Thinking that the KDE Stable repo would bring me some usefull update to the still developing KDE 4.3.5 that belongs to openSUSE 11.2 I used this for quite some time. But yesterday was the day to punish me for this.
It updated to KDE 4.4.4, which not only left me with a different lookiing desktop (where I had to find the deepest caves of configuring again to make things usable), but a popup told me that a certain Akonadi was poking around in the system, even converting my addressbooks. These addressbooks are shared via NFS with other systems. You may understand that I am not to happy with that changing without asking me first.
Worse still is that Kaddressbook (4.4.5) looks way different from what I had. Complete different panels. Not the correct columns in the list of addresses. Files names in that list instead of names (they change to filenames when I click on them :X ). No filter for the categories every address has got. The View menu in the main bar (where one could switch on/off the different panels is gone). …
In short: unusable.
Is this a miscreation I did to myself or are there others with a similar experience?
In fact I did not ask how to revert, but if others have the same.
I did revert on one system, and that brought me of course back to the “official” openSUSE ones. The problem is that it includes a “unusable” Amarok >:(. Only going for a newer Amarok is not quite possible because the level I want is not in the repos anymore and the one on KDE Stable (2.3.0) loads half of KDE 4.4 inclusing the broken Kaddressbook.
I did ask if others have the same, because I am afriad that this Kaddressbook (and the other annoyances) will be with openSUSE 11.3. I am not quite prepared to have the same “everything looks different, acts different, configures different” experience as I had when going from KDEE 3.5 to KDE 4.
After all I want to spend my time to do things with my systems other then trying to learn something completely new that I had allready mastered.
hcvv wrote:
> After all I want to spend my time to do things with my systems other
> then trying to learn something completely new that I had allready
> mastered.
understand completely…i think i had 10.3 and 3.5 learned by sometime
in 2008, or so…(can you believe it, i can’t find the page in the NEW
improved Wiki to even see when 10.3 came out!)
well, i guess the Roadmap is still there but some anti-history meddler
removed all the info on the past…cool…
I used KMail almost exclusively for a year. I really like it. When I upgraded from 11.1 to 11.2, it completely broke. I lost all my local copy of everything. I decided then and there to switch over to Thunderbird.
I haven’t looked back. Thunderbird 3 is awesome. Plus, all your files are stored in the .thunderbird directory and are NOT affected by any changes from Gnome or KDE. Plus, I can copy my config files to a windows machine and pretty much be up and running within a few minutes on windows with the same functionality.
I feel for ya. I really like the KDE desktop and programs, but when things break horribly every time a new release comes out, it can be really frustrating.
KAddressbook was completly rewritten for KDE 4.4.5. There are still some
features missing which we can soon expect. Therefore there will be more
changes in the addressbook.
The problem was that the old version didn’t really fit into the new
Nepomuk/Akonadi staff.
I almost never understand why a rewrite (to me writing new, hopefully better constructed and modualarised source to do the same thing) results in having a completely new (and for me not functioning) end-user interface. I can imagine that the backend of the program now interfaces with new/other software and uses other librarys, but why the changed user interface? And why does one release software when "some features missing? That may be done when these are new features, buit not for existing ones.
One example.
We have configurated two columns in he lis of personns: First name and Family name (and I show them sorted on Family name). In the new only the Complete name is in the list of possible columns. Thus I not only get them in one entangled column, but also sorted wrong. (And most of the names are not vissible as such, hey are represented by the names of the V-card files they are in, until I click on them).
I haven’t much time today, but I will try to illustrate this with some pictures tomorrow.
This whole akonadi, nepomuk thing is about what Microsoft had thought about in conjunction with Winfs, but stopped as undoable: The really helping desktop!
Microsoft has thought about it some ten years. So, please be patient and supportive some more years. Direction of progress is right, but slow. All of the big commercial sponsors give to gnome just to renew an old look appearance…
Actually, KAddressbook with Akondi appeared in KDE-4.4.2.
Aside from requiring entries to now go in Personal Contacts instead of Default Address Book, there is a major flaw with Distribution Lists (Groups) not working.
Introducing a replacement for KAddressbook with less functionality than users previously had was a huge mistake on the part of the KDEPim developers and, unfortunately, it renders KMail totally useless for many serious users.
That may all be true, but I am not inmterested at all in what MicroSoft thought.
I do have here two systems (one for my wife and one for me) where we, as end-users, use simple things like mail, write some documents, have an addressbook, search the web. We can not stop doing this for “some more years”.
@hcvv: Yesterday I installed 11.3-KDE for finding out the differences with 11.2-KDE.
Thank you for warning about the changes in Kaddressbook! Indeed, the version in OS-11.3 has changed for the worse: you mentioned the non-separation of family name and given name; to this I can add the absence of the powerful, flexible and convenient feature of the user-defined categories: it is gone.
In fact, it is this feature that made the combination of Kmail with kaddressbook unique - as far as my limited experience goes: neither Outlook Express, nor Eudora, Pegasus Mail or Thunderbird have it.
I will continue to explore future version of openSUSE (I have been using it since many years now), but it looks like I will continue with OS11.2 for the foreseeable future.
