Has the KDE Social/Semantic Desktop been worth the hassle to anyone?

[Jerome Yuzyk]

On Friday, November 16, 2012 11:33:04 PM Duncan <1i5t5.duncan at cox.net> 
wrote:
> Jerome Yuzyk posted on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:23:50 -0700 as excerpted:
> > 
> > So what's happening with this grand vision?
> 
> My honest opinion?  In general, it's a tool for those that really aren't
> comfortable with "traditional" computers and the way they work.  The
> kind that has so many icons on their (traditional icon-based) desktop
> they don't all fit, because that's the only place they can find things.

It does seem to me though, that these folks are the _least_ likely to put 
up with the troubles involved in actually using the technology. I doubt 
whether they're the ones that (care to) know to restart Akonadi whenever 
KMail starts misbehaving, or who will tolerate not being able to see image 
previews in Konqueror or Dolphin anymore, or will track down where their 
KAddressbook data went. 

But maybe this is the wrong place to ask my original question, rephrased:

    For whom is all this KDE4-based magic actually of benefit?

The "average" user who can't make folders to organize the piles of stuff 
they collect is likewise not a user that will navigate through the various 
gotchas and misfeatures and brokenness resulting from the migration to 
whatever KDE devs decided to embark on the wholesale changes made to KDE4.

And, judging from the lack of articles and tutorials newer than circa 2009 
about what to do with the New Improved KDE suggests that even its 
proponents don't have much to say about it either. We're at least 3 years 
into KDE4 and I assume well past its birthing pains and I still cannot see 
why the hassle of breaking so many KDE3 things was worth it. Will it still 
take another 3 years?

Fans of the changes - I'd like to know what I'm missing out on. KDE4 today 
looks pretty much like KDE 3.5.10 did years ago, except for the things it 
used to do back then that it isn't doing today, and the extra screwing 
around I and others have to do to make it work like it used to back then.

How has the upheaval and developer energy and use patience-testing been 
worth it?
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