I currently use KDE 3.5 but am considering switching to a different Linux Distribution and using KDE 4.1.3 or may even wait for KDE 4.2 but since I’m using an Atom based Netbook I’m wondering how well it would run. Would I experience any type of slowdown with system performance?
I do mostly minor work, mostly Mozilla Thunderbird for email, Firefox for web browsing, OpenOffice for word processing, and at times some of the programs like Kontact for scheduling and other things. I have 2GB of memory on the system but often do have these programs open at the same time. Would I experience any type of slowdowns or performance problems?
you shouldn’t have any slow down. My experience with KDE 4 is that it is faster than and uses less memory than 3.5
But personally, if I was you, I would hold off until 4.2 simply because the difference between 4.1.4 and 4.2 is huge, the wait is worth it.
Thank you for the advice. Is there a release date yet for KDE 4.2?
Schedules/KDE4/4.2 Release Schedule - KDE TechBase
has it as the 27 Of January
I assume an upgrade from 4.1 to 4.2 will be available?
yeah you will be able to do an update, either by changing your repo’s to it, or doing a one click install
Curious, which Netbook do you have and did it come with Windows or Linux?
It’s an MSI Wind and came with Windows XP.
How important is the graphics processor to KDE 4.1.3? I don’t even know offhand what processor is used by most Atom based netbooks but I’m wondering if that could be more of an issue than the CPU.
The biggest obstacle is not the graphics processor or cpu but the ram. I have used kde4 on multiple p3 systems and the biggest in the experience has been the amount of ram. On a system with less than 512MB of ram kde4 runs, with 1GB kde4 runs well.
I have the default 11.1 KDE install running on a EeePC with a 900MHz Celeron and 1 GB DDR2667. It runs fine. It was actually the impetus for me installing 11.1 on my home server. I think you should be fine with your Atom and 2GB RAM.
I tried out Kubuntu 8.10 (which is using KDE 4.1.3) on my Samsung NC10.
It worked great, until I tried to change some system settings. There are a currently variety of dialogues in KDE4 which are fixed vertical size>600px and simply do not fit within the 600px vertical boundary of the screen.
Until this is fixed, I consider KDE4 mostly unusable on netbooks. At least if you compare it to something like Ubuntu Netbook Remix or Windows XP.
No pffence to the developers, but Kubuntu is not so well maintained (poorly was my first word of choice) as for XP. Space is the problem there. SuSE ships with mostly all you need. XP is a shell with no space on the Eee to install more. Just my thoughts…not gospel
I don’t really agree with you about (K)ubuntu being poorly maintained. It works far better than most distros I’ve tried. I haven’t tried OpenSUSE yet, but I’ve heard good things about that also.
XP can be easily slimmed down to a more netbook-friendly, base OS (using nLite) so “XP is too big for a netbook” isn’t a very valid argument. It takes up the same, or less space than most distributions of Linux.
But what I was trying to point out / discuss is a problem that will certainly be relevant to OpenSUSE users as well as Kubuntu users. It’s a problem with KDE — some of the user-interface dialogues are too big for a netbook’s screen, and they are not resizable.
Until this is resolved, netbook users should be wary of KDE. Any desktop environment is better than one that doesn’t fully fit on your screen. Even Windows XP.
What dialogs in particular don’t fit on the screen?