I am a long time KDE user since version 2 point something, and a SuSE user since version 6.2. Currently my daily usage is on KDE 3.5.10. I run winDOHS only when absolutely necessary for software not available on Linux. I am running an AMD Athlon Dual Core X64_64 version. I have 2GB of RAM and an NVidia Quadro FX1400 card with 256MB of memory.

Over the past several days I downloaded the latest versions from the openSUSE repositories for release 4.2 and have been trying it. There is definitely a lot to like, but I have found myself going back to 3.5 for the moment.

I really want to like the new version, I do! Currently my biggest downsides are speed, it is so painfully slow to do some things that on 3.5 are not an issue.

Example, opening a directory of images in Konqeuror file manager mode vs. same direct in Dolphin. Previews in Dolphin take at least 3 times longer for a directory of roughly 6,000 images. Another issue is just the simple issue of starting an application, most of the time is slower than 3.5 from what I've experienced on my machine.

I realize some of the blame for speed may be on NVidia and the binary driver. The most current version made available on openSUSE repository is 180 and I've seen reports of 188 being better, not sure what impact that will have when I get there.

Another concern is the usability experience. Hate to pick on Dolphin, but this was just maddening and the main cause for me to go back to 3.5. The simple act of selecting one file in icon mode, and then holding shift and select another file to select a block, does not work on my installation. Holding down the mouse and control selects one file at a time and you can drag over the display to select a range (which is god awful slow compared to Konqueror again) is not intuitive. Not sure if this a bug in the release posted on openSUSE or what, but doesn't seem normal to me.

Still, all in all, I do like the release, will have to get used to the Plasma desktop theory, but that will come to me in time. As new releases are updated on openSUSE I will retry things, but overall for now, some functionality in applications I use daily are not yet ported to 4.2 and the speed and file manager just doesn't work for me in the present state.

If there is something configuration wise someone thinks I'm missing that could make a difference, please let me know. Just wanted to supply a point of view from one experience.

DMCorsa wrote:Example, opening a directory of images in Konqeuror file manager mode vs. same direct in Dolphin. Previews in Dolphin take at least 3 times longer for a directory of roughly 6,000 images. Another issue is just the simple issue of starting an application, most of the time is slower than 3.5 from what I've experienced on my machine.

Please report this optimization request/bug to http://bugs.kde.org . If people don't report things like this they will never be fixed as some developers don't even know there is a problem with it.

DMCorsa wrote:Another concern is the usability experience. Hate to pick on Dolphin, but this was just maddening and the main cause for me to go back to 3.5. The simple act of selecting one file in icon mode, and then holding shift and select another file to select a block, does not work on my installation. Holding down the mouse and control selects one file at a time and you can drag over the display to select a range (which is god awful slow compared to Konqueror again) is not intuitive. Not sure if this a bug in the release posted on openSUSE or what, but doesn't seem normal to me.

This is also a bug, everything is working fine for me. Please report it to your distribution first, if they think it's not their fault report it to KDE.

What happened to the cool spinning scrollbar and progress bar, and where is the NetworkManager applet? I plan on fully moving on to kde 4.2 but am kinda annoyed with the dissappearence of the spinning eyecandy and no NetworkManager applet.

EDIT:

BTW, I'm not using SUSE. I'm using Sabayon Linux, its a Distro that has branched off of Gentoo. Much nicer in my opinion.

Don't confuse kde 4.2 from openSUSE factory repo with kde 4.2 stable: the kde 4.2 packages in Factory are in development for openSUSE 11.2, they are unstable by definition!
I'm a big openSUSE fan, but I don't recommend the factory repos for daily use.

RGB wrote:Don't confuse kde 4.2 from openSUSE factory repo with kde 4.2 stable: the kde 4.2 packages in Factory are in development for openSUSE 11.2, they are unstable by definition!
I'm a big openSUSE fan, but I don't recommend the factory repos for daily use.

