If KDE4 is emphasizing the "Semantic Social" Desktop, and you have determined you do not need or want a "Semantic Social" desktop environment, would you advise your client(s) to choose another desktop for a better fit, or can KDE4 in some capacity still be an efficient productive choice? In other words, can the "Semantic Social" components in KDE4 be turned off permanently?

Am I wrong, or can a user still use KDE4, just not the PIM applications? So the user would have to find replacements for KMail, Agregator, KNotes, KAlarm and applications on this site: http://community.kde.org/KDE_PIM

But they still could use Kate, KDevelop, KCalc, KSnapShot, and other apps like GIMP, Blender, InkScape, LibreOffice, with no problems. And of course Qt-Creator, Netbeans, Eclipse should all be okay. Just stay away from native KDE PIM applications.

From what I have read, it is my understanding that the "Semantic Social" Desktop can be permanently disabled (KDE 4.3+) by going to:

"Configure Desktop" -> "Workspace Appearance and Behavior" ->
"Desktop Search" -> "Basic Setting" and
uncheck "Enable Nepomuk Semantic Desktop"
uncheck "Enable Strigi Desktop File Indexer"

But the component software like, Nepomuk, Strigi, Akonadi, Virtuoso, Soprano, etc, can not be uninstalled in KDE4.

If the above is true, today and for tomorrows, it seems like KDE4 could still be a long-term viable recommendation to client(s) who do not need or want a "Semantic Social" Desktop.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

Thank you.

You can use gentoo and install kde with the -semantic-desktop option and you will get rid of this features.

I can confirm that the statement regarding the capability to disable Nepomuk is certainly correct.

You do want to ensure that you disable the display of Events in the Plasma Clock as well however - otherwise Akonadi will be started (it cannot be disabled - however it only starts when an application requests it's services)

That is great to know that a distribution is offering a -semantic-desktop option.

Clock -> Calendar -> "no events". Got it.
I have checked the local options (via "Configure Desktop") and at the system level too (via "/etc/kd4/share/config", "/etc/akonadi").

I was contemplating writing a monitoring script to run in the background that checked, logged, and issued stop commands (via qdbus or kquitapp). If the client has determined that they do not need or want the "Semantic Social" Desktop, this could meet their requirements and buy them some time.

Thank you.