The problem with gaming mode is how quickly it falls appart the moment you try to use it for something other than gaming. Something as simple as having more than one window is impossible under Gamescope. That’s pretty problematic when a toolkit decides to implement something as a stealth window, like GTK context menus.
So much text and yet you didn't read that I was explicitly writing about Kirigami apps.
I also think rather than repurposing Plasma Mobile applications like Angelfish it would be better to design new ones that are truly designed for gamepads. Perhaps Plasma Big Picture could be used as a starting point.
Steam Deck has a touch screen. At no point was I taking about docked use.
Want more exposure? Easy: Treat Steam Deck's game mode as first class citizen for Kirigami apps and release those on Steam, most notably the Angelfish web browser. Too bad whenever I inquired whether that's even under consideration, the replies I've got were along the lines of "just launch desktop mode".
iirc Neon started by Kubuntu developers as a way to install the latest Plasma on top of current Ubuntu release.
Just for clarification: It was started by Kubuntu developers who were ousted by Canonical after Canonical in all seriousness stated that their license on top of the existing FOSS licenses somehow trumps those FOSS licenses, mot notable the GPL. Canonical’s license says that binaries compiled by Canonical can only be redistributed after getting permission by them which is nothing but a GPL violation. The Kubuntu developers said publicly that Kubuntu respects the GPL and obviously that part of the Canonical license is void.
Canonical kicked them out and replaced them with more subservient people. Canonical later changed their license to say that the original FOSS license takes precedence, that means everyone creating an Ubuntu derivative must still get permission by Canonical to redistribute binaries compiled from MIT-/BSD-licensed sources.
The former Kubuntu people then did their own thing. It is and never has been clear why upstream KDE had to be the new home for them. IMO it’s wrong that upstream KDE gives special treatment to Ubuntu, even moreso with Canonical‘s shenanigans around pushing Snap.
Krita has far more Windows users than Linux users, so does GCompris, and very probably Kdenlive too, to mention 3 of the bigger (in terms of userbase) KDE products.
And all of them combined have fewer users than Firefox and Thunderbird which both nag people to donate.
Many more KDE app projects are currently compiling their products for several OSes (Linux, Windows, macOS, Android and iOS)
With exceptions like Krita, Windows support is second tier for most (things like weird icon sizes and window positions) and even for applications that support Windows well, there is little interest in promoting the Windows version, even though there’s a decent chance this would improve the developer pool. I’m fairly convinced that had Windows support been a bigger priority, the KOffice/Calligra would have had a chance to survive against OpenOffice/LibreOffice, especially considering that it could have worked with Kontact the way MS Office has Outlook. Kontact even had reasonably good Windows support before the move to the whole Akonadi thing.
That doesn’t sound right, how can they have other designers contribute then? Maybe that’s just a placeholder project for now?
🤷 I merely searched for Jetpack on KDE Invent.
I can only guess they went with Figma because the available designers are most familiar with it rather than Inkscape
Building a complete Plasma desktop with icons and such should not depend on any proprietary software for reasons KDE’s own Vision document states. If people want to make a 3rd party icon set hosted on GitHub or wherever, fine, but IMO the building blocks of “core” KDE software should be 100% FOSS.
KDE has always aimed to put people in control. We don’t want to hand over control to anybody else: not to some service providers […] We believe that freedom is a prerequisite for true control. Some may feel in control of a proprietary application as long as it obeys their commands, but without the freedom to make changes and share them, they are entirely reliant on the vendor’s benevolence for this apparent ‘control’.
