[maemo-developers] [PMX:#] Re: [maemo-developers] Qt + KDE port

[From: Erik Bågfors]

> 
> There are good points in both of, GTK and QT/Qtopia, they are both
> activelly developped and living well. The Maemo in 770 has really well
> designed GUI that looks really good and it has also some good
> innovations. Maybe it has some extra pixels somewhere but as
> result is much better usability. Not only for developpers but especially
> to end users. As my personal opinion, I like
> more to use C++ for GUI coding ( even C++ is not my personal absolute
> favor, i mostly work with kernel stuff and with C ).
> Qtopia with embedded qt may be good for very slow devices where X11
> makes too much overhead but in 770 X11 was
> on excelent choice. It gives us to freedom to run in single device both
> GTK and QT clients.
> 
> At the moment there are lot of good programs made for Qtopia and I think
> that Maemo-QT and Maemo qtopia emulation
> layers would be good idea. It would be good idea to intergrate maemo
> look and  feel, least input methods and
> skins to QT/X11..
> 
> I understand, that there are memory limitations etc in current 770
> devices. Still libqt3.so is mot a so big monster at all.

As long as we make sure that this is a "hack".  What I mean by that is
that we do not want to end up in the situation where some linux
distributions are today, where you have a mess with both KDE and Gnome
and it really confuses new users. No matter how much you want to
integrate the two, they just look and behave differently.

Look at how Ubuntu has solved this. The main Ubuntu dist, uses Gnome.
In the main repository there isn't even any KDE or QT software to
choose from. But if a user wants to, they can add a repository that
includes the KDE/QT software.  That way, a new user will not get
suprised by a new piece of software he/she installs.

For KDE users there is a Kubuntu dist that works the same but the
opposite (I assume, never used it).

The 770 should only have programs of one kind (gtk/maemo) and on any
site where you can download anything that's none-maemo, it should be
very clear so people don't download something that looks totally
different and go "ohh.. look at this, even on handhelds Linux is
inconsistent".

If someone wants to do a OPIE/Qtopia dist that replaces maemo, that's
fine, but it shouldn't be for the average none-nerd :)

For me, one of the strongest reason for not buying a sharp is QT and
no X11, and for buying a 770 is GTK and X11.  :)

Regards,
Erik