KDE's rough edges... what are your experiences?

[Michael]

Hi Frank,

Am Mon, 28 Oct 2013 20:36:02 +0100
schrieb Frank Steinmetzger <Warp_7 at gmx.de>:

> On Sun, Oct 27, 2013 at 07:54:09AM +0100, Michael wrote:
> > Hi peops,
> > […]
> > 3.) Widgets, plasmoids, generel KDE features: Yeah well, really nice
> > design (mostly), but from a usability standpoint? Often a mess.
> 
> Plasma is a constant source of annoyance for me. I never really
> understood the need for a second UI style next to the “normal” one.
> The many animations that can’t be switched off and low contrasts are
> causes of grievance for me. There are layout bugs (notifications on a
> friend’s machine pop up in three places simultaneously), redrawing
> bugs (flicker in the taskbar when switching desktops), UI bugs (the
> scrollbars don’t adhere to the usual GUI behaviour like middle-click)
> and feature regressions (ksysguard graphs are nigh-useless in a
> panel).

I guess one has to be fair here. I guess KDE4 is designed to be
feature-rich, beautiful, with many bells and whistles. One could argue,
it is not designed to be stripped down to a bare minimum. I may be
wrong, but I see it like a person walking in a car-salon, he wants to
buy some means of transportation. As he is offered some cars, he
complains that they need fuel, that they are so heavy, that they pollute
the environment, that they need constant maintenance, that they need so
much space. Don't go to a car-salon, if you really want a motorcycle or
even a bike.
But agreed, low contrast on the gauges, bad design decisions and the
overall buginess, is something a car-owner does not want.
Btw. what about that netbook-design? Isn't that something specifically
designed for lower-end hardware?


> > 4.) […] configuration tends be be trashed every now and then, from
> > one moment to the next (in the process of configuring KDE for
> > example, so no change to the installed packages or other changes to
> > the system) KDE may start to behave "weird".
> 
> Akonadi, the problem child for many, is a nice example with its (for
> this human) incomprehensible config and data file layout. When I back
> up my setup or want to sync two machines, I’m never really sure what
> files to include and exclude if I, for example, want to sync only my
> address book data between machines. I went akonadi-free for a while
> on the netbook, but eventually installed it again because KMail just
> fits best into my Qt-centric computing ecosystem (although I prefer
> Firefox as main browser).

Yeah, there are several features KDE offers, which are hard to not miss
if one chooses to switch to another DE. But as time goes by, other DEs
might fill the gaps. I really don't need much, Cinnamon or Mate are
almost there. But, we'll see. And one thing is sure, other DEs do have
a better QA-reputation, so we might get features without all the
stability issues.


> > […]
> > So, that all said, what do you guys, users and maybe even
> > developers of KDE, think? I don't want to come around as rude or
> > overly harsh, as really, I think KDE is a great Desktop
> > Environment, it just has some really rough edges.
> 
> Sometimes I find myself using XFCE or even Awesome on my netbook for
> their sheer speed and easy go on resources. But from a convenience
> standpoint, KDE beats them all with nice extra features (KIO, global
> keyboard shortcuts, range of consistent base-applications). And even
> though I have some issues with it now and then (like reliable and
> *easy* file transfer via Bluetooth), I come back to KDE every time,
> despite it taking 20 hours to compile on an Atom. ^^

Eeks! Those gentooers... I really don't get them. :)


> > Is it just me, or are others also thinking KDE could / should invest
> > more efforts in QA and maybe less in implementing new stuff?
> 
> I, too, sometimes think “It’s a grave bug and so old already, why
> doesn’t it get fixed?eleven?”, like bad scrolling distances in
> Dolphin. But I suppose part of why I can’t always be accomodated with
> my problems is my diminishing use case -- KDE on a weak netbook.
> Brightness control is really messed up on *my* machine right now (it
> works, but KDE and ACPI fight over control, so I get temporary
> lockups). But I’m not the majority, so I can’t expect everything to
> go smoothly in all cases. After all, you get what you pay for. ;o)

Well, sure. Corner-case bugs that only face under rare and uncommon
circumstances might have a lower priority. But first, we are not
talking about these bugs, second, bug is bug, every bug should be
fixed. Even if lower-priority bugs might take longer.


> I suppose right now the migration to 5.0 takes lots of developer
> resources, so I imagine fixing bugs in “obsolete” 4 gets even less
> attention. I attempted fixing bugs before (and sent a patch in two
> instances), but it requires lots of work to get into the code,
> especially in bigger projects like Amarok or KMail.

Oh, KDE4 is more or less in "maintenance-mode"? Err... scratch that. As
of now I still believe maintenance is something that does not apply
well to the KDE-kind-of development-style, so KDE4 is more or
less obsolete now? Well, it would fit the (current and as of now
unofficial) description. If KDE5 will have the same QA-style, I guess
KDE will go into the history books of open source software, as always
shiny but buggy to a degree that it may even be unusable.

> I thought of not sending this, as it is more like a collection of bug
> whining, but after having spent lots of time on composing, it would
> be a waste of electrons not to send it.

No worries, those electrons were well spent in my opinion. Especially
as this thread is more or less about "whining" anyway. And as different
kinds of annoyances get reported here, it just strengthens the overall
impression that I am right. But I must admit, I would be glad if I am
wrong here! :-/

slightly less optimistic
Michael
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