Kde 4.3 released

[praveesh]

The Kde 4.3 is released today.

[Skripka]

Arch has had 4.3.0 final in the official repos for over 12 hours before the official announcement. :)

I've been running it all morning US time.

[alexandari]

and how is it?

[Skripka]

and how is it?

In a word?

Slick

There was a big todo recently on The Arch Side of Life over packaging of KDE packages...with some massive changes in how they're handled-which resulted in a few bumps in upgrading; but that is not anything to do with KDE itself.

A few 3rd party plasmoids such as the QuickAccess plasmoid, or the Stasks plasmoids may need recompiled/redownloaded due to changes from 4.2->4.3. Stasks needs a patched version to run in 4.3.0

Seems a bit more memory hungry-but there are lots of enhancements everywhere, with every menu improved it seems. The Weather Wallpaper plugin doesn't want to work right now-but that is the only problem so far I've seen.

[praveesh]

Iam going to download the source and install.

[praveesh]

Arch has had 4.3.0 final in the official repos for over 12 hours before the official announcement. :)

I've been running it all morning US time.

any bugs?

[Starlight]

Wow! I've looked at the official announcement with a screencast and some screenshots, and it looks amazing! I'm so impressed that I'm thinking about installing Kubuntu. :D

[MasterNetra]

Do they finally have a GUI based utility for Synaptic Touchpads eg. for Dell Latitudes?


Wow! I've looked at the official announcement with a screencast and some screenshots, and it looks amazing! I'm so impressed that I'm thinking about installing Kubuntu. :D

I don't think Ubuntu/Kubuntu Repo's are updated with 4.3 yet.

[Skripka]

any bugs?

None that I can directly pin at being KDE as of this time. With the massive change in packaging in Arch KDE, I'm waiting to hear back from the maintainer before I blame KDE for it.

KDE is normally distributed in monolithic modules, resulting in often installing far more than one wants...Arch KDE is now splitting those modules into individual app packages, thus I think it FAR more likely that the few strange quirks I'm seeing being a function of packaging than a function of being a KDE bug.

[Skripka]

Do they finally have a GUI based utility for Synaptic Touchpads eg. for Dell Latitudes?



I don't think Ubuntu/Kubuntu Repo's are updated with 4.3 yet.

I honestly have no idea about touchpads-I stopped using laptops years ago.

Kubuntu PPAs and backports of KDE normally take 2-4 days to release their packages.

[NightwishFan]

What is the easiest way to get KDE 4.3 on a system with no network connection? Or should I just stick with 4.2 until October. (I am fine with that).

I tried Karmic and OpenSUSE beta with KDE 4.3, and both look excellent. They finally re-added actions on inserted media.

[a3uge]

Does anyone know when 4.3 will be released for Kubuntu? I'm still stuck on Beta 2 (forced me to in order to get the Amarok 2.1 release). As far as the Beta goes, I think KWin is still very buggy, as it completely freezes everything sometimes if I resize a window, or drag a window with a video in it. But as for everything else, it's real slick, the default theme is lovely, but I've customized everything now. Black, Purple, and Red, everyone gets jealous.

[Starlight]

What is the easiest way to get KDE 4.3 on a system with no network connection? Or should I just stick with 4.2 until October. (I am fine with that).

I tried Karmic and OpenSUSE beta with KDE 4.3, and both look excellent. They finally re-added actions on inserted media.

There's a KDE 4.3 Live CD available here: http://home.kde.org/~binner/kde-four-live/ :)

I'd get it, but I think I want to stick with Ubuntu, so I'll try to install Kubuntu sometime, maybe this weekend, if they have KDE 4.3 available by then.

[NightwishFan]

What is the kde4live based off of? OpenSUSE?

[Skripka]

Screencap.

Air plasma theme, Kabel font, CWP plasmoid, default Folderview (note the preview function), Stasks plasmoid.

[Starlight]

What is the kde4live based off of? OpenSUSE?

Yes, I think it's an official OpenSUSE CD, just with the newest KDE installed. :)

[NightwishFan]

Thank you very much for your help. I believe I will wait for Kubuntu somehow. (OpenSUSE makes me manually hunt for Phonon-Xine for ANY media playback....)

