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isaacj87
May 29th, 2010, 11:39 PM
I did a quick search on the forums to see if this was already posted, but I didn't come up with anything. Just decided to let those who are interested in the KDE project know that SC 4.5 has reached its first beta!

From the announcement on dot.kde.org:


KDE has released a first test version of the released that will be out this summer, in August. KDE SC 4.5.0 is targeted at testers and those that would like to have an early look at what's coming to their desktops and netbooks this summer. KDE is now firmly in beta mode, meaning that the primary focus is on fixing bugs and preparing the stable release of the software compilation this summer.

See the full announcement here: http://dot.kde.org/2010/05/26/kde-sc-45-beta1-available

I've been playing with it on OpenSUSE 11.2 with an updated snapshot of trunk (4.4.81) and it looks and runs beautifully. I read in a recent article that even though 4.5 will present new features, the KDE devs want to try and stabilize the KDE4 series as much as possible with this release. And any technologies that aren't polished to their fullest will receive some loving attention (Akonadi, Nepomuk, etc.)

Crashes for me a few and far between. And I am enjoying:

- The revised system tray. The new notification area is much more thought out than before and hidden icons, while similar to Win7, is more user-friendly. I haven't decided how I feel about the monochrome icons, but I think they contribute to a more cohesive look.

- The minor adjustments to Oxygen and Air themes. New subtle animations, color tweaks, panel background all contribute to more refreshing and modern look. One may argue that the panel is too Win7 like, but I think it suits the overall look.

- Faster Kwin. Faster Plasma. Blur effect. Kwin is a speed demon on my fiancé's System76. Plasma is considerably more responsive and solid. (Other than the occasional crash, this is beta, however.) The blur effect is awesome. I liked it with Compiz and on Win7 and on KDE 4.5, it's like icing on the cake.

- Revised Personal Settings menu. Personal Settings has received a much needed re-organization. The two tab setup is now gone and I think everything has been categorized a lot better. New users should be able to choose preferences a lot easier now.

- Activities. Still don't find them useful, but they're so fast now, I feel as if I should actually use them now.

I've mostly listed UI changes and I know I'm neglected testing some of the more "controversial" features such as Nepomuk, but this is what I've got so far. I threw in some screenies for good measure!

cguy
May 29th, 2010, 11:58 PM
Looks promising!

My biggest wish with the next release is "fewer KRunner crashes"! I hate those, since I use Krunner intensively and sometimes it crashes and won't restart.

And that system tray! BLAH!!!
Now you can't glance at it and see what running in the background. You have go on a freaking clicking party!

Shining Arcanine
May 30th, 2010, 12:02 AM
This looks nice. I look forward to when it goes gold. I expect to upgrade from KDE 4.4.3 to KDE 4.5.0 on the day it is released.

isaacj87
May 30th, 2010, 12:08 AM
Looks promising!

My biggest wish with the next release is "fewer KRunner crashes"! I hate those, since I use Krunner intensively and sometimes it crashes and won't restart.

And that system tray! BLAH!!!
Now you can't glance at it and see what running in the background. You have go on a freaking clicking party!

I forgot to mention Krunner. Krunner's behavior is much better in 4.5 beta 1. It seems to have been given attention that it needed. I haven't had it crash and it's much more responsive.

And your comment about the system tray...

That's not 100% accurate. Technically, programs like Skype and Kopete still show up "first" on the system tray and the only way I got them to hide is by manually doing so. I'm assuming that after a certain point, they'll hide themselves, but I haven't noticed that.

cguy
May 30th, 2010, 12:44 AM
and Nepomuk? Is the tagging system integrated with the embedded file metadata? (esp. regarding the picture files)

mips
May 30th, 2010, 10:04 AM
- The revised system tray. The new notification area is much more thought out than before and hidden icons, while similar to Win7, is more user-friendly. I haven't decided how I feel about the monochrome icons, but I think they contribute to a more cohesive look.

I like.

murderslastcrow
May 30th, 2010, 10:12 AM
Lookin' good, KDE! Might just start using you with a Gnome-panel up top. Best of both worlds, neh?

kpholmes
May 30th, 2010, 10:15 AM
very excited for 4.5, wasnt the biggest kde fan at first but when its displayed the right way it looks superb \\:D/

Linux_junkie
May 30th, 2010, 11:24 AM
The screen shots you provide of the new version of KDE look good and look very similar to Win7's desktop. Personally I'm looking forward to Gnome 3.0 which is due for release in September.

cb951303
May 30th, 2010, 11:36 AM
now all we need is a good looking qt style with smooth animations.

pt123
May 30th, 2010, 11:48 AM
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
May 30th, 2010, 12:04 PM
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
May 30th, 2010, 12:22 PM
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
May 30th, 2010, 03:52 PM
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
May 31st, 2010, 09:45 PM
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
May 31st, 2010, 09:52 PM
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.