Sorry, I think they are just getting tired of me singing KDE's praises on the Ubuntu forum (particularly as of course many choose Gnome), so I just wanted to come here and express it instead!

I just wanna say, I love it KDE 4.3.2 is gorgeous - fast, responsive, looks great... it even has logical reactions by default such as presenting the windows when you move the mouse to the top left corner or enabling cover-flow/flip 3D by default! Basically, if I were to make a desktop, this is pretty much what I would be making! I think you guys have hit it on the head with KDE 4.x

It even does some things far and away better than commercial alternatives, such as the Device Notifier and overall customizability - so I just wanted to say well done!

It's so nice as well knowing I won't be met with waves of opposition like I often am on the Ubuntu forums, as many Linux users still tend to be quite pro-Gnome, which I reckon is mainly because 4.x is still finding it's feet a little.

That's the best thing though - I feel like work on KDE is moving so fast and I am really open to the new improvements and development - most desktops seem to just get cozy and stop, or aren't as ambitious

If I were to make any tiny constructive criticisms, it would just be obviously general polish and development to improve 4.x, but also these few little notes:

-- I couldn't see an option to automatically install new Kwin or Qt themes within the Control Center (like with plasma or icon themes), is this going to be added?

-- Some apps like Kopete still have a bit of feature bloat and are a little buggy (but I guess this comes under polish!)

-- I couldn't get the "Present Windows" and other Alt+Tab window display options to cover windows from all desktops as opposed to just the one I was currently viewing - could this be included as an option?


... and I really can't think of anything else right now

Basically, keep up the good work guys, and you have very much got me as a user (and maybe even contributor!) in future! I really think if you keep at it for a bit longer, you could genuinely have the best desktop in the world

Thanks for reading anyway and also... Happy Birthday KDE Community Forums! ^_^

Hoppi!

hoppimike wrote:-- I couldn't get the "Present Windows" and other Alt+Tab window display options to cover windows from all desktops as opposed to just the one I was currently viewing - could this be included as an option?

It already is

Start system-settings.

For alt-tab, check window behavior, traverse windows on all desktops.

For Present windows, you can change that in desktop effects->all effects->present windows. There you can check, and change, which shortcuts are used to toggle present windows for current desktop only or for all desktops.

If you want to change that for "move the pointer into a corner", you use desktop effects->screen edges instead.

The option to install new Window decorations or Qt Styles is not available because of a general lack of these, which is probably due to requiring them to be written in C++. As a result they need to be compiled. You may wish to search your package manager for others.

Or use the deKorator or Aurorae Theme Engine.

The window switcher gets its own KCM module in 4.4, which (hopefully) will make the options related to it easier to find.

Nice to read your positive feedback. KDE is by no means perfect, and there are many ways to help if you feel like contributing.

Sometimes I think I have an unhealthy obsession with KDE. It started with 3.5.x and 4.3 really is amazing. I have my desktop just the way I like it. Kmail is awesome and Kopete is the best IM out there. With KDE it's sometimes the little things that make it great, like being able to copy the date and time from the clock in the corner.

The feature set in KDE is well thought through and proves to me that more is more.

kopete buggy - if its just randomy crashing try another release of libmsn. there is trouble with it for the last few releases

ash wrote:kopete buggy - if its just randomy crashing try another release of libmsn. there is trouble with it for the last few releases

Ah ok I'll do that, there is a chance I have an older one just because I'm on Ubuntu and sometimes the packages can slip behind a little! Thanks for the pointer

bcooksley wrote:The option to install new Window decorations or Qt Styles is not available because of a general lack of these, which is probably due to requiring them to be written in C++. As a result they need to be compiled. You may wish to search your package manager for others.

That's a bit of a shame, was there an easier way to make them for 3.x or something? In Gnome there are also quite a few as well (I do much prefer KDE, but of course being able to download more Qt and Kwin themes easily would be a really cool thing!)

Hans wrote:Or use the deKorator or Aurorae Theme Engine.

The window switcher gets its own KCM module in 4.4, which (hopefully) will make the options related to it easier to find.

Nice to read your positive feedback. KDE is by no means perfect, and there are many ways to help if you feel like contributing.

Yeah definitely! I have actually been using KDE on and off for YEARS, but only recently have I started getting a little bit more clued up on how someone like me who doesn't really code can still contribute

So what would you recommend?


Thanks for the replies anyway guys, I'm still having fun messing around with 4.3.2! I just discovered the difference between the standard "Desktop View" and the "Folder View" which is kinda cool! I do find though that the normal view can feel a little restrictive, as you can't do things like drag over icons with a selection box. I also find sometimes that you might want to simply move a shortcut from the Desktop Folder onto the main desktop, and it duplicates it instead! Overall I do like the Desktop Folder, I just think perhaps it doesn't feel quite completely natural yet!

What do you think?

See you round and thanks again, I look forward to seeing how I can contribute in the future (plus one of my friends is a good coder so I'm trying to convince him!)

Mike

See http://kde.org/getinvolved/

A good starting point is Userbase if you like to write. It's easy to get started, and annew (unofficial maintainer) is very helpful. If you run into problems you can find her and other contributors in #userbase on freenode (IRC).

