KDE4 preview

[nocturn]

This article has a preview of what KDE4 will be:
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2006/01/12/kde4.html

They are aiming for a release in the fall of 2006. Even though I'm currently a gnome user, KDE4 sounds great and I will definately take a look at it when it releases.

[GeneralZod]

I'm very excited too, but we have to remember that very little code has really been written as yet, so so far this is all largely "vapourware". If they pull it off, though, that will be fantastic - especially if the resource consumption is lowered a bit. I doubt this will be the case with 4.0.0 as there will be a lot of new, unoptimised code, but maybe 4.1 or so will be nice and fast and a little lighter on RAM.

[nocturn]

so will be nice and fast and a little lighter on RAM.

Specially when KDE3 already ran quite fast on my laptop with all eyecandy turned on. If they make this even better in 4... That is my biggest issue with Gnome, Metacity has no eyecandy whatsoever, but runs very slow.

[GeneralZod]

Specially when KDE3 already ran quite fast on my laptop with all eyecandy turned on. If they make this even better in 4... That is my biggest issue with Gnome, Metacity has no eyecandy whatsoever, but runs very slow.

I believe you can use kwin in GNOME, but I'm not sure how :) There's actually a poll in the Dapper forum at the moment about whether metacity should be replaced with kwin at the moment, but I imagine that won't fly with the Ubuntu devs ;)

[nocturn]

I believe you can use kwin in GNOME, but I'm not sure how :) There's actually a poll in the Dapper forum at the moment about whether metacity should be replaced with kwin at the moment, but I imagine that won't fly with the Ubuntu devs ;)

kwin in Gnome may be somewhat inappropriate, but I would welcome a switch to xfwm4 if they ported some nice themes to it (like AlphaCube). It actually has a composite manager too.

[poofyhairguy]

I believe you can use kwin in GNOME, but I'm not sure how :)

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=115974

There is my guide to tell how. I give details and screenshots in my blog:

http://linuxeyecandy.blogspot.com/

[poofyhairguy]

kwin in Gnome may be somewhat inappropriate, but I would welcome a switch to xfwm4 if they ported some nice themes to it (like AlphaCube). It actually has a composite manager too.

Kwin from KDE 3.5 works VERY well with Gnome. Far better than previous releases. The advantage of a modular society.

In fact, I think many KDE themes look better with the Clearlooks Cairo candybars than most Metacity themes do.

The compositor built into xfwm4 needs a lot of work. It was a straight fork from old xcompmgr code and it has maybe 10% of the features Kwin does in the same area.

Of course its cool xfwm4 HAS some built in compositing worth a darn, since Metacity.....well.....

[nocturn]

In fact, I think KDE themes work better with the Clearlooks Cairo candybars than most Metacity themes do.


I'm currently using Water Vapor as my GTK theme, it blends very nice with the AlphaCube Metacity theme. When I have some time, I may experiment with kwin in Gnome a little.

What I would really like to see is that Metacity gets fixed (real urgent) or that it gets dropped for an alternative, which may be kwin or xfwm4.

I really like Gnome, but if KDE4 makes good on it's design goals, it may just offer a very clean interface on top of all that eyecandy....

[poofyhairguy]

What I would really like to see is that Metacity gets fixed (real urgent) or that it gets dropped for an alternative, which may be kwin or xfwm4.

Whats depressing about Metacity is that those who shape its future don't see it as "something that needs a lot of work." In fact the only reason I have not written it off forever is because the creator of its compositor seems to want to do more than just the most boring options possible.



I really like Gnome, but if KDE4 makes good on it's design goals, it may just offer a very clean interface on top of all that eyecandy....

I agree with that- the "simplification" of KDE seems like the best part of KDE4 (yes, even over plasma). Personally though what I want to see with KDE4 is a default theme that is not so.....square-ish.

[nocturn]

I agree with that- the "simplification" of KDE seems like the best part of KDE4 (yes, even over plasma). Personally though what I want to see with KDE4 is a default theme that is not so.....square-ish.

That's just it, I really used to like KDE (at the time of version 1, there was no Gnome).

I dislike the default theme too, but then again, I don't like the industrial icons of Gnome either. I seem to be destined to change any desktop I get my hands on ;-)

Currently running Water Vapor GTK with AlphaCube and NuoveXT icons.