Komandeering Developers Everywhere

While I was cranking out my recent blog post on Plasma, I came about this definition of plasma on wikipedia.  We all know that when Aaron came up with the name Plasma he was (5%) thinking about how to viscerally define and relay his goals for a new desktop (energy, fluidity, etc) and then (95%) thinking about how cool it sounded.

The wikipedia page has a really interesting set of properties that define/describe a plasma.  Interesting enough that I made a corresponding image in the 15 minutes between returning from swimming tonight and going to bed.  So here’s about 13 minutes’ worth of work (and 2 left to type this entry).  Kinda interesting considering what it takes to build a new community rather visible so early in its nascent state.  The original size can be found here.

I hadn’t been to kde-look.org in a little while, so I browsed the site today.  The “Plasma Themes” section is growing pretty quickly.  Not sure if this is due to the recent Plasma theme contest, but there are already some themes that look pretty sharp.  Hopefully people can put in some more time to get their respective themes in place for the upcoming 4.1 release.  Like plug-in developers, it’s always appreciated when theme creators clearly note compatibility and completeness and refresh with releases.

Speaking of 4.1, since I don’t really have the time to deal with SVN updates, I’m already looking forward to LiveCDs based on 4.1 RC 1 (due out soon).  We’re all pretty spoiled with how fast the turnaround times are on these updates.  I’m guessing Plasma will take another little leap forward from the Beta LiveCD I tried just a week or two ago.

So, although a vocal minority may have enjoyed bagging Plasma for the past couple of months, I have a sneaking suspicion that plenty of people like myself are happy with the progress and direction.  And more people need to speak up and support this progress.

To show my adoration for the Plasma team, I’ve whipped up a new Be Free image.  The original 2400X2400 can be found with the other images here.  Don’t be shy to profess your love for Plasma and my marketing talents.  We may be like the hot cheerleaders, but we’re more approachable than you think.  Just don’t take us to Applebee’s on the first date, or we’re going right back to Thad the star quarterback.

Tomorrow morning is the LifeTime Fitness Triathlon, and I’m number 3636.  Yes, that likely means that at least 3,600 people will be doing the event.  I have to be at the event, signed in, marked and have the transition area ready by 6:30am.  Combine that with the fact that I can never sleep before the event, and you get to factor in an additional type of fatigue.  I just tried to take a nap, to no avail.

For the rest of the night, I’m just going to tune my bike and pack.  Like walking into any exam or interview, it’s always odd knowing that all preparation is complete.  You always have to chase away the doubts of what you could have done differently, how you could have trained harder, how sleeping with that one extra supermodel would have given you the mental edge.  My biggest concern is always my swimming - this year I’ve done more open water swimming (despite the cold water temperatures all summer), but I’ve always done far worse in swimming than I expect from training.  I considered paying all of the hyperactive children in the health club kiddy pool to flail about in my lane to help simulations.  I should probably bite the bullet an buy a wetsuit.

Tomorrow should be fully annoying, as the wind is my enemy and the prediction is for 25mph.  How ridiculous.  Of course it’s been fairly calm all week.  A storm is supposed to roll through tonight, I can only hope that this weather pattern leaves meteorologists wrong and the morning is calm.  Right now outside, the wind is about to tear my roof off.  Good times.  Needless to say, the dog is whining to go for a walk.

Well, off to prepare and eat some dinner, wish me (and my trusty steed) luck!

