KDE 4.1: KDE's New Look!

[Mazza558]

Looks like KDE4.1 will get a big improvement in appearance, with a more polished interface.

Screenshot:

http://www.notmart.org/images/plasmakde41.png

Link to more info:

http://www.notmart.org/index.php/Graphics/4.1_times_more_Prettyness

[GOROSSI]

If that's what Ibex will look like very nice:)

[karellen]

not really impressed. I hope they'll improve the stability in the first place. KDE looks good already, at least from my point of view

[Mazza558]

If that's what Ibex will look like very nice:)

Well, Kubuntu Ibex, yes.

not really impressed. I hope they'll improve the stability in the first place. KDE looks good already, at least from my point of view

I think the dev team are working on everything at once - bugs will be fixed as fast as apps are developed and interface improves.

[Islington]

ooo, time to fire up kde4daily.

[racoq]

Looks like KDE4.1 will get a big improvement in appearance, with a more polished interface.

Screenshot:

http://www.notmart.org/images/plasmakde41.png

Link to more info:

http://www.notmart.org/index.php/Graphics/4.1_times_more_Prettyness

What's the improvement to you? I still see that huge and ugly taskbar that takes 1/5 of the screen ocupacity...

[banjobacon]

What's the improvement to you? I still see that huge and ugly taskbar that takes 1/5 of the screen ocupacity...

I'm not going to bother counting pixels, but it looks more like 1/20 to me.

[atomkarinca]

What's the improvement to you? I still see that huge and ugly taskbar that takes 1/5 of the screen ocupacity...

I think it was even larger in 4.0 so they're in the right direction (appearance-wise).

[meborc]

What's the improvement to you? I still see that huge and ugly taskbar that takes 1/5 of the screen ocupacity...

at least now you can resize it ;)

[Mazza558]

There's a video floating around showing the new features. I'm pretty impressed.

http://media.ereslibre.es/2008/06/kde41.ogg

[Mr. Picklesworth]

I have not found KDE 4 to look all that pretty, actually. I think the problem is that their login and splash screen shows a really fancy glowing / glassy window border and some really attractive shiny widgets, but then the actual interface beyond that looked nothing like it! Okay, Plasma came close, but how often does one actually use Plasma versus "real" applications? To be honest, I think desktop widgets are a bit of a blunder once they start implementing fancy window decorator type stuff, since that same effort could be put into the real window manager to get that bling going desktop-wide.
Not that Plasma isn't cool and a powerful step above the ancient "file manager is the shell" philosophy we see everywhere else. It is definitely a shell that I would use quite frequently, but its presence is in the background.

Anyway, hopefully that will be addressed. The login screen brought my hopes up too high and had me expecting that nice look across KDE. I would probably have appreciated the appearance more had I not been expecting that :)

[mrgnash]

It still looks ugly as sin to me.

[hessiess]

at lest the pannel isnt quite as big as it uset to be, but its still in the wrong place(top of screen).

[aamukahvi]

at lest the pannel isnt quite as big as it uset to be, but its still in the wrong place(top of screen).
Either your display is upside down or I'm missing something essential... :neutral:

[cardinals_fan]

That's horrible. Amazing how something so good can get so bad :(

[qazwsx]

Plasma is themable. You can make it pink ëasily :lolflag:.
Qt themes outside of package manager are still hard to install (and will be in the future).

[hessiess]

Either your display is upside down or I'm missing something essential... :neutral:

no, I meant it should be at the top:lolflag:

[elgilicious]

Eww...borders around desktop icons. Very Vista-ish. I'll stick with GNOME.

[Erunno]

Eww...borders around desktop icons. Very Vista-ish. I'll stick with GNOME.


Care to enlighten the common rabble where Vista has borders around desktop icons (maybe even with a screenshot illustrating it)?

[BlueSkyNIS]

Care to enlighten the common rabble where Vista has borders around desktop icons (maybe even with a screenshot illustrating it)?

Yes, Vista has a thin, translucent line/box around each icon, only when using Aero interface (if I remember correctly).

But, I like the new KDE look 8-)

[damoxc]

http://i32.tinypic.com/34zhdmv.jpg

there you go.

[-gabe-noob-]

I'd be excited if I wasn't hooked on openbox, it looks cool.

[Erunno]

Yes, Vista has a thin, translucent line/box around each icon, only when using Aero interface (if I remember correctly).

But, I like the new KDE look 8-)

Thanks for the hint. I've also managed to come up with a screenshot myself: http://www.gabry.eu/imgblog/win-vista-aero.jpg

At least KDE is sparing us the ugly arrow at the bottom left corner. ;-) Looking at the screenshot I realized that Vista does at least one thing better visually: Entries in the task bar are more distinctive, i.e. more clearly separated from each other (each one has this 3D looking border).

[miggols99]

I've never liked the desktop icons they have. That's why they've made the little file manager plasmoid to replace the ugly (and hard to sort)

[BlueSkyNIS]

Looking at the screenshot I realized that Vista does at least one thing better visually: Entries in the task bar are more distinctive, i.e. more clearly separated from each other (each one has this 3D looking border).

Yeah, I also think the entries in the vista taskbar are more distinctive then in KDE.

[Islington]

I've never liked the desktop icons they have. That's why they've made the little file manager plasmoid to replace the ugly (and hard to sort)

exactly right. there are no more icons on the desktop.everything is a plasmoid or a container. I think it was a good idea.

