Kontact "unable to create calendar"

[huw]

On Saturday 08 Mar 2014 21:43:03 Duncan wrote:

> FWIW, that's almost certainly why you were using such an old version.
> Kmail 1, as shipped with early kde4, wasn't akonadified yet.  Kmail2 is
> the akonadified version, and first shipped with kdepim 4.6, tho kdepim
> version numbers weren't synced with the monthly kde releases until 4.7,
> and upstream support for kdepim 4.4 continued thru kde 4.7 and some
> distros continued to ship it for 4.8 as well.  After 4.8 however, while a
> few distros continue to ship the old kdepim 4.4 in ordered to avoid the
> akonadification and yours is apparently one of them, it has gotten
> increasingly difficult to do so as kdelibs and etc move on and various
> minor bits break, plus it's old enough now few people consider it in
> support contexts any more, thus the situation we saw here.
> 
> Anyway, if you're actually using the event calendar and etc, then a newer
> kdepim may eventually make sense for you, particularly a later one like
> kde 4.12, since (they claim, I won't touch kdepim at all these days so I
> wouldn't personally know) many of the bugs have been worked out by now,
> and the kdepim suite integration akonadi makes possible can be considered
> a bonus in that situation.
> 
> But it still doesn't make sense for the people who pretty much only used
> kmail, and for whom the rest of the groupware is simply bloatware.
> That's why many of us have moved to other solutions.  I and others have
> been quite happy with the gtk-based claws-mail (the migration was a pain
> but I've been very happy I did it), and others have switched to
> thunderbird.  I've seen a few that switched to evolution, but since
> that's basically groupware too, particularly for people who prefer to
> stick with a kde desktop in general, that's a lot of extra bloat too,
> since it brings in much more of gnome.

It raises a question in my mind.  I will probably sound like yet another 
whiner and I'm sure it's been said before on this list, but why oh why have 
the KDE devs persisted with Akonadi?  I know that I'm far from alone in having 
experienced multiple issues with it, when Kmail1 worked just fine.  There's 
just bug after bug after bug, problem after problem.  Every solution, every 
temporary workaround, has involved fiddling deep within config files for this 
most maligned of daemons.  I strongly doubt they've had a single email from 
someone thanking them for the life-saving addition of this problematic, 
hellish...whatever Akonadi is.  What benefit has it brought anyone?  I've 
often criticised the Gnome team since Gnome 3.x for trying to make too many 
decisions for the users, but KDE's insistence on Akonadi makes me look rather 
hypocritical.

With regard to groupware - apparently, wanting mail + calendar puts me in the 
category of people who need groupware.  So be it, but again I have to ask why 
Akonadi is a must.  Thunderbird apparently manages to integrate mail + 
calendar quite well.  Whenever I've had a problem with Kmail I've switched to 
Thunderbird temporarily and always been quite pleased with it.  However I'm 
something of a KDE fanboy - despite its ongoing issues - and I actually /want/ 
the "semantic desktop" experience or whatever they're calling it.  Here's an 
example: the system clock, sitting right there in my systray.  I /like/ that I 
can click on it and bring up a little calendar that has integrated perfectly 
with my Kontact calendar.

Anyway.  I just clicked About, and apparently I'm using Kmail 1.13.7 on KDE 
development platform 4.12.1, so it looks like SolydXK is managing to bundle 
Kmail1 rather than Kmail2.  As long as they can keep it working, I'll be 
grateful.  Akonadi seems capable (thus far) of handling my calendar, but the 
longer I can keep my mail out of its satanic clutches, the happier I will be.

Huw
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