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Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Cyber Cynic

KDE 4.1 still isn't for me

16 comments

TAGS:KDE, Linux, Linux desktop
IT TOPICS:Desktop Applications, Linux, Open Source, Operating Systems, Software

A new version of one of the two major Linux desktops, KDE and GNOME, came out today: KDE 4.1 While I don't hate it, I don't see myself switching over from KDE 3.5.9 either.

That said, I will say KDE 4.1 is an improvement over the last 4.x version. I hated 4.04. I disliked it so much that I suggested that it might be best to fork KDE into wherever it was that KDE 4 was going and restart major development work on the KDE 3.5 branch.

After working with KDE 4.1, the release candidate, for the last few days, I'm ready to eat some of my words, but not all of them. I gave the new KDE a trial run on my main Linux desktop. This is an HP A6040N Pavilion Desktop PC with its 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 dual-core processor and 2GB of RAM and 320 GB of SATA hard drive with openSUSE 11. I also tried it on my Gateway 503GR. This system has a 3GHz Pentium IV CPU, 2GB of RAM, an ATI Radeon 250 graphics card, and a 300GB SATA hard drive. On this system, I was running Kubuntu 8.04.

I'm still vexed that KDE 4.1's Plasma interface's insists that icons must live in Folder View rather than on the desktop itself. There are ways around this, but I just don't get the point of the switch in the first place. To me, insisting that icons be in folders is just a nuisance.

One of the things I love about KDE 3.5.x is that it gave me enormous control of both the operating system and the desktop itself. KDE 4.1 simply doesn't allow me all the customization power I'm used to using.

On the plus side, it does enable me to reset some things back to the way I like them. For example, I can use Konqueror, the dual-purpose file and Web manager of KDE 3.5x, as well as the newer Dolphin file manager. In addition, I can go back to the old menu style with a right click and picking "l and choose Switch to Classic Menu Style."

Now that it's out of beta, I also found KDE 4.1 to run much faster. With the debugging code removed and the use of Qt 4, KDE 4.1 is clearly both faster and uses less memory than KDE 3.5.x. I also found KDE 4.1 to be quite stable, which is more than I could say for KDE 4.04.

KDE also has a new look courtesy of both its Oxygen icon set and its use of SVG (scalable vector graphics) to draw the desktop. Add on to this the use of common tools between KDE applications, and you have an attractive and cohesive desktop.

Unfortunately, the KDE applications haven't been keeping pace with the Plasma desktop. Amarok, the KDE music player, isn't even beta yet and many KOffice applications are still in beta. The full KDE application suite simply isn't in sync with KDE 4.1 yet.

So, to sum up, KDE 4.1 is faster, more stable and more attractive than KDE 3.5.9. It still needs the rest of the KDE software family to catch up though before I can recommend most users give it a serious try for daily use.

Me? I'll be sticking with the older KDE. I prefer my old icons and control over KDE 4.1's new faster look. I know to some KDE 4.1, with its underlying Nepomuk, a semantic desktop layer, represents a new paradigm in desktop computing. Sorry, I just don't see it.

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give me back my kde3.5

Submitted by Joe on November 10, 2008 - 6:14 A.M.

Installing kubuntu 8.1 I inherited kde4.1 by default, so to speak (10 nov 2008). My first impression was: disaster (Sorry to the developers, I know you spent a lot of time to create this, but it appears this is not for me).
Let me give you my essential criteria: I don't want to learn the quirky new ways of a group of excited developers, trying to show of skills.
Looking at the new kde menu and desktop, I feel lost, invaded, like a test animal in a developer laboratory, trying to find out how much pain I can take.
The whole desktop behavior, konqueror / dolphin, the menu are dramatically different. Even konsole now looks like an antsy-pantsy candy-store toy. Sorry so much radical change is too much for me. I thought people have learned something Micro$oft's Vista disaster. Not so much by the looks of it. (Sorry for being ignorant of the finer details of this new kde. I guess I don't appreciate them).

Let me say this: If I want eye-candy - I will buy a Mac. My friend has got one and I will admit the hardware is sexy to a degree, but working on it I feel repelled by some of Apple's counter-intuitive ways of doing things. That's were I always felt in the advantage using KDE. Now KDE seems to try to emulate some of the Apple ways. Unbelievable!

I worked on KDE for more than 8 years and I felt comfortable and in control over my machines. Limitations were only a feature of hardware. Now I feel limited by software and out of my comfort zone. (I never thought I could be that emotional about my work desktop. But there you go.)

I may not have spent enough time to fully appreciate all the workings, but being a consultant, time is not what I have in surplus. I may try Enlightenment or even the loathed, mono-burdened GNOME.

To the developers of KDE4.1: what an un-necessary risk to take trying to force people onto an essentially new, unfamiliar interface! Why knock people on their heads like this? Was not giving people a choice one of the basic ideologies behind the KDE concept. Back to the drawing board!

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kde 4.1 changes

Submitted by jeanne on November 10, 2008 - 12:24 A.M.

I am sad, as a perfectly good and easy to master user interface (kde3.5), has been changed to a degree, where I still have difficulties to do all, that I was able to do in kde 3.5.
I understand developers want to make changes to keep themselves interested. But in this case, I don't recognize the menu anymore, navigating in it is cumbersome and everything looks alien. Many of the changes appear to want to emulate the MacOS, for no better reason as to copy dis-funtional eye-candy.
Why don't they make changes that are optional?
So a user can gradually work herself/himself slowly into the new things.
I think I may try Gnome in future.

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I love Folderview ! It

Submitted by Eruaran on August 16, 2008 - 12:20 P.M.

I love Folderview ! It really doesn't take long to get used to it at all, and now when I'm using a desktop that doesn't have it, I miss it !

