Contributing

People often ask why this or that is not implemented in KDE and why is KDE4 not out yet and so on. Well most developers are individuals working on KDE as a hobby, after their working hours and family care. Only a handfull of people are paid to work on KDE. That means that KDE is what you and I make it. Any tiny contribution builds KDE. Fortunately some people easily understand that. No need to be a C++ guru or to have a PhD in docbook. Recently a user contributed a text about Customizing Your Desktop to be added in the User Guide in kdebase. It was his first contribution and he did it very well. This is then a team work, the text is proof read, marked and committed and then all the translators will work on it to add it in their own languages for KDE 3.5.6.
Thanks for this contribution! This user is now more confident that he is able to work in an Open Source project and indeed he will be an asset to any community he'll be involved with. It's also very nice to know a tiny bit about other people life (I showed my daughter the country he lives in on a map) and to become 'virtual friends'.
My contributions are not up to what I'd like due to a busy family life. Clarisse had had a cold brought by Léah (aged 8) from school. It was only a mild virus but babies are quickly grumpy, not to mention that Clarisse is not your average calm baby but rather intense ;-) I also only use natural medicines for that sort of illness so she can build her immute system but it takes a bit longer to cure than with other medecines.