So this is a thing that's been bugging me about both KDE and Linux in general for a long time. Please, please don't take this as me not liking KDE. KDE is my favorite DE on any OS on any platform, and I'm a huge KDE fan. I have been using it exclusively for many years, and I take every chance I can to recommend it to people. It's really the best DE going right now, I really think, and I love how it is designed and works.

However, it isn't girlfriend-proof. Here's what I mean: there are just a lot of little things that need fixing or polishing, and it seems like every new release adds some features or even performance improvements, but leaves those "warts" in place.

For example, there's the "KDED4 takes 100% CPU" issue that has been around for many years, and still exists in 4.7. I search around the web and find many other people seeing the same problem. Similar for a bunch of other things in KDE, or beyond KDE into Linux in general, like pulseaudio suddenly stops working. I won't enumerate the whole list of these things here, it isn't the point, but there are a LOT of things like this, where it just doesn't look professional quality.

Now, these things don't bug me personally too much. I'm a computer guy, I can figure out how to kill a process taking 100% CPU or restart a daemon. I want to set up a computer for my girlfriend, and I'd really like to get her into using KDE. She's incredibly smart - two and a half highly technical university degrees to her name. But she isn't a computer person, and right now, Linux and KDE don't meet the kind of stability she'd want, so I can't really move her onto KDE because of this.

I almost feel like KDE needs a few releases, 2 or 3, where the *entire* goal is to polish away these kinds of little gotcha-issues. Forget new features, forget changing the way anything works: just fix the little stuff. Fix it so plasma doesn't crash sometimes when you log out, which I and others still see on 4.7. Fix the runaway CPU time issues. Fix weird system notifications on upgrades that make you have to delete parts of your .kde directory by hand to make them go away. And so on. Just polish the *@*($ out of it.

Thoughts? I don't say this to be b**ching - really, I say it because I love KDE more than any other environment, and I want to be able to recommend it wholeheartedly to my girlfriend.

You may be better thinking about a distro than KDE. There are certain distros which have more extended lifespans. With Kubuntu it is the LTS distros; with openSUSE there is Evergreen.

There are certain distros which have more extended lifespans.

No offense, but I think you misunderstood the point I was trying to make. It wasn't about the longevity of the distro (BTW, KDE isn't a distro), it's about all the little stuff that "just doesn't work right", and never seems to get addressed. It's that stuff which makes it hard for me to get non computer experts moved over to KDE (and to an extent, to Linux in general).

I haven't had these problems for several years; I have yet to see KDE taking up more than 1G of RAM and I've never seen it taking a significant amount of CPU. Also I've not had any problems with Kaffeine recently. I know people report these problems but I am not convinced that they are 'KDE' problems. If they were, I would have expected to see them myself.

Perhaps there are particular applications that cause these problems; if so. it is the application that needs to be addressed.

Perhaps there are particular applications that cause these problems; if so. it is the application that needs to be addressed.

I'd argue that if there's an application that can make KDED4 consume 100% CPU time, that's a bug in KDED4, not in the application. There are many threads around the internet from people seeing the same as I do.

And that's just *one* of many things. Some are app issues, that's true, like the recent update to Digikam broke the ability to download images from my Camera. I have to use Gwenview to do it since the 4.7 update. Worked great in 4.6. But app issue or not, there are so many warts that make the experience less than it should be. As I've mentioned, I'm willing to live with these things because I just like Linux and KDE both. But I can't expect my GF to know how to fix all this stuff when it happens.

Or another, and I'm not sure what is at fault, but I suspect KWin, since it doesn't happen under Compiz. Sometimes video stops working, under any player I've tried (mplayer, dragon, kmplayer, and some others). Logging out and back in fixes it. When it happens, the first frame of the video appears and the player just gets "stuck". I don't think it's a player issue because it happens in all of them. I have no idea about the cause, and I have a slightly annoying workaround. But pretending these things don't exist or don't matter is not doing any favors for desktop Linux. The experience really needs to move in the direction of polish. The fundamentals and the whole concept are great - I wouldn't use any other environment, myself. I donate financially to some Linux projects. It's just the polish that's lacking. I think it's a bit dishonest to pretend that such polish issues don't exist, when I read hundreds of threads all around the internet (including on this forum) from people having either the very same issues, or others that are different but similar in spirit.

Which component is at fault doesn't matter, I don't think. Novice users just look at Linux as a single thing, and expect it to be smooth.

Can you possibly edit your topic to be less sexist and denigrating? Reading your post, I see you mean your actual girlfriend, and seem to express respect. Your subject line, however, is rather offensive.

I'm a grandmother who loves KDE, and my husband does NOT fix or fiddle with my computer. He's a windows user.

I agree with Valorie here: your thread title is too generalizing and I know quite a few men who know much less about computers than I do.

How about using "newbie-proof" instead? It would also express a little more respect for your girlfriend as well. I don't know what your definition of "Computer person" is, but ever body can learn, and since she is so incredibly smart as you say you should maybe not underestimate her

FWIW: I have installed KDE for many people who don't use computers much and haven't seen any mayor problems, the same people seem to have more problems using Windows instead.

FWIW2: I haven't seen KDE (actually X and/or Plasma) using 100% CPU in a while, certainly not since about 4.4 or so. How about checking your system for some strange settings that cause this? Also, you probably have a system you upgraded from previous versions, how about starting with a new $HOME/.kde/ or a new user to check if it is not actually your settings causing trouble? For me KDE 4.7.x is rock solid

Disclaimer: I am NOT a computer person either, at least not by training, I am a pharmacist

Can you possibly edit your topic to be less sexist and denigrating? Reading your post, I see you mean your actual girlfriend, and seem to express respect. Your subject line, however, is rather offensive.

Done. Sorry for the delay; was busy with r/l stuff for a while.

Yes - my GF is incredibly smart - I'm blown away by her intellect sometimes. It's just that without having spent a good chunk of her life digging around inside computers as I have, she doesn't have the right background to "just know" how to fix some of the little annoyances. Sure, I could teach her and she'd pick it up in short order, but it shouldn't really be necessary.

While I'm not a "Mac guy", it's one area I have to hand it to Apple. They polish the expletive out of OSX. It's a very smooth experience overall. It's one area that *every* Linux environment, not just KDE but also Gnome and XFCE and the rest, could learn from.