[Starlight]

Thank you very much for your help. I believe I will wait for Kubuntu somehow. (OpenSUSE makes me manually hunt for Phonon-Xine for ANY media playback....)

You're welcome. :) I'm waiting for Kubuntu too. This page (http://kde.org/info/4.3.0.php) already says that there's KDE 4.3 for Kubuntu :)

[Jimleko211]

I'm running 4.3 in Arch, it's awesome! Total improvement on the look, and it seems more stable, as well.

[RATM_Owns]

The Kde 4.3 is released today.
I had it yesterday in Arch.

[Tipped OuT]

Screencap.

Air plasma theme, Kabel font, CWP plasmoid, default Folderview (note the preview function), Stasks plasmoid.

Meh. Same old, same old.

[windows-killer]

Wow! I've looked at the official announcement with a screencast and some screenshots, and it looks amazing! I'm so impressed that I'm thinking about installing Kubuntu. :D

same here

[CJ Master]

same here

Before you do, you should know two things:

1) Kubuntu is regarded as many as the worst implantation of KDE.

2) You can't unless you wait for Karmic.

[Skripka]

Before you do, you should know two things:

1) Kubuntu is regarded as many as the worst implantation of KDE.

2) You can't unless you wait for Karmic.


Pssssss-backports ;)

[CJ Master]

Pssssss-backports ;)

Doh! Yea, forgot about them. I use Arch too much. ;) First point still stands though.

[Starlight]

I'm curious, why is it supposedly the worst implementation of KDE?

[mips]

I'm curious, why is it supposedly the worst implementation of KDE?

It does not get nearly as much love as Gnome from the devs. It's always been bad since day one.

[oobuntoo]

I'm using Karmic Kubuntu at the moment and a lot of packages have already been updated to kde 4.3 final. I'm expecting all of them to be 4.3 final in the next few days.

[level]

http://a.imagehost.org/0011/mysmilie_4.gifI switched from Gnome to Arch and loving it.

[Jimleko211]

http://a.imagehost.org/0011/mysmilie_4.gifI switched from Gnome to Arch and loving it.
You don't switch from Gnome to Arch. You switch from Gnome to KDE or Ubuntu to Arch.

[level]

You don't switch from Gnome to Arch. You switch from Gnome to KDE or Ubuntu to Arch.


I did both :D

[hanzomon4]

I'm switching

[DeadSuperHero]

I'll be switching for good when three things happen:

1. I can afford more RAM since I have an older Compaq Presario model.

2. KOffice becomes comparable with OpenOffice entirely, specifically the way it reads .odt files and I'd love to see OpenGL animations in KPresenter.

3. A definitive web browser based on Webkit, not ten zillion forks of QtWebkit.

Until then, I will have to run Gnome apps alongside, which is a bummer, but oh well.

[bigbrovar]

Updating my system to kde 4.3 now, am running kubuntu jaunty and using the kubuntu backport ppa, so far kde 4.3 has completely won me over from gnome (my default DE for 2 years). been using it since rc3 which has been super stable for me.

[CJ Master]

I'll be switching for good when three things happen:

1. I can afford more RAM since I have an older Compaq Presario model.

2. KOffice becomes comparable with OpenOffice entirely, specifically the way it reads .odt files and I'd love to see OpenGL animations in KPresenter.

3. A definitive web browser based on Webkit, not ten zillion forks of QtWebkit.

Until then, I will have to run Gnome apps alongside, which is a bummer, but oh well.

2. Then why not use open office in KDE?

3. Google chrome.

You do realise you can use GTK+ apps in KDE, correct?

[Tipped OuT]

You do realise you can use GTK+ apps in KDE, correct?

That's what he said in the last line, which is also why he doesn't use Open Office in KDE.

See:



Until then, I will have to run Gnome apps alongside, which is a bummer, but oh well.

[CJ Master]

That's what he said in the last line, which is also why he doesn't use Open Office in KDE.

