As I like to play around, and as I like the basic idea behind Akonadi, I have been using Akonadi-enabled KDE apps for as long as openSUSE has provided an extra repo for this kdepim-variant. Being beta-software, I never complained about problems. However, KDE is now at 4.7 and Akonadi is meant to be the default for PIM, deeply integrated into the desktop.
But IMHO Akonadi still fails at handling the complexitiy it itself introduces. E.g.:
Random messages on an IMAP-server are marked unread again for no obvious reason
Akonadi very often hangs when updating folders (only restarting gets it going again)
Integration in KDE4 from a user perspective is awkward (why do I have to set up Akonadi AND KDE ressources in the control center, one basically being only a a link to the other)
IMAP really seems sluggish compared to Thunderbird
Update of IMAP drawers with lots of changes makes kdepim unusable for quite some time
I’m just about trying to get rid of Akonadi and to resort to plain old Thunderbird, because Akonadi adds for my typical desktop usage no further value, but introduces problems and complexity which get on my nerves. Or am I doing something wrong, is Akonadi ready for prime-time and I’m just missing something?
Which 4.7 are you using? The last edition of 4.7.2 and purportedly brings fixings especially to the akonadi integration of KDE Pim / Kontakt.
Maybe since it is the integration of Kontakt to Akonadi that has only been realized very recent that can be put on cause. So your question might better be: is Kontakt in 4.7.2 well integrated to akonadi? Personally I have some problems with a 11.4 machine that throws up an error message about Akonadi but does not seem to affect the functionality. And to tell you whether this is an openSUSE problem or a KDE Akonadi issue, I would have to install on the same machine e.g. mageia or kubuntu and have a look if under same condition you have the same problem. Did you try that?
What also is of interest: sluggish compared to what? Same machine with which edition of KDE? Or other machine with same distribution? A lot may depend on hardware. On my fathers PC (a Phenom II 4 with 4 GB of Ram and a 1 GB 420 Nvidea graphics card) the system runs like a fairy tale. On my own old Athlon (939, Nividea graphics 410 and 2 GB of Ram) it has some occasional “meditations”. On another 939 with 2 GB Ram and a Gygabite mainboard and a 7900 Nividea card (old) I have some graphics problems with the desktop effects and the error message (all with KDE stable repository for 11.4). I am using nearly always POP3 so I cannot be of help on the IMAP question.
Akonadi esp with KMail2 is still a larger issue. I gave it a try and reverted to 4.6.5.
See for example https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=277530
I’m using KDE since the beginning (my beginning with Linux around 1998/1999) but esp. since the 4.x release the KDE team seem to have lost the focus on stability. Kaddressbook is still buggy (mailing lists etc), and with KMail2 I see a nightmare coming…
Akonadi esp with KMail2 is still a larger issue. I gave it a try and reverted to 4.6.5.
See for example https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=277530
I’m using KDE since the beginning (my beginning with Linux around 1998/1999) but esp. since the 4.x release the KDE team seem to have lost the focus on stability. Kaddressbook is still buggy (mailing lists etc), and with KMail2 I see a nightmare coming…
The upgrade to kmail2 was a nightmare, because the kmail-migrator had not been adapted to openSuse.
But now, on KDE 4.7.2, kmail2 runs well on an old Thinkpad T 60. I’ve no reason to complain. It is not as fast as kmail 1, but the search is a lot quicker than it used to be with kmail 1, no comparison.
However, I fail to see the advantage worth all the pain. Maybe one day nepomuk reveals its powers.
Therefore in the last months I twice did a clean install without even using kmail1 and starting with the new kmail2 from scratch. Did not help. What gets most on my nerve is that Akonadi constantly forgets about read/unread mails - every few minutes Akonadi marks random messages again as unread!!! And it is really slow…
One tends to consider his/her personal usage scenario as “typical”. However, I really guess mine is not that untypical for a desktop user. And here Akonadi just puts a - flawed - layer of abstraction between a drawer with *.vcf files, *.ics appointments and IMAP mail accounts - without giving any additional functionality. Even worse, I have to fiddle with finding the correct database backend, I have one more desktop component to set up correctly, etc. As the system is so complex, it is also very hard to debug simple problems as an experienced user, for me Akonadi is a black box that I don’t really understand.
