[mdlug] KDE 4

[Raymond McLaughlin]

Michael Mikowski wrote:
> I have used KDE since pre 1.0, 
So have I.

and am now using 4.2 (beta 2) and am quite impressed.

I am also very impressed, but the impression is very bad. But I am used 
to being able to highly customize my KDE desktop.

>  Most of the features I missed from 3.5.x in 4.1.3 are back,

I spent half an hour looking for the "external task bar" option some 
where in the brand new, dumbed down, interface before resorting to 
Google. I have since learned that this feature, which I have used and 
made an integral part of how I organize my work flow, has been removed. 
Apparently the work around is to add a regular tool bar, and add to it 
one widget, an embedded task bar.

All this took over an hour of my time, to accomplish one baby step back 
toward the "square one" that was the highly satisfying look and feel of 
KDE 3.5.10. This is not counting the time spent during previous looks at 
KDE4.

How many other former features will be this much of a struggle to 
re-realize? It is outrageous to have to fight to get back the 
functionality I had before!

All in all KDE4 is a struggle for anyone who thinks they know KDE.

> along with a bunch of new ones.  


> Stability seems very good -- I have yet to have any lock-up or even
> application crash since the upgrade 3 days ago.

<droll> Oh, bravo! </droll> Stability has not been an issue with KDE for 
five or six years. To continue this would be a good thing, yes. I'm not 
sure it's note worthy though.

Kwin now has most of the bling of Compiz + Metacity but appears more stable.

Sigh. I suppose this is an attraction to those who love sparkle. I'm 
more interested in *useful* features.

>  I don't know if it is too "windows like," I guess I don't use windows 
> enough to know.  Seems more mac-like to me.

I agree that the degree of "windows like"ness in appearance is not 
important. But dumbing down the interface to make it look more like 
Windows is. Surmising the motivations of programmers from the end 
produce is really kind of a guessing game, but I would say they were 
either trying to imitate Windows, or else they were changing things just 
for the sake of changing things.

Take a look at  the "control panel" applet (what ever they call it). Is 
it more usefull, as useful, or less useful, that the kcontrol applet 
it's supposed to replace? I would vote for much less usefull, and 
condescending to boot. I don't think its resemblance to Windows Control 
Panel is coincidence.

> I say give Aaron Seigo a bit of credit for flexibility.

I know nothing of the personalities involved, except that I have been 
calling them, who ever they are, a lot of names best not published on 
this mailing list.

> For example, you can now revert to "just like windows -- icons
> everywhere" desktop in KDE 4.2 if you want.   As I understand it, he did
> not want this, but bowed to popular demand.

Options are good, more options generally better. A large set of options 
calls for sensible defaults, and the definition of sensible is, 
admittedly, subjective.

> So perhaps he is driven by 
> ego, but at least he is driven, works very hard, and provides excellent
> code for all to use free of charge. 

SuSE is, and has long been, a major sponsor of the KDE project, and I 
have purchased (full retail) the following SuSE versions:
   SuSE Linux 5.2
   SuSE Linux 5.3
   SuSE Linux 6.0
   SuSE Linux 6.1
   SuSE Linux 6.2
   SuSE Linux 6.3 (but I skipped 6.4 because 6.3 worked so well.)
   SuSE Linux Professional  7.0
   SuSE Linux Professional  7.1
   SuSE Linux Professional  7.2
   SuSE Linux Professional  7.3
   SuSE Linux Professional  8.0
   SuSE Linux Professional  8.1
   SuSE Linux Professional  8.2
   SuSE Linux Professional  8.3
   SuSE Linux Professional  9.0
   SuSE Linux Professional  9.1
   SuSE Linux Professional  9.2
   SuSE Linux Professional  9.3
   SuSE Linux Professional 10.0
   SuSE Linux Professional 10.2
   SuSE Linux Professional 10.3

Some might call me a chump, but I felt like I was helping the free 
software movement, and I really liked the printed manuals. But I also 
feel kind of like a paying customer. And I feel quite ill used by the 
latest KDE versions. I admit that I have only dabbled with them on 
virtual machines mostly. I haven't actually "used" them because, so far, 
they are unusable to me.

Raymond McLaughlin

> The world could do with more like him, not fewer.
> 
> Cheers, Mike