• GUADEC: Our friends at GNOME are in full throttle at GUADEC.  Hope you’re all having a good time.  Sign of things to come?
• Bug Squad: You know, these people are really doing a bang-up job.  Another great way to contribute and give back to KDE.  Great work on making triaging bugs as fun as triaging bugs can be.
• Adobe: Nice job on PDF format becoming ISO standard.
• Release numbers: Stupid prime numbers always ruin my fun.  For KDE release, we have “Life begins at 4.0“, “4.2: The Answer” “Magnum 4.4: Making Your Day” and “Feelin’ good with (Colt) 4.5“.  Yes, that’s why KDE pays me so freaking much for marketing.  But what about those stupid prime 41 and 43 references?  God, the clock is ticking - think Olson think!
• Japan KDE user group:  Great blog entry.  See, these are the things we need to hear about more often.
• FISA: WTF is going on in this country?  Senator Palpatine’s (and his new apprentice’s) plot in the new SW movies to have the people gleefully hand over their rights time over time is like a goddamned blueprint.  First George Lucas gives us the ewoks and Jar Jar, now he creates the script for our government to follow.  Damn you George Lucas.  Within 2 years I’ll have to sit on a Stormtrooper’s lap to use the internet.  Speaking of Obama, Jesse Jackson continues his streak of hurting more than helping (see: comments on Jewish community, extramarital affairs, Rainbow Coalition payrolls, Duke scandal, Chicago brawl).  He needs to square off against Joe Lieberman in a game of “Who’s side are you on anyway???” (Oh, am I going to catch heat for this comment)
• Vista promotion: Well, it’s not how we do marketing here at the KDE MWG, but each to their own.  Instead of burning 1/3 of a bil to tell people what they already don’t believe, KDE just went the route of making software that doesn’t suck and spending nothing. (Apart from the MWG Powerboat.  Now where the hell is my sunscreen?) Regardless of how awesome our developers are, if you still want to help stockpile $300 million (translation: 62 euros) for a rainy day fund, knock yourself out.
• Interview: Today I interviewed a potential employee.  After lulling him into complacency with typical questions on sorting algorithms and database normalization, I asked, “Which sucks more: EJB or Swing, and why?”  POW!  Didn’t see that one coming did you?
• Triathlon: First triathlon of the season is this upcoming Saturday.  My body is starting to fall apart from training - let’s get these races over.  My last one is right before I get on a plane to go to Akademy, so after many months of training, I might actually die from shock after going two weeks on only belgian beer, chips, waffles and chocolate.  Look for me to gain approximately 45 pounds during my time there.

Ten months ago, the Marble (that ones for you Sebas and Tackat) was a very different place: Ace of Base was still popular, France and Britain were still at war over the Kashmir, and scientists had just discovered the “crazy” gene through protein synthesis.

Ten months ago, I wrote this blog entry about the pending 4.0 release.  I’d like you to go back and reread it.  Sure, I’m only asking mainly to get some easy blog hits on my counter.  But also because I fancy myself to be a technical Nostrodamus.  God I’m slow, I just realized what his name meant; I think I just proved myself wrong.

In particular, the title to this blog refers to sleeping soundly every night, because of the line “But I have a clear conscience, because we’ve been promoting nothing but honesty from a marketing perspective since inception.”  Did we hit or miss on some features or level of perceived stability that we predicted/estimated/projected?  Sure, you can’t always be right 100% of the time, unless for example you’re the creator of Parley and you code it that way.    We tried to be accurate - beta and RC announcements showed actual screenshots and had disclaimers.  Troy reported on actual SVN code in his series of articles.  We were quite cognizant of this effort.  Trust me, I loaded the early beta liveCDs and tried them.

The hype and excitement we tried to generate?  Who could that have been for?  Hint: “The aim of the KDE project for the 4.0 release is to put the foundations in place for future innovations on the Free Desktop. The many newly introduced technologies incorporated in the KDE libraries will make it easier for developers to add rich functionality to their applications, combining and connecting different components in any way they want.”  Did it work?  As Sebas recently blogged about, our intrepid sysadmins noted 166 new svn accounts this year.  That’s nearly a new account every day.  Nearly a new account every day since 4.0 was released.  166 coding and contributing freshmen admitted with aspirations of an advanced degree in kicking ass.

Think about the blogs you’ve read on the planet over the past year.  Slowly but surely, developers and community members announced “Personally, KDE 4.0.X is now stable enough for my needs, I’ve switched over.”  And it of course depends on the person.  Some still aren’t there.  I’m not.  I checked on the recent liveCDs and we’re getting close.  The debate is whether I find 4.1 stable enough to switch right before heading out to Akademy.  But I’m getting close.

