KDE SC 4: The good, the bad, and the broken

[Duncan]

Dotan Cohen posted on Thu, 27 May 2010 13:37:20 +0300 as excerpted:

> Some people think that KDE 4.0 is KDE 4, and they need to know that KDE
> 4 _is_ ready for end users now.

I'd still say no, it's not.  With 4.4, it's definitely getting close, it's 
at the -rc stage and can in fact be used, but it's still not quite there 
yet.  As I predicted some time ago, 4.5 should do it for the most part, 
with the kdepim/akonadi caveat, and, it appears, with the certificate 
caveat below.  (Tho I've read that 4.5.0 won't get that, but the blog that 
said that suggested 4.5.1, even tho micro releases are normally bug-fix 
only.)

Among other things, activity management is still confusing in 4.4, with 
the activity manager in the early 4.5 screenshots appearing to do for 
that, much of what the 4.4 widget browser did for plasmoids, except it's 
needed even more as the current zoom interface is even less familiar to 
most.

Also, where's the encryption certificate management?  At present, if my 
bank announces that one of their active certificates was compromised and 
is revoked, how am I as a user supposed to do anything about it, and how 
am I as a user supposed to have confidence in a system that claims to be 
ready for normal use, without giving me any way to fix it?  How can /any/ 
modern desktop environment include a default browser without proper 
certificate management, and /still/ claim to be ready for ordinary use, in 
this day and age of Internet banking and shopping?  No way, KDE 4 simply 
isn't ready for ordinary use yet, and I've /no/ idea when that bug's going 
to be fixed.  Come on!  I don't care if it's fixed at the browser or 
system level, but while the current situation is arguably just fine for a 
beta, and could possibly be justified under extenuating circumstances for 
a release candidate if there was a definite plan for a fix, it's simply 
/ridiculous/ for anything claiming to be ready for ordinary use!  Browser 
or kde-wide, just fix it, or learn to live with people laughing and/or 
crying at your claim to be ready for the masses!

Unfortunately, it's as if kde thinks they can just wink at such issues.  
Maybe if the reviews started mentioning it, or God forbid, some bank 
actually DID have a compromise that made headlines, with instructions to 
fix it in firefox and ie, and kde was left saying "Welllll.... our 'ready 
for ordinary use' desktop doesn't include that functionality yet, maybe in 
six months, with the next release...  Oh, but don't forget to put in the 
same PR announcement, we're *DEFINITELY* 'ready for ordinary use'; that 
feature isn't something people actually use, anyway!"

See how utterly ridiculous that is?  So can anyone tell me, is that fixed 
for 4.5?

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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