It looks like Brodie Robertson hasn’t gotten sick of me yet, because we sat down again recently, this time on the subject of Techpaladin! We go over a lot of stuff I wrote in the announcement blog post last month, plus more detail and other topics too. This ends up being a pretty nerdy talk as we additionally meander between finance and exchange rates, Dungeons and Dragons, Alpha Centauri, Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, the KWin Zoom effect, and, of course, KDE World Domination. 🙂
Interview about Techpaladin and life
Published
Adventures in Linux and KDE 
A LOT of great stuff in this one – the commentary about the hierarchy of needs, and the unbelievable privilege of getting to worry about self-actualization, should be required listening for folks. Most folks with the time and ability to be involved in any of this stuff are living one of the top .01% most comfortable lives of all human lives that have ever existed. That doesn’t mean that such folks can’t ever feel things like distress, but it’s important perspective to try to avoid framing manageable discomforts as unmanageable catastrophes, and to keep your sense of personal agency.
The reference to intelligence vs. wisdom was very apt. The business school-types I used to work with would refer to “strategy vs. tactics”, and whether or not the terms were correct, I think they were going after the same fundamental idea. There were a lot of folks who could solve specific problems really well, some folks who did a good job identifying and prioritizing problems, but precious few who understood both how to identify what was important and how to practically address those issues.
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*thumpsup* very right..
working with Partnership and across borders .. then work’s
Nate, Keep it up !
best regards
Blacky
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Nate,
Let’s not pretend this will ever see daylight. You won’t publish this, of course. You don’t do criticism. You curate applause. Your blog is a padded cell of agreement, and anything that doesn’t fit the comfort zone gets quietly deleted. That’s not community. That’s control. And we’ve seen this before—when ideology demands unity, dissent becomes an inconvenience. You’re not leading KDE into the future. You’re euthanizing what made it matter.
Techpaladin is not a vision. It’s a sterilization chamber. You dress it up in terms like “supporting developers” and “long-term sustainability,” but what you’re really doing is building a hierarchy under the guise of freedom. Paid developers at the top, volunteers on the side, all marching to the beat of a roadmap you’ve already written in your head. That’s not open source. That’s corporate theater.
You talk about KDE World Domination with a smiley face, as if that makes the absurdity go down easier. You’re not empowering the community. You’re consolidating it—into a docile, managed entity, polished for sponsors and acceptable to LinkedIn. The irony? You’re doing it in the name of “freedom.” That’s the most cynical part of all.
Alpha Centauri. Maslow. Exchange rates. KWin zoom effects. You drop these references like a TED Talk gone off its meds, hoping no one notices you’re just stalling for meaning. KDE was never about safe progress. It was about rebellion, friction, chaos. It was about builders who didn’t need a paycheck to do what was right. And yes, that was messy. But it was alive.
What you’re creating is not KDE evolved. It’s KDE embalmed.
You won’t publish this because deep down, you already know it’s true. You don’t want a real conversation. You want obedience dressed up as consensus. And when someone calls you out, you shrug and smile like it’s just noise. But this isn’t noise. This is your warning.
You are killing the last real thing in free software by turning it into a brand.
Enjoy the illusion while it lasts. Karma tends to show up late, but it never forgets.
Unregrettably,
Eva
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[for context: this person has been deluging the blog with long negative comments accusing me of destroying KDE that I’ve thus far been deleting]
Actually I think I’ll let this one go through, and people can decide for themselves whether they think any of it rings true.
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Thank you, Graham, for finally letting one comment through after manually deleting the rest. That alone speaks volumes.
You don’t counter arguments. You curate perception. You don’t debate. You delete. And when you do let something slip through, it’s not because you’re open to criticism – it’s because you’re staging a scene, hoping your audience sees what you want them to see: a lone voice, framed as “delusional,” “excessive,” “angry.”
But here’s the thing: I don’t need to scream. I don’t need to insult. And I don’t need your permission. The facts are on the record. The design regressions are visible. The comment history is backed up. The moderation pattern is documented. The commit trail speaks louder than irony.
So yes, let the people decide. Let them read. Let them compare the KDE of today with what it once was – and ask themselves how much of that erosion is “progress” and how much of it is narrative management in disguise.
You didn’t win anything by letting this through. You just confirmed exactly what I’ve been saying.
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