You can still side load applications that are not from the Android Market. Apps do not need to be approved by Samsung or T-Mobile or Google before they can be installed.
I don't see how this is anything like Apple's walled garden approach to their software ecosystem.
Obvious troll is Anonymous. Since Plasma is the KDE4 desktop it is difficult to have any sort of discussion comparing the two without bringing it up. Take a look at KDE sometime. It looks nothing like Apple's GUI. Since KDE4 came out before Windows 7 any "theft" of ideas would raise the question of who "stole" what from whom.
That's because there is no answer, they're just fucking around. Not only are there already lots of free beer/speech tools for Windows, but most of them are better than these hideous KDE apps that look like they were designed to run on Windows 95.
You obviously haven't used the KDE since version 2.x. QT3/KDE3 apps look about on par with Windows XP and QT4/KDE4 apps look better than anything Microsoft or Apple have come up with yet. I'm saying this as a gnome user.
From the "Initiative" link at the top of TFA select "FAQ".
Since you couldn't be bothered to look at the site hosting TFA I'll post the relevant part of the FAQ to make it easy for you.
Reasons for KDE on Windows
We need KDE on Windows for three reasons:
1. Most businesses can't just switch to Linux. I've heard more than enough stories of workers being stuck with Windows as they're of course not allowed or able (because of special apps) to convert their boxes to Linux. KDE might provide them with a comfortable working environment to which they are used.
2. Most businesses won't suddenly switch. Clear step-by-step migration paths (Windows + Office + Explorer -> Windows + OpenOffice + Konqueror -> Linux + OpenOffice + Konqueror) make it easier for the IT deciders to enter this process. (Something along the lines of "If the users do not like Konqueror, they can still use Explorer.") Yes, I know that Konqueror is not a good example, as many Windows users have just learned Firefox and will most probably not look into learning yet another browser.
3. Having FOSS applications available on the Windows platform is crucial for attracting users. Not many people go into the store and buy a SuSE box, but many people get single FOSS apps like OOo or Firefox because they read about it in some magazine, or some friend recommended it to them.
KDE on windows attracts developer
A few years ago (leading up to Akademy 2007 IIRC) we had a huge discussion on the planet about the merits of making KDE applications available on Windows. The core of my argument for doing that then was, and still is, that its really in the interest of KDE to do this because it attracts developers who would otherwise not contribute.
Take Amarok for instance. The core developers spend very little time on making Amarok run on windows (I think the total amount of work I have done on this amounts to one time changing the order of some things in a CMake file as someone reported that it otherwise broke the build on Windows.) So all in all, this is not something that takes much time away from developing Amarok itself. On the other hand, the original implementation of the Last.fm service was written by a developer whose original intention was to make Amarok work better on Windows. Once he had gotten as far as he could at the time, he started, still using Windows, to hack on other stuff that benefits all users of Amarok. He did not use linux at all, and only contributed because it was possible to run and work on Amarok using Windows.
So I really think it is wrong to look at this as a zero sum game as time spent making stuff run on windows is not automatically time taken away from developing the core application. Quite contrary, making the application usable on other platforms will also attract developers who would not otherwise have worked on it. Of course there is a tipping point for this as the applications have to be working well and have a significant user base on Windows before any significant amount of developers shows up, but as my example about Amarok illustrates, people are already taking notice.
And then there is the whole issue about philosophy. To me, Free Software is about just that, freedom. I think it would be against the spirit of that to artificially limit the platforms that our software runs on. that is for all the "other" guys to do, I think we are better than that!
Morty wrote - Not the desktop
And for KDE as a whole, any developers brought in and bugs fixed by the Windows port are a net win for KDE.
majorTomBelgium wrote about amarok, dolphin,
really, having all the nice kde programs available on windows is very cool. amarok, dolphin, ktorrent, kwrite, etc. and also, the educational programs are important.
+1 for kde on windows for me! it's like an artist being on a smaller label with almost no air time converting to a bigger label and getting his records played on the radio...
Like for example, do I have the space to copy in these 30 GB of files? Well that depends, you only have 10 GB free on / but it's bigger on the inside and there may even be more disks being mounted somewhere under
The df command will tell you how much space is available on each block device and lists the mount point for the device. If you pass it the "-h" argument it conveniently gives you the sizes in the more human readable MB, GB, etc abbreviations instead of listing the number of 1k blocks.
Sad to say, I find Windows XP/7 is so far best for handling stuff like that. Even better than OSX. I tried doing the 30+ windows thing on OSX, using Expose. But it's just slower - more steps to get from one window to another. In contrast, on windows I can just click on the desired task button and that's it, no need for two clicks, or click then pause or other bullshit. Keep in mind, I'm not saying Windows is the best possible, there's still room for improvement. For instance, it'll be nice to be able to "alt-tab" from one browser tab to another browser tab (so much so that sometimes I open new browser windows just to be able to alt-tab between them).
The two clicks or click and pause bullshit is what makes me hate the Windows 7 Superbar. That and the damn icons instead of text. I want to be able to glance at the task bar and choose the terminal/browser/whatever I want with a single click. If I have to use Windows the first thing I do is turn that off. I wish Gnome supported a double height taskbar. The one thing it does well is if you have two monitors you can have a taskbar in each monitor. That taskbar will only show windows open in that monitor.
and 3. with a big obstruction to the south that blocks satellite signals? In that case, you come closer to the population of geeks.
There are a lot of people who don't want to pay to watch TV for whatever reason. I highly doubt it is because of some sort of physical obstruction. For proof, look at all the slashdot stories regarding the DTC transition in the US.
"The most important thing in a man is not what he knows, but what he is." -- Narciso Yepes
