David, Nate, Josh, Marco, Carl, and Niccolò are here ready to answer all your questions on Plasma (all versions), Gear, Frameworks, Wayland (and how it affects KDE's software), and everything in between.
Fire away, Lemmy!
We were expecting to be done in an hour and we have past the 2-hour mark already! Time flies when you are having fun.
Thank you for all the questions and the welcoming and friendly atmosphere, but the devs must get back to making Plasma 6 great.
Please keep the conversation going and KDE contributors will continue to answer over the next days as time permits.
Thank you all!!
Thanks for the AUA! Really excited about the Mega Release and even more for the future after!
My question is regarding Nate's original proposal for the KDE goals "Professionalise KDE" if I remember well. Now, I know that the goal was changed and the scope reduced to "Automatization and Systematization" but I truly believe the original proposal's spirit could have a huge impact on the whole ecosystem.
For example I remember the proposal contained the plan to hire a person working "full time" on actively finding fundings and grants and applying to them. We got the Mega Release fundraiser but for example on the forum I found https://discuss.kde.org/t/formalities-for-stf-funding/9916 and it looks like a waste of potential to not apply for grants because no one has the time to do so.
Is there anyone at KDE, maybe among the Board, who is still trying to make the "Professionalise KDE" happen?
P.S. I know you guys just want to reach the biggest amount of people but maybe we could start having the AUAs/AMAs and similar, only on Lemmy and a post on Reddit saying that the event will be hosted on Lemmy. This would make the Lemmy community the official one and could convince people to make the switch for the "exclusive content". It's not a critic, just want to see Lemmy prosper.
As a Board member now, I'll answer this one. To a certain extent I ran for a seat on the Board because I realized that proposing this via a Goal was the wrong place to do it, and the more effective way to push for that change was by being on the Board. And now that I've been elected there, yes I do still want to do it and push for it internally where possible. However now that I have a fuller picture of the e.V.'s situation, I realize that there are budgetary concerns that must be met before we do more hiring, and KDE e.V. operates under extremely strict German nonprofit rules that make it not as simple as it might appear. Now, in an ideal world this person would be effectively self-funding, but we need to make sure we can afford them in the first place! It's a bit of a chicken-egg situation, really.
Note that we've already done a certain amount of professionalizing KDE inasmuch as it means "KDE e.V. hires professionals to work on KDE." KDE e.V. does indeed now employ multiple technical engineers to work on various areas of the software stack, and I want to see this grow even more. But, we need more money to make it happen, and until we do have that employed professional fundraiser, it's up to existing members of the Board and the community to improve the revenue side of the equation so that it becomes possible! That's why I'm so happy with the progress of the current fundraiser. 700 new members means at least 70,000€ of new recurring yearly income, which is enormous for KDE e.V. If we can keep up this kind of fundraising performance, we can do so much cool stuff in the next few years.
Thanks for the thorough answer Nate, can't wait for KDE world domination!