hi, everyone

First of all, thanks all the hard work of all the developer bring us KDE4. As a user, I have few words for myself, and few words want to share about KDE4

Personally speaking, Qt4 is a great engine. Most Qt4 software looks very professional. I think the reason for that is because it takes advantage with 2D and it has a very simple default looks on it. GUI come from 2D, and since the beginning, people already try to make it more "3D" to impress the user, also try to make things more "realistic". Later, the "try to act 3D business" become the definition of "modern" of a GUI. Even today, people still use all kind of glassy, shiny, and pop up effect on GUI. Yes, in many case, it is very impressive at first. However, this impressiveness wouldn't let's for long. Just imagine you live a in room that everything is glass, and shiny, and kind of in your face, You will see what I meant.

I do believe, if it is a 2D thing, should take advantage of 2D, and shouldn't always act 3D. Glassy and shiny and shading? yes, but please don't do it everywhere. After all, I do think, the KDE4 desktop aren't so integrate and the same time no as original. Original or not is not very important in this case because if there if the something great already exist, why don't use it? However, integrate in the other hand is very important, it is the relationship between each element on the desktop, and how they work with each others. As the old KDE 4.1. It has a flat drawing menu, with a black shiny panel, and light gray matt windows. ??? I don't get it at all. It is like run the Windows Vista's notepad or wordpad. All the icon, and button are still the same as windows 98. (BTW I don't know they did any change to the software itself sense then. It just feel un-easy.

In term of virtual function, I they KDE4 did a great job on bring new feature as preview menu, and some the animation to make things more on flow between on to the others, and all the movement are very professional.

Personalizing on KDE4 is bad. There is always that plasma icon everywhere, why can't they make it just one? Or at the best, hidden it. It doesn't has to be there all the time, Once, everything is set, you will never hit that icon again for a while. And even that, not all the function are included one that little icon which is everywhere. Make a master GUI control center can easily solve this problem.

I have use a OpenSUSE for a long time, and pretty much I use their menu sense I use Linux. I know how it works, and yet, I don't think it is the best Menu I have use. If you give me the choice, it wouldn't use it. Reason, it is not fast enough. Every time, a person use a menu is try to get the thing they want, right away! Not digging it around. And they also want to see where things come from graphically. In this case, the tradition menu is the best choice to me. And here is my question, why you make a fixed size menu when no menu list are the same size? Why use a little corner of your screen, while you have the whole thing to use? And I use a 2 button tarball too. (use a KDE4 isn't a good enough reason for my to get a new mouse. Just like using Vista is not a good enough reason for me to get a new computer.) To me, it is good to have such menu, however, it would only keep it as a option. I mean let me choose what did the best for me. Don't give me what you think the best! (sounds like a parents and child talk, isn't it? hehe)

The reason I start with the look because it is the first impression of and GUI, so it would make sense to think about the "look" first for any GUI. It is very important because it determent how comfortable the user is with the GUI. The more the use comfortable with the GUI, they faster they can work, and the more they will like it. After all, Computer are there to get things done, not there to prove what technology can do.

I term of function KDE4, they is still a lot of issue, it will take forever take go over it one by one. BUT I think the KDE team run too far ahead, and kind of miss out the reality. To me, KDE4.0 and KDE4.1 are almost un-usable. They are more beta1 and beta2. I do believe, people staying with KDE today are still in love with KDE3.5. I understand this is a Open Sources project, and developer are limited. Keeping two different Project going on the same time, would be painful. But for the pass year, I do think KDE had lost a lot of user, due to the rock stable haven't been up to date for so long, and the new version aren't ready yet. Develop management can done better. It can be a die end, if the Develop management are poorly done. Think about it, if the Qt engine is develop much faster than KDE. before, KDE4 is solid, Qt5 come out, and most of the KDE4 life is all not-yet-ready releases. And when KDE4 is finally solid, The next release is a un-solid KDE5? So at the end, KDE is a not-yet-ready product. I perfectly understand that it is a good idea, to give a release for the people, and let them test it out, so at the end, you get a great release. But, they about it, No one like to use out of date product in the computer world. Just like Windows. Even though Windows Vista Suck! People still want to use it. Or even protecting it because one or two function they miss in XP. It should be the developer's vision determent the how the release should be. Don't use the user as white mouse to help you test a release, Don't finalize the release when it is not ready to a point, that developer think it is. In this case, KDE4 developer knows the release is not ready and wouldn't be ready until at least KDE4.2. which it is a good thing because it is going to be release in 2 days. That is a really great news. I mean if KDE4 is a very important step of KDE, then please take the time, it really need. A year is not that long. (counting from that last KDE3.5 release.) Keeping two project going on at the same time is a good idea to keep the user on going with KDE, and more developer would join the group, on both main stream and 3rd party software.

At least, I wish KDE4 wouldn't have a great future, as well as learning from it's mistake. Once again, thanks all the developer for their hard work.

I post this, not because I hate KDE4 or complaining anything. I post this because, I likes KDE4 a lot, and I case. It is like you really want to love something, and logically, it is not yet good enough yet, and you keep waiting. haha

In terms of KDE history, KDE 4 is a KDE 2. It was in KDE 2 that Konqueror, KIO, etc appeared. Moving to KDE 3 was a virtually direct port I believe, much smoother than the KDE 3 -> KDE 4 port. The primary reason for this was because the KDE 2 infrastructure was still extremely flexible, and didn't have to be completely redone for KDE 3, therefore they just ported directly, no refactors.

KDE 4 on the other hand, could not port systems such as Kicker because they were not Platform agnostic, were easily broken adding features or fixing bugs and had architectural bugs that required rewrites to fix. Therefore when KDE 5 comes around, most of the technology of KDE 4 will likely be directly ported, with some minor cleanups and little loss of functionality.

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ioky wrote:wall of words...

OK I only skimmed through your post, but I can inform you about few things you
rant about:
- You can hide "cashew" (plasma logo) with "I hate the cashew widget or with moving it
while widgets are unlocked to the bottom and then covering it with panel...
-You can change widget look if you don't like the current look (I hope that's what you meant with widget glossiness and 3D vs. 2D...)
-You can change Kickoff menu with something else; like the normal KDE3 menu or with
Lancelot, then there is Raptor which can be compiled from code (and there are other menus coming...) Or you can use Krunner instead and don't have a menu at al...