WM / DE competition
OfflineI installed the XFCE files that came with my Suse DVD, so now I have KDE, Gnome, TWM, XFCE, Flux and another *WM one. I've tried most of them, and I like KDE the most - it's always been my desktop environment of choice, but I also really love what the talented Gnome guys have done. XFCE is very similar to Gnome, and I haven't yet discovered what these other window managers / desktop environments have to fully offer - but I try to give other environments a go every so often, and check what kind of stuff they feature...
I think it is very important that we have a large variety of window managers and desktop environments to offer (along with a large assortment of distros) because it inspires competition and thus constant update. For example, when CDE was first created (predecessor of KDE), the Gnome environment was also created, because the Gnome guys didn't like that the Qt library that CDE was using wasn't 100% free. Then it became free and now the constant development between KDE (Kommon Desktop Environment) and Gnome are keeping folks on their toes.
This shortens the time to develop new and more advanced features that we all take for granted, so I think we owe something to these folks, don't you? I think we should stop distro and WM / DE bashing, and see if we can help. If you aren't a programmer (like me) try checking sites like KDE-Look.org, Gnome-Look.org, XFCE-Look.org etcetera...
There are a multitude of places where pretty much any skills are helpful and needed. Have a look! ;-)
Pascal
wombat@wombat:~> apt-get moo
If the area around my avatar is dark gray chances are you are using MS Internet Explorer, one of the few browsers that do not have full PNG-24 support. Considered trying [url=http://bro
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KDE isn't based on CDE, and CDE is still proprietary software of The Open Group (www.opengroup.org).
CDE uses Motif (which has also been released under a free software license which is essencially the same as IBM Public License, but it was not free at that time) as its base library.
*edit*
well looks like I didn't read the Motif license carefully...
They've added this one into the IBM Public License, which rendered it non-free (a free software program should be legally run on any OS's even if it's non-free, as that's generally USING the program):
The rights granted under this license are limited solely to distribution and sublicensing of the Contribution(s) on, with, or for operating systems which are themselves Open Source programs. Contact The Open Group for a license allowing distribution and sublicensing of the Original Program on, with, or for operating systems which are not Open Source programs.
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I prefer KDE. I also use Gnome since there are a few features that KDE doesn't have implemented.
I just checked KDE's web site. They have an updated agreement that should keep the "free" nature intact even if Trolltech is purchased or goes out of business. It clarifies that Qt will remain in the "free" domain as in the BSD Open license.
I'm not a lawyer but it would seem to be fairly secure. Yes/No ?
I am a supporter of open software. That is the main reason that I use Debian for my primary operating system.
Jeff
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Sorry, CDE is not the direct predecessor of KDE, but the folks who had the idea of KDE, got it from CDE, so the name idea was similar - plus both CDE and KDE use(d) Qt. :-)
wombat@wombat:~> apt-get moo
If the area around my avatar is dark gray chances are you are using MS Internet Explorer, one of the few browsers that do not have full PNG-24 support. Considered trying [url=http://bro
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Xfce was kinda styled after cde if i remember right. I don't use any of em though, I use oroborus and gnome-panel.
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