Re: Plasma 5

Hello,

I'm Claudio, a computer science italian student and this is my first email
ever on kde-promo. I've followed the discussion since I've been subscribed
for years and I feel like I can help giving you my point of view.

First of all, I'm involved with KDE project in many ways as I'm a user,
fan, sometimes advocate and a developer (on Gluon Project). But first of
all I'm a user and even if I love the project / community I often install
and try other solutions like Gnome, Mate, Cinnamon, Unity, etc... just
because diversity is a value.

I understand why many people call it simply KDE. On one hand, because
changing people's mind is one of the greatest challenges of human kind, on
the other hand, because I think Plasma still miss a concrete identity. I'll
give you an example: everyone knows Ubuntu, which is a linux distribution,
and just a subset of those people knows about Canonical, which is the firm
behind ubuntu. I think we're in the same situation but flipped. Everyone
knows KDE because (correct me if I'm wrong) we used to say the name of the
desktop environment / workspace was KDE too, like KDE 2, 3 and 4.

I think no one, like me, refers to Plasma because of the fear of being
wrong. I think users can't understand where KDE starts and where Plasma
comes in. Also, as you said, in the Google+ community everyone is
hashtagging #showyourkde, identifying what is shown with "KDE". On facebook
there is the KDE page but Plasma is missing or really small. An other
simple (maybe silly) detail is the "K" which opens the menu. People
recognize the "windows <= 7" pattern of having the computer "operating
system / name / graphical interface" logo down there, which, in our case is
K from KDE. Also the main domain showcasing the product is kde.org and
plasma is just a page.

What I mean is that everyone in my pc and internet screams KDE and just a
little Plasma. In my opinion both ways are good, KDE or Plasma for me and
people outside is the same. What is really of interest to me is the
stability, documentation etc.. that this project reached. Well done, mates!
Just the little advice that if you choose to promote Plasma more, let's be
sure we're going to "build a project identity" too, that people can follow
easily and, more important, giving this new brand more space in the
communication channels.

That said I'd like you to know I just wanted to post my story and my
feelings being just a little farther than you from the project. I didn't
want to offend and I criticize anyone nor anyone's work. I hope this
feedback is somewhat useful to you. :)

Cheers,
Claudio


2014-05-11 22:21 GMT+02:00 Martin Klapetek <[email protected]>:

> On Sat, May 10, 2014 at 3:36 PM, Albert Astals Cid <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> El Divendres, 9 de maig de 2014, a les 23:35:23, Martin Klapetek va
>> escriure:
>> > On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 10:38 PM, Albert Astals Cid <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>> > > That's because they are all called 4.x and why we should stop calling
>> our
>> > > 3
>> > > future releases all 5.x ;-)
>> >
>> > You missed the point :)
>>
>> You missed the point :)
>>
>> > Majority of users will still perceive the desktop
>> > environment served by distros as one whole, they will not know and most
>> > probably not care that it's three completely separate things; to them it
>> > will all be one whole suite. All part of "the desktop".
>>
>> And that's why my father thinks he's running "Linux" or at most "KUbuntu",
>> people knowing which specific desktop they are running are geeks/power
>> users.
>>
>> And geeks/power users usually read the news for stuff they use, and once
>> we
>> start announcing three different things won't be able to call if "KDE 5"
>> if we
>> make sure 5 is not the common denominator of the naming of them.
>>
>
> Just wait and see...that's where I leave it now :)
>
>
>>  >
>> > That's what people are used to from everywhere else btw - GNOME (shell +
>> > apps + gtk), LXDE/LXQt (whole shell + apps), XFCE (shell + apps), OS X
>> > (shell + apps + cocoa), Windows (shell + apps), Android (basic system +
>> > basic apps + Google system), iOS etc etc. What I'm trying to say,
>> > everything around us, that is similar to what we produce, has one
>> unified
>> > name that encompasses the shell, basic apps and sometimes the toolkit
>> too.
>> >
>> > People /will/ look for one single word/name to call whatever distros
>> show
>> > up after booting. I don't believe anyone would say "hey dudes, so I'm
>> > running Plasma 5, KDE Applications 4.17 and Frameworks 5". It's awkward,
>> > long, tongue-tieing etc. It's just simpler for people to say one single
>> > word which everyone will understand, be it "Plasma" or "KDE". One word
>> to
>> > rule them all.
>>
>> Sure, they may end up saying they are running Plasma XY, but that is
>> correct,
>> they are running Plasma XY with some apps, that may be or not from KDE
>> Applications release.
>>
>
> Which is why I asked in the first place, will/should "Plasma" be the name
> for the whole shell/workspace/apps experience, the "KDE experience" that
> Alex Fiestas was once blogging about and should we promote it as such? Or
> is the name "Plasma" intended only and only for the shell?
>
> Cheers
> --
> Martin Klapetek | KDE Developer
>
>
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