Panarchy wrote:

It's not perfect, but it's usable!

Great work!

:thumbs_up:

Panarchy

I agree, but I still think that KDE 3.5 is perfect... within its own limited terms, of course. It's perfect in the sense that it probably can't be developed further.

I've just concluded four days of testing KDE 4.2.1, and it ended like every other test of KDE4 has from the beginning... and yet, I was very impressed. I consider KDE 4.2.1 to be the second best Desktop envronment I've ever used, and I completely support this project.

KDE4's biggest problem has always been that it has to compete with KDE3, but I think that slowly, we're all starting to understand that it's not really a problem. The best part of KDE4 for me is that it keeps the developers away from KDE3, which I'm pretty sure they'd ruin otherwise... not because they're not great at what they do, but because they're developers, and KDE3 doesn't need development. It needs maintenance, and I believe Aaron Seigo when he says that KDE3 will be maintained as long as it has a user base. I don't know how many KDE 3 die-hards there are out there, but I know they're still out there. Based on the discussion at our last meeting, it looks like my local LUG is still overwhelmingly pro KDE3. I was spooked when Kubuntu dropped KDE3, but there are still scores of distros that support KDE3, and as long somebody somewhere wants a KDE3 distro, there will be a KDE3 distro. I'm getting what I need, and I have no complaints.

And the developers need to develop. The future depends on us taking full advantage of these people. They're clearly talented, and dedicated, and way too creative not to be working on something new. Every new release shows that they're doing great work... and there's no doubt that KDE4 is much better looking, a true work of art, and way too beautiful to be dismissed as "eye candy".

Maybe someday KDE4 will finally win us all over. I won't be surprised if that happens, because the developers are never going to stop working toward that... or maybe after a few years of KDE3, there will be a fork... not because we're angry and feeling threatend, and want to defend that which does not need defending, but because someone has a good idea for a new direction, but considering the limitations of QT3, that doesn't seem very likely. I mean, if someone wants to write a new app for KDE3, they can just do it, right? There's no need for a fork. And, like I've said before, people who want "the same thing, only somehow different" are way too hard to please. If yo0u don't want KDE3 to change... well, guess what? You win!

So to sum up, KDE used to be the best desktop environment in the world, and now it's the two best desktop environments in the world. How is that not awesome?:shade:

Just a brief update. I decided that if I shuffle around my boxes, I can continue to use KDE4, so that's what I've done. In other words, I now have KDE4 running with Debian Lenny on my media/entertainment box, and I have KDE 3 running with Slackware on my "work" computer. This makes a lot of sense for me.

One thing is pretty clear, I am all about the KDE now! I used to be a fluxbox user. Fluxbox users are a cult if ever there was one, and not long ago someone who I introduced to fluxbox called me a traitor cause I'm getting into into KDE. He wasn't serious, of course, but I was somewhat embarrassed nonetheless.::-(

mm i think kde 3 can be developed further. there is place for kde 3.6 and enough improvements and additions to make it 3.6 and not 3.5.11

but i'd like to have kde 4 with the performance and functionality i have in kde 3

The great advantage of KDE3.5 over KDE4 is speed.

It's amazing once you get a bit used to KDE4, to try KDE3.5 again.
Some applications are opening much faster (example: thunderbird / really impressive difference).

I understood that KDE4 was supposed to be much faster than KDE3.5, and KDE4.3 is still far from KDE3.5 speed.

Well, I don't think they ever said it was faster. They said it uses less resources. You know how a car burns less gas at 30 MPH than at 60? I think it's the same principle.

Yeah, it's embarrassing, but since starting this thread, I've gone back to all KDE 3. When I hated KDE 4, I sort of expected that I was going to love it someday, because that was the process I had always gone through with new software so many times. Sometimes I even convinced myself that I had finally come to love KDE4, but I always came back to reality. Now, I no longer hate it. It's not really bad, it's just... second best.

I support KDE4. I think it's important that the team continue development in new directions, I see great promise here, but I just don't like using it.

And I don't have to. Now that Slackware is dropping KDE, it's pretty much all over. My plan for running KDE forever involves running a Slax 6.1.2 CD, mounting the HD as /home, creating a normal account, and changing the root password daily.

I just started a forum for KDE 3 refugees:

http://www.outkasts3510.hyperboards.com

There's been talk of forking, and seeing if a community takes shape to support us, but if all we want is to keep doing what we're doing, the trick with the slax CD works pretty good, I guess. For me, anyway. Any security problems from running old software ought to be minimized by the ability to refresh the / (root) partition when rebooting, while the /home partition remains constant. If you have a fair amount of RAM, you can install .tgz and .lzm packages to a Slax Ramdisk, and You can easily write a script to automate installing them from the hard drive en mass after rebooting. I think that and similar hacks may turn out to be the best solution, but that's just my opinion, based on my needs. I think we're going to try to form our own community, and if that happens, the community will decide what it needs.

blackbelt_jones wrote:
My plan for running KDE forever involves running a Slax 6.1.2 CD, mounting the HD as /home, creating a normal account, and changing the root password daily.

Why not just build it from source and share it as an unofficial repository for your distro?

Or https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kubuntu/Kde3/Jaunty , for example.
Chakra also have KDE3 packages, just on top of my head.

No offense, but I don't see why you make such a big fuss out of it blackbelt_jones. I was a happy KDE 3.5.10 user until a few months ago. Now I've upgraded to KDE4 because I think it's good enough for my needs.

In a similar way, some people still prefer Windows XP and keep using it. The difference is that KDE is free, which means that you're free to fix bugs and add new features. What if you can't code? Well, then you're pretty much in the same chair as if you were to use Windows, or Mac OS.