KDE4: Boom or Bust

[Raccoon1400]

I tried KDE 4 on a live cd that came with the linux format magazine.I found it had changed too much, was too rigid, and had too much eye candy.

[p_quarles]

Moved to Recurring Discussions.

[justin whitaker]

I tried KDE 4 on a live cd that came with the linux format magazine.I found it had changed too much, was too rigid, and had too much eye candy.

It's not ready yet. Right now, all you have is the basic framework in place...the customization, tools, applications are all being worked on now. So unless you really, really feel like banging on KDE for some ideological reason, wait until it's done (4.2 or greater).

[Raccoon1400]

It's not ready yet. Right now, all you have is the basic framework in place...the customization, tools, applications are all being worked on now. So unless you really, really feel like banging on KDE for some ideological reason, wait until it's done (4.2 or greater).

Are they planning to change any features for later versions, or just polish it? They need to re-implement customization options from kde3.5, and revert back to the old menu.

[cardinals_fan]

I sit on the high mountain retreat that is dwm, and all below me appears small and insignificant.

[ShanghaiTeej]

They way Aaron Siego and others have said it, 4.1 will be a major improvement on 4.0, but 4.2 will be the equivalent in feature and functionality to 3.5. I would just go on to KDE's website (www.kde.org) and check out what's coming in 4.1.

[burnetbj]

I dont link the the new menu browses applications ......3.5.9 all the way. If the new menu is not faster, easier or more efficient then whats the point. Feels like a major step backwards. I like the new apps and features within apps but the menu is lame. Long live KDE but please re implement the old menu

[meep_meep]

kde4 looks so good, with good framework and great ideas.

I've only tried it on live cd.

i'm installing fedora 9 with kde 4 after my exams.

a year from now every1 will be loving kde 4 atm KDE PIM (releases in 4.1) isn't done yet and loads of stuff is being left until kde4.2.

[meep_meep]

I dont link the the new menu browses applications ......3.5.9 all the way. If the new menu is not faster, easier or more efficient then whats the point. Feels like a major step backwards. I like the new apps and features within apps but the menu is lame. Long live KDE but please re implement the old menu

there are two other choices of menus -
Lancelot - http://ivan.fomentgroup.org/blog/2007/10/27/lancelot-revealed/

and Raptor - http://raptor-menu.org/

[roderick]

The old menu exists and it is selectable via the widgets. Simply drag it onto the kicker and you can right click remove the other one.

This has been covered many times.

[maniacmusician]

there are two other choices of menus -
Lancelot - http://ivan.fomentgroup.org/blog/2007/10/27/lancelot-revealed/

and Raptor - http://raptor-menu.org/
although it's worth noting that neither of them are in a usable state at the moment. Lancelot may be usable for 4.1, but won't be close to feature-complete for a while. They're both very nice, though; Maybe one of them will be good enough to convince me to start using a menu again. I just stick with alt+F2 and a few oft-used icons for now.

Speaking of alt+f2, the new krunner is pretty nifty, even in 4.1.

[RiceMonster]

I've given it a few very short tries, but not enough to make a real decision. I plan on giving it a good try when I eventually get around to trying Fedora 9.

[karellen]

even though I prefer Gnome over KDE, I find KDE 3.5.x to be enough for my needs

[GeneralZod]

Far, far, far too early to tell, yet - the KDE devs have barely gotten started :) (Incidentally, where does this feeling that KDE4.0 is the final release of KDE4 and that no real development/ feature additions will happen again until KDE5 come from? It's completely topsy-turvey :)).

[madjr]

although it's worth noting that neither of them are in a usable state at the moment. Lancelot may be usable for 4.1, but won't be close to feature-complete for a while. They're both very nice, though; Maybe one of them will be good enough to convince me to start using a menu again. I just stick with alt+F2 and a few oft-used icons for now.

