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

[Duncan]

Christian Mikovits posted on Thu, 27 May 2010 14:34:46 +0200 as excerpted:

> Mmmh, who's using konqueror / khtml anyways?
> 
> 1. Some websites are completely broken (google maps, gmail, ...)
> 2. Some sites are usable, but there are ugly rendering problems
> 3. flashplugin is crappy within konqueror (its malware anyways)
> 
> khtml is dead end (sorry for the developers), some distris are already
> on their way to switch or already switched from konqueror to rekonq or
> others. I don't really see the point of sticking with konqueror as a
> default browser.

While I still run konqueror by default, I actually agree with you (except 
on #3, flash is proprietaryware so not something I'll even consider 
running, not that I could agree to the EULA, so I couldn't run it legally 
even if I did want to, so N/A on that point).

But konqueror is still the kde default, and as long as that remains the 
case... really, it actually reinforces my point that kde is simply not 
ready for ordinary use.

rekonq looks very interesting, tho I've not tried it myself.  But 
according to the blogs of its own authors, which I read (in akgregator 
=:^) via the kde-planet feed, they don't consider it ready for default 
yet, tho the same blogs make it obvious they're preparing for it.

Meanwhile, that reinforces the case for making certificate management a 
general kde function, part of kcontrol aka (kde 4.5 apparent rename, 
according to screen shots) personal settings, aka (kde 4.0-4.4 name, 
inaccurate and inappropriately generic tho it is) system settings.

BTW that's another personal grip of mine that's apparently fixed in 4.5, 
according to early post-freeze reviews/screenshots.  Still can't really 
google "personal settings" to any effect, so it's still impossibly generic 
(unlike kde3's nicely googlable "kcontrol"), but it's definitely more 
accurate than "system settings"!

But back to certificate management.  It has been argued, and I can't 
disagree, that the proper place to manage those would be kde's control 
panel (whatever it's called). kmail and kopete apparently use the same 
general kde certificate infrastructure as konqueror, and presumably rekonq 
does, or will, as well.  So putting it in kcontrol does make a lot of 
sense, tho I'd certainly embed a UI-trigger to invoke that kcm in all the 
various apps that use it, thus solving the "IE and firefox instructions 
are app specific, where's the konqueror/rekonq version?" problem in the 
compromised banking certificate example I used earlier.

Meanwhile, one of firefox's big bonuses has been its extensions.  Many 
have switched to it because of them, and while I haven't actually switched 
my default browser, I'm close to doing so, because for example, knowing 
precisely which domains I need to allow scripting on to make a particular 
page work is *SO* much easier with noscript, than with anything konqueror 
offers.  But firefox has a big enough userbase that trying to catch up or 
keep up with all the functionality its extensions enable is a practically 
Sisyphean task, at least for a single browser, ESPECIALLY for a single 
browser with the share of konqueror or rekonq!   But there is yet hope! 
Every since webkit started getting so much use and publicity, I've been 
suggesting that its browser users cooperate with a common extension spec 
(and secure vetting and hosting), such that users from most of the webkit 
based browsers could use extensions built for all of them.  Chrome/
chromium now has an extension spec that's similar to firefox's.  I really 
haven't the foggiest what Safari might be doing, but I'd strongly suggest 
that rekonq work hard at supporting the same extension spec, so at least 
it's not trying to go it alone, as konqueror did.  (Konqueror had/has an 
extension mechanism, but how many of the relatively few konqueror users 
are even aware that it's there?  There's simply not the necessary userbase 
to develop the healthy user contributing extensions community that firefox 
has, and that chrome is definitely shooting for!)

So, come kde 4.6 or so, rekonq will likely become the default kde browser, 
and with dolphin already taking over konqueror's former default file 
manager position, konqueror, if it continues to be developed, will fall 
into the shadows much as krusader is.  (krusader, talk about a name with 
unfortunate connotations in much of the world!)  We'll see how that goes. 
I really do hope rekonq comes on strong.  KDE certainly needs it!

But meanwhile, there's a very real need for a working encryption 
certificate management system today, either as a konqueror config tab, or 
better yet, as a kcm, but either way, without it, how can kde seriously 
consider itself ready for ordinary use, when they'd have no real response 
to give in the face of a high profile banking or other certificate 
revocation.  None!  And that's simply unacceptable, especially when kde 
itself is continuing to promote the internet connectedness many have 
today, in the form of plasmoids and otherwise.

-- 
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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