KDE 4 Debate

[enderandrew]

4.04 is relevant, in that it is what most users are going to see right now when they install KDE 4 from openSUSE or Fedora. That is what you're offering up to people, so people have a right to judge based on what they're getting.

[irrdev]

I agree that KDE 4.0.x is rather unstable, but KDE 4.1 (beta 2) is truly another experience. I have had it installed for 3 weeks now, and experienced no direct problems relating to KDE. Some of the newly-ported QT4 applications such as Konqueror are still buggy, but the desktop itself is quite stable. My only complaint is that I'm missing some system settings which I became accustomed to in KDE 3. For example, how do enable KDM4 to automatically enable Num Lock? Except for these few issues, however, I am quite impressed. I'm positive that openSUSE 11.1 will be a great success when it is bundled with KDE 4.1 final.

[saahne]

From KDE.NEWS (July 11th):

As a response to recent negativity on the Internet, we've been working with Groklaw to get a story running detailing facts about questions such as "Releasing KDE 4.0 was a mistake", "I am forced to use the kickoff menu", "The whole KDE4 desktop interface is radically new". among others. Thanks go out to Pamela Jones for giving the KDE community a chance to rectify certain points that have recently been said in public. This way, we hope to make it easier for journalists to put KDE's direction, recent decisions and put simple myths into the right light.

[mooreted]

When I first installed Suse 11.0, I didn't see any option to choose the desktop I wanted. After install I was automatically running KDE 4.0. I prefer having a choice.

4.0 was glitchy, crashed a lot and I'm not sure if I will ever get used to Plasma. When I put a file temporarily on my desktop I expect it to be a file not a widget. I use my desktop like an actual desktop. I put stuff there until I'm done with it then file it.

When 4.1 hits the repos I'll give it another try. I may get over my dislike of Plasma, I may not, but until KDE4 runs properly I don't even want to try.

[enderandrew]

The KDE 4 LiveCD only installs the KDE 4 desktop. The Gnome LiveCD only installs the Gnome desktop.

The DVD installer lets you choose from KDE 3, KDE 4 and Gnome. It only clearly states that KDE 3 is mature and stable while KDE 4 is in development.

To those with LiveCD installs, they didn't get to pick their desktop, or see that disclaimer. I think the same disclaimer should be on the download page, and that there should have been a KDE 3 LiveCD as well.

[Sagemta]

Originally Posted by irrdev

I agree that KDE 4.0.x is rather unstable, but KDE 4.1 (beta 2) is truly another experience. I have had it installed for 3 weeks now, and experienced no direct problems relating to KDE. Some of the newly-ported QT4 applications such as Konqueror are still buggy, but the desktop itself is quite stable. My only complaint is that I'm missing some system settings which I became accustomed to in KDE 3. For example, how do enable KDM4 to automatically enable Num Lock? Except for these few issues, however, I am quite impressed. I'm positive that openSUSE 11.1 will be a great success when it is bundled with KDE 4.1 final.

First for the numlock its Configure Desktop>Keyboard & Mouse>Keyboard icon look for Numlock on KDE Startup That's the ticket.

Now to be fair KDE 4.04 is deplorable the 4.1RC is waaay better. How to update has been stated many times here & likely will continue to be until 11.1 when it does though it'll be so much better here,no more KDE noise.

[enderandrew]

The second KDE 4.1 is released, they need to push it out as an update.

[mooreted]

Ah, I see. Thanks. No matter. Fortunately I know how to install whatever DM I want. I just like to choose what I want on my system before the final install.

[blackbelt_jones]

I'd been running 4.1 beta2 on Kubuntu, and it was horribly slow. I installed opensuse11 from the KDE4 live CD, and it was a lot faster and much more responsive, but YAST repeatedly crashed when I tried to install an RPM that wasn't in the repositories. I uninistalled KDE4, installed KDE3, and everything is beautiful.

I expect that to be fixed in time, but I have a big big problem with the way Konqueror's role has been stage-managed. I'm used to using Konqueror with fluxbox, and it's a wonderful way to fill in the limitations of a window manager. They said that Konqueror would not be affected, but that's not what I'm seeing. There's no filter bar. Maybe the filter bar will be restored, but I don't like waiting to find out.

Being a web browser/file manager means Konqueror is the only file manager that can be operated by html links. This is a terrific capability that no one ever talks about, and it makes Konqueror indispensible to me.

My idea for a KDE fork is relatively modest, but it would be big enough. I say: don't fork KDE, just fork Konqueror. I'd like to see a standalone version of Konqueror that is meant to do what Konqueror was origininally meant to do, i.e. everything., and not to conform to someone's idea of a managed desktop experience. It's only purpose would be to be the most powerful desktop application ever. I would call it "Liberator". Of course, it would require KDE libraries, but it would be free of the demands of KDE desktop organization. I don't really have the right to expect Konqueror to be designed with my Window manager in mind. A forked Konqueror would be a way of claiming that right.

There may be other, simpler solutions, e.g. plugins.

I intend to tenatively pursue this, but I don't know anything about programming and development, so it's liable to take a long long time (e.g. never) if no one else is interested. I wonder if this would addresses anyone else's issues with KDE4.

[blackbelt_jones]

Here's an old screenshot of a homepage that I created for Konqueror. Note that there are links to applications, directories, files, and webpages. In some cases, e.g. YouTube, Konqueror is actually instructed to use firefox to open the webpage.

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/6186/kpagemk3.png

Unfortunately the html page was lost, my current konqueror homepage isn't quite as cool.