KDE multiple instances of apps

English Applications
#1

advance apologies: I am a complete noob to opensuse/kde/linux/etc…

Today, I have noticed that when I start an application, such as konquerer or kwrite or Yast or any application at all, in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, it looks like there are three instances of each app that is running.

However, when I close the app, all 3 instances are removed from the taskbar.

I’ve done a few things this morning while reading some tutorials. One thing I did was to add a new user. I’ve also installed apache/tomcat and got those up and running.

Is there something specific I did to cause the 3-instance issue?

#2

To follow up, when I type ‘who’ in the console, my user name is listed three times.

username username username

I’m not sure why or if this is ordinary. I’ve tried restarting the machine but my user name still is listed three times.

#3

you didn’t say, but let me guess you have installed openSUSE 11.0 or
11.1 with KDE4 versions 4.0 or 4.1 as your desktop environment (aka:
DE)–right?

if so you have, unfortunately, chosen the least reliable DE on the
planet…KDE4 is under heavy development and 4.3 was releases some
weeks ago…which is getting closer to reliable and usable (this
opinion is not shared by all–some folks loved 4.1 and think that 4.2
is the best invention since sex!)…

anyway, multiple instances/icons of stuff plagued the early versions
of KDE4 and your options are to upgrade to 4.3 or switch to some other
DE…there are many…

and, there are many posts and guides within these fora to help you get
to a more usable version…(i’m running rock solid KDE3.5.7 and will
probably soon move to Gnome as KDE3 support is flaky at best…most of
the development effort is chasing the next flashy, spinning, rainbow…)

–
palladium

#4

Thank you for responding. Yup. I had installed 11.1 and KDE 4.1.3 came with it. At the time, I had thought that was the latest most stable version because the updater in KDE had said that there were no new updates. Since posting my troubles yesterday, I had learned of the instability issues. Late (very late) last night, after attempting to upgrade to 4.3 and having very wonky things happen, I instead changed over to Gnome!

Thanks again for following up! Your comments confirmed the impression I’d gotten so far that it was the desktop (and not just my imagination) :smiley:

#5

> Thanks again for following up! Your comments confirmed the impression
> I’d gotten so far that it was the desktop (and not just my imagination)

welcome, you are in good company:

see article “Linus Torvalds ditches KDE 4 for GNOME”
http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2009/01/linus-torvalds-ditches-kde-4-for-gnome.html

all that glitz is just not worth the trouble of instability, yet…

–
palladium

#6

Hi.

If you allow your self to talk about DE, I would like to notice as well.
I use XFCE 4.3, but 90% of all my best programs from KDE, so I still keep KDE in my comp.

Thanks.