Hi

in kde 4.1, you have only one available activity, default desktop, if you want to show files of the ./Desktop folder you have to use the folderview applet.

in kde4.2 ( and opensuse kde4.1.2) you can use either the default desktop or folder view activity ( it make your desktop look and act like the old school kde3.5 desktop)

as for the plain desktop activity, witch is a the default desktop activity without the cashew ( this little thing on the top right of the desktop) it is the work of the opensuse dev, as removing or adding the possibility to hide the cashew is a very controversial issue for the plasma developers.

For me personally, I wish to have the folderview activity, without the cashew, perhaps I am too old school.

I also like the folderview, it feels a lot more 'organized' than the usual desktop. In the end, the desktop has always been a normal directory, only that you didn't really knew it, and it had some special effects. It's more consistent now. The desktop as a virtual concept is seperated from the desktop as a folder more cleanly.
The regressions that resulted from 4.0 are unfortunate, thats true, and there are still some controversial points (the panel settings bar instead of a usual option window, the plasma cashew, to name two of them), but I like the direction and am actually tempted to look into developing something with plasma, just because it sounds so good.

lda wrote:Does anyone feel KDE4 is an improvement over KDE3?

When KDE 4 first came out, no way. I tried it for an less than an hour before going back to my 3.5.x desktop.

Since the KDE 4.1 series came out, I've been using nothing but KDE 4. My main complaint right now is konsole. I loved the little tab at the bottom of konsole that let me create a new konsole window in a tab. I want that back. Otherwise, I'm very happy with KDE 4. I think the desktop widgets and the containers are cool.

-Russ

b12arr0, have you tried yakuake? it does not replace konsole, it uses konsole inside it, and it's a very nice app.

b12arr0 wrote:My main complaint right now is konsole. I loved the little tab at the bottom of konsole that let me create a new konsole window in a tab. I want that back.

If you were referring to tabs in general:
File -> New tab

If you were referring to the buttons:
Settings -> Edit current profile... -> Tabs -> Show 'New Tab' and 'Close Tab' buttons in tab bar

Actually it's not that bad, getting more and more used to it.

I finally gave up on KDE4. I have several machines @home and @work with linux. On all I have debian and KDE3 installed. Last week via updates one was transformed to KDE4. I decided to give it a fair chance. But I found it nearly unworkable. Logging in and out took ages, things became slooowww. Unstable experiences with Konqueror and Dolphin... on a otherwise nice running machine. With the KDE3 on it everything worked fine. With KDE4 my productivety dropped with 60%. I'll go back to KDE3 soon but for now I removed all the KDE4 stuff and I am trying xfce4...

Kees

Do you have desktop effects enabled? What graphics card and driver are you using? Is it still slow with a new user? Have you tried turning off animations or using a theme other than oxygen?

kees-tux wrote:I finally gave up on KDE4. I have several machines @home and @work with linux. On all I have debian and KDE3 installed. Last week via updates one was transformed to KDE4. I decided to give it a fair chance. But I found it nearly unworkable. Logging in and out took ages, things became slooowww. Unstable experiences with Konqueror and Dolphin... on a otherwise nice running machine. With the KDE3 on it everything worked fine. With KDE4 my productivety dropped with 60%. I'll go back to KDE3 soon but for now I removed all the KDE4 stuff and I am trying xfce4...

Kees

I suggest you to install OpenSUSE with KDE3 from this live CD: http://susestudio.com/download/94f02b17 ... -0.0.1.iso

login: tux
password: linux

It has the KDE3 repository enabled by default. KDE3 in OpenSUSE has many packages and well maintained. It will be availabe for future OpenSUSE releases as well.

I can sympathise with Ida's frustration. But isn't this common with a major release/rewrite of most software? We see it with new releases of Windows as well as Linux OS. Many longtime users find themselves lost and frustrated with their drop in productivity and the need to tackle another learning curve.

I'm not sure there is going to be an answer anytime soon, at least not until we get intelligent machines with almost unlimited power designing our environment. Sounds scary but it is coming our way....

Regards,

Gardiner

gardinerf wrote:I can sympathise with Ida's frustration. But isn't this common with a major release/rewrite of most software? We see it with new releases of Windows as well as Linux OS.

This is a slightly confusing thread, as it seems to be a long dormant one that has quite recently been 'awoken'. You have to read carefully to see that much of the frustration actually dates back to sometime in 2008!

We see it with new releases of Windows as well as Linux OS.

Windows was never a complete rewrite of Windows since Win 3.1 days. And even then later versions of Windows up to XP came with the old Win3.1 interface for those who wanted it even despite Win 4.x was considered by the majority to be unquestionably more comfortable and reliable than the previous versions. And Windows always kept compatibility with the majority of applications so the developers were not forced to rewrite anything and the uses did not miss beloved applications.

fraxinus wrote:

gardinerf wrote:I can sympathise with Ida's frustration. But isn't this common with a major release/rewrite of most software? We see it with new releases of Windows as well as Linux OS.

This is a slightly confusing thread, as it seems to be a long dormant one that has quite recently been 'awoken'. You have to read carefully to see that much of the frustration actually dates back to sometime in 2008!

It is completely up-to-date even now. For example consider this post: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=6411&p=190387#p7172

Is it possible now to remove the cashew from the folder view mode?

Anixx wrote:
Is it possible now to remove the cashew from the folder view mode?

Yes, it's possible by using either the ihatethecashew or the Stealth Cashew widget.

kees-tux wrote:I finally gave up on KDE4. I have several machines @home and @work with linux. On all I have debian and KDE3 installed. Last week via updates one was transformed to KDE4. I decided to give it a fair chance. But I found it nearly unworkable. Logging in and out took ages, things became slooowww. Unstable experiences with Konqueror and Dolphin... on a otherwise nice running machine. With the KDE3 on it everything worked fine. With KDE4 my productivety dropped with 60%. I'll go back to KDE3 soon but for now I removed all the KDE4 stuff and I am trying xfce4...

Kees

I am facing the same problem with the speed with KDE4 too... Still contemplating should I revert back to KDE3 until further upgrades are patched and released... =(

Charles