KDE looks like Windows Ten Years Ago!

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1

Greetings all,

I am a Mageia refugee, who has used Mandrake/Mandrive/Mageia for about twelve years, but had to change as Mageia 2 just doesn’t work on my laptop. (Still using it on my desktop.) I use Linux every day in my job, I am now completely Windows-free, so it simply has to work for me!

So, last night I installed the using the KDE CD and am really very impressed indeed with how easy and intuitive every was to get going. I’ve had a slight hiccough with WiFi, but fingers crossed that’s ok now, got loads of apps installed I need, such as Qt Creator and the repositories so far seem replete with goodies!

The one thing I am finding a little disappointing is the look and feel of KDE. It looks like Windows did ten years or so ago! I did have to completely delete the ~/.kde4 directory on forst boot as there was nothing on the desktop at all and that got me going. However, it really doesn’t have that beautiful polished KDE4 look about it. More llike a Windows 2000 with lots of square edges vibe going on!

Would be most grateful for assistance making KDE look as good as it should. :slight_smile: Many thanks.

2

You might want to be more specific. Because I don’t see the resemblance.

Windows 10 years ago: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/Windows_XP_SP3.png
KDE: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Opensuse-12.2-en-kde-desktop.png

The kde screenshot above is the default openSUSE look. Also you might want to look here for an idea about kde themes: Eyecandy for your KDE-Desktop - KDE-Look.org

3

On 01/29/2013 10:46 AM, DiBosco wrote:
> I did have to
> completely delete the ~/.kde4 directory on forst boot as there was
> nothing on the desktop at all

sounds to me like you had corrupt install media or some kind of
disasterous error during you install–because, the default install of
openSUSE 12. WAIT!! you didn’t say which version you installed…

but, any of the supported version do not begin life with “nothing on
the desktop at all”

so, i ask did you md5 or sha1 check the downloaded iso prior to burning
the install media (as discussed here:
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Download_help#Checksums) ??

and did you then on first boot let the media self-check for errors by
selecting “Check Installation Media” (like seen here for CD
http://tinyurl.com/b856ekd, or here for DVD http://tinyurl.com/3qde66h) ??

if you did not you probably should now. [Garbage in, garbage out!]

if you did those thing and had good media, then you must have had some
errors during install, and you should get that fixed before you begin
customizing the desktop looks…

otherwise just go to Personal Settings - Configure Desktop and then to
(for example) Application Appearance, Desktop Effects, Workspace
Appearance, Window Behavior and others where i’d expect you to find more
the knobs and switches than was in the last Mandrake i used (8.1)…

and, i usually find some interesting info hiding behind the “Help”
button on every page in Configure Desktop, as well you might find some
use for
http://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/html/openSUSE/opensuse-startup/art.kdequick.html

–
dd
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobile” of operating systems!
http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat

4

http://www.apostrophe.co.uk/linux/suse/snapshot1.jpeg

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Thanks for the replies. :slight_smile:

Above is a snapshot of the screen, where you can see it looking very old fashioned, square graphics etc.

As far as it being abnormal to find corrupted desktop on fresh install, I have always, but always found when I install a KDE based distribution over the top of an existing one (not formatting /opt and /home, obviously, then the KDE desktop is corrupt in one way or another and the easy way is to delete ~/.kde4 or there’s a applet file you can sometimes delete to solve the issue. It’s not a corrupt medium at all. I’ve burned enough ISOs over the years to check that. :slight_smile: There were no installation errors at all, this is totally normal for KDE4.

It’s the very latest version I have installed, I downloaded it last night.

6

Personally, the look and feel of KDE is what I love the most! I find that it looks as modern as Windows 7, if not even better. I recently moved from Win 7 to openSUSE too, and even more recently deleted Windows entirely from my system.

BUT, I don’t use the theme and visuals I see in your screenshot… that one looks like older versions of KDE. I use the Oxygen Transparent window style, with Blur compositing for that Aero look. I also use more desktop effects and custom themes. Here are some of my older configurations… should prove how good KDE can look when configured properly (warning, My Little Pony wallpapers!)

Image 1: http://i45.tinypic.com/zjxzeh.png

Image 2: http://i47.tinypic.com/qs0fon.png

7

On 01/29/2013 12:16 PM, DiBosco wrote:
> It’s the very latest version I have installed, I downloaded it last
> night.

then maybe you downloaded openSUSE 12.3 which is still in Beta, and that
could be your problem.

still, it is abnormal to install openSUSE with KDE and have an empty
desktop…

and, i guess you know that in some situations email will be in
~/.kde4 so most here suggest not to delete the whole directory, but
instead rename it…in any event deleting it is like using a 10 kilo
sledge hammer to drive in a tack.

ymmv…but, please in the future always say your version…it makes a
difference in the answers–this is a fast moving distro (some answers
you can find in the forum for 12.1 will not work on 12.2)

–
dd

8

@dd, yes it’s 12.2, it’s not a beta, but your point is taken. :slight_smile: I did try deleting the relevant appletsrc file which has worked in the past sometimes, but in this case it didn’t help. Hence getting ride of the whole .kde4 directory contents!

