The buzz about KDE 4.0

[Frederik Gladhorn]

Hi Kim,
as we tried to communicate 4.0 was an early release aimed at power users and 
mainly developers to see where we are going and start the porting of 
applications not in the main modules.

On Friday 27 June 2008 18:57:36 Kimberly Lazarski wrote:
> KDE team: you might want to check out this thread: it touches on quite a
> few things I've been disappointed in when running KDE 4.0
>
> http://talkback.zdnet.com/5206-12554-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=49110
>
> KDE's growth may slow as a result of decisions made to dumb certain
> things down like gnome does. The whole reason I use KDE (3.x) rather
> than gnome is it doesn't cripple usability. I found KDE 4 (tried it a
> couple of months ago, I'm glad I image the HDD so I could easily roll
> back. God bless clonezilla!) to be a step backwards; stability was
> limited, and I hate, hate, HATE the fact that the default file manager
> (dolphin) is about as functional as gnome's nautilus.People in that
> thread accuse it of being as bad as Windows Explorer, but it has /less
> /functionality than Windows Explorer. Konqueror in 3.5.x is the /best
> /file manager I've ever had the pleasure of using (I like it so much I
> installed AndLinux on Windows workstations just so I could use konqueror
> and gain access to kio slaves like fish:// and ftp://)  - it is
> extremely capable and configurable. Also, I missed the desktop/folder
> metaphor. I put current and ongoing work on my desktop, and most other
> people I know (on Macs, Windows, and Linux) do the same. Taking that
> away was definitely a mistake. Does KDE4 still lack the
> desktop-as-a-folder metaphor?
If icons on desktop really bothers you, I recommend waiting the little time 
until 4.1 is there :)
Then you can choose to even view different folder contents (like the 
traditional desktop folder), even filtered (eg show only one type of document 
if you want to) on the desktop. It will of course improve even more in the 
future.


> KDE has long been known for its flexibility, configurability, and power,
> and dumbing it down to be like gnome is a mistake. It seems that
> whenever KDE4 comes up in discussion (on a blog site, messageboard, /.,
> BBS, etc.) more people hate it than like it because of dolphin and
> because of the dumbing down of the desktop environment. PLEASE remember
> the modularity, configurability, and power KDE has given the users. 
There are not fewer options (except some missing features that surely will 
come back). What actually happened a lot is that the configurability was moved 
into better places, so you'll need less time looking for options in config 
dialogs.
> If
> you must, dolphin and other apps can stay simple by default, but please
> make it possible for users to turn on power user options (such as an
> editable address bar, tabs, a built in terminal windows) people have
> depended on for so long.
You could always use the address bar to type things - click right of the last 
breadcrumb and see the cursor appear - full kio slave integration :)
I am not sure what the state in 4.0 is, but in 4.1 there is an integrated 
terminal and tabs in dolphin as well.

> I know konqueror is still there, but with two
> separate file managers there will be temptation to not keep konqueror's
> way of doing things up to date, leaving only a very limited file manager.
I doubt that - both apps share a lot of the work, so konqueror even gains 
features from dolphin (column view for example).

> I'm going to give KDE 4.0 another shot next weekend - Although I keep
> going back to OpenSuSE and KDE for desktop machines, I periodically
> evaluate different distros and desktops, but my first experience with
> KDE4 was a disappointment.
>
> The reason for posting this email list is not to insult or flame anyone,
> so PLEASE do not take offense. It's intended to help encourage you to
> keep users in mind. I was originally going to post it to the kde-devel
> list but this is a more appropriate place.

Try 4.1 which will more likely satisfy your needs :)

Greetings,
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Gladhorn

Parley - The Vocabulary Trainer
http://edu.kde.org/parley