I decided to try KDE 4.2.2 today to decide if it has advanced sufficiently to replace v3.5.10 and immediately found that unfortunately it still fails to do the job. The ridiculously scattered configuration options and unnecessary back and forth in system settings makes KDE 4.2.2 an absolute nightmare. Then of course there's dolphin, the nearly useless replacement for konqueror. In KDE 4.2.2 even konqueror is a disappointment when compared to the version that's part of KDE 3.5.10. Add to this the unnecessarily space wasting clock and system tray.

Snapshot of my KDE 3.5.10 desktop

In v3.5.10 I have an upper panel with the clock, system tray, and launchers for groups of apps I often use. Unfortunately when I try to do this with v4.2.2 the panel's space is wasted by the unnecessarily long system tray and clock. Another disappointment is the inability to change the clock's font size.

I have to say that though time has passed, KDE4 is still "The great disappointment".

The "Space Wasting" clock and system tray is simply because Plasma allocates all space in the Panel. Plasmoids will automatically shrink as you add more Plasmoids ( such as that large array of icons ).

A spacer plasmoid is available from kde-look I believe.
The clock automatically determines the appropriately needed font size for optimum display.
The clock format you show ( with the date to the side of the time ) is not possibly currently, even on 4.3, so please file a feature request if it does not already exist.

Finally, please define how Dolphin is "nearly useless", and what is wrong with Konqueror.

tekwyzrd - kde 4.2.2 is NOT kde 3.5.10

I have eight different panels set up under 4.2.2 in a way that 3.5.10 could never dream of. This way each panel performs a different tasks - all neatly separated.

Learn first, slag off later.

i am disappointed with exactly 3 things in kde 4

performance

konqueror

no noatun-style player

i think i dont have to expand

but except them its great desktop

@tek : if you use archlinux there is easy way to fix the conflict between kde 3 and 4 and install both

Hi everyone.
I just want to share my opinion around the "new" KDE (4/4.2/4.2.2) .
To be nice I will take the good thing first. Anyway it want be to much to write about it.
1. The Desktop folder is back and interact with the "container" < is that what you call it btw?

2.... ? I cant remember that one,but that is not really important since there is a lot that is not good in KDE any longer.

Lets go to the problems/negative things.
1. It is starting to look more like windows vista, is it only my opinion?
I ask because I don`t use vista much,but from what I have seen with the icons and plasma-things-widgets or whatever its called is more like what I did first see in vista,even though I did
use Karamba before vista came,but then that was a choice I did make.

2. Plasma. What is the point of making something this? It drains CPU and RAM,and sometimes it even locks itself on high cpu-usage. I would not have seen this as a big problem if it hasn`t been for that. But when it suddenly drains 40% and more of my CPU and does not stop before I log out and then back in then this is a problem and then I dont like plasma.

3. As mentioned here before, Dolphin. It`s just not good. In many ways,but I will take one problem I just met yesterday. I did unpack a file and when it was done it did not show correct size,and I had to close all dolphin windows to get it right. Thats not good. And one more thing I remember was when I did try copy files that had been on a computer with usage of ISO- and not UTF-8,well he would not copy files that had 3 special letters we use in norway. Ok,so I wanted to rename them,but it did not work either. The files could not be copied or changed. So,Dolphin could be a lot better,but before it does,it should not be made as the default file manager. And YES I know I can change,but its not the point what I can do.

4. The panels. I could change colour and transparency easy with right click and so on before,not any longer. If there is a way I can change my colour of the panel then I would love to know it btw. But to look at the bright side,the panel looks pretty and I like the way sys-tray is organized.

5. and last (for now) . I cant really see the reason for the major changes that came with KDE 4 and above. Its better to make things that works well even better than starting something totally new that in one way puts the development back to a new idea that needs more fixing and what happens when its is close to being perfect again? Start a new project?
Another thing that I think is bad is the way people that has an opinion about KDE 4.X is talked to. I dont say that the ones making KDE should change KDE because there is users that have complaints,but to treat them bad with comments that makes people feel they should not say anything, the kinda: "like it or get lost"-attitude is not what I feel the Linux community is about. So why act hostile to people that liked the work that was done before,and have problems with the new "BIG" idea? People that has opinions around KDE and provide informations/complaints in a decent way is often met with a hostile replay that looks like there is no good way to justify the new developing. I expect a lot more in forums regarding Linux than what I can see in other forums that has people that when they cant argument in a good way they are just met with. "you`re an idiot" kinda messages.

I have used KDE since 2001, don`t remember the version. And I still like it,but there are things that I liked better with the last ones before 4.x came.

One person that I did see justifying KDE 4 and the container said something like " I just hate to see desktops people have with icons all over the desktop" . It was very easy to keep it nice an simple with no mess on the desktop before KDE 4,I did manage it,and if the developer that said that have big problems with a messy desktop there was nobody forcing him to have it the same way,but he did in one way say that he wanted everyone to like what he like. KDE was and still has the possible to make messy or organized,nobody need to hear **** like that. The person was btw just asking about that the folder for Desktop was removed as default. And he did write nice,decent and did not complain,just wanted an answer. He did get an answer,but the worst answer ever. No good reason other than what he "hates" of what others did do with their desktop. Be nice people. We all are friends are we not?

My sincere regards, Harakiri, Norway.

Issue 3: they are both bugs, so if they haven't been filed already, please file them, so that they can be fixed in KDE 4.3.

Issue 1: being resolved with the new "Air" theme which looks nothing like Vista, hopefully will be shipped as part of KDE 4.3.

Issue 2: sounds like a bug in one of the Plasmoids you use. Try and determine the cause, and if it is a Plasmoid supplied by KDE, then file a bug report ( if one hasn't already )

Issue 4: It is up to the theme to decide the colour. I believe an addition was made to themes capabilities which will make this easier to implement.

