KDE4 Why?

ppeetteerr · n00b Joined: 19 Nov 2007 Posts: 58

So I have read countless blogs on kde4 and here's what I have learned
1. KDE4 should be 20-30% faster than 3.5 because of qt4
2. KDE4 is using some new defualt apps, goodbye kpdf and konqurer (they shall still be available just the default are new programs)
3. KDE4.0 is not quite ready for prime time but hopefully KDE4.10 will be

I've also heard a lot of hype about people wanting to switch from gnome to KDE. My question is why? Will it potentially be as fast as gnome? Are the apps that much better (Amarok is in my opinion better than anything gnome has but I'm not ready to swtich just for my music). So once again why kde4?

asturm · Developer Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 8938

Seeing kde3 already faster and less ressource hungry than gnome, why not kde (3 or 4)?

Generally the decision between gnome and kde isn't as much about speed as it is about adapting yourself to an environment (gnome) or adapting the environment to yourself (kde). And of course, the apps... I haven't looked much into gnome applications lately, generally they seem to be better integrated into the whole gnome picture, but I wouldn't trade in amarok, kate or k3b for looks. And kde4 is about to change that. Even though I'm mostly using enlightenment +kde-apps at the moment, I'm looking forward to kde4 and currently keeping a parallel 4.0.x environment. I've worked in it productively already and it's quite usable, but not yet as fast and feature-rich as kde3.

pilla · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 6:56 pm Post subject:

Moved from Desktop Environments to Gentoo Chat.
_________________
"I'm just very selective about the reality I choose to accept." -- Calvin

energyman76b · Advocate Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 2048 Location: Germany

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 5:16 pm Post subject:

I recently installed KDE4...color me unimpressed. To me, it looks more like XFCE on steroids than it does KDE. Of course, that's an initial impression, and I admit that I haven't really played with it enough to get used to its quirks. I am not sure what I was expecting, but what I saw was certainly outside those expectations.

Of course, I realize that KDE4 is far from perfect. I'm sure as soon as more people get their hands on it and start playing with it, it will get better. For now, I'll stick with good ol' KDE3.5. It's got the looks. Its got the features. It works the way I expect. What more could I ask?

Blessed be!
Pappy
_________________
This space left intentionally blank, except for these ASCII symbols.

Berniyh · l33t Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 677

Berniyh · l33t Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 677

ppeetteerr · n00b Joined: 19 Nov 2007 Posts: 58

So I installed it and toyed around with it for a while and I have to admit that I like it. The best part in my opinion is Okular. I absolutely loved kpdf I had it installed and used it in gnome, mostly for the cool little counter in slide presentations (latex beamer). But okular is fantastic. It allows you to mark up the pdf (the markups are not saved directly to the pdf but to another layer). I have a tablet and this is what I've been waiting for. Ok I'm actually waiting for pdfedit to get somewhere near stable...

There are things that tell me that kde4 is not quite ready. Small things like the fact that I can resize the task bar but it doesn't resize the clock and I can move the taskbar to the righthand side but can't read the clock. But I think it'll get a permanent spot on gdm when 4.1 comes in july

isilia · Apprentice Joined: 25 Feb 2008 Posts: 177

Been trying KDE4 for a while on my laptop.. after about 2 weeks of trying to understand why people like KDE I ran off to XFCE, which does everything KDE does, with less bugs (well, 4.0.x at least) and a smaller footprint. Amarok was pretty nice though, but nothing (that I use) Exaile can't do. So much for my rant, now I'm off to bed.. good night (Europe).

i92guboj · Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 2:03 am Post subject: Re: KDE4 Why?

jmz2 · Guru Joined: 13 Jan 2004 Posts: 421 Location: Finland

ppeetteerr · n00b Joined: 19 Nov 2007 Posts: 58

i92guboj · Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 5:08 pm Post subject:

vinboy · n00b Joined: 18 Jun 2006 Posts: 69

I'm quite disappointed with the new KDE and many other big software, including Windows.

The developers are starting to run out of features to implement and now focusing on making heavy GUI. I used the word heavy instead of better GUI because they do not rearrange the GUI-components (should button go here? should textbox go there?) or find innovative way to improve the user experience, instead they make a bunch of new GUI features which is really heavy (KDE4, Windows Aero), I don't find them very useful either. Maybe in the future they will look better, but i don't know.

The problem is that they are pushing the users to upgrade their hardware without gaining performance boost.
Try running Win 98 on your current hardware, it will fly.

