KDE 3.5.x not in OpenSuSE 11.2

[Unconfined]

Source: openSUSE News » KDE in openSUSE 11.1 and Beyond

KDE 3.5 will not be included on 11.2 “official” media or in the release repository for 11.2, but the community certainly has the option of creating KDE 3.5 packages in the build service, and creating live CDs with KDE 3.5 packages for 11.2.

What's everyone's views on this? I personally think that 3.5.x should stay till 12.x.

[Monex]

Hi,

I think it is the right decision because kde 3.x will be discontinued and the suse team has then to fix the bugs and security issues all alone by themselves. Be happy that it is included in 11.1 because other distributors already removed it

Have a lot of fun

Monex wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> I think it is the right decision because kde 3.x will be discontinued
> and the suse team has then to fix the bugs and security issues all alone
> by themselves. Be happy that it is included in 11.1 because other
> distributors already removed it
>
> Have a lot of fun
>
>
Though I'm using kde4 I still run some kde3 apps and I think it's too early to drop kde3, though at some point it will be time - maybe 11.3

Of course what does "drop" mean? Will there still be the kdelibs just no desktop?

--
Suse 11.0 x64, Kde 4.2beta (unstable repo), Opera 9.x weekly

[Franksuse64]

I think it's ok. At this point in time KDE4.1.3 is, to my eyes, not mature enough and lacks few functions 3.5 has, but many of them are now included in the alpha version of 4.2. By June 2009 (release of 11.2, probably), KDE4 will be a lot more mature and will most probably include all functions that were in 3.5.

I hope.

Also, many packages are ported to KDE4, some stuff are still lagging (like icon sets and that stuff, but that is not maintained by opensuse), but next summer it will be a lot better!

In June 2009, it will be 16 months since the first release of KDE4, which then should take over 3.5 as Monex said.

[parena1979]

I just hope that some apps will still be available. Like Amarok 1.4.x (which is not a KDE app, but of course uses KDE3 libs). I tried Amarok 2, but I dislike it. I can't even get close to making it as useful as 1.4 is to me. Maybe someone will fork 1.4 for bugfixes. :/

[rjwilmsi]

For me there are two reasons why this idea, if it is indeed true, it is a good idea:
Firstly, there must be a considerable overhead in supporting two versions of KDE. Therefore I would prefer that all the development effort went into the latest KDE 4.1 and 4.2 releases, rather than maintaining support for the legacy version.
Secondly, in order to attract more and more users to Linux, the version of KDE supplied must include as much eye candy, 3-D effects and bells and whistles as possible in order to complete with Windows Vista and 7 and the features such as the sidebar, Aero transparency and new Windows 7 features. This means that many potential new Linux users would not be interested in using the KDE 3.5 series, so effort to continue to support it becomes less valuable.

rjwilmsi wrote:
> For me there are two reasons why this idea, if it is indeed true, it is
> a good idea:
> Firstly, there must be a considerable overhead in supporting two
> versions of KDE. Therefore I would prefer that all the development
> effort went into the latest KDE 4.1 and 4.2 releases, rather than
> maintaining support for the legacy version.
> Secondly, in order to attract more and more users to Linux, the version
> of KDE supplied must include as much eye candy, 3-D effects and bells
> and whistles as possible in order to complete with Windows Vista and 7
> and the features such as the sidebar, Aero transparency and new Windows
> 7 features. This means that many potential new Linux users would not be
> interested in using the KDE 3.5 series, so effort to continue to support
> it becomes less valuable.
>

With the assumption that 4.x will be stable, I can live with that (so
far 4.1.x seems decidedly unstable on my system). However, I would like
to see two installation options:
1 KDE4 minimum gloss
2 KDE4 with eye candy and all the other (unnecessary) bells and whistles
:-)

That way, I can install without having to go through the lists to get
rid of all the stuff I will never use but was forced to download :-(

--
PeeGee

Asus M2V-MX SE, AMD LE1640, openSuSE 11.0 x86-64/XP Home dual boot
Asus M2NPV-VM, AMD 64X2 3800+, openSuSE 10.3 x86-64/XP Home dual boot

[superppl]

I don't really see a problem. That's 6 months from now, and KDE 4 is already solid. The only thing missing is features that we had in KDE 3.5, so right now KDE 4 is a lot like explorer. I think the developers can add a lot of those features and more in 6 months.

[jbrockmeier]

The KDE Project has already stopped working on 3.5 to the best of my knowledge. Asking our KDE folks to maintain two branches of KDE - the cutting edge / development branch + a dead branch with no maintenance / bugfixes from upstream, is unreasonable.

If the community steps up to maintain 3.5 or even continue development, then we could revisit the possibility of including 3.5 in further releases -- but as things stand now, putting the entire responsibility on our small team of KDE folks is not reasonable for 11.2, much less until 12x.

[JosipBroz]

Speaking of features: I'm afraid if they're not added (and added quick), KDE may face the fate of Vista, namely, many users dropping it for a better desktop environment. KDE has been overlooking the fact that functionality should come first, not eye candy. I for one love KDE, but if some of the features I heavily use were to be dropped, I'd start seriously reconsidering Gnome.