Re: [trinity-devel] on releases :)

hi everyone ... first off, congratulations on a new release! the way i see Trinity, it is the continuation of work on the 3.5 codebase. nobody else is doing it, nobody else seems willing to do it outside of Trinity and there are people who want to use it. these are all great things and a strength of free and open source software. as such, i see Trinity doing a service by giving those who wish to continue using KDE 3.x the ability to do so without facing software obsolence through bit rot. this makes those folks happier, and prevents them from feeling like their only remaining response is to behave poorly towards those working on the 4.x codebases. it's win-win in the truest sense of the word. but i'm not going to whitewash things either: there are those who use Trinity who really dislike 4.x and those in the KDE community who see Trinity as a safe haven for people who have (or continue to) behave poorly. this is beyond unfortunate since Trinity and the KDE Platform and Workspaces 4.x both provide good things to the same group of people: those who use KDE software. so i'd like to see the remaining negativity put behind us so all of us working on KDE code can co-exist in good spirit, happy in the knowledge that everyone is getting what they want and doing so in the spirit of true freedom. i hope you feel similarly. this was the spirit in which we encouraged people to work on the 3.x code if they wanted to and, unlike some other communities who have in recent times openly berated and made fun of people who wanted to do similar things for their software, have been supporters and agreed with the goals you have. so when i see the announcements on sites starting with quotes like this: "Disappointed with KDE 4's performance and other shortcomings, Timothy Pearson continued KDE 3.5 development under the name Trinity." i cringe a little inside because that does nothing but stir up hornets' nests. when i read this in the announcement to the mailing list: "Why upgrade from KDE3.5.10, the latest release available from KDE e.V.? Simply put, Trinity is faster, more secure, and far more feature rich than 3.5.10 ever was!" (http://trinity-devel.pearsoncomputing.net/?0::3271) i feel sad because Trinity should really not be trying to stand out as a _competitor_ to 3.5.10 but as the continuation of that code base. (btw, KDE e.V. never puts out KDE releases; the community of participants and contirbutors does that.) by positioning Trinity as a competitor when no such competition exists only serves to strengthen us/them lines that simply do not exist in reality. personally, i'm tired of the needless divisions in F/OSS that arise because people can not simply live and let live, because we for some reason feel the need to constantly tear each other down in an attempt to make our own efforts seem more presentable and respectable. what rubbish. Trinity, as the continuation of the 3.5 codebase, stands on its own feet alongside Plasma Desktop and the rest of the 4.x products. we should therefore also stand as allies and friends. we should also stand for what we are, not for what (or who) we are not. as the developers, and therefore leaders of the Trinity project, please consider this when working on and then publicizing your next release. i appreciate your time and patience if you've read this far :) -- Aaron J. Seigo humru othro a kohnu se GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43 KDE core developer sponsored by Qt Development Frameworks