[p_quarles]

Moved to Recurring Discussions, since despite the "new" in the subject line, all of the views expressed in this thread so far are not.

[SunnyRabbiera]

This looks a lot better, major improvements for sure.
I will definitely try kde4.1 out when it finally greenlights.

[Mazza558]

I'm wondering what all the KDE hate is about. I prefer Gnome still, but:

- This looks very impressive for a free OS. Gnome can do too, but none of my non-linux friends are wowed by it. They are by this though.

- This sets the marker for Gnome to catch up. Competition is good, even in FOSS circles to an extent.

- Things seem to be improving faster on the KDE side than the Gnome side.

Is it because Kubuntu gives people a sour taste that lingers?

[geoken]

I love the new look (although I also loved the old one).

I like the taskbar seperation (or lack there of). I currently run a semi-transparent panel in gnome (meaning there is no widget drawn under inactive windows) so I'm fine with the KDE taskbar.

I guess I also like it because I'm able to access things on their merits and not on whether or not another OS has done something which appears similar on a superficial level. The border around desktop plasmoids (which only appears when you hover over by default) serves a purpose. It provides you some quick, contextual shortcuts on that specific item. I think dismissing this innovative feature because it draws a border around the plasmoid while a different OS also draws a border around it's icons is ridiculous. For your sakes I hope MS and Apple simply stop making operating systems because they will invariably introduce new features and UI elements that will keep us in the stomeage if we maintain some bullheaded dogma which dictates we can't do anything that even vaguely resembles anything in another OS.

[Roberticus]

Yes, Vista has a thin, translucent line/box around each icon, only when using Aero interface (if I remember correctly).

Funny, I only have boxes when the icons are selected or mouse hovered.

[Mazza558]

Okay, here's a preview of what KDE4.2 might bring (at the end of 2008):

http://nuno-icons.com//images/estilo/imagefolders2.png

Bear in mind there'll be a different theme by then.

[chinchilla2392]

i always HATED the font on KDE.
they seem to be 'rectum-fying' their mistakes:lolflag:
i doubt i'll ever use KDE as my default...
i just can't see it happening.
this looks quite nice though

[Mazza558]

i always HATED the font on KDE.
they seem to be 'rectum-fying' their mistakes:lolflag:
i doubt i'll ever use KDE as my default...
i just can't see it happening.
this looks quite nice though

I heard you can change the font ;)

Heck, I hate Ubuntu's default font (Sans) - it looks awful in my opinion.

[chinchilla2392]

it always looks awful ;)
i edited the font resolution and details perfectly on my linux box

[gloscherrybomb]

The thing that annoys me most about KDE, and currently putting me of switching (along with some other factors), is why the hell every single application has to begin with K or have K predominantly in their title. grrr!!!

[qazwsx]

The thing that annoys me most about KDE, and currently putting me of switching (along with some other factors), is why the hell every single application has to begin with K or have K predominantly in their title. grrr!!!
K letter is very nice feature when you launch your apps via alt+f2 method or commandline and helps detecting native apps. For example I don't like to type gwenview just compare it to kview.

[mrgnash]

I'm wondering what all the KDE hate is about. I prefer Gnome still, but:

- This looks very impressive for a free OS. Gnome can do too, but none of my non-linux friends are wowed by it. They are by this though.

- This sets the marker for Gnome to catch up. Competition is good, even in FOSS circles to an extent.

- Things seem to be improving faster on the KDE side than the Gnome side.

Is it because Kubuntu gives people a sour taste that lingers?

No, for some of us, it's just because we don't like the look.

[cardinals_fan]

I'm wondering what all the KDE hate is about. I prefer Gnome still, but:

- This looks very impressive for a free OS. Gnome can do too, but none of my non-linux friends are wowed by it. They are by this though.

- This sets the marker for Gnome to catch up. Competition is good, even in FOSS circles to an extent.

- Things seem to be improving faster on the KDE side than the Gnome side.

Is it because Kubuntu gives people a sour taste that lingers?
I'm a huge fan of KDE 3.5 (not on Ubuntu though). I dislike KDE4 because the KDE team tried to do too much too fast. Plasma is a HUGE leap forward, but it's been rushed and is definitely not finished yet. Rather than taking small, measured steps, KDE has been thrown bodily forward with no parachute.

[maniacmusician]

oops, double post?

[maniacmusician]

I'm a huge fan of KDE 3.5 (not on Ubuntu though). I dislike KDE4 because the KDE team tried to do too much too fast. Plasma is a HUGE leap forward, but it's been rushed and is definitely not finished yet. Rather than taking small, measured steps, KDE has been thrown bodily forward with no parachute.
That was completely intentional, though. Taking small, measured steps basically forces you to work on the existing codebase; as far as code goes, KDE3.5 was a big fat mess, and the devs knew it.

If they changed it a bit at a time, then it would take them years to get to where they are now. The fact that they radically rewrote or refactored so much of their code gives them a fresh start. It allowed them to make the code neat, abstractable, and easily extensible. It gave them a better base to build on for the future, and that's what they're doing. By January of next year (which is when 4.2 is due), the major part of the effort will be complete, and that's a really satisfying thing.

I don't think anything was really rushed; it was just brand spanking new, and it needs time to mature (which, I might add, is something that's happening very quickly)

[cardinals_fan]

I won't deny that KDE is moving forward along a well-defined plan. While I may not agree with their timetable, they are moving forward with clear goals.