We in the MWG are frequently talking about the technology curve.  Those brave core, veteran KDE developers may have switched over even before the release to help personally identify bugs during use.  Then over the last 6 months more and more developers are starting to use 4.0.X.  Now we start to get reviews that openSUSE provides what many consider to be the first somewhat stable 4.0.X experience.  Complaints are shifting from “I logged in and my monitor immediately blew up” to less severe “it’s still kinda slow and buggy” to “the panel doesn’t work the way I expect”.  A little better all the time (Beatles reference).

There will be plenty more to read on our reflections on the start to the KDE 4 era, I can promise you that.  But I just wanted to blog quickly because of the image Sebas posted from an old, original (and collectable!) “Don’t Look Back” series.  We’re in the upcoming months (KDE 4.1.X and 4.2.X)  getting to the part of the technology curve where early adopters will find that KDE 4 best suits their needs.  They’ll be ready for some pain points to reap the benefits, and they’ll be evangelists and advocates by the potential they see.  They’re already springing up.  These people are yet more potential future contributors, and they get general computing use cases.  When they burn a CD the differences between K3B, Brasero and Nero interfaces don’t phase them.  Hint: If you’re complaining that folderview is confusing, you may not be in this group.  That image isn’t about baiting users into trying a version we know will give them a bad first impression, it’s about targetting savvy users that like challenges and like to learn and like to be early adopters.

Here’s a dirty secret of mine: I use Windows XP every day at work.  Can you believe it?  Even worse: many people reading this syndicated blog probably do as well.  And a fair share of the marble; what’s the latest percentage of global users on XP?  But what’s worse?  I don’t necessarily don’t fit the “use cases” and “best practices” discussed by Plasma members and others regarding desktop usability.  Why?  Because I still use the desktop as a dumping ground and easy file accessibility perspective.

So, I’m pretty much a nightmare user for the current Plasma set-up, and for future Plasma direction?  Right?  Wrong.  Without some kung-fu or effort, here’s what a majority of the computers users on the planet have: a singular unsizable full screen view via a singular protocol at a singular unchangeable local directory. Really rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?  That’s what the precious desktop dumping ground is for the tech-unsavvy majority that use computers.

And after just a couple of months (or weeks if you just count the true development time), what has Plasma given you: multiple resizeable views via multiple protocols at local or remote directories with semantic search and filtering capabilities.

Really, am I not getting something?  For people with bad habits at work like myself, you don’t think I and others like me wouldn’t kill to have those options out of the box on XP?  How long before Strigi and Akonadi start flexing their muscles with this approach?  How long before people start using regular expressions in unexpected ways?  Imagine: every time a file gets opened or touched in a folderview by someone else, the file gets highlighted or blinks?  Or opens collaboration software or an IM window with the user that modded the file?  Or, or, or…

If I had this ease of use when I was an independent consultant and had multiple clients, I’d be doing backflips.  Or with multiple development environments on multiple servers in multiple data centers (like most programmers do).  If someone from the graphics team updates some .pngs or .css files and isn’t big into scripting or ftp’ing? You’re just a drag-and-drop-and-drop-and-drop or CTL+V+V+V to have all environments updated.

I’m a worst case scenario.  And I’m thinking holy fscking sh!t.  Why do I still see complaining on forums and mailing lists today?  Because you love setting up ftp destination folders and symbolic links manually to try to get the same thing?  Because you love complaining?   Because you love to do searches manually on windows all due to that adorable puppy?  Because Kde promo sucks and you just don’t know any better?

Think about blog entries by our usability experts on user types and user profiles.  Now let’s generalize a little more about the “types” of users that use KDE.  Think about the types of users the KDE 3.5.9 and 4.0.5 might target (hint: they’re not the same).

Ok, done with that?  Now close your eyes and envision what traits an ideal user might be like for each type, and what the worst user might be like.  No matter what your Real Life ™ or day-time job is, you likely deal with a spectrum of users/clients/customers.  Remember when Best Buy created generalized customer profiles?  You need to think about how to approach different users, how to work with them, and even whether you want them at all.

Small freelancers value their time and want to use it efficiently as possible.  But they also want to build their client base.  It’s tough to say no.  Yet you’ll find plenty of pages on giving tough love and dropping clients. Big business have the same issues.  What happens when 10% of your users generate 60% of your help desk calls?  What if a certain large client accounts for 40% of all returned products and has a much higher return rate than any other?  If ungrateful and unprofitable clients are consuming resources that could be used to secure new and profitable clients?

