Re: KDE Community Working Group takes care of the community
Posted by: Anonymous
[ip: 74.60.28.190]
on September 05, 2008 10:34 AM
What are you smoking? I will say that I used KDE at first (from 2000 up to late 2006), but now I use GNOME because the the experience with KDE is that the devs just no longer care about the 3.x branch and they have basically consigned the desktop to a future of obscurity by releasing the monster that is KDE 4.x.
The 4.x branch had a lot of great ideas like Solid, but Plasma was poorly implemented and then used as the selling point the new branch. Features like mac-style menus are missing, and there is prety much no way to make the panel smaller than the default size. They should just bring back kicker or make the plasma panel have the same functionality. Secondly, everything about Plasma seems fake. It's really that bad. They took the desktop metaphor (eg, icons, panel, etc) and threw it all away.
There are bugs that are numerous, including one where trying to import a whole folder full of wallpapers into the wallpaper selection list just causes the folder's name to be selected in import box and then when you try again when you realise "whoops" and just select the one wallpaper you want BAM! it does acknowledge your selection.
Now this is comming from someone who abosolutely loved the KDE 3.x branch (3.5 rocked) but switched over when I saw the shit hit the fan with 4.x branch. Face it, 4.x probably will not be ready for the desktop until the 4.3 release at this rate. In fact they should not have released it until 2009 and maintained bug fixes in 3.5 along with a transition to QT4 which was also poorly handled.
And of course the most important thing to mention: KDE 4.x has only a few core apps which many are just shadows of their former selves. Amarok isn't ready, neither is KDevelop, KOffice, or K3B which are programs that people also will use on a day to day basis. Let's face it, with some of these programs (KOffice) estimating a stable release in 2010 it's obvious that things aren't going so well with the 4.x branch and if something isn't done soon to correct these mistakes then GNOME and XFCE are going to have a lot more users here soon and the debate over QT vs GTK will also be over if that happens.
Maybe if the KDE developers did something along the lines of just add in the functionality of the old 3.5.x branch, confine plasma to a more limited role as a layer above the desktop that displays widges (similar to adesklets but more functional), bring back kicker, and stop trying to be "revolutionary" then *MAYBE* people would not have been so resentful towards the release. But instead of a simple port to QT4, we had the "pleasure" of being force fed Plasma which in the end spoiled what would have been a great desktop.
Also I sincerely hope that KDE devs are reading this and taking this to heart because if you are going to release this on Windows too, I doubt you will get very far. However, I do want to end this on a good note and that is Okular is a great concept. I like what I'm seeing in the new KOffice but it's not exactly in a usable state right now. Amarok 2... I hope it looks more like the old Amarok when it's finally released. Also, I like the new scripting interface, that was a good move and so was solid. Integrating Strigi was nice but Nepomuk (spelling?) was horrible and I had to stop it becuase it was just stalling things up. I do see some potiential in 4.2 if you can bring back what 3.5 was to many of the users.
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Re: KDE Community Working Group takes care of the community
Posted by: Anonymous [ip: 74.60.28.190] on September 05, 2008 10:34 AMThe 4.x branch had a lot of great ideas like Solid, but Plasma was poorly implemented and then used as the selling point the new branch. Features like mac-style menus are missing, and there is prety much no way to make the panel smaller than the default size. They should just bring back kicker or make the plasma panel have the same functionality. Secondly, everything about Plasma seems fake. It's really that bad. They took the desktop metaphor (eg, icons, panel, etc) and threw it all away.
There are bugs that are numerous, including one where trying to import a whole folder full of wallpapers into the wallpaper selection list just causes the folder's name to be selected in import box and then when you try again when you realise "whoops" and just select the one wallpaper you want BAM! it does acknowledge your selection.
Now this is comming from someone who abosolutely loved the KDE 3.x branch (3.5 rocked) but switched over when I saw the shit hit the fan with 4.x branch. Face it, 4.x probably will not be ready for the desktop until the 4.3 release at this rate. In fact they should not have released it until 2009 and maintained bug fixes in 3.5 along with a transition to QT4 which was also poorly handled.
And of course the most important thing to mention: KDE 4.x has only a few core apps which many are just shadows of their former selves. Amarok isn't ready, neither is KDevelop, KOffice, or K3B which are programs that people also will use on a day to day basis. Let's face it, with some of these programs (KOffice) estimating a stable release in 2010 it's obvious that things aren't going so well with the 4.x branch and if something isn't done soon to correct these mistakes then GNOME and XFCE are going to have a lot more users here soon and the debate over QT vs GTK will also be over if that happens.
Maybe if the KDE developers did something along the lines of just add in the functionality of the old 3.5.x branch, confine plasma to a more limited role as a layer above the desktop that displays widges (similar to adesklets but more functional), bring back kicker, and stop trying to be "revolutionary" then *MAYBE* people would not have been so resentful towards the release. But instead of a simple port to QT4, we had the "pleasure" of being force fed Plasma which in the end spoiled what would have been a great desktop.
Also I sincerely hope that KDE devs are reading this and taking this to heart because if you are going to release this on Windows too, I doubt you will get very far. However, I do want to end this on a good note and that is Okular is a great concept. I like what I'm seeing in the new KOffice but it's not exactly in a usable state right now. Amarok 2... I hope it looks more like the old Amarok when it's finally released. Also, I like the new scripting interface, that was a good move and so was solid. Integrating Strigi was nice but Nepomuk (spelling?) was horrible and I had to stop it becuase it was just stalling things up. I do see some potiential in 4.2 if you can bring back what 3.5 was to many of the users.
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