God give me patience

God give me patience, but give it to me now. This seems to be a saying that more than a few KDE users should think carefully about. I've tried KDE 4 and it, using the phrase of the moment, sucks. The difference however between some of the more vicious KDE poster and bloggers and me is that I actually read the KDE press releases and believed them.

Are any of you out there parents, teachers, aunts and uncles ? If so have you ever been to a school play or recital ? If you have then the following analogy will probably ring true. Next time you sit through a couple of hours of really painful piano or violin playing think of KDE 4. An 8 year old playing a violin is generally a truly painful experience but occasionally you can see talent there. As your ear drums try and catch the bus home before you there is a thought rattling around along with the tortured notes inside your head. This kid will be really good one day given a bit of help and encouragement. While we are in this mental picture, pan around in your minds eye. Somewhere in that audience, will be a face in rapture. Spot the proud mother.

KDE 4 is like this.

For the mother in my story read the KDE developers. To them, their baby is wonderful and they won't hear a word said against it. The rest of us are the audience. Yes, it is a bit awful at the moment but if we remember this is early days. This baby is going to be really good one day, it just needs a bit more practice.

Now to complete my story. The distros ..tut tut You do not put an 8 year old on the stage at the Albert Hall. It will be a disaster and it was. By all means give people a chance to see and hear this child prodigy but make sure everyone knows that it still has to do it's homework and it's chores.

KDE 4 will be amazing. I can see why the KDE people did what they did. I read the press releases and believed them. They screamed from the rooftop that KDE 4.0 was a preview. People just didn't listen and maybe KDE was naive thinking that people would read the small print when the release said 4.0. Calling it 3.99 would have been better.

With the release of RC1 - try it - report bugs - moan if you will. But be polite and constructive, otherwise this kid may give up the piano and move to Redmond. I hope not ...