Folderview plasmoids are a killer feature.

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lost in KDE 4

Submitted by Anonymous on March 9, 2009 - 12:16 A.M.

Change for change sake is counterproductive. I don't want more eye candy I want speed stability and security. I want to be able to put whatever I want on my desktop. I don't like folder view. I usually download to my desktop but under KDE 4 I have know idea where it's putting the files! I don't want to go a hunting. When I say download to home\user\desktop I expect the file to appear on my DESKTOP! Not in some sub-folder never land! I hate following chains of links to find an executable. I wind up with multiple copies of things and my system of files which I have used for years is now a shambles.

This is exactly the kind of thing that made me stop using MS products!

Well at least with Linux I'm not stuck with it. Good try KDE folks, but you went to far.

I hate folder view, I resent being FORCED to do things the way I don't want to, If I wanted to change my way of doing things for no good reason I wouldn't have formated away Vista.. It's a shame really. I guess I'll go back to KDE 3.x

Well At least there is GNOME.

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Folder View

Submitted by TechProphet on August 6, 2008 - 2:05 P.M.

I love the new Folder view plasmas! Now that I use them, I'm going to have to write a gDesklet for them before I even think about returning to GNOME (which was my previous DE of choice). I understand from your post that you don't like them. Fine. And I agree that they should give the users a choice between Folder View plasmas and a 'normal' desktop. But you shouldn't discourage everyone from using them just because you don't like them. I use them to show my home folder, as well as my current website under development AND my desktop (which I have made very small as it is normally empty).

Just FYI, I am one of those people who immediately remove everything from my desktop into a designated folder of my home directory.

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Where did it put my icons, and why?

Submitted by BobR on March 9, 2009 - 12:27 A.M.

I'm sure you have your socks labeled by day of the week. You probable completed a draft of your 2009 taxes and think Monk is to disorganized and messy.

I'm one of those people who WORK off my desktop. When I'm done I file them. I D/L to my desktop them move the file where I want it. When I do that with KDE 4 I have no idea where it goes. I closed the initially created folder view and it's gone. Where is everything? Where did it go? Why did they put that there? Why when I right click on an icon I can't see properties? Whats with the annoying sidebar on my icons? Network manager doesn't work, for me until NM works KDE 4 is BETA.

I have a few applications that I use a lot. I want them quickly available.

I don't want to be more than ONE CLICK away from the things I use a lot.

If you like clicking through 45 layers of sub-folders so you can open a terminal fine, I'm not that much of a masochist.

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KDE 4.1

Submitted by DigitaLink on August 2, 2008 - 8:59 P.M.

I was majorly disappointed in KDE 4.0.x. Enough that I switched to Gnome. 4.1 might be enough to win me back ... but now I'm so used to Gnome, it's going to be a tough sell.

Steven, I think you have some valid points, and I think you're suffering a bit from "I don't want to change" syndrome. And there's nothing wrong with that. KDE3 was a fantastic series of desktop environments. Leaps and bounds over KDE2. But it wasn't without it's early growing pains either.

I think the big difference here is that this time, the devs weren't trying to make another "me too" desktop that looked and worked like everything else out there. They wanted a new paradigm. Lots of folks just aren't ready for one though. And that's okay. I call this one the difference between a manual and automatic transmission. MOST people want an automatic. Something they can just jam in "D" and go. Others swear by a manual. (I'm one!) KDE4 so far is a manual ... and maybe by 4.3 or 4.4 they'll be some kind of slick new CVT. And hopefully by 4.2 they'll at least make it to automatic with manual mode.

Sorry for the transmission analogy ... I'm part gear head too.

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Same here.

Submitted by Anonymous on August 6, 2008 - 2:14 A.M.

About all I can say is: me too. I had the same reaction to the stale 3.5.x series (to switch to gnome) and have gotten comfy with it as well. That's too bad; I've used kde since 2.x.

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Folder View

Submitted by Anonymous on July 30, 2008 - 4:14 P.M.

Some people seem unable to accept some changes. The concept behind folder view is that instead of your desktop being a set of icons in a certain folder (named conveniently ~/Desktop), your desktop is a set of widgets/plasmoids. One of these plasmoids is a folder view which you can place anywhere you want and point it at whatever folder you want and filter what it shows to whatever you want. You can even make its background transparent so that it is as though the icons were right on the 'desktop'

I for one am excited for this because I've thought it would be an interesting (yet unvoiced) idea for some time (this and having a terminal embedded directly in the desktop). Plus, you could also think of it as a (super) light-weight file browser on your desktop. (at least from what I can tell, I haven't actually used them, but I want to).

The problem that people have with it is that it makes you think differently, and people aren't used to that idea. Instead of having icons representing files/folders in one given folder, you have views showing files/folders in different places.
This then brings up the questions of How do you normally use the (icons on the) desktop? and How can you incorporate this new paradigm onto your desktop to improve your organization and productivity?

I see it all as a very good thing and look forward to seeing the full fruits of the KDE 4 innovation (which we are still just beginning to see).

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folder view

Submitted by ScottC on August 3, 2008 - 7:57 P.M.

The folder view is a solution looking for a problem. You can scream until you're blue in the face about how great it is. I just don't want it and it's not because I don't like change. I'm all for change if it's for the better. If I want to group files on the desktop, I'll put a folder on the desktop. It's simple and works fine.

I see that I can rotate folder views too. Oh boy! Meanwhile I can't even make a launcher to an app that's not in the menus. This annoys me to no end. Please prove me wrong on this. I keep hoping I just haven't found the way yet.

That said, the new look and feel is great. Qt 4 is great, and I see a lot of potential. Maybe KDE 4.2 will be for me if they un-geek it a bit.

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