Nope, I'm using the KDE 4.2 STABLE repositories, not the factory.

Zarin wrote:

DMCorsa wrote:Example, opening a directory of images in Konqeuror file manager mode vs. same direct in Dolphin. Previews in Dolphin take at least 3 times longer for a directory of roughly 6,000 images. Another issue is just the simple issue of starting an application, most of the time is slower than 3.5 from what I've experienced on my machine.

Please report this optimization request/bug to http://bugs.kde.org . If people don't report things like this they will never be fixed as some developers don't even know there is a problem with it.

DMCorsa wrote:Another concern is the usability experience. Hate to pick on Dolphin, but this was just maddening and the main cause for me to go back to 3.5. The simple act of selecting one file in icon mode, and then holding shift and select another file to select a block, does not work on my installation. Holding down the mouse and control selects one file at a time and you can drag over the display to select a range (which is god awful slow compared to Konqueror again) is not intuitive. Not sure if this a bug in the release posted on openSUSE or what, but doesn't seem normal to me.

This is also a bug, everything is working fine for me. Please report it to your distribution first, if they think it's not their fault report it to KDE.

I reported this on the openSUSE forum as you suggest. I'll let you know if I get a response to it. Thanks for the feedback.

RGB wrote:Don't confuse kde 4.2 from openSUSE factory repo with kde 4.2 stable: the kde 4.2 packages in Factory are in development for openSUSE 11.2, they are unstable by definition!

Sure, but if everything that's "unstable by definition" were that stable I'd be in heaven! The only drawback (for me that is, others mileage may vary) is that by using factory you get a couple of hundreds of megs to download on a rather regular basis (then again, I'm using quite a few extra repos apart from the KDE4 unstables ones so I only have myself to blame...)

Just an FYI - I downloaded new versions from the openSUSE repositories tonight (yes, couple hundred megs worth ) and the file selection issue I mentioned in Dolphin now appears to work as expected. YAY! When I have the opportunity over the weekend again I'll have another go at using 4.2 more regularly and see if the performance has also improved. Perhaps the releases on the openSUSE repositories are still playing catchup.

KDE is a great product of great minds. Thanks to all always for everything you do!

DMCorsa wrote:Nope, I'm using the KDE 4.2 STABLE repositories, not the factory.

The only STABLE kde4 in openSUSE is 4.1.3. If you have 4.2 you are using factory.
On a side note, I found on this blog (ranked in planet suse) the following statement:

... in about 3-4 months Factory is expected to move to KDE 4.3 beta - and this will cause you serious problems if you don’t pay attention

RGB wrote:

DMCorsa wrote:Nope, I'm using the KDE 4.2 STABLE repositories, not the factory.

The only STABLE kde4 in openSUSE is 4.1.3. If you have 4.2 you are using factory.
On a side note, I found on this blog (ranked in planet suse) the following statement:

... in about 3-4 months Factory is expected to move to KDE 4.3 beta - and this will cause you serious problems if you don’t pay attention

Hmmm. I had found a note somewhere that stated the current 4.2 Factory were the 4.2 stable release for the time being until they get them repositioned. I'll keep an eye on it I guess since they don't seem to be too well organized in this regard at the moment. Thanks for making me aware of that.

Well well, all in all life is still beautiful
none of your problems happen to me, the only thing that's happening is that Oxygen theme is slow for me due to lots of smooth and gradients and I'm using plastik + notebook window deco.

that inscreased the speed of the system a bit. also, yakuake instead of konsole for the bash-minded

The KDE team keeps getting attacked by reviewer and podcaster for the bold new ideas in 4.x. I think the team deserves a lot of credit!

4.0: scared me to death...
4.1: was a lot better...
4.2: The desktop navigation, functionality and context menu on the Debian LiveCD was Great.

I look forward to trying out the new beta of Kubuntu 4.2.

Cheer! :thumbs_up: