Version: (using KDE KDE 3.4.2) Installed from: SuSE RPMs I think it would be useful to offer the uses who have installed an update of KDE something that shows them what's new. With respect to "Joe User" I do mean "show" - the feature plan will not do what I wish for most users. In order to be used by many people this information should be offered as a sequence of slides with screenshots (containing links to the manuals) or - better but more complicated - as an animation. As this is marketing-related the distributors might be more interested in having somebody do this than the KDE developers. For the distributors it is important to convince the users of the advantage to update their software. This would be easier if the user was aware of most of the desktop improvements after each update. These things are to detailed for the distributors to mention them in the usual advertising. In this context it might make sense, too, to create a demo account after each update so that the users can easily get an impression what configuration changes/improvements KDE or the distributor has made - as their own configuration keeps unchanged.
maybe the slide could be shown before the update too, if someone wants to. that way he can see what the improvements are and that will affect his decision more directly..? "what's new in KDE 428.1235.126945 !", something like that?
Sure. That is not my intention because rather few people make such a precise decision in favor of or against an update but it could be used for that purpose, of course, even without additional work. The program which shows this information could offer the user a list of new KDE versions for which such a presentation is available so that they could easily be seen before the update, too.
Personally I have appreciated this kind of thing, but I know a lot of people hate pop-ups like this. I think a better solution is to make the release notes and list of new features for each release more obvious and visible for those who *are* interested in it. The AppStream Metadata is a logical place as it's meant for this. We have a long-term plan to make better use of it.