Re: SEUL: Re: What's the diff to SEUL ?

[Erik Walthinsen <omega@omegacs.net>]

> First of all, it's not insistance, it's just the currently expedient
> approach.
It's the "currently expedient approach" that has killed many projects.  You 
can't expect a project to live it's maximum possible life if you don't 
consider long-term impacts.  As I have said before, Qt could go 100% 
commercial tomorrow, and where would that leave you?  (granted, it wouldn't 
leave you any worse of directly, but how about KDE?)

The reason Debian and RHAD are pumping resources into GNOME is because they 
believe that it is the best *long-term* strategy to take.  I agree with both
of them, which is why I am pushing very hard towards working with Debian and 
GNOME to get SEUL out faster.

If e-Linux wishes to remain on the Qt path, so be it.  Just don't be overly 
surprised when KDE kicks the bucket and e-Linux gets to start all over again.

> If anyone understands these issues better than me, please let us all
> know! I agree that if is illegal to distribute a kde distribution for a
> fee, it is pretty much dead in the water.
It may not be so much that issue, but the cost for developers.  And that, in 
the long run, is a tremendous cost to Linux.  Developers will not go for 
Linux if it will cost them more money.  Granted, they already spend $$$$$ on 
Windoze development, but that's 85+% of the market.  Why would they spend 
money on a Linux port when there are very few customers.

> As for developers, while QT's fee seems huge to use individuals, it's
> really not all that big if you consider how much labor can be saved.
How is GNOME any different?  A toolkit is a toolkit, +-.  Personally, I 
wouldn't even *consider* spending $5000 on Qt when I can use GNOME for free.

> Nothings wrong with them. It's just that fvwm2 is a window manager, not
> a complete desktop package!
As has been pointed out by someone else, KDE and Qt seem to be very 
non-reentrant.  If one part of KDE freezes, the entire system goes with it.  
Since all your apps are dependent on one component (which sounds from the 
description to be an actual process), if it goes away, you're hosed.  If 
that's your definition of a "complete desktop", gimme my vi back!

     Erik Walthinsen <omega@seul.org> - SEUL Project system architect
        __
       /  \                SEUL: Simple End-User Linux -
      |    | M E G A            Creating a Linux distribution
      _\  /_                         for the home or office user