@MirceaKitsune Yes, I could not agree more. I am typing from my Mageia desktop and it looks gorgeous. This is why I am puzzled that this SuSE install looks so old fashioned. :slight_smile: It’s not a comment on KDE4 in general, it’s a comment on this installation or possibly(?) SuSE’s implementation.

9

Ah, I see. That’s weird then… by default openSUSE should activate the Oxygen theme for KDE. For Oxygen Transparent you need to get it manually… I recommend you do since it’s a lot prettier with blur compositing.

Go to Configure Desktop -> Workspace Appearance -> Windows Decorations. You should see Oxygen in that list… select it and click Apply. If you don’t see Oxygen there you might have a broken installation of KDE or the oxygen package missing for some reason (I don’t know its exact name sadly). Does this work?

10

Just a thought, KDE 3 (very Windows XP like) used to install into /opt, so what have you got in there? I don’t think it’s common practice on this distro to preserve /opt across new installations.

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Have to say I agree it looks very antiquated! I wonder what version your KDE claims to be if you go to System Settings -> Help -> About KDE.

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I think I have partially sussed it. I dropped to a console login, removed .kde4 again and rebooted. This time when I open Dolphin looked great. Also, digicam, Amarok etc do. Firefox looks like **** though, so I am wondering whether it’s a GTK thing? I wonder whether Mageia have something enabled by default that “Qt-ifies” GTK apps?

I can’t switch off kickstart now though!

@consused (top name, btw!) I run some proprietary software IDEs (I design electronics for a living), such as Rowley Crossworks which ship with Qt libraries for each release. As long as you keep that install in /opt, you don’t have to reinstall at all when you upgrade/change Linux. You can do the same with things like Acrobat. I prefer to keep them in /opt than ~ so I can keep data and programs separate. It may not be common practice, but it’s cool way of working in my experience. :wink:

@flymail It’s 4.8.5 that’s installed.

13

Install these packages so you can have a kde-like gtk engine and a module to configure them:

zypper in kcm_gtk gtk2-theme-oxygen gtk3-theme-oxygen

Then go into kde settings, appearance, gtk module. And set the gtk theme to oxygen. You can also install a tool such as lxappearance to do so. You may/may not have to log out and log in for it to take effect.

I am more than half sure the gtk oxygen theme is installed by default as well.

14

Is it the font rendering with Firefox you don’t like? Actually the default fonts on KDE look much better than on Gnome.

@consused (top name, btw!) I run some proprietary software IDEs (I design electronics for a living), such as Rowley Crossworks which ship with Qt libraries for each release. As long as you keep that install in /opt, you don’t have to reinstall at all when you upgrade/change Linux.

I did understand why you would be doing that and it should be ok, so was just encouraging you to take a look there in case… :slight_smile:

I use a separate partition for sharing data in a multi-boot configuration, so never preserve /home, and hardly ever get settings issues requiring the deletion of .kde4 file.

15

If you suspect remainders of Mageia in your homedir, there’s an easy way to confirm that: create a new user, login as that user, and see if things are OK. If so, the cuprit is in your homedir.
Another thing you could try, is running qtconfig and replace the setting “Desktop default” by “Oxygen”. Then File, Save, and an Amarok (or whatever) restart.

16

That’s done it, thanks very much! Looking splendid now!

Thanks to everyone for the help. I think I shall enjoy using SuSE! :slight_smile:

17

It is amazing that it works for you. I have nothing useful(some left over files from a failed google earth installation) in my /opt. Is that weird?

18

I don’t think that’s weird, no. AFAIK, the OS rarely puts anything in /opt, it’s for static packages that are not dependent on Linux libraries - libraries that change with different distribution releases. Adobe put Acrobat there for example; I think, because everything needed to run acrobat is in that installation [of Acrobat]. Something like Okular I would assume uses libraries that are supplied with the distribution, so when they are packaged up into an RPM/apt/whatever, the packagers know exactly what libraries are on the system and can link to those already installed. You wouldn’t put these in /opt because when you reinstall Linux there will be a whole set of different libraries that compilation of Okular would not work with.

I put Crossworks in /opt because Rowley ship all the Qt libraries for that particular version of Crossworks. So, even though I run KDE which is based on Qt, my system installed Qt libraries that make KDE run will be completely different to those needed to make Crossworks run. Although, by default Crossworks installs in ~/ I don’t like that. It’s purely down to personal taste. As with most of Linux, there are few rights and wrongs and we can all do things the way we feel suits us best. It’s so nice not to have to reinstall Crossworks every time I update the OS.

I’ll stop rambling on and on now! :stuck_out_tongue:

19

That’s true, and it was unusual that openSUSE continued to use /opt for KDE3 (uniquely, I suspect, for continuity), even though use of KDE was optional then as it is now.

An interesting ramble nevertheless, particularly the point on library dependency.

20

The point on library dependency is open to interpretation. The filesystem hierarchy has /opt for “optional” application software, defined from the Linux operating system’s point of view, not the user’s. In that case, components of the OS shouldn’t have any dependency on software installed to /opt, and neither should the linux distro if it claims to adhere to the standard.

Although that wasn’t DiBosco’s point, it does allow for “optional” software to have a dependency on libraries supplied by the distribution, and be installed in /opt . Of course a software vendor may decide against dependency for practical reasons by supplying its own versions of libraries.