market penetration on F/OSS based phones such as the OpenMoko.
Wow,
I am shaking from excitement. You should think about becoming a writer...or better not. We do not want to miss you now that you are back.
I agree with everything you say. KDE is the way of bringing Linux to the masses. I really do hope Mark S. will find a way of using the KDE momentum and excellence to better promote ubuntu/linux. I think he now wishes he had chosen KDE 4 years ago. I do like gnome, but for me also sexy is important ;-)
Good job KDE team
(I really would love to start developing but the hurdle is still too steep for me personally.)
Christophe
Wow -- articulate and insightful as always, thank you for the post!
A friend of mine recently commented that my desktop was "really pretty, I didn't know Mac OS could do that" and it was a great feeling to be able to say "Actually, it can't - this is KDE".
I can't put it better than fliegenderfrosch: thank you and keep on rocking with KDE!
Hmmmm. I hope you have a set of Linus's flame retardant underwear, a full body suit, some ear defenders and you're prepared for some pretty extreme G forces. I also hope the new code of conduct works ;-).
I agree that KDE 4 is turning into something very compelling (especially from a visual point of view), but of more interest to me are things like Solid and Phonon which should come on stream more from 4.2 onwards. They have the ability and potential to solve one of the big issues with free desktops, which is the integration of the desktop with other components within the OS in a programmable and user experience sense. Upstream is where this stuff has always belonged, and not in Yet Another Control Centre. I think these things will pretty much become undeniable fairly soon, and that's where the hoo har will start. What Plasma and KDE 4 does ticks pretty much every box that Mark Shuttleworth has laid down, including the plugins requirement.
However, no matter how good KDE gets over the next few iterations, I can't see Ubuntu promoting KDE beyond its current status within the Ubuntu brand, and that is purely down to politics I'm afraid. They'll also hold free desktops back by doing it.
It pretty much confirms what I thought a few years ago. KDE needs a purely KDE focused distribution to emerge and show off KDE 4 to its fullest effect (I think the reaction to KDE 4.0 showed that as well), commit to solving some of the big desktop problems and get as much of what they solve upstream as possible. It would also solve as much for the server as it would for the desktop, as no one has yet went out and looked at creating a graphical and management tools infrastructure using KDE's tools as a front-end. In fact, no one has went out and looked at KDE and the free desktop and even thought about creating something that would be able to compete with something like Microsoft's server management tools. It's the only thing out there capable.
John H. Terpstra's view of Linux distributions and their competition from a few years ago still stands even now. There's a lot to be gained beyond even the desktop.
@aseigo
i was wondering, wouldent it be awesome to create a UI for Netbooks like EeePC, Wind etc. based on Plasma?! Similar to Canonical's Netbook remix..
With plasma that should be possible right?
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