Issue 5: The code of Kicker was unmaintainable, and contained many hacks, which was the reason for Plasma. Also, they needed to port to Qt4, since Qt3 was no longer under active development.

bcooksley wrote:Issue 1: being resolved with the new "Air" theme which looks nothing like Vista, hopefully will be shipped as part of KDE 4.3.

No, but now people are complaining it looks too much like Win7 instead...there's just no pleasing some people I guess.

Then again, what do I know...since I've never felt that KDE4 resembles Vista all that much.

harakiri wrote:And one more thing I remember was when I did try copy files that had been on a computer with usage of ISO- and not UTF-8,well he would not copy files that had 3 special letters we use in norway. Ok,so I wanted to rename them,but it did not work either. The files could not be copied or changed.

That sounds more like a problem with your locale-settings. I've never had that problem with either norwegian, swedish, or german characters in filenames.

I think that all before my told you the differneces between KDE3 and KDE4.
Don't be disappointed just because it's not same as the previous version of KDE.
I seen your desktop screenshot and I belive that my desktop is very similar to yours.



I use Bare Naked theme which is completely transparent with compositing enabled.
I also use 4 panles one on top and three on bottom of screen.
As you can see KDE4 is as configural as KDE3 it just looks and feels diferent.

Kryten2X4B wrote:

harakiri wrote:And one more thing I remember was when I did try copy files that had been on a computer with usage of ISO- and not UTF-8,well he would not copy files that had 3 special letters we use in norway. Ok,so I wanted to rename them,but it did not work either. The files could not be copied or changed.

That sounds more like a problem with your locale-settings. I've never had that problem with either norwegian, swedish, or german characters in filenames.

Well, you could be right,but I will check that out. Anyhow, I noticed that I could copy them with an other file manager. And everything else regarding locales worked good,almost to good that its scary. I have never liked UTF-8 because of the problems that came with it sometimes.

But I am going to check the locales. I haven`t done anything with the locales since I installed Fedora 10 because there has not been problem with anything else,that I remember.

Thanks to all people here. It is good to see that I got nice answers. If I understand it right I would have to edit the theme to make my panel the way I want it? And if yes,why make it this way when we where able to just do it easy through right-click-menu on the panel before?

Anyway... Kryten2X4B: you said that people now complain about that a new theme looks like win7 and that there are people that never gets pleased. Well,first of all, I did not say it was bad that it look a bit like vista,but before did windows steal from Linux not the other way around. In one way I had a desktop (KDE) that looked a bit like vista before vista was out. But when vista came,they had added a lot more desktop effects than what I had seen in the beta versions. I have never tried win7,so I cant say anything about its look. To add up,vista look does not need to be a "bad" thing,but the feeling of it does not taste very good. When I tested vista for real I did see that they also had changed the whole idea of the use of icons on desktop. Nothing wrong with it,but then I had already tested KDE4 and knew vista had been out before KDE4 was out,then I got suspicious about it all.

Sincere regards Harakiri.

harakiri wrote:Thanks to all people here. It is good to see that I got nice answers. If I understand it right I would have to edit the theme to make my panel the way I want it? And if yes,why make it this way when we where able to just do it easy through right-click-menu on the panel before?

Yes, although some times adapt themselves to your colorscheme. If the one you'd like to use doesn't, you can mix and match themes quite easily. You'll find options for that in system settings->advanced->theme details. Not quite as straight-forward as in KDE3, but more flexible.

harakiri wrote:Anyway... Kryten2X4B: you said that people now complain about that a new theme looks like win7 and that there are people that never gets pleased. Well,first of all, I did not say it was bad that it look a bit like vista,but before did windows steal from Linux not the other way around.

Sorry. I didn't mean you. You, after all, only mentioned the look in passing and had more pressuring problems then the look.

I only meant people who seems to like to badmouth KDE everytime a new feature is implemented - and features a lot of people are happy to have - in the way of "More useless stuff" or "More bloat" or "Vista/Win7 wannabe" or "More eyecandy" and the like. The same people who apparently has no problems in running compiz with a lot of bells and whistles turned on (or making Gnome look like Vista or MacOS X...). It just gets tiring.

Again, I apologize for making it sound like it was directed at you.

One of my major disappointments is the way configuration options are scattered around. Having a system settings panel that lacks access to simple functions like the desktop background is beyond my comprehension. The inability to directly control the panel appearance is a bad choice. There should be an option of allowing the theme to control it or manually creating the appearance. Additionally, as has been stated by many in a related submission to bugzilla, the constant back and forth in system settings to make KDE4 to look and work the way I want it to work is very tedious and frustrating. It was mentioned after the release of v4.0 yet as of v4.2.2 we're still stuck with the annoying lack of a split panel and tree view to make things easier. Granted, some may like the current system settings functionality but I and many other KDE users don't. Just give us the OPTION of using a tree view panel similar to that of KDE 3.5. I think this little gesture would show many users that they ARE being heard.

The character issue is definitely a locale setting. I had this happen to me and it turned out I had configured a locale that was generated. Modifying the locale definition file and running generate again made it disappear. It is certainly not a KDE issue. I work in a Spanish environment where we also have non-standard characters like ñ, é, ü etc. They all work fine

tekwyzrd wrote:It was mentioned after the release of v4.0 yet as of v4.2.2 we're still stuck with the annoying lack of a split panel and tree view to make things easier. Granted, some may like the current system settings functionality but I and many other KDE users don't. Just give us the OPTION of using a tree view panel similar to that of KDE 3.5. I think this little gesture would show many users that they ARE being heard.

I think this is what you want:

call-for-testing-k ... 38819.html