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Thoughts on KDE 4.2.4


Yankee
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I've seen all over where people are talking about they don't like it etc.

I didn't at first, Mandriva 2009.1.

But after looking around here is what I have found.

 

1. BIG CHANGE! Just like XP vs Vista. Things are moved around and different. I hate Vista. MS will have to work overtime to beat XP!

 

2. Nice changes. Take the time to find/learn them.

 

3. Ok, enough is enough. Stop moving things on the menus etc. This has been going on for so long even someone like me who studies has to ask the experts for answers to things that should be simple.

 

4. It rocks! Add to it but don't move things unless you put them where they belong!

 

Example:

 

Right clicking the desktop gives you Appearance Settings. But you have to go other places to change colors etc. Configure your desktop does not have all the settings there either!

 

Linux has always been this way. I want to right click the desktop and have "FIX IT" and every thing be right there, no matter what it is. If I have to look at it I want to be able to change colors, opacity, themes, wallpapers, etc. If I'm looking at my desktop and want to change something I don't want to have to go to 10 places to change them including resolution, refresh rate or power saving.

 

THIS IS CLEARLY a giant leap forward in functionality but please, someone consolidate the options into a common place!

 

ONE LAST THING! I was pretty upset about the overall system until I installed all the updates. That fixed many problems...But I was just glancing it over to see if it beat my 2007.1. It does, hands down,after the updates and some learning...

 

Improvements:

 

I can change the kmenu icon without editing some file somewhere??? Not stuck with the star I didn't like!

 

Simple stuff like that!

 

And last:

 

I'm running an old 1800+ with 3/4 GB of RAM and it runs good. Do that with Vista!

In December I will be able to upgrade to a better system and will go from there. I built this computer in 2001 and it rocks with 2009.1.

 

I know it still lacks the RAW horsepower, but I have upgraded the video, sound, RAM and drives, just not the horsepower.

 

This is why I like Linux so much. Vista will not run worth a dam on my machine!

 

I got my moneys worth so far!

 

Just one last note. It picked up every piece of hardware I have without the updates. I'm having trouble with bluetooh but I can work that out. It won't talk to my phone even though it finds it...by cable or bluetooth.

 

 

Overall I say excellent job but put things together...Keep the apples with the apples and the oranges with the oranges!

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I forgot. Konqueror was slow. I find it faster on the 2009.1.

 

Dolphin, didn't like it and I seen where other people didn't either. But I went to play with it and it's not bad.

 

But I like Konqueror because I can go from folder, to web, to where ever...

 

In one window I can have folders, web, terminal...

 

Nice!

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I've always looked forward to what changes KDE4 was going to bring over KDE3. I still remember when it was very buggy and attracted a lot of criticism. As time rolled on and stability became the norm, a lot of those critical voices have died down, if not disappeared all together. I agree about not moving things about so often and that settings should be kept in a central place. You shouldn't have to hunt around to make simple changes. What would be nice is the ability to assign your own preferred options to the desktop right click menu. I still have KDE3 on 1 desktop and 1 laptop, using that desktop is now like going back to Winblows 3.1 :D

Edited by {BBI}Nexus{BBI}
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  • 1 month later...

[rant]

 

Maybe I'll sound like a clown, but I have currently installed Mandriva on my machines (I ran into several awful bugs in Ubuntu that resulted in frozen/crashed systems, thus installed Mandriva) and am currently testing KDE. Okay, KDE3.5 was not really beautiful - but it worked and was way more logical than this KDE4 thingy IMHO. Maybe I am to stupid, but how can I e.g. change the height of the taskbar? How can it be hidden? This were easy tasks in KDE3.5. In KDE4, I am lost - and I am not someone who doesn't know his way around in the linux-world. Whoever designed this DE is a complete moroon. Really. There are tons of graphical toys everywhere that slow the system down to where it is hardly bearable, useless stuff that will require faster and bigger machines all the time, but nothing that makes my computing experience more pleasant, nothing that makes my everyday-work easier to manage. Hello? Is this Linux-Vista?

 

Even such simple things like changing the wallpaper are made pretty difficult by hiding them cleverly in completely cluttered menus and control-centers (why are there two Control Centers and even THREE if you count MCC in? :huh: What a nonsense!). I was once (back at the time of Mandrake 10.0) a huge fan of KDE and I knew that when KDE4 came out, that there would be some problems. I was patient, I gave the developers time to iron things out, I let the thing mature and even defended the developers in several discussions, said to others: "It's a new piece of software - just wait and let it mature!". But honestly, KDE hasn't got any better. This is IMHO a big piece of crap.

 

How should anyone who is new to Linux and/or pretty computer-illiterate be able to WORK with KDE? Sorry, but even Rox and fluxbox are easier to use than the current K-Desktop. And I cannot understand how any distro can ship KDE4 as the default desktop (Mind you, no enterprise-distro ships KDE as the default DE. I guess this is for a reason). Either the developers are sadists or they don't care about Joe Average. My father e.g. is not the most talented computer-user but he managed to work with computers since 1986. He was able to work with DOS, with an old Schneider-PC running Basic, he used OS2/Warp, Windows 3.1, 95, 98, XP, he used KDE 3.2 to 3.5 ... and gave up on KDE 4. My mother used KDE 3.2, 3.4 and 3.5 and gave up on KDE 4 at once and now sticks to Gnome. I don't think they are the only ones who got the impresson that KDE4 is totally unusable for everyday work. It is a nice toy to tinker with - but that's about it.

