ESR’s wife, Cathy, becomes de facto KDE User Advocate

What began as comments made by Linux luminary
Eric S. Raymond about KOffice’s KPresenter
program has blossomed into a lengthy exchange
that addresses fundamental issues that participants
say must be resolved if Linux is to become
a mainstream desktop operating system.

Spanning multiple KDE mailing lists, the
discussion has at its center Raymond’s wife,
Catherine Olanich Raymond, a lawyer in a
Philadelphia firm, who emerged a strong voice
for users seeking to adopt Linux and KDE.
She was joined in her advocacy by Rob Landley,
a developer well known in Linux circles and
beyond.

As seems often to be the case, file formats
are seen as an obstacle to more widespread
desktop Linux use. But a problem less obvious
and perhaps more insidious – – whether the
development community can become as closed
as its source code is open, thereby accidentally
ignoring the user — quickly figured in the
exchange. And an outside observer following
the discussion could perhaps be forgiven
for coming away with the impression that
developers resent end users.”