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As Bruce indicated, there *are* two different types of people in the FOSS user base: the consumers and the professionals (programmers, sys admins, etc.). To deny this is true is to deny the evidence right in front of your face. As FOSS becomes more a part of mainstream computing, it is going to have to deal with this split, or it will face one firestorm after another. We've already seen signs of this in the discussions on GPL3 (Most consumers want something for nothing, and don't care about the freedom part of FOSS, or the related restrictions). It's a culture clash that needs to be understood if all the shouting is to be cut off before it starts. You can't please everyone, it is true, but if you don't spend the time to communicate your intentions, you may end up pleasing no one at all. I believe the only sin here with KDE 4.0 was insufficient communication due to a wrong assumption about the user base. FOSS is bigger than it once was, and I think it's time the people behind it begin taking that fact into consideration. With a bigger user base comes bigger problems, and more "customers" to please. Complaining that discontented users should learn to "fix it themselves" does more harm than good, as does the assertion that they're not out to please users in the first place. Truth is, if you aren't trying to help the end user, and improve the computing experience, then you shouldn't be working on something as major as KDE in the first place. Software is made to be used, not to sit on the shelf and look pretty.

But then, I'm a FOSS consumer, and Windows expatriot, so perhaps my opinions don't count.

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