As stated, the discussion just opens. This matter is still some time from fruition. That being said though I do use and really quite like KDE. I also am quite understanding of Eric's point that it might have to be dropped. We will see where the chips fall....it will be an interesting period of time.

I maintain a music player for KDE, so this decision would make it more difficult for me to stick with Slackware.

(Incidentally, I really need to get back to it. I spent three weeks fixing one crash bug, got frustrated, and ended up taking several months off...)

I must admit, I wouldn't experience any loss of function if kde were to be removed. Xfce 4.8 is far more compelling as a day to day de.

I'm an XFce user so the possibility of the removal of KDE does not bother me. I'm happy with whatever decision PV selects.

P.S. I hope you feel better soon, Eric.

This is what worries me about both GNOME and KDE: they have become The Platform and instead of writing apps for X, people start writing them for one or other DE and limiting the usefulness of them because of their choice of DE.

Though I'm not going to criticise anyone who gives their software away for free, it saddens me whenever I see the phrase "This is a really great App but it's KDE4/GNOME (delete as applicable) only" and I'll always choose standalone GTK or Qt apps over a GNOME or KDE specific one in order to prevent this sort of lock-in.

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POST # 2000! OMG!

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Feel free to fork it and take out all the KDE-specific parts.

I quite like KDE, but Eric is entitled to some free time. If KDE was dropped, I'd certainly manage with one of the many alternative DE/WMs. It wouldn't drive me away from Slackware, that's for sure.

Same here. Krusader would be the best file manager in history if it weren't for the KDE dependencies.

So on the one hand Linux is criticized for not being at well integrated or unified in UI/UX as Windows or OSX, but on the other we're criticizing people who write well integrated applications?

I agree that the redundancy of having g*, k*, and x* frontends for everything is silly, but you really can't have it both ways. Either software is written to be standalone and independent or software is written to be well integrated and cohesive with the rest of system. Either way someone will complain.

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I hope KDE doesn't get dropped. I appreciate the time you put into the KDE packages AlienBob. The 4.6 packages are working very nicely for me. Thank you!

brianL
thats right for me too

In the past I used KDE, but since the onset of 4.x I have found myself more fond of XFCE and Fluxbox.

Whatever Decision that Pat and the Crew make is what I will follow because if you ever need anything you can always build it yourself or get it from slackbuilds.org

P.S. Whatever you have sounds like it sucks Eric. Hope you feel better.

The way I see it is that newcomers from Windows want unification, while advanced Linux users want simplicity (as in simpler program code, not necessarily newbie-friendliness) and less useless dependencies.

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I'm a happy KDE user today, I like the eye candy and a couple of applications. However, I realize XFCE is a complete and powerful DE, too. So if Slackware went that way for a reason I'd change my ways and follow.

Firstly - get well soon Eric!

I use and like kde but have recently flirted with dwm. Dwm is an option for me because I have to use google apps for work and so a browser is the main requirement.

I reckon I could live without kde in slackware but it would be a bit of a loss.

Doesn't PV use kde?