KDE connect is a stand out, top of the line, exceptional, and unique application in its excellent implementation, reliability and utility and above all is like amarok and digikam and others, runs on any Linux distro but unlike those does not allude to its kde origins with a win’k’ but has a misleading name IMHO suggesting it is a KDE only tool.
It’s not alone kdenlive has the same problem in a sense, but there are precedents which use just the k as a more subtle reference.
I’d like to suggest that this wonderful tool go that route - I have never though to use ot try it for years because I figured it’s a kde tool and I’m not on kde. But it turns out to work a charm on Mint and Android and is in fact plain awesome. My feeling is a name like konnect would serve it better.
Could be a pipe dream I know as name changes are not generally easy, and the returns soft at best (not a functional change). But worth suggesting (it maybe isn’t so hard, and there’s a shared view that a more general name would help broaden its audience and user base).
Hi - that’s really nice feedback (that, as a fellow user I agree with 100%) about the program and the work done by its contributors!
I’m not a naming expert or anything, but one distinction I know folks might want to make is that KDE is no longer just the “Kool Desktop Environment” as the initials originated, but refers to a community of folks across the world developing and distributing open source software (Repositioning the KDE Brand - KDE.news is a pretty old article by now, and some details are dated, but I think the gist of it holds true).
It’s definitely true that a lot of folks associate “KDE” primarily with the Plasma desktop environment. As it relates to KDE Connect, the flipside might also be true - apps like it, existing with that name, could help reinforce that the community produces more than a great desktop environment.
(Purely my read on things as an interested user, again no naming/marketing expertise claimed here )
KDE is a community and not just the desktop. Apart from plasma desktop and plasma mobile, it’s libraries and tools are used across operating systems and devices. In that way, KDE Connect is an app that belongs to the KDE suite of tools and not the desktop.
Also, changing the name of an existing and popular app might not be ideal.
(I am also biased as I much prefer the new style of naming KDE apps like Kate, Dolphin versus something like KClock or Kalk)
It’s sometimes frustrating that names like Kmail, Amarok, Konsole, KMail Konsole seem perfectly named…
There were also issues with App menus having only descriptions (like ‘File Browser’ which could be one of many apps - I have this issue with Android right now).
Next up are annoying Gimmicky names - like Katalyst, and Diskover which make KDE look childish and un-serious.
Possibly the worst of all would be ‘Kalc’ which reads to me more like ‘Caulk’ and not ‘Calc’. I would be fine with KCalc.
The important focus should be on the naming/description combination and the indexing.
From krunner or launchers - typing ‘connect’ will bring up KDE Connect - that’s ideal.
Sure, but the term is still IMHO associated with a kind of exclusivity in the broader community for perhaps just that reason: as you note it’s not “just” a desktop (i.e. it is a desktop environment and known primarily that way I think).
I find digikam for example is so broadly understood to b a broadly cross-platform an OS tool of wonder, but KDE connect which is similarly so projected for me at least and not dispelled after a simple google, cam across as “probably hooked into the KDE desktop”. So I failed to explore it deeply. I was so shocked (and pleasantly!) that it works across platforms as wonderfully that I could help feel strongly and hence wish to poll the community for sympathetic feelings, that it might have broader reach without KDE in the formal name.
Very true. I agree. I have no porblem finding it. And that was not the motivator in th suggestion and request for consideration tabled. The suggestion emerges fromt he perception that, with KDE in its formal name it comes across to simple punters ad noobs as specific to the KDE desktop is all, and digikam dosn’t, nor does amaropk, nor does do any of the kool ‘k’ products, they radiate a sense of borad applicability where KDE radiates a sense of narrow applicability.
That said, I’d be surprised if there was enough concern ot momentum to see a name change happen, it’s generally as noted in thte OP< ni the class of soft benefits at best with real work to achieve and unlikely to gain traction in a stable product. But sometimes it can, it’s not possible to be sure until you poll the community and this seemed the forum to try that (Brainstorming on the KDE community - though it has the bias of being in the KDE community, so doesn’t collect views from people who go "oh, I can use KDE connect on Gnome, wowo I didn’t lnow, yeah rename it! which is a body of people not likely in this forum and we’d need to poll more broadly somehow in other fora to get a feel for the views out in the wild - while this forum has the strong upside of including people likely to contribute effort or code to KDE products!)
Anyhow it’s just a thought, an idea, that stuck me as neat, but of course doesn’t mean it’s broadly viewed that way or ever likely to be agreed upon by a quorum of devs who might implement such a change.
Lol, we spent a decade or longer trying to get rid of “K”-everything. Now the pendulum swings the other way, and the K is becoming a desired thing again.
But renaming an old project is not always desired, or worth the effort perhaps.
Also, while KDE connect IS cross platform (just like a large amount of KDE apps), it does need an decent amount of KDE bits, no matter the OS or the desktop environment – which is why GSConnect was born for Gnome users.
Tee hee ;-). That’s interesting news. I certainly prefer the subtler K over the KDE. As a lovely kink in the direction of the team and origins, without suggesting deep dependence on KDE (the desktop environment).
But I won’t pretend to be representative of a quorum nor know how a quorum of folk feel without polling, which is what polling is for and brainstorming is about (throwing out ideas for testing the water).
