codyg1985’s Think Tank

KDE is working on a port of its Linux window-manager to Windows. Currently it runs under Cygwin, a Unix emulator for Windows.

From the project website:

Windows is the OS of choice for many companies. How does this square with the promotion of KDE? The answer is simple: build something that allows KDE applications to run atop Windows. This is the goal we are aiming for with this project.

However, KDE developer Aaron Seigo argues that porting open source software, including KDE, to Windows only hurts Linux and the entire open-source movement in the long run:

This “strategy” ensures Free Software desktops remain a 5% fringe in the market. This translates to ISV interest in desktop Linux/BSD being kept to a barely noticeable minimum. In turn this means fewer software packages, which in turn means even fewer reasons for people to use Free Software operating systems. Can you hear the dominoes falling as they approach?

Free Software desktop applications on Windows represent a no-win situation for Open Source, but Open Source desktops on Free Software operating systems do. It’s now up to us to pick our directions and to pick them carefully.

Some Linux users prefer Gnome over KDE for the GUI of his/her choice. Aside from that, the port (at least for now) does not actually replace the standard Windows GUI, but runs on top of it through a emulator/user environment. At its current form, I don’t expect KDE for Cygwin to catch on. Windows applications can’t run inside the emulator, so the only thing one would get from the KDE port would be a peek into what KDE looks like, and nothing more. In other words, this is more of a toy than a functional tool for Windows.