New subject: [trinity-devel] TDE Status Report

5 Apr 2013

Hi all,

After discussions with the core development team, I have realised that I
owe everybody a long overdue update regarding Trinity.

I apologise for the relatively long term silence on these mailing lists. 
Like most people, I have to work in order to keep the lights on and the
servers humming, and these commitments have taken time away from TDE.  In
particular over the past several months I have not had any spare time to
dedicate to TDE, which is why most development (other than Slavek's
tireless patching) had appeared to grind to a halt.

The good news is that the work which had been taking most of my time is
now easing up.  I am currently diving into the bugtracker and am currently
focused on getting R14.0.0 stabilized and ready to ship.

Thanks to several other dedicated individuals involved in the Trinity
project, progress has continued while I was away.  R14.0.0 is looking good
overall, and the R14.0.0 road map and long term TDE road maps have been
updated on the Etherpad to more accurately reflect our goals.

Despite my absence I am encouraged that TDE will continue to move forward.

After some discussions with the core developers of TDE, I have begun to
realise that the project's top priority from now on needs to be resolving
bug reports. Other work will continue, including enhancements and feature
requests, but bug quashing will need to remain a top priority to ensure
TDE's survival and success.

Secondly, Trinity has much in common with other "secondary" desktop
environments.  We never will have the developer power or userbase of KDE,
GNOME, or Unity, but like our cousin "secondary" desktops, TDE has a vtal
role to play in the free/libre software world.  We should strive for
excellence within our particular software design model, and not worry so
much about what the Big Three desktops are doing at any given instant.

My motivation for using and developing Trinity is to create a desktop that
functions the way I think it should function. How people believe a desktop
should function varies widely and this is why so many exist, along with
many window managers.  The Trinity philosophy does not embrace certain
popular elements now available in other desktops, and those elements are
unlikely to ever become a part of Trinity.  That kind of focus is neither
"bad" nor "good." We live in a large, varied world and there is plenty
of
room for all of these varying opinions and designs.  This is also part of
the method why free/libre software will succeed in the long run: by
encouraging choice and freedom of opinions.

Continuing Trinity is not about "us" versus "them"; instead, we are
simply
exercising our freedom of choice by improving our software as we see fit. 
Nothing more, nothing less.

Thank you so much for being patient the past several months.  I know it
was difficult for many of you, but rest assured that work on TDE will pick
up again, especially with your continuing support!

Timothy Pearson
Trinity Desktop Project