KDE 4.5 Beta 1 Released

[pt123]

I really hate the proportions in KDE the controls padding and the icon spacing. They need to use fibonacci number to start using the golden ratio.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

[TheNessus]

I really hate the proportions in KDE the controls padding and the icon spacing. They need to use fibonacci number to start using the golden ratio.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

And no info in your post about kde 4.5? ok...

• A reworked notification area. Thanks to the new, D-Bus-based protocol that replaces the old "system tray", a uniform look and consistent interaction scheme can now be guaranteed across applications and toolkits.
• KWin-Tiling makes it possible to automatically place windows next to each other, employing the window management paradigm also found in window managers such as Ion. Advanced graphical effects, such as blurring the background of translucent windows make for a more pleasurable and usable experience.
• Users that prefer WebKit above the KHTML rendering engine currently used in Konqueror, KDE's web browser now can install the WebKit component and switch Konqueror to use WebKit as rendering engine for web sites. The WebKit component for Konqueror is available from KDE's Extragear repository, is based on the popular KPart component technology and fully integrates with password storage, content-blocking and other features users already know and love in Konqueror.
• A special focus of this release cycle is the stability of the software delivered with KDE SC 4.5. While there are many exciting new features, developers have spent considerable amounts of time finishing off features and polishing those that haven't come to full bloom yet.

All sound like EXCELLENT improvements. If kde.4.3 was "meh...", and 4.4 is great, then I am certain 4.5 will rock my shoes.

[dyltman]

New notification area is awesome.

What I'd like to see for kde 4.5 is smoother animations etc. because those are the stuff that makes a shell not only look better but feel better to use. Kde have lots of these stuff which I love but I'd like to see even more, like for instance a smoother transmission when going from one folder to another

[chessnerd]

This release might bring me over to KDE. I was hoping that 4.4 would do that, and it almost did, but it still didn't feel usable for some reason. A bit too buggy...

I'm thinking I'll try to use KDE with OpenSuse this time around. As I understand it, their implementation is better than Kubuntu.

[cb951303]

Just to elaborate my previous message: One thing that bugs me with KDE is the default QT style. It makes the GUI look so cluttered and bogged down with unnecessary lines, weird choices of widget sizings (such as slim buttons where button text nearly touches the button borders) and spacing.

For some people looks is not important but in the case of KDE, it's so bad that it actually affects my productivity.

Oh and, smooth animations would be good too.

Curiously enough, kde-look doesn't really provide any considerable alternative to default Oxygen. I most of them but couldn't find any looking as simple as an average GTK theme.

[lzfy]

Just to elaborate my previous message: One thing that bugs me with KDE is the default QT style. It makes the GUI look so cluttered and bogged down with unnecessary lines, weird choices of widget sizings (such as slim buttons where button text nearly touches the button borders) and spacing.

For some people looks is not important but in the case of KDE, it's so bad that it actually affects my productivity.

Oh and, smooth animations would be good too.

Curiously enough, kde-look doesn't really provide any considerable alternative to default Oxygen. I most of them but couldn't find any looking as simple as an average GTK theme.

Bespin and QTCurce are good alternatives. Also Sculpture isn't bad either.