In the beginning I had hoped to get some time e.g. the possibility to transparently sync and work with PIM data on several devices I have in daily use (Linux, Windows Netbook, Smartphone). There seems to be no sign that this will ever be possible. Thunderbird, however, with some plugins, has been making this possible for years and mostly without problems.
Right now I really don’t know which problems Akonadi is meant to solve. Maybe there would be usage if I had my own groupware server?!
Right now I really don’t know which problems Akonadi is meant to solve. Maybe there would be usage if I had my own groupware server?!
Well the idea, AFAIK, was that you will be able to detach from the application interfaces and that you may develop with very little effort (as compared to before) new applications that will have immediately access to the same information set as before. That is, you just change the mask for the data you have, it is not important which program you use. So ideally you could switch from evolution to thunderbird to kmail without loosing anything and without having to import and to export data. So far at least the “theoretical harbor” they would like to reach. Always if I did well understand the argumentation given. This, BTW, would then imply also all applications using the (future?) telepathy framework. In substance all applications can define fields (address, mail, phone number) starting from the Akonadi interface. If this would work, then you could avoid a lot of redundancy in the system and would make the desktop functions very dynamic. I guess you noted the conditional. But then, Rome was not build overnight I guess.
No doubt. But if you leave the sandpit with direction ‘real life’, you have to take care about the roads.
Many users have KDE up and running, and without a proper migration into the akonadi-world one will mess up many installations. Creating a lot of unhappy users.
So better focus on a clean migration, than on additional features. For 12.1, I see a risk, as this is not the case.
Well, it was not my intention to justify the lack of working import features. Personally I am still “sitting it out” because a stable PIM is for me paramount for the day by day usage of the system. So I am stuck with a more and more “GMO” openSUSE 11.1 with KDE 3.5. But I have to admit also that there were times when KDE3.5 was very buggy, nobody complained to much because version 2 would not have been a downgrade alternative. I would guess we are getting a bit “spoiled”.
I have changed the database backend from sqlite to mysql. Now I do no longer have the “unread mail” problem, but others - e.g. I cannot delete mails on my IMAP account. It might be that Rome hasn’t been built in one day, however, Akonadi is “work-in-progress” since the inception of KDE 4, and I really have difficulties seeing any progress here. That’s what gives me a headache concerning its inclusion in openSUSE 12.1.
For me, the most annoying issue is that kmail/akonadi doesn’t work after coming back from suspend + some mail doesn’t get marked as read , or it whas marked as red, but no longer is …
It’s reported upstream - but is somewhat tricky to reproduce , it doesn’t always happen , but most of the times it does (akonadi backend doesn’t matter)
edit: Here it is
Edit: and I agree with the comment of Will Stephenson, the article is not very clear about safety of personal data stored in the “social semantic desktop” and it gives little information about how to implement postgres (which was purportedly a better choice than Msql). Anybody has an opinion to share about the use of postgres as alterantive to Msql? Is there a how-to in openSuse on how to implement it?
I would like to install 12.1 without Akonadi. Maybe it’s too late for that because of the way it’s so embedded in the distro. At the moment I’m trying to prevent the server starting each time I boot but so far I’ve failed.
By all what I have read so far, it is impossible and counterproductive to install KDE without Akonadi and/or deactivate it. But you can do this with strighi and nepomuk. If you have read the article you should have found that the whole thing is at the very base of all applications, guaranteeing (one day ) the migration from one app to another. So at least for what I have read directly on the KDE website, no, you cannot do this. But if you should succeed you may tell us here about what you did and what your desktop is like…
) the migration from one app to another. So at least for what I have read directly on the KDE website, no, you cannot do this. But if you should succeed you may tell us here about what you did and what your desktop is like…