I was pointed to a Gnome blog where it is said that the KDE name has been dragged into mud by the reaction on the UserLinux list.

I agree that there have been overreactions on the UserLinux list, from some KDE people. However, I find the blog unfair in the sense that it only talks about the bad aspects of KDE, those overheated discussions on UserLinux. We took a great time to prepare a clear, argumented and constructive proposition: http://desktop.kdenews.org/strategy.html

But it seems that nobody has taken care to read it or to take it into account when they talk about KDE and UserLinux. There has also been a lot of argumented postings, not only from KDE people, whose concerns about UserLinux have still not been answered.

I think the reaction on UserLinux are strong because, like many free software developers, we are passionate at what we do and UserLinux sounded like an exciting project. However, the rules were not written in the original paper. What sounded like a community based project where choices would be dabeted and argumented turned out to be a dictatorship project. Bruce said that some part of the project would be community-based, but I have the feeling that the only community-based decision ever accepted will be the one that follow the opinion of Bruce.

I am expecting more frustration on the UserLinux list. For example, people are debating about a name, but I expect Bruce to come back and said that he never intended to change the name, so all the people who have voted can all go home.

I would love to be surprised though.