Whether you’re a corporation or a single KDE community member, you have to realize that your time is valuable and think about how you want to spend it.  At some point, are you going to spend that last hour of the night fixing bugs, adding new features, writing documentation, emailing helpful users or once again defending yourself against trolling emailers?  And if you want to expand popularity and user base, will unjustified negative press stunt potential growth?

Think about the ideal user: Someone who is thoughtful, submits meaningful and logical bug reports, evangelizes to others about KDE (while still being truthful in setting expectations).  Someone that over time may become a contributor.  Your version may vary.  To me, the ideal user thinks “This free software is great.  It may not be perfect, but if someone took the time to create this software for me, the least I can do is give some of my time to help them constructively improve it or give them some gratitude.”

Think about the worst type of user: Someone who is thankless.  And who isn’t helpful or constructive.  And who doesn’t want to listen to reason.  And worst of all, someone that spreads falsehoods (based on either ignorance, stupidity, maliciousness or indifference) that are read by other community newbies that may not know better.

Corresponding cliches abound: You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.  You have to periodically prune a tree to help growth.  And on and on.  Which finally leads me to my point (and everyone breathes a sigh of relief!):  I was chatting with Troy about his recent blog entry tonight.  He has quite a way with words, doesn’t he?  Canadians are really the modern day bards.

The point being: It’s difficult and unenviable and awkward to discuss when to “drop” clients or in our case, users.  We have a passion for KDE and we want to share it with others.  As KDE grows, we know we’ll encounter others less tech savvy, and we are by-and-large courteous and graceful as possible.  Perhaps overly so.  So when someone shifts from innocent questions and misunderstandings and gradually into harmful territory - not so easy to tell right away, is it?  So we let it slide, and we constantly and politely correct them.  Yet it continues.  The situation then slides from burning precious time for our KDE philanthropists and into actively repelling other potential new users.  Potential good users.  Potential healthy users.

Let’s be clear: This isn’t unique to KDE.  It isn’t unique to free software or the software industry in general.  Whether it’s a prestigious client now that is secretly making your life hell, or that dude 10 years ago that wouldn’t take a hint and leave your dorm room to leave you alone with your girlfriend  (aka the CockBlock), or that person at the Release Event that wore out their welcome…it’s difficult and it doesn’t come naturally.  At some point you’ve got to be mature, take a stand with integrity, and remember that you’re not being the jerk, the other party is.  Bite down, rip the bandaid off, and go on with your life.

Of course, I don’t know exactly how the analogy of firing a client relates to users and free software with free choice.  Remind them that they can “be free” to go elsewhere?  But we all love KDE, no matter our role.  As a MWG member with multiple half-written blogs on similar topics, no one knows more than I about truth in advertising, and being honest about KDE’s strengths and weaknesses.  So accusations about deceit sting.  Declaring we’ve misrepresented something stinks.   Writing misleading forum posts hurt.  Relaying misquotes or misinterpretations suck.  More on that soon.

In the meantime, we need to constructively look at how to add the right type of users and assess detrimental users; constructive contributors instead of worrisome contributors.  Healthy contributor communities and user communities have symbiotic relationships and issues in one will inevitably impact the other.

A new concept show: “Two guys.  Bad cliches and bad toupees.”

Can Troy and I get a prime time show on Fox?  Stay tuned.

Episode IV, as the Millennium Falcon is approaching near the ruins of Alderaan and discovers a TIE Fighter:

Obi-Wan: “A fighter this size couldn’t get this deep into space on its own.”
Luke: “He must have gotten lost, been part of a convoy or something.”
Han: “Well, he ain’t gonna be around long enough to tell anybody about us.”
Luke: “Look at him. He’s heading for that small moon!”
Han: “I think I can get him before he gets there, he’s almost in range.”
Obi-Wan: “That’s no moon. It’s a fully operational Planet KDE.”

Just what is this planet under constant construction, and what is its goal?  To destroy Alderaan, or something more noble (but possibly less fun)?  Chani brings up an interesting topic (seems to be a habit of hers :)).  PlanetKDE has an “About” section on the right pane, but that just help to keep KDE and clee from getting sued on a weekly basis.