Again, thanks for you post!
Thank you Hans for confirming that this is the same in 11.3. That is what I was afraid of. And yes those user defined categories are very important to us also.
I will stick to 11.2 for the time (I also used 10.3 until the end, skipping 11.0 and 11.1 for about the same reason, waiting for KDE 4 to be uasable).
The problem is now that I can revert to the original 11.2 KDE (with functioning Kaddressbook) and I did that, but in fact I used that KDE Stable repo for Amarok.
The Amarok case is the same as the Kaddressbook case: released when not finished. And now I am back to the unusable Amarok. The Amarok now on KDE 4 Stable draws in half of KDE 4.4 :(. But I found a Amarok 2.2.90 in the build service and it looks OK. The only problem being that ity does not play MP3 files. There is anothe thread for that. With that fixed (I hope) I will be on 11.2 with KDE 4.3 until end of support of 11.2 I think.
But thank again for your confirmation. I thought it might be possible that only the KDE Stable repo had this and not 11.3. But now I am certain.
First thing to notice is of course the very different list at the left. But also very important is the missing of the Filter button upper-right (which is set to Zakelijk). It filters the several lumps of addresses we have, like bussiness, neighbourhood, family, clubs.
EDIT: the “old” picture is Kaddressbook within Kontact, the other is Kaddressbook stand-alone, but that is not of any importance, just forget about the icons left of Kaddressbook in the “old” one.
Henk, I stumbled upon your problem when looking two days ago about info on Akonadi. There was somewhere also a mention on what you stated about the NFS issue but I do not recall the page (as I did read it “just for fun” but somehow got already the right impression. I actually had the doubt about the backup problem and found this link. Akonadi and AddressBook - KDE UserBase. I am still on 11.1 and now after what you said, rightly the whole PCs we are running at home will stay on it up to March next year in the hope that this comes finally to a convenient solution.
Thanks for pointing out the problem.
Ps, If I well understand all this is because the address book is not a single file any more in Akonadi but every contact has its own file.
stakanov,
Thanks for the link.
My complaint is of course mainly about the user interface. The end-user is normaly not really interested in how it is done behind stage.
The NFS part is not that important. Important is that my wife and I share some addressbook resources (and that that is done through NFS is not something that Akonadi/Kaddressbook is aware of). And when we both use different systems where one system after some update starts saying: “I am going to change addresses-files so and so to a new level”, that will create panic with me. Is the other system still able to function with thiose changed files? Unitil now it seems to function, but not knowing what is done (and Akonadi not asking permission before it does) is not getting positive remarks from me (to put it mildly).
I know there are different formats for storing these addresses, but ours are directories with Vcard files in it. Appart from the personal file, but that is (almost) empty in our case. Your link states that Vcard is old-fashioned, but fails to tell what is new (and hopefully better, because we with this story we have learnt again that new is not always better).
I wioll definitely stay on 11.2 until end of support (I mainly try to do this, because the older the stabler). But this time I was caught within 11.2. My fault.
You have probably a ressource like folder or file.
The new one is the akonadi adressbook. This ressource should also allow you
to organise the contacts in with folders.
Groups are replaced by tags (known from nepomuk) but I think this is also a
missing feature. I’m also waiting for it.
>
>In fact I did not ask how to revert, but if others have the same.
>
>I did revert on one system, and that brought me of course back to the
>“official” openSUSE ones. The problem is that it includes a “unusable”
>Amarok >:(. Only going for a newer Amarok is not quite possible because
>the level I want is not in the repos anymore and the one on KDE Stable
>(2.3.0) loads half of KDE 4.4 inclusing the broken Kaddressbook.
>
>I did ask if others have the same, because I am afriad that this
>Kaddressbook (and the other annoyances) will be with openSUSE 11.3. I am
>not quite prepared to have the same “everything looks different, acts
>different, configures different” experience as I had when going from
>KDEE 3.5 to KDE 4.
>
>After all I want to spend my time to do things with my systems other
>then trying to learn something completely new that I had allready
>mastered.
Welcome to our club. KDE4 is NOT mature, makes dumb changes
unnecessarily, and i am beginning to question the sanity of those
developers.
I use oS 11.1 with KDE 3.5 exactly for this reason.
I note that 11.3 might be released with working KDE 3.5 as well.
>KAddressbook was completly rewritten for KDE 4.4.5. There are still some
>features missing which we can soon expect. Therefore there will be more
>changes in the addressbook.
>
>The problem was that the old version didn’t really fit into the new
>Nepomuk/Akonadi staff.
Sorry, but i take issue with new staff that cannot adapt to existing
functionality.
>
>This whole akonadi, nepomuk thing is about what Microsoft had thought
>about in conjunction with Winfs, but stopped as undoable: The really
>helping desktop!
>Microsoft has thought about it some ten years. So, please be patient
>and supportive some more years. Direction of progress is right, but
>slow. All of the big commercial sponsors give to gnome just to renew an
>old look appearance…
WTF! Just because it is old and proven it is wrong? Worse you tell
us that there is no possible smooth transition path?
<self gag>