-
Regarding activity types, I prefer the regular "Desktop" - simply because I don't want icons on my desktop (except in Folderviews).

Hearing a lot of good things about KDE 4.3...

Just not too keen to switch to beta Kubuntu, no matter how close it is to release...

On the bright side of things, though; The new .31 kernal now recognizes my battery (and thus allows powersave to work properly) KNetworkManager seems to of been overhauled and can now actually connect to my network...and I love the look of air...

Hopefully KWin will be a little less intensive, so I can have special effects AND videos working at the same time...

Dante Ashton wrote:Hearing a lot of good things about KDE 4.3...

Just not too keen to switch to beta Kubuntu, no matter how close it is to release...

On the bright side of things, though; The new .31 kernal now recognizes my battery (and thus allows powersave to work properly) KNetworkManager seems to of been overhauled and can now actually connect to my network...and I love the look of air...

Hopefully KWin will be a little less intensive, so I can have special effects AND videos working at the same time...

I've had no issues with Karmic Beta really, it seems fine and is very close to release anyway

I would say though that if you want a KDE distro, people do always say that others like openSUSE are better. I'm not sure... I am reasonably happy on Kubuntu but it has to be said it is a bit of a rushed and almost like an "afterthought" distribution. KDE 4.3.2 still rocks though, and you do get the advantage of the good Ubuntu repositories and Gnome Ubuntu tools if you want them

And yeah I'm a little distracted right now but when I get a chance I will definitely look into ways I can contribute! I have been using and keen on KDE for far too long now not to help out ^_^

I tried OpenSUSE, kudos to the devs for a great looking distro, but for some unknown reason, it messes up my laptops BIOS settings (it turns screen brightness right down, which persists even after I'm running back off the HD until I run a Live enviroment of one of the Ubuntu's)

And to be honest, I love .debs, they actually have some sense in their names, verses red hat's, which seems mostly to be a series of numbers (and yes, I keep falling into dependancy hell)

Dante Ashton wrote:I tried OpenSUSE, kudos to the devs for a great looking distro, but for some unknown reason, it messes up my laptops BIOS settings (it turns screen brightness right down, which persists even after I'm running back off the HD until I run a Live enviroment of one of the Ubuntu's)

And to be honest, I love .debs, they actually have some sense in their names, verses red hat's, which seems mostly to be a series of numbers (and yes, I keep falling into dependancy hell)

Yeah I've heard that kinda thing about RPMs before, it's a shame really as they seemed like quite a strong system at points but debs do seem to have the advantage at the moment.

And yeah openSUSE has had a reputation for being a bit buggy as well! It seems like a very interesting, exciting and progressive distribution with a nice focus on KDE, but it can lack the stability and predictability that distros like Ubuntu seem to have!

Fingers crossed in time Ubuntu will get more ambitious and exciting, and openSUSE will get more stable!!

I'm always complaining abut KDE4, and I really do hate it... but I love love love KDE, and I can't even think about switching to Gnome. At this point, I'm building my own LIVE CD lifeboat with Slax and KDE 3.5, and am resolved to cheerfully wait for KDE 5, which I am sure will be a course correction and a thoughtful integration of everything that has gone before. Maybe I can even get in on it.

hoppimike wrote:

Dante Ashton wrote:I tried OpenSUSE, kudos to the devs for a great looking distro, but for some unknown reason, it messes up my laptops BIOS settings (it turns screen brightness right down, which persists even after I'm running back off the HD until I run a Live enviroment of one of the Ubuntu's)

And to be honest, I love .debs, they actually have some sense in their names, verses red hat's, which seems mostly to be a series of numbers (and yes, I keep falling into dependancy hell)

Yeah I've heard that kinda thing about RPMs before, it's a shame really as they seemed like quite a strong system at points but debs do seem to have the advantage at the moment.

The only time I have encountered dependency hell was on deb based systems, apt is seriously messed up when it comes to "broken" packages (I mean why they hell can't I update when mozilla-helix-plugin is "broken"? and no it wasn't even broken it was working better). I have never had problems with rpm based systems. Dependency hell is caused by wrong packaging not by the package format per se but when mistakes are made it surely is a lot easier to fix on rpm based systems.

This is beside the point even that rpm allows parallel installations of 32 and 64 bits apps and libraries so there is no need to set up 32bit chroots, just install and run like any other app.

blackbelt_jones wrote:I'm always complaining abut KDE4, and I really do hate it... but I love love love KDE, and I can't even think about switching to Gnome. At this point, I'm building my own LIVE CD lifeboat with Slax and KDE 3.5, and am resolved to cheerfully wait for KDE 5, which I am sure will be a course correction and a thoughtful integration of everything that has gone before. Maybe I can even get in on it.

ah strange.. I'll be honest and say that I prefer 4 in pretty much every way to 3. The only issue is a very limited number of missing features which I'm sure will be in by later 4.x releases (like apparently things like multiple monitors, which is something I don't use myself but apparently it isn't included in 4 yet..)