See:

When I first say it I thought it said run "Gnome along side" without apps... so either he ninja edited or I need better eyes. ;P

[OutOfReach]

Downloading now, I've held myself off from trying any of the beta's or RC's for more of a surprise factor. Hopefully it'll be a good surprise. ;)

[Firestem4]

I just installed KDE4.3 on Kubuntu 9.04..To say the least I am extremely impressed with it so far. I really like the new Air Theme. And I have to say overall the performance is better and smoother. Things work well and so far its very stable. Kudo's to all of the hard work from the KDE guys and the Kubuntu dev team for creating the backport for us.

One thing I really gotta say I love is Folder View (Widget and desktop) with the quick access is just fricken awesome. I really love it.

[lykwydchykyn]

Just got done updating my laptop. Good to see some bugs were taken care of between RC 3 and final, I had some display issues with the cashew on RC2/3.

BTW, the Kubuntu website has upgrade instructions on the front page, so you don't have to wait for Karmic, folks!

[OutOfReach]

I just installed KDE4.3 on Kubuntu 9.04..To say the least I am extremely impressed with it so far. I really like the new Air Theme. And I have to say overall the performance is better and smoother. Things work well and so far its very stable. Kudo's to all of the hard work from the KDE guys and the Kubuntu dev team for creating the backport for us.

One thing I really gotta say I love is Folder View (Widget and desktop) with the quick access is just fricken awesome. I really love it.

I agree. I am very impressed as well, and startup was actually a bit faster. It's very stable, no crashes so far.

Overall, I love KDE 4.3

[Sublime Porte]

Does anyone know how to disable KDE from caching all network resources. For instance if I want to play a sound/video file stored on a server connected via sshfs, KDE insists on downloading a copy of the file, then playing it (fine for small files, but not for entire movies or large ISO's I want to burn.

I have not used KDE since 3.5.* series, so can't remember if it used to do that, but been using Gnome for a year or two now, so I'd really like to know how to disable this ridiculous setting.

[Firestem4]

Does anyone know how to disable KDE from caching all network resources. For instance if I want to play a sound/video file stored on a server connected via sshfs, KDE insists on downloading a copy of the file, then playing it (fine for small files, but not for entire movies or large ISO's I want to burn.

I have not used KDE since 3.5.* series, so can't remember if it used to do that, but been using Gnome for a year or two now, so I'd really like to know how to disable this ridiculous setting.

Are you able to do that with gnome? I would imagine that the way you're trying to retrieve the data would cause this type of transfer rather than any type of 'streaming' media like over the internet. Network shares will only do this by default unless you have specifically set something up for streaming-media AFAIK.

[praveesh]

before you do, you should know two things:
1) kubuntu is regarded as many as the worst implantation of kde.

+1

[Sealbhach]

I'm really liking KDE 4.3, I've installed it on my Karmic partition, it looks really hawt right out of the box.

I still don't like the menu system though, is there an alternative Gnome style menu I could use instead?

.

[s1300045]

I think what we need at this point is documentations and tutorials. 4.3 is awesome no doubt, but it's really not that cool when you have to dig through layers of configuration to have something working.

Which leads to my question, has anyone gotten google calendar to work with korganizer? This is seriously my most wanted feature, followed by mouse gesture!

[luca.b]

To use Google Calendar with Akonadi you need an external resource, which I don't know if it's packaged or not. It resides in KDE's SVN, under extragear, and requires libgcal (again, unsure if it's packaged).

[Sublime Porte]

Are you able to do that with gnome?

Of course... that's why I mentioned I've been using Gnome for the past few years.

I use Gnome, LXDE, JWM at present, and it works fine. Only KDE insists on copying all files over and caching them. I've seen others post the same question (but no solutions), so it's definitely a known KDE issue.

[Exershio]

I used the RC for a while, and I was quite impressed by it. Unfortunately, most of my favorite applications use Gtk, so it feels more natural to stick to GNOME.

[quazi]

I'm really liking KDE 4.3, I've installed it on my Karmic partition, it looks really hawt right out of the box.

