Re: [opensuse]KDE4 - What people like/dislike about it

On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 3:25 AM, Clayton <smaug42@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Interesting. I find that it is actually running better and slightly
faster than KDE3.5.9. I am not running either version of KDE on a low
spec machine like what you describe though. But... on the same
machine, I test things in KDE3 and then in KDE4, and I find things
seem smoother on KDE4... with desktop effects turned off of course
(desktop effects work fine, but I find they slow down desktop
switching when I am doing important things like playing World of
Warcraft).

I haven't gotten far enough with it yet to turn off all the new
"features". Maybe that's where I'm running into the slowdown.

What jumping? None of my icons jump in KDE4 any more than they did in
KDE3.5.9. The behavior seems to be pretty much identical. Little
bouncing icon for starting an app... was there in 3.5 as well...
otherwise.... ?? Turn on Compiz, and it works fine... and does the
same silly things as it does in 3.5.9. There are a few other
graphical touches (flourishes?) here and there, but they were/are
available in KDE 3.5.9 as well.

The "widgets?" I duno, whatever it is that "jumps" up around the icon
when you hover over it. It's as annoying as that icon mouseover
effect that is the default for the taskbar icons. Also, a reviewer
pointed out that why the icons have extra buttons now. That's what
the right mouse button is for.

That was explained in an earlier message somewhere on the mailing
list. Limited resources. They could only make one KDE and one Gnome
Live CD.. so KDE4 was picked for the KDE CD.

But if the LiveCD is to chowcase the distro, why use a version that is
obviously lacking. They've backported so many KDE4 features into the
KDE3 desktop as it is. The devs are basically saying: KDE4 is still
a work in progress, but we think it's good enough to make a livecd
version. That's sending a mixed message to say the least.

And? You around when we moved from KDE2 to KDE3 right (you said
you've been using SUSE since 5.3)... Same there. Things looked very
different with that transition too.

Actually, not so much. I just installed SuSE v7.3 w/ KDE2 on an old
laptop, and it's not that much different from KDE3. Nowhere near as
different as KDE4 is from KDE3.

The new KDE desktop is crisper, fonts are sharper, the graphics are
less 1970's in KDE4 (steel grey and based on a 1960's menu structure
that was efficient for text based terminals but not for a proper GUI).

I prefered KDE over gnome because it was a lot like OS/2's Workplace
Shell. It worked the way I expected a desktop to work. I having
nothing against improvements, but I don't see KDE3 as being that
deficient.

So, you're suggesting that no one makes it work? That we all just
peek at it from afar and murmur like a bunch of old men to each other
about how different it is, and reminisce about how good things were
when we were young? Or should at least some of us use it, and help
make it better? I vote for making it better.

I'd be happy to use it, but if it gets in my way of getting stuff
done, then it takes away from my time. I'm happy to beta test, but I
generally focus on the areas I use.

Have you updated to 4.0.84? That makes a HUGE difference in the
performance of KDE4. It is a lot better... not perfect, but much much
better. IF KDE4 keeps improving at this rate, it won't be long until
it's "right".

If it's not available as an update to the distro, then no. I don't
mess with updating a lot of my packages to non distro provided. I've
always found that stuff breaks when you do that.

I am using KDE4 now as my everyday desktop. I have only 6 issues that
I haven't resolved, and generally speaking they are quite minor.. and
a couple seem to be specific to me and my computer... maybe artifacts
left over from a previous install. Comparing with a friend who also
installed 11.0 with KDE4, he doesn't have the same problems...

Good to hear it works from you.

Anyway, point being that after a day to adjust to the way KDE4 works,
and then a weekend of actually using it, I have little complaint. It
works, it's fast, it looks "right" to me now that I have picked a
desktop theme I like... I love the widgets... there are some really
nice ones available on KDE-Look.org, and even some of the built in
ones are quite useful. I have yet to see any issue in KDE4 that is
worth all the wailing and moaning that has been going on here on the
mailing list. There are problems, but there were probs with KDE3 as
well.

Hmmm, see, I'm not a big glitz and bling fan. To me, widgets are a
way to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

The basic problem is that too many things are being pushed out unready
and then we have to struggle until it gets fixed(like openSUSE v10.1)
What was the old DIsh Network joke about people wanting to beta test?
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