Re: KDE/KDM
From: <edwalter@students.wisc.edu>
> Are there any plans to package KDE (www.kde.org) or any of it's
> components?
KDE will be packaged, and you will be able to use it, but Debian is
most interested in 100% free desktop environments, so we have to be a
bit careful with KDE. KDE itself is free, but the Qt toolkit upon which
KDE is free _only_when_used_with_X_. I think that Toll Tech, the
creators of Qt, made it free on X so that they could have lots of free
software to sell with their non-free versions under Windows, NT, etc.
We would like to have the freedom to use major Debian components with
other window systems than X (Berlin is one, but there are others on the
horizon as well), and even other operating system than Linux (there's
the Hurd, for example), which rules out the possibility that we would
make the core of Debian _depend_ on KDE. You'll still be able to get
KDE from the non-free directory and run it.
Other interesting desktop projects include GnuStep
(http://www.gnustep.org), and FSF's own desktop project "Teak", which
doesn't seem to be going yet (http://www.fsf.org/software/teak). Then
there's an entire replacement for X in Berlin
(http://veda.synet.net/numan/berlin/), but of course they only have one
component of that in Alpha-test so far.
Thanks
Bruce
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