I still don't like the menu system though, is there an alternative Gnome style menu I could use instead?

.

Yes there is: switch to the classic menu. I find it a lot more intuitive to use, but I'm sure the new menu has some features that I'm unaware of.

[Antman]

I just dist-upgraded to it today on my low end IBM x41 (1.50 GHz centrino processor) sub-notebook running sidux; and it runs very well. :KS

I guess I'll upgrade my other systems to it as well.:popcorn:

[Starlight]

I'm using KDE 4.3 on Kubuntu right now, and I think it's awesome :D I think I'm going to leave Gnome for now and stay with KDE. :)

I'm just wondering about one thing. I've noticed that actual KDE apps don't look as pretty as KDE plasmoids. The Oxygen theme for Qt is very good, but Plasma is cooler. It has animations, transparency effects, and even interface elements like buttons and scrollbars look nicer. I wonder why there's nothing like that in the Oxygen theme?

[Tipped OuT]

I'm using KDE 4.3 on Kubuntu right now, and I think it's awesome :D I think I'm going to leave Gnome for now and stay with KDE. :)

I'm just wondering about one thing. I've noticed that actual KDE apps don't look as pretty as KDE plasmoids. The Oxygen theme for Qt is very good, but Plasma is cooler. It has animations, transparency effects, and even interface elements like buttons and scrollbars look nicer. I wonder why there's nothing like that in the Oxygen theme?

If the regular windows of KDE could look like the plasmoids (transparency, animation, etc.) then I'd switch without a doubt. :P

[jwmollman]

I think this release looks beautiful. I've always been looking at KDE because of it's sheer beauty, but I've always been more comfortable with XFCE. I guess I don't like mixing my GTK applications with Qt ones.

[hoppipolla]

If the regular windows of KDE could look like the plasmoids (transparency, animation, etc.) then I'd switch without a doubt. :P

All in good time, all in good time! hehe :)

[Chxta]

How do we install KDE4.3 in Jaunty?

[NightwishFan]

Go to the Kubuntu.org webpage and follow the instructions to add the repository and update. I could tell you how here, but if you do it yourself you will know how later. :D

[zevans]

Installed from jaunty-backports and I am seriously impressed...aAll the little niggles with 4.2 have gone.

Panels work consistently and resize themselves, it's definitely all a lot snappier, for me it uses LESS memory than 4.2 (and I am using quite a number of plasmoids and dual screens.)

One niggle though - I don't think dependencies are quite right in the new packaging. Akonadi -should- work with sqllite, right? But I can't get mysql 5 uninstalled. I would just ditch Akonadi since I am tied to Exchange and therefore unfortunately stuck with Outlook for now, but I like kjots too much.

So is there a way to get the backports package to work with sqllite INSTEAD OF mysql 5 or do I need to compile Akonadi from source to get that working?

Installing a full database rather than lite just to have mail working smells a little bit too much of Microsoft!

[GeneralZod]

One niggle though - I don't think dependencies are quite right in the new packaging. Akonadi -should- work with sqllite, right?

Unfortunately not (yet?)

http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/PIM/Akonadi#Why_not_use_sqlite.3F

[zevans]

Aha, thanks. There were a load of these kinds of problems eating sqllite earlier in the year, which should up for me in Amarok, but all those seem to have been fixed now. That page implies that Akonadi is ready to go but sqllite isn't, which in turn implies it's all there in the code, just not compiled that way by default.

So, I think I'll compile Akonadi from source, tell it to use sqllite, and as I trigger problems in sqllite I'll report them in launchpad. Thanks for info.

[zevans]

No, wait - how was it working in 4.2 then?! Or did kjots not pull it in under 4.2?

[Incense]

4.3 is beautiful. The past 4.x releases have not run well on my notebook, but 4.3 is fast, stable, and I'm not seeing x-org eating up my CPU. I've been using gnome for the past couple releases, but I'm back to KDE now, and it feels good. Great job guys!

[Skripka]

Aha, thanks. There were a load of these kinds of problems eating sqllite earlier in the year, which should up for me in Amarok, but all those seem to have been fixed now. That page implies that Akonadi is ready to go but sqllite isn't, which in turn implies it's all there in the code, just not compiled that way by default.