 

Sorry, this is a bust. I'll reinstall Gnome and fluxbox or Windowmaker, which are way more stable, usable and less memory-hungry than KDE4.

 

[/rant]

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...but how can I e.g. change the height of the taskbar?
Right click either the desktop or taskbar, select unlock widgets, left click the cashew that appears (to the right of the taskbar), you will see a Height button, drag up or down to resize taskbar.

 

How can it be hidden?
Under the same cashew that appears on the taskbar, click More Settings.
Hello? Is this Linux-Vista?
Hell NO.  I don't care what anyone says, I've had to use Vista on the odd occasions.  It is freakin' horrid. 

 

 

Even such simple things like changing the wallpaper are made pretty difficult by hiding them cleverly in completely cluttered menus and control-centers
Right click the desktop, left click folder view settings.  Same amount of steps it took with 3.5.

 

How have you managed to have 3 control centers?

Edited by {BBI}Nexus{BBI}
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 Right click either the desktop or taskbar, select unlock widgets, left click the cashew that appears (to the right of the taskbar), you will see a Height button, drag up or down to resize taskbar.

Right-clicking on the taskbar doesn't do anything. It only works by right clicking the desktop, then unlocking the widgets, then right clicking the taskbar. This is overly complicated, unintuitive and completely stupid.

 

Hell NO.  I don't care what anyone says, I've had to use Vista on the odd occasions.  It is freakin' horrid. 
I have used Vista, too, and dumped it pretty soon as it is a nightmare - just like KDE4 IMHO.

 

Right click the desktop, left click folder view settings.  Same amount of steps it took with 3.5.
I figured that one out but ... errm... you see what's wrong? -> left click folder view. What has a folder view to do with a wallpaper? Nuthin'. No one would expect to find this feature there but in the main Control-Center in the Appeareance-section, next to icons etc. :P
How have you managed to have 3 control centers?

Just a plain, clean install. :unsure: Appearances for Plasma, available only via right-clicking the desktop, then the KDE-Appearances (Taskbar) and the MCC (Taskbar). Sorry, but this is overly cluttered, horrible, a usability nightmare, driving me nuts and completely insane. Whoever designed this has absolutely no clue of the basics of interface-design.

 

BTW: Why does kget refuse to continue downloading a torrent? Aaaaargh! This desktop is wrecking my nerves!!!! :wall: :wall: :wall:

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When I installed Mandriva 2010 under Xen virtualisation on my laptop, I accidently installed KDE by default without thinking about choosing an alternative option like Gnome or a lightweight WM. I first said "oh crap" I didn't want that but couldn't go back and didn't want to restart the whole install from scratch. So I figured, OK, so I'll give it a go and see what it's like. I must admit I gave up on it within about five minutes.

 

It looks like KDE 3.x so no changes in visual appearance with menus, window borders, etc. Or maybe that's just the default Mandy settings. Finding things not as intuitive either. So I installed Gnome, but left KDE installed anyway just didn't use it.

 

Installed Mandriva 2010 on my desktop computer, this time with Gnome, and wanted a Xen kernel for virtualisation with it being a Quad Core and 8GB of ram. Sadly, I remember now from way back in Mandy 2007 that a Xen kernel on Mandy won't let you get your X server running, or even a console window at that. So no change there, CentOS 5 works fine with X and a Xen kernel so I don't know why Mandy have it all screwed up, and so I dumped the install and put Gentoo on it instead.

 

I'll have a virtual system with Mandy running, under Xen or KVM for playing around with, but the features I need, just don't work for me in Mandriva. I could open a bug for the Xen kernel thing, but I know what Mandy's bug response is like, and I'd be waiting too long for it to get fixed, only to find the bug will be closed when 2010.1 is released and for me to try again, and then open another bug again cos it wasn't resolved.

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I do agree that you should not have to hunt around to do basic tasks like changing your wallpaper or taskbar settings etc.  I've grown used to the changes and more or less know where to go to tweak particular settings.  The thing that gets me is the lack of a good help facility.  One where the user could type in what they are looking for and be presented with the results.   Documentation in GNU/Linux is woefully inadequate.  

 

+1  For Customisation options. 

 

-1 For Documentation & Embedded desktop help

 

 

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The thing that gets me is the lack of a good help facility. One where the user could type in what they are looking for and be presented with the results.
I guess that most programmers find it way more interesting to design new widgets instead of a help-center (and reviewers probably won't cheer at you for such a program 'cause it's .... boring ;)). But a good help-center is really much needed, especially the more complex a piece of software becomes.

 

Anyway - I am running good old Gnome again on my Mandriva-box. B)

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