[kde-linux] kde4, first impressions

[Jim Philips]

On Sunday 13 January 2008 04:56:44 am Werner Joss wrote:
> hello all,
> I just want to give some first impressions about kde 4.0.0 here, maybe
> someone is interested and/or wants to comment :)
> -	installation is a breeze (following
> http://kubuntu.org/announcements/kde-4.0.php) here
> -	coexists nicely with kde3, as settings are kept in separate locations.
> -	easy import for settings from kde3 into kde4 equiv. apps (bookmarks for
> konqui)
> -	kde3 apps run flawless in kde4 session (this is crucial, as some key apps
> like pim-suite are not yet available in kde4)
> -	didn't try the other way round yet (kde4 apps in kde3 session), which
> might involve some hassle, though
> -	looks nice at first glance, will have to figure out many new features,
> still.
> -	new krunner (alt+F2) is nice, easy to find things/navigate
> -	some nice plasma applets available (recommendation: comic plasmoid!)
> -	no crashes, so far, only some quirks like konqui not opening graphics
> directly, but offers to open via kuickshow with some warning etc...
> -	performance still seems a bit sluggish, ATM, compared to kde3.
>
> averall: really impressive, though still far from beeing feature complete.
> I can just recommend anyone giving it a try, at least for
> experience/testing/bug reporting, it's well worth.
>
> werner
> p.s.:
> anyone knows how to disable (sound-) notifications ?
> additionally: how to configure/add bookmarks in dolphin ?

These are the problems I have:

I have had issues occasionally with my screen going black, except for the 
mouse cursor. There doesn't seem to be any graceful exit from this. 

This morning, I went to start Kontact and I got the bouncing icon, like it was 
coming up, but nothing ever really happened. A second attempt ended the same 
way.

Sometimes KDE4 starts with a white background, instead of the one I configured 
for. If I go into "configure desktop" and fiddle a little with the background 
settings, my preferred background suddenly pops up.

This release doesn't seem to have Kontact included. I went to the source 
packages and I found kdepimlibs, but no kdepim. Strange. Kubuntu only has 
packages from a KDE4 pre-release.

The kicker panel still doesn't seem to allow any configuration.

Konqueror doesn't seem to include a search bar anymore. This is enough to make 
me avoid it as a browser.

Having said all of that, I still like using KDE4. I'm just hoping the rough 
edges get cleaned up quickly.