So, I think I'll compile Akonadi from source, tell it to use sqllite, and as I trigger problems in sqllite I'll report them in launchpad. Thanks for info.

If you're using Amarok, you already have Mysql anyway...If.

[khelben1979]

Something which I myself I have experienced interesting when comparing different versions of KDE have been how much the applications have grown in size over the years.

One other thing is, speed, of course. It looks like I won't be going for new hardware this year, so a slow and sluggish desktop enviroment don't feel very attractive for myself. At the same time it would be interesting to know how the desktop enviroment can use better hardware efficiently.

[RiceMonster]

So according to kde.org you can have different plasmoids on different desktops, but I haven't figured out how to do that. Anyone know how?

[Tipped OuT]

So according to kde.org you can have different plasmoids on different desktops, but I haven't figured out how to do that. Anyone know how?

Google is your friend.

[RiceMonster]

cool, I definitely didn't know about google.

Ps. I already did search.

[Tipped OuT]

cool, I definitely didn't know about google.

Ps. I already did search.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=915749

Oh come on, that was the first result.

Looks like it's not exactly possible yet.

[GeneralZod]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=915749

Oh come on, that was the first result.


Yes, and 11 months out of date ;)



Looks like it's not exactly possible yet.

I think this might be what RiceMonster is asking for:

http://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/FAQ#How_can_I_use_virtual_desktops_as_activities_. 3F

[RiceMonster]

I think this might be what RiceMonster is asking for:

http://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/FAQ#How_can_I_use_virtual_desktops_as_activities_. 3F

Thanks.


http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=915749

Oh come on, that was the first result.

Looks like it's not exactly possible yet.

Check the date: September 10th, 2008

Now, read this http://kde.org/announcements/4.3/index.php

Under Desktop Improves Performance And Usability:

Activities can now be tied to virtual desktops, allowing users to have different widgets on each of their desktops.

[gormac]

So according to kde.org you can have different plasmoids on different desktops, but I haven't figured out how to do that. Anyone know how?
Zoom out to Activity view, and choose "Configure Plasma".

[RiceMonster]

Zoom out to Activity view, and choose "Configure Plasma".

Also thank you.

[monkeyKata]

I currently have ubuntu 9.04 running Gnome. I'd like to try out kde 4.3 but I don't want every app that comes with the basic kubuntu desktop install and would rather install those I want one by one. What might be the best way to do this, getting just the needed basics to run the DE and any/all plasmas that come with?

Should I install kde-core through the kubuntu backports ppa? Anyone tried this? Pose any known problems? Will I probably have that issue where under both environments gnome and kde apps show up all kind of jumbled together?

Thanks for any input.

[Cenotaph]

Install kde-core. That's the way to do it. I've done it myself. Of course, you might be needing to install more stuff after, but since ubuntu is nicely packaged you'll find it easily.

[monkeyKata]

ok thanks. Did you do that alongside gnome? and if so, were there not any conflicts, or does kde not show all your gnome apps or vice versa?

[hanzomon4]

Zoom out to Activity view, and choose "Configure Plasma".

It's really buggy though... I just use the activity bar plasmoid

[ssri]

It's really buggy though... I just use the activity bar plasmoid

But you have to use the zoom out feature in order to create a new activity for the activity bar ;)

[hanzomon4]

But you have to use the zoom out feature in order to create a new activity for the activity bar ;)

No.. zoom out isn't buggy, the new different plasmoids per workspace feature is. It creates phantom activities that you can't delete and sometimes workspaces end up stuck "in between" activities, like you see parts of two activities in a workspace

[Cenotaph]

ok thanks. Did you do that alongside gnome? and if so, were there not any conflicts, or does kde not show all your gnome apps or vice versa?

