Multiple versions of KDE on the same machine

[Nils Holland]

Hi everybody,

well, just recently I browsed through the KDE FAQ and stmbled accross the 
following:

"One thing you should avoid: installing two or more versions of KDE in 
parallel. This might happen if you specify a different target directory for 
one version than for the other. The result may be unpredictable. The same is 
true if you have different versions of Qt™ installed at the same time."

Now, interestingly this is something I've been done for two years or so 
without any problems at all. To be more precise, I do things like this: I 
have one "system-wide" version of KDE and QT installed under /opt/kde and 
/opt/qt. This version was compiled by "root" and can be used by all users on 
the system. When I update this system-wide KDE, I always de-install the old 
version first.

Then, I have some versions of KDE that are either somewhat old or very new 
(=CVS) installed, but these are tied to a particular user. For example, my 
main KDE version in /opt/kde is currently KDE 3.0.3. Additionally, I have a 
user set up that's called "kde31", and this user has compiled and installed 
KDE 3.1 and the latest QT somewhere below his home directory. His QTDIR, 
KDEDIR and PATH are set so that he will run "his" version of KDE, while all 
other users will get the standard version under /opt. Soon, KDE 3.1 may be 
made available for all users, and the user kde31 (who was only there for 
testing purposes in the first place) may be deleted.

So, as I said, having two or more versions of KDE on my system at the same 
time by using the method I described above has always worked fine for me. 
Looking again at the FAQ item I quoted in the beginning, is there still a 
reason why I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing because it will eventually 
lead to problems? Or does the FAQ only mean that I should not "blindly" mix 
up multiple versions of KDE, which is not what I'm doing right now, since my 
KDE versions are kept strictly separate?

Bye,
Nils <nils at ravishing.de>

My GPG Public Key is available at:
http://www.ravishing.de/nils/gpg_public_key.txt

-- 
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lisa.ravishing.de
Linux 2.4.20 #2 Sat Mar 8 21:59:46 CET 2003 i686
  8:16pm  up 7 min,  2 users,  load average: 0.10, 0.13, 0.08

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