Switched to KDE4

[Martin (KDE)]

Am Dienstag, 16. Dezember 2008 schrieb Anne Wilson:
> On Monday 15 December 2008 20:48:48 Martin (KDE) wrote:
> > Hallo
> >
> > I have switched to KDE4 the Weekend before last Weekend (as I
> > switched from fedora 8 to fedora 10). Besides minor glitches with
> > fedora update most went as expected. Here is my point of view
> > from KDE 4.1.3 as a user who was (is) used to KDE 3.5.10.
>
> Hi, Martin.
>
> > Dolphin, as far as I have found all settings, is currently not as
> > complete as konqui was in 3.5.
>
> What are you missing in particular?  Gradually more and more
> features have been added and Dolphin is now very powerful.  You'll
> find a good guide at
> http://userbase.kde.org/Tutorials/File_Management#Discover_Dolphin

I know this site and I have to say well done Anne. 

With Konqui I got a little popup bubble (short Info) which shows a 
file preview and some exif data informations like ISO speed, shutter 
speed, image size and so on for graphics, title, interpret playtime 
for sounds, similar infos for movies and something more. Dolphin has 
some similar short info bubble, but it only shows file name, type, 
permission and owner. But may be 4.2 has much more informations. 

Additionally Konqui was able to play sound files and movie (only 
sound) if you rest your mouse pointer over such a file. It is a nice 
feature if you are used to it.

The places sidebar of dolphin look very uggly. If you change the size 
the icons grow or become smaler which is independent from the icon 
size in the main view (ok limited to a maximum size). 
On the other hand, same functionality in information panel is very 
good.

The additional Information stuff is very nice, but If it is not 
(currently) able to show internal metadata from files.

>
> Nowadays I find myself quite annoyed if I launch konqueror by
> accident, as it lacks several of the features that I've come to
> love.
>
> > - The preview is almost unusable. Most Informations of files are
> > missing (like mp3 tags, picture exiv infos and so on). As I
> > played a little bit with the beta of 4.2 I know that the preview
> > will become much better in the future. So this point is not very
> > problematic.
>
> I'm not sure whether it's possible to get exiv info in Dolphin -
> there are several photo browsers that do that job.

Jep, if I want to do explicit photo sorting and configuration I use 
kphotoalbum or digikam. Just for a short overview of the file, a 
special program is not necessarry. But I think 4.2 will show some of 
the informations in the information panel.

>
> > - The preference setting of files is cut down to a nearly unneded
> > info dialog (besides changing file name an permissions).
>
> What preference setting method are we talking about here?

right mouse click on a file and properties (ah I see, preference - 
property, thats a result of using a diffent language than english. You 
have to translate it and sometimes you are wrong)

>
> > There is no way to
> > edit comment and other tags of graphics and sound files.
>
> I don't do these things myself, so I'm no expert, but digikam
> allows you to set ratings and add tags.  Can't you edit a tag
> there?  Amarok 2 allows tagging of sound files.

Yes, usually I use amarok for sound file editing and digikam for photo 
file editing, but sometimes there are single files I want to edit 
(i.e. not in amarok or digikam database directory) and this is no 
longer possible via the properties dialog.

>
> > As for sound
> > files I can use juk or other stuff, but for editing graphic exif
> > data currently only digikam is usable. Even to get the picture
> > size you have to start gwenview.
> >
> > PIM/Kontact: afaik it has the same functionality as the the one
> > of KDE 3.5. I use it every day and besides it is a little bit
> > slower than my 3.5 I have only minor annoyances
> > - if I drag a mail from my Inbox to a folder the destination
> > folder is no longer highlighted - I miss the feedback in wich
> > folder the mail will be copied/moved
>
> Highlighted, no, but in every version I've had a dotted line around
> the destination, so I could always see where I was copying or
> moving a message.
>
> > - with Akregator the layout is never stored as I set it up
> > (sorted by date and smaler news list at top and a bigger windows
> > to read the news text). after almost every restart the news are
> > sorted by topic and the news text is only half as large as the
> > list above) I have removed all akregator files but nothing
> > changed.
>
> I don't know what's wrong there.  I just checked on my setup,
> changing the proportion and sorting by date, then closed kontact,
> restarted it and went back to akregator.  Everything was exactly as
> I had left it.
>
> > Gwenview is not my favorite program for viewing pictures. I hope
> > showview will come soon.
>
> I've never seen showview, but there are plenty of photo viewers
> around.  One of them surely has the features you want?
>
> > I miss a programm like KAudioCreator in my KDE4. Currently it is
> > not available for fedora 10.
> >
> > General:
> > - The setting of the toolbar is not realy consistent. I don't
> > like the text unter the icons so I switched to icons only in the
> > system settings dialog. But not all programs follows this setting
> > (digikam showed a mix of both).
>
> This is an issue under discussion at the moment.  The usability
> team will make the final decision for future versions, I think.
>
> > - I don't like the way of KDE system settings as they are
> > presented now. The forward and backward switching is not optimal
> > (in my oppinion). I often close the whole dialog by accident
> > instead of switching back to "main menu".
>
> That's quite simply an issue of being used to doing things one way.
>  Any change causes accidents like that until you get used to them. 
> It's no big deal.
>
> > I am a fan of the old tree-view thing.
> > Maybe there will be once a system settings dialog with differnt
> > kind of views and one will be the tree-view.
> > - the workflow is a little bit different from the way I was used
> > to in KDE3. I think I will get it in the next months.
>
> Yes, it feels strange at first.  In fact when I first tried it I
> thought I was going to hate everything about it.  Now I wouldn't go
> back for anything.

Currently I am in a 50:50 state. Some new stuff is very good, but some 
old stuff is missing. But KDE4 is evolving, so there is hope.

>
> > There are some great improvements like Okular and Okteta. And I
> > think Plasma will become great, too. As I said above, I played a
> > little with current 4.2 beta and it is definitely a improvement
> > over 4.1.
> >
> > So I will stay with KDE4 and hope the rest of my favorite Apps
> > (k3b comes to mind) will reach the KDE4 arena soon.
>
> Get familiar with http://userbase.kde.org - it will help you settle
> in more quickly.  In particular, study the dolphin and plasma
> pages.
>
> HTH, but ask any particular questions and I'll try to answer
>
> Anne

Martin


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