As part of the always-reviled Marketing Working Group, it’s important to step back and assess from time to time our various communication channels, and reassess their utility.  What works and what doesn’t?  How to improve?  Not really all that different from refactoring code.  Except our comments like /* I have no idea what I’m doing here */ are usually done in private mailing lists, not in the middle of private methods.

To continue on with the programming comparison, I’ve always thought of our planet as a bazaar more than a cathedral.  (Let’s not forget the KDE rock band Bizarre Bazaar.)  Its strength is its diversity.  Some writers balance between work and personal life and some write solely about KDE.  Some are certain to include code snippets and design patterns, and some would never venture into technical territory.  Some blog frequently and some only when necessary.  Some use casual expressions and expect readers to understand and some barely write and constantly apologize for their English mastery.  It’s this variance that leads to the very naming of the aggregator “planet”.

When a free software community like KDE has a strength from global contribution, it’s also a weakness in having personality shine through - without avenues like our planet.  Community members sometimes don’t get to meet, let alone distros, business partners and users around the marble ™.  What separates free software communities from faceless corporate entities is this insight, proximity and vulnerability.  Everyone gets to see not just our the code, but our passion, frustration from trolls, joys from accomplishment, and giddiness when Zack has a new post.

Which is why a Ballmer jumping around on a stage like a deranged spidermonkey with smaller deranged spider monkeys in his pants is newsworthy.  It’s very rare glimpse into a prominent personality in a business.  Not newsworthy in free software.  You get emotion every time you hit the refresh button.  So of course nameless faceless businesses have noticed this trend and you get developer blogs from MegaCodeCorp Amalgamated.

The more you try to define and frame Planet KDE, the more I worry you take away its power and effectiveness.  Does that make it harder to police with a laissez-faire approach?  of course.  Do you have a meritocracy where community veterans can get away with saying things that would get a first time poster lambasted?  Sure.  Does everyone have some mental barometer that notes when someone crosses the lines about blogging on topics not related to KDE enough?  Yeah.

But it’s how I learned about Pradeepto before I met him.  And how I’ve learned about Boudewijn even though I have yet to meet him.  And how I can confirm that it’s definitely Paul Adams blogging after having met him.  Definitely not an impostor.  And how our users and business partners learn about us.  Do we need to self-censor more than a blog-o-sphere with 3 users and 3 readers?  You bet.  Does every writer need to understand that their comments will get linked to in news stories?  Fo’ sho’.  Will Wade ever stop using rhetorical questions as a writing tools in his blogs?  Never.  Did Wade even bring up any unique ideas or answers in this post?  Come on, it’s Wade we’re talking about here.

So thanks Chani for raising these questions.  The Planet is distinct from the Dot, distinct from our homepage, distinct from our mailing lists, distinct from techbase and distinct from our press releases and interviews.  But it overlaps with all of them.  And with any aspect of our community we should take the time to reflect effectiveness, utility, clarity, popularity, etc.  Ask anyone on the kde-quality mailing list.

Do you know why I’m waving?  Because in just a couple of weeks I’ll be waving goodbye temporarily to the most popular country in the world (the U.S.) and waving hello to everyone at AaKkademy.  It’s a great time to be from the States, everyone treats you like a rock star and reminds you how much they love our foreign policy.  Or so I assume.  Not sure what “yusuck” and “gobakhohmyanky” mean in various native tongues.  Babelfish doesn’t seem to help.

Booked my flight and just secured my hotel room last night.  This time of year, I’d expect to start seeing blog posts daily on AaKkademy travel plans and SoC progress, but things have been relatively quiet.  What gives?  Let’s see some entries on both.

UPDATE:  Thanks to Lydia for the reminder.

It’s a shame to unveil the new Oxygen team branding for KDE 5.0 years before it’s released, but such fine work needs to be shared.  I will now work on geting this version of the K and gear to animate for Konqueror.

Free software doesn’t have vision and groundbreaking interface strategies?  Maybe you haven’t heard, but our technology powers SPACE SHIPS.