I admit GSConnect isn’t clear to me, but it looks like it just replaces KDE Connect on the Gnome Desktop and they recommend using KDE Connect on you other platforms (like the phone) etc, In short that GSConnect talks the same protocol and is just a Gnome desktop addition to the suite for Nautilus integration etc.
Not sure what it needs, and generally I suspect few of us mind a little baggage that doensn’t interfere with other desktops (I mean QT and GTK apps come with dependencies and I imagine KDE apps do, and many apps lean on other libraries of code.
Anyhow, my idea is based on “general perceptions” and they shift over time and from community to community and I don’t know where they were or are heading, but my “general perception” was that KDE was a Kool Desktop Environment with a dedicated community of fans and advocates and a solid body of awesome tools! But I don’t use that DE (yet) so never really felt a draw to “KDE *” things, but have used “k” things often not even knowing they had KDE origins and then noticing the k was there because of that. But my General Perceptions may or may not be extremely or a little widespread?
I hate to belabor the point or nitpick, but…“KDE” is not a desktop environment, it is a community If the topic at hand is branding and marketing, precise word choices do matter here, I think.
KDE Plasma is a desktop environment, KDE Connect is a device synchronization application, Kdenlive is a video editor…they are all products of the community.
Maybe put in a more visual way - every single thing seen on this page is part of KDE: https://apps.kde.org
I’d think this is an argument in favor of retaining KDE in some product names, so that folks get drawn more toward the broader community and may be more likely to engage or financially support beyond that first application they encounter?
Interesting that we have (some, not all of the K named apps):
Okular
Konsole
Ark
Kate
Krita
Yakuakue
KolourPaint
KRDC
KGpg
Kompare
Skanlite
Kamoso
Kleopatra
Falkon
Skanpage
Konversation
Akregator
Lokalize
Konqueror
Kontact
digiKam
Juk
KNights
Kigo
Kalzium
Kapman
Kolf
Kiten
Konquest
Klickety
Kubrick
Kig
Kollision
Kolor Lines
KsirK
Kiriki
Killbots
Keysmith
Okteta
Kontrast
Kanagram
Artikulate
Tokodon
Kasts
Kongress
Telly Skout
Kalm
Skladnik
Kid3
Krusader
Kile
KId3-qt
Amarok
Kaffeine
Kronometer
Skrooge
Marknote
KEXI
Kommit
Kaidan
KleverNotes
Atlantik
Basket
Vakzination
Tasks
Pikasso
Kookbook
Kolorfill
Kodaskanna
Klimbgrades
Kirogi
Khipu
Karp
Karbon
Kairo
Alpaka
and (all of the KDE named apps):
KDE Connect
KDE Partition Manager
KDE Itinerary
kdesvn
kdesrc-build
Just for fun I ran through some that missed the opportunity of k-ness:
KDE Connect → Konnect
Discover → Diskover
Spectacle → Spektacle
KCachegrind → Kachegrind
Clock → Klock
Clazy → Klazy (or Cklazy)
Cantor → Kantor
Calculator → Kalculator
Cervisia → Kervisia
Recorder → Rekorder
Rocs → Roks
WordQuiz → WordKwiz
Calligra → Kalligra
Crow Translate → Krow Translate
Tellico → Telliko
Subtitle Composer → Subtitle Komposer
liquidshell → likwidshell
Codevis → Kodevis
Barcode Scanner → Barkode Skanner
But it’s marginally sad IMHO that really only three apps against almost 80 have the KDE prefix over a k wink and that one of them is really, as far as I can tell far and away the best connectivity app out there. I have yet to find anything that comes close to doing what it does, allowing me to select the output sound device for the music playing on my HTPC from my phone.
Shrug. Just a little excursion exploring the spread of styles, really. And makes it even more amusing to think that some folk spent a decade trying to get rid of K-everything ;-). Tee hee.
I mean, I’m not glued to the k myself, but I don’t like the KDE prefix because of how it misled me I admit into failing to realise this was a broadly applicable tool. I’m more than willing to accept that’s just me and my idiosyncratic mind if you will, but I have learned from experience, that I’m rarely quite that alone ;-), and that aside I think with only three exemplars, ain a suite over 300 apps are of the KDE something naming schema perhaps that is the one that should die ;-). kdesvn is pretty irrelevant IMHO (given svn has all but died under the foot of git) and kdesrc-build is totally fine if it’s for building KDE apps and a tool that makes building them easy.
Hehe, most all of the K items are very old, pushing to the earliest days of KDE. KMyMoney seems to be missing…
The second batch seem to mostly be from the “middle” era – Calligraused to by Koffice (2000) until 2012. So a rename isn’t impossible, if a project’s developers can get behind it.
Interesting because yes I would read GCompris as “Jee Kompris”, but after years of residence in a french speaking region speaking French I would would pronounce j’ai compris as “Jeh Kompree”, quite a different kettle of fish
Just a curio as I didn’t make the tie at all or notice the (attempted) pun!
It’s great to see name changes are doable with dev support like Koffice to Calligra (shame they didn’t land on Kalligra ;-). But it does make my point too, that almost no-one would accidentally assume Calligra belongs to s specific DE which, inspire of repeated reminded that KDE is a community and not a desktop (understood and accepted) I think there is a widespread and understandable misconception then that it is a DE (why oh why would anyone assume KDE is a DE? I don’t know )
)
– which is why GSConnect was born for Gnome users.
and brainstorming is about (throwing out ideas for testing the water).