Yet another post of KDE 4.2 impressions

[Christian Henz]

On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 02:28:02PM -0500, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote:
> In <20090328123226.GA10946 at localhost>, Christian Henz wrote:
> >Application launcher:
> >---------------------
> >What makes no sense to me at all is that applications are listed by their
> > description and not their name. For example there are two entries called
> > "Web browser", and I have to distinguish them by their icons, or move the
> > mouse over the Description to find out what the actual application is
> > (konqueror, firefox). IMO this should be exactly the other way around: List
> > the application name (konqueror), and then show the description ("Web
> > Browser") when hovering over the entry.
> 
> This is intentional.  Users are generally focused on a task (in the 
> description) and not a particular application (in the name).  This is even 
> more true of newer users.
> 

I think this is a wrong assumption, it certainly is not true for me. I also adressed
the "new user" argument before, so I will not repeat it...

When I think of the launcher as a toolbench in a workshop, I don't want
to just take "a wrench", I want to quickly pick the right one for my "task". 

My task is never "start 'Web Browser'", it is "start Konqueror" or "start Firefox".

Also consider games: My task will never be "start 'Strategy game'", 
but rather "start 'Battle for Wesnoth'".

Well, to conclude this, I have discovered that I can switch the Launcher to "classic"
style, which displays proper application names and lets me navigate much quicker
anyway, so I guess I'm done with this problem.


> >Conclusion:
> >-----------
> >I think the KDE project has done itself and the linux desktop a disservice
> > by advertising this release as "recommended for majority of end users",
> > because for me personally, upgrading to 4.2 has been a step backwards in my
> > user experience. There are just too many things that feel unfinished.
> 
> It is still ready for the majority of end users, and the KDE project is no 
> longer supporting KDE 3, so they recommend you upgrade.
> 
> KDE 4.2 still does not appear to have all the features KDE 3.5 had, but it is 
> a lot better than KDE 3.2. :)
>

Well it does not have to be better than 3.2, it has to be better than 3.5.

cheers,
Christian
___________________________________________________
This message is from the kde mailing list.
Account management:  https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde.
Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.