KDE 4 goes .kde, KDE 3 goes .kde3

Status quo

Currently KDE 4 is using $HOME/.kde4 and KDE 3 is using $HOME.kde. Depending on whether we want to switch KDE 4 to .kde or not, is the following issue more or less valid.

Issue

The status quo isn't exactly future proof if we stick to .kde4 for KDE 4 configurations. If we go with this solution, we have to create a migration wizard, ok, such a thing is needed either way (see HaraldSitter/KdeFour/MigrationWizard) but if we have .kde4 in hardy and .kde in hardy+1 it makes things more complicate than necessary. More precisely: we have to copy .kde to .kde4 if the user wants to, and as soon as we make KDE 4 default we have to copy .kde to .kde3 and either merge or overwrite with .kde4.

Current migration scope in hardy:

• .kde stays to be used by KDE 3
• .kde4 should get a copy of .kde, if the user wants, so that he can reuse it's wallet and configurations etc.

Current migration scope post hardy:

• .kde has to be moved to .kde3
• .kde4 has to be moved to .kde

According to latest information, openSUSE doesn't ever want to switch back to .kde, maybe also considerable for us? A one time migration solution has been requested. Note: even if KDE creates a one time migration system, it probably wouldn't be finished for Hardy, and most important it's probably necessary to create a special reimport functionality (KDE 3 apps which aren't yet available in KDE 4 need a later migration - e.g. Amarok 1 -> Amarok 2)

Solution

By switching to .kde and .kde3 for hardy, we completely cut one migration step, and can drop yet another patch for KDE 4

Migration scope in hardy:

• .kde gets either copied to .kde3 or not (see HaraldSitter/KdeFour/MigrationWizard)

Migration scope post hardy:

• none, everything is in place

To sum it up: if we want to go .kde ever again in the KDE 4 series, we have to do it _before_ hardy, everything else increases the possability of breakage and makes it overly more difficult.