KDE shows the gnome apps, but if your going the kde-core route, the gnome apps wont integrate very well in KDE in terms of look. You can install QtCurve to get a better integration and then use gtk-chtheme or gtk-theme-switch to set gtk apps to use qtcurve theme

[ssri]

KDE shows the gnome apps, but if your going the kde-core route, the gnome apps wont integrate very well in KDE in terms of look. You can install QtCurve to get a better integration and then use gtk-chtheme or gtk-theme-switch to set gtk apps to use qtcurve theme

From my post (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=7805964&postcount=944)


Uh, except for the whole GTK/Qt thing, but I can only do so many things at once!!!

I do not know if it has been said here, but to make your gtk apps look nice in kde 4.3, you have to install gtk2-engines-qtcurve, kde-style-qtcurve, gtk2-engines-pixbuf. Also, you should download (if you haven't already) oxygen-refit2 from gnome-look and sudo tar xvfz it in /usr/share/icons/. Also, if there is an oxygen theme you like from gnome-look, extrat [sic] it in /usr/share/themes

then you edit ~/.gtkrc-2.0-kde4

here's mine:


# This file was written by KDE
# You can edit it in the KDE control center, under "GTK Styles and Fonts"

include "/usr/share/themes/Qt4/gtk-2.0/gtkrc"

style "user-font"
{
font_name="DejaVu Sans"
}
widget_class "*" style "user-font"

gtk-theme-name="Qt4"
gtk-font-name="DejaVu Sans 9"
gtk-icon-theme-name="OxygenRefit2"

Start your gtk app, and it should be oxgenized :)

Although, for firefox, the tabs look a bit wonky, even after clicking the fix from system settings->appearances... I just looked for a kde4 theme on google. Just drag the jar into your themes window and you should be set.

[NTolerance]

ok thanks. Did you do that alongside gnome? and if so, were there not any conflicts, or does kde not show all your gnome apps or vice versa?

Yes, in my experience having both DEs installed at the same time is a disaster. Gnome apps show up in KDE menus. There's a script that supposedly fixes this, but it didn't completely work for me. Gotta manually go into the menu editor and fix everything.

And then there's Gnome system sounds. Even if they're muted in Gnome, they play when you're running KDE. Really annoying. Had to remove a libcanberra package to fix this. Oh, and what to make of Pulseaudio? KDE apps don't use it by default, but nevertheless it's installed on my system, it shows up in KDE config menus and past history shows that it's likely to blame for any number of continuing problems.

Also, Gnome startup programs are imported by KDE. Why? I don't need Evolution notifier running when I'm in KDE.

Summation: While I like the choices that Linux offers in terms of GUIs, I don't have any delusions that the system is so flexible that it can accommodate all these things installed simultaneously. Multiple DEs do not play nice together. Pick one you like and do a clean install. It's the only way right now.

[Bachstelze]

Personally, I like my programs to show up in my menus, that's what menus are for. :)

[NTolerance]

From my post (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=7805964&postcount=944)



I do not know if it has been said here, but to make your gtk apps look nice in kde 4.3, you have to install gtk2-engines-qtcurve, kde-style-qtcurve, gtk2-engines-pixbuf. Also, you should download (if you haven't already) oxygen-refit2 from gnome-look and sudo tar xvfz it in /usr/share/icons/. Also, if there is an oxygen theme you like from gnome-look, extrat [sic] it in /usr/share/themes

then you edit ~/.gtkrc-2.0-kde4

here's mine:


# This file was written by KDE
# You can edit it in the KDE control center, under "GTK Styles and Fonts"

include "/usr/share/themes/Qt4/gtk-2.0/gtkrc"

style "user-font"
{
font_name="DejaVu Sans"
}
widget_class "*" style "user-font"

gtk-theme-name="Qt4"
gtk-font-name="DejaVu Sans 9"
gtk-icon-theme-name="OxygenRefit2"

Start your gtk app, and it should be oxgenized :)

Although, for firefox, the tabs look a bit wonky, even after clicking the fix from system settings->appearances... I just looked for a kde4 theme on google. Just drag the jar into your themes window and you should be set.

This tip works quite well I must say. But I still have a nasty blue highlight color when Gnome apps are running in KDE. Any way to change this to grey? I believe grey is the default in KDE 4.3