Speaking of alt+f2, the new krunner is pretty nifty, even in 4.1.

you could try gnome-do

[maniacmusician]

you could try gnome-do
I have, it's pretty neat as well. It pretty much takes the idea behind Katapult and expands on it. Their implementation of it is pretty good. However, I usually only run Gnome on my laptops, which I tend to use only when I'm traveling or at school. I'll have pretty minimal exposure to Gnome for the next 2 or 3 months, and more to KDE and the *boxes. Which I'm not that unhappy about; everything looks pretty good right about now.

[Nano Geek]

I sit on the high mountain retreat that is dwm, and all below me appears small and insignificant.That's funny. From down here you look small and insignificant. (j/k) :D

[cardinals_fan]

That's funny. From down here you look small and insignificant. (j/k) :D
Bah. Real men (or women) configure their window manager by editing the source :)

[nautilus]

I think it's a good step, although it's missing a lot of features (I like to use Alt-F1 to open my K menu but now I can't, using meta+mouse to move/resize windows instead of alt which messes me up playing WoW in a window, for example.)

It also feels like I just installed some pathetic knock-off of Vista. But that's .. yeah, I won't go there, if these guys are looking to be like Vista I'd really be careful what you wish for...

The launcher thing (alt-f2) is nice, but glitchy, although I've been following their progress lately and the next generation version looks nice (and snappier).

So that said, I checked 'like'. I think it's mostly ready for production, but I'd leave it in the hands of us developers for a little longer to smooth out the features and configuration abilities. (You know, so I can hide my task bar? *sigh*)

[samjh]

Wait until 4.1 to make any judgements.

I installed kubuntu-desktop-kde4 several weeks ago, and while it looked good, it was far too unstable for me. Crashed or had an error on almost every login.

[isaacj87]

Hey all,

I've been meaning to ask this for awhile and I know it sounds stupid, but I had a question about the clock. See this picture? (http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce_4.0-beta4/kde4.0-beta4.png) See how the clock looks in the bottom-right (looks kind of like a flip clock or something)? I was wondering if that look is currently achievable or not. If not, is it going to be implemented in the final release of KDE4.1? That pic is from a beta release of KDE4.0...

Now back on topic. I'm not really into KDE. I wasn't during KDE3 and while KDE4.x is nice looking, there's just a better feel to GNOME. I don't feel like I'm fighting GNOME to get stuff done. I haven't done enough testing with KDE (3 or 4), but what playing I did with KDE, I didn't like. I can't lie though, I can't wait for the release. Any new software in the Open-Source world is cool to me. :D

[GeneralZod]

Hey all,

I've been meaning to ask this for awhile and I know it sounds stupid, but I had a question about the clock. See this picture? (http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce_4.0-beta4/kde4.0-beta4.png) See how the clock looks in the bottom-right (looks kind of like a flip clock or something)? I was wondering if that look is currently achievable or not. If not, is it going to be implemented in the final release of KDE4.1? That pic is from a beta release of KDE4.0...


That's the "train clock", which currently resides in playground/plasma:

http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/playground/base/plasma/applets/train-clock/

It's future seems uncertain (only one line of code has been changed in the last few months), but it definitely won't be released with KDE until it moves out of playground, I'm afraid.

[isaacj87]

That's the "train clock", which currently resides in playground/plasma:

http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/playground/base/plasma/applets/train-clock/

It's future seems uncertain (only one line of code has been changed in the last few months), but it definitely won't be released with KDE until it moves out of playground, I'm afraid.

Ahh, Train-Clock. Quite a fitting name! Seems like a shame that it's stuck in limbo. I know it sounds a bit strange, but the Train-Clock is what first attracted me to KDE4.x...

In any case, thanks for the info GeneralZod!

[Unix_Slayer]

I've been using KDE4 for a month now. At first I got one Dolphin crash, and two Plasma-Kcrashes. But it seems to be running really stable in the past three weeks. I've used Gnome for a long time now. I decided I needed a change. I haven't gone back so far.