P.S. I love KDE. especially KDE 3.9. It's sleek, fast, stable. (I have 4GB RAM)

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 8:53 am Post subject:

After playing with it a bit, I can say that I'm going to wait to jump on the KDE4 bandwagon. There are far too many things about it I don't like. It feels quite broken to me, and I'd rather wait until some basic things, like terminal transparency, a clock and icons in the taskbar that CAN be resized without becoming unreadable, and more than one panel available, an F4 button in konqueror that starts a konsole session in the directory from which it was launched, and so much more. Also, rather distressingly, it blew away icons in the 3.5 menu.

I much prefer KDE 3.5. I will remove KDE4 and see if I can get my errant icons back. |Crossing fingers!|

Blessed be!
Pappy

EDIT: Woohoo! My KDE 3.5 icons all came back as soon as KDE4 was gone! YAY! PARTY! It will be a while before I do something like that to my system again!
_________________
This space left intentionally blank, except for these ASCII symbols.

jonnevers · Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 2:39 pm Post subject:

Earthwings · Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 4:29 pm Post subject:

Kickoff's (that start menu thing) look has been improved for 4.1, but the functionality is pretty much the same. If you don't like it, switch to the classic start menu (that options exists in KDE 4.0 as well).

More innovative features / interaction possibilites will surely come. The focus at the moment however is finishing to port applications (or features not yet ported) and improving stability. Notice that 4.1 is coming just six months after 4.0 and some features planned for 4.1 have been delayed for later versions due to that short time.
_________________
KDE

sonicbhoc · Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 5:48 pm Post subject:

I'm not judging KDE 4 until it is closer to finished.
_________________
I'm too lazy to keep this stupid signature up to date, so here's something more interesting:
My friend Hetdegon can draw if you ask me.
Now using PClinuxOS on my laptop and Gentoo on my desktop and new laptop.

NathanZachary · Moderator Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 2605

I have used KDE 3.5.x, KDE 4.0.x, and GNOME for a while. Personally--and completely based on my opinions, not evidence--I like KDE 3.5 the best. To me, I just can't grasp Dolphin as the default file manager in KDE4. I really liked Konq, and it might just be that I'm a creature of habit. However I, like sonicbhoc, don't want to give total judgment to KDE4 until it is AT LEAST at 4.1.
_________________
“Truth, like infinity, is to be forever approached but never reached.” --Jean Ayres (1972)
---avatar cropped from =AimanStudio---

sonicbhoc · Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 9:31 pm Post subject:

Heck, I'm waiting 'till 4.2.

_________________
I'm too lazy to keep this stupid signature up to date, so here's something more interesting:
My friend Hetdegon can draw if you ask me.
Now using PClinuxOS on my laptop and Gentoo on my desktop and new laptop.

NathanZachary · Moderator Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 2605

I will start to develop a stronger opinion at 4.1 (or maybe a sub-release like 4.1.1, et cetera), but you're probably right in waiting until 4.2.

_________________
“Truth, like infinity, is to be forever approached but never reached.” --Jean Ayres (1972)
---avatar cropped from =AimanStudio---

Benni123 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 13 Mar 2005 Posts: 110

I have installed it yesterday, and now I'm going back to kde3.5.

At this point I must say that I'm somewhat scared by KDE4. For which persons have they developed this thing?
I work with Linux because i can configure it precisely to what I want it to.

GUI's should bring the various possibilities of configuration in a Linux system to the beginner.
But it seems, that KDE has reduced its configuration abilities!
Also it has Bugs. It did not connect to my soundcard, it did not start from KDM (only with startkde command), sometimes, the configure panel did not appear after I clicked at it....
Its buttons are too large and unstructured (I want the toolbar from kde3 back...)
(I have not tested the 3D features, because I really do not want such a thing....)

I want a desktop which does make my work more easy. This includes, that I want to have my programs and all configuration tools possible at fast reach. I do not need an unconfigurable 3D Desktop that does not recognize my soundcard and has problems to start.

For me, it seems, that they have designed this program to attract Microsoft windows N00b's as their users. KDE4 seems to be written for people who do not want to have any control over their machine. People who only play games but do not anything serious and are scared by every more complex option of a computer program.

And no, I even did it not find faster as KDE3.5

NathanZachary · Moderator Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 2605

These same types of concerns were voiced when 3.0 came out as well. 3.5 is really stable, and it is my hope (and I'm sure the hope of most KDE users and developers) that KDE4 will follow that same pattern of usability.
_________________
“Truth, like infinity, is to be forever approached but never reached.” --Jean Ayres (1972)
---avatar cropped from =AimanStudio---

asturm · Developer Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 8938

At this time KDE4 certainly isn't in a state comparable to KDE3. It's still under heavy development. Of course it isn't meant to reduce any configuration abilities, those will be added step by step with KDE4.1 (KDE4.0.4 has already brought many improvements on the configuration front compared to the initial KDE4.0 release) and KDE4.2. By then it should finally be recommendable to end users.

Berniyh · l33t Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 677