A few words about the Quality of KDE 4.2

[Billie Erin Walsh]

Samuel Kage wrote:
> Am Sonntag 22 März 2009 15:28:28 schrieb Billie Erin Walsh:
>   
>> James Richard Tyrer wrote:
>>     
>>> Samuel Kage wrote:
>>>       
>>>> Maybe you are right about the blanket statements. But I'm no hacker.
>>>>         
>>> Please don't become a hacker. :-) but rather, you can become a
>>> programmer/developer/engineer.  You don't need to go to engineering
>>> college like I did.  However, reading books isn't enough, you really
>>> need a mentor to "grade" your work.
>>>
>>>       
>>>> So I can't write code. All I know I can do is writing bug reports
>>>> (Which I already do) and say what I think to animate people to
>>>> reconsider some things (What I've tried with the first post). But if
>>>> a bug report has to be written, it is already to late in a way (Hope
>>>> you see what I mean). That applies only for major releases and for
>>>> obvious bugs of course.
>>>>         
>>> Yes, I hear you, I understand, and I agree.  Bug reports should not take
>>> the place of basic TQM testing (quality control) by the person or team
>>> that wrote the code.  You are correct that it should not be necessary to
>>> file bug reports for obvious defects.  Bug reports should be for those
>>> obscure cases that most people won't find, and which, for the same
>>> reasons, testing will not usually find.
>>>
>>> We appear to be building software the way that Detroit used to build
>>> cars.  They would build the whole care and then the inspectors would
>>> look at the car and try to find what was wrong with it and fix it.  They
>>> don't build cars that way anymore.  TQM and the ideas of William Edwards
>>> Deming are now the way of almost all manufacturing.  His ideas and TQM
>>> can be applied to software as well.  The thing is that not only does
>>> this result in better quality but it is less work to do it that way.
>>> Less work to prevent the bugs from entering the code base than to go
>>> back later and try to fix them later.  And, to repeat myself, bug free
>>> software starts with good design.
>>>       
>> OK, let me say up front that I am _NOT_ a power user [ just wanted to
>> get that out of the way ].
>>
>> However, as just an everyday home user KDE 4.x.x may not be "perfect"
>> yet but it is getting better _FAST_.
>>
>> While I wasn't around when KDE 3.0 first came out I hear that it wasn't
>> so hot either. A lot of gnashing of teeth and growling was supposed to
>> have been heard all through the KDE User Nation. By the time I came
>> along about KDE 3.4/3.5 it was great. Everyone _LOVED_ 3.5.x.  Now that
>> KDE 4 is here, once again a lot gnashing of teeth and growling is heard
>> all through the KDE User Nation.
>>
>> There is _NO_ way on Gods Green Earth that a developer can test in every
>> possible situation. They might have a couple different machines they
>> test on but there are users out here with combinations that boggle the
>> imagination. Then throw in all the possible software combinations and
>> the possibilities skyrocket off the chart. In many ways everyday users
>> _ARE_ the testers. We just need to get used to that idea.
>>
>> While I'm not a big fan of change just for the sake of change, the only
>> constant in the universe is change. What say we all just settle down and
>> let it get fixed. If there's a bug that warrants it post a bug report.
>> If you find a workaround, post that. All this gnashing of teeth stuff
>> doesn't really help a lot.
>>
>> I honestly feel like the developers are doing a pretty darned good job.
>> Lets just help them do it.
>>
>> Besides. Just think, you could have paid a couple hundred dollars and
>> gotten something MUCH worse.
>>     
>
> Please read the previous posts first. It is all about obvious bugs. Bugs that 
> you sometimes see at first glance after booting your pc. Or bugs that are 
> appearing in common use cases with common hardware. But not bugs that don't 
> matter because 99% of the users won't ever see them.
>   

The only "bug" mentioned that I have experienced on my machine - Kubuntu 
8.10-64/KDE4.2.1/eMachine/Intel Dual-Core/ ATI graphics/80gig hard 
drive/2gig memory/triple booted [ three hard drives ] - is the quick 
launch problem. Teeny little flyspeck icons. _That_ got trashed in an 
"update". The workaround that I found was to use only my top three 
programs from the Quick Launch. I think I posted it here near the 
beginning of the thread [ I posted it somewhere ]. With only three 
programs the icons are of usable size.

As far as I know that's the only "bug" I've experienced. Maybe there is 
something I should have but don't and don't know the difference. OR, 
something I have that I don't know is a "bug" [ Undocumented Feature ]. 
As far as I can see everything else works "as-advertised" and the system 
is rock solid. My software choices are simple and pretty standard other 
than a couple gnomish choices. When I installed I didn't try to mess 
with anything just started the install and let it run it's course. 
Installed the 4.2 from the Kubuntu repos. I haven't played around in the 
configuration any more than _absolutely_ necessary. The machine boots 
and starts up without any glitches. Start up is speedy [ faster than 
8.04/3.5.x ].

All in all, I'm a pretty happy camper. I don't "see" the problems others 
see.

-- 


Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.

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