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I am an avid lover of KDE, and would likely be committed to W7 if not for KDE 3x-4x. My reason for posting is recent Linux distro's who have focused on non-KDE distro's. Ubuntu for instance as no links to kubuntu, the new Mint has Mate or Cinnamon, where KDE used to be the default, V13 has no KDE option.

As a side note, I try to make my windows experience more like KDE than to try to make my Linux experience more like windows. Virtual desktops, taskbar previews, transparency options, screen edges, mouse-scroll without clicking focus...

I think some more interaction with distro providers is required to ensure the KDE option is exposed/visable on the WWW.

I hope this post goes to someone who can do the promotion.

The KDE project certainly went through hard times, putting off many many users. This also reflected in the attention KDE gets in distros, the press, technology comparisions, recommendations. That is true.

However I have the feeling that this period is over. Things change again.
KDE4 has gotten much more stable over the last month, many positive reports have been made, though certainly there are still negative ones as well, true. There are always different opinions, which is good. What I see is, that much to my own surprise, KDE comes back into focus of an interest group it never was before: business. Traditionally if you found linux desktops in offices, those were GNOME ones. A number of reasons. however that option more or less fell away with GNOME 3 which actually got even worse feedback than the initial KDE4 releases. I have the impression that people hesitate to jump onto things like Unity or similar alternatives. I could imagine that is because decision makes hate to be tied in, to be locked in. This is one of the biggest points of critisism to the MS strategy and I thing this is an important one. So picking an alternate desktop like Unity, that is a Ubunutu-only show, not struggling to be used anywhere else certainly is not a real alternative. It locks you in again, this time into the commitment to a single distribution.

So what I see is: KDE4 gets back into focus. And I say: stay on that road. Make things more stable, more polished. Don't turn around again.
I have seen KDE desktops being used in five different companies this year. Before I only saw that a single time during the last decade. This actually is a huge success in my eyes. I could very well imagine more distributions to pick up KDE again. Especially when realizing that new things like Unity are just desktops too carrying their own problems and short comings.

Which does not mean promotion is a bad thing