When using konqueror as a file manager there used to be a lot of different view modes in KDE 3.x. Notably "info list" view mode would give you useful information depending on file type (e.g. for music files the content of tags or the bitrates would be displayed). Now after installing Kubuntu 8.10 i suddenly find a crippled version of konq with only icons, details and column mode left.

Is this a kubuntu or a general KDE 4.1 issue?
Is there any way to get the missing view modes back onto the konq menu?
If not, are there any plans to return the missing view modes to one of the coming versions?

The info list view mode is currently not implemented in KDE 4.1. I haven't seen anything about it being reimplemented yet.

I haven't seen anything about it being reimplemented yet

That sounds very disappointing. :'(

My understanding until now, was that Dolphin was supposed to be the KDE file manager with toned down functionality and few options (so as not to confuse our dear old moms), but that konqueror at least would remain usable for power users. I'm a bit dismayed to hear that konq is also being crippled.

The info list view is very useful. As an example: when copying a CD or DVD with audio files to harddisk, i used to be able to browse each folder in info list view and at a single glance:

- assess whether tags were complete or not
- assess the bitrate of each file
- copy each folder to an appropriate destination for further processing (add tags, reduce bitrate, etc.)

Without the info list view, i now have to open up a second application next to the file manager (say amarok). Then pull all audio files into the amarok playlist window in order to see the necessary meta information. Then continuously switch between amaroK and file manager while copying folders to different destinations. This is terribly annoying.

Why would anybody want to eliminate useful features from new versions of a software?

The ease of creation of Konqueror File Views in KDE4 is one of the things I want to talk over with Peter once 4.2 is behind us. In the ideal case, a File View for Konqueror would automatically benefit from all of the infrastructure of Dolphin (file metadata widget; previews in tooltips; icon scaling with scrollwheel; consistent status bar description for selected file(s) ; consistent context menu; etc) but this will take a good deal of organisation to achieve.

It's certainly possible (I would guess) to just create a Konqueror File View that mimics the old KDE3 one but which doesn't have these benefits, but I hope we can do better No promises, though - my ideal might be too disruptive to pull off.

Why would anybody want to eliminate useful features from new versions of a software?

I wish people would stop simply assuming that things have been deliberately ditched whenever they don't see them in KDE4. Most of the stuff I've been working on restoring have been due to the port to Qt4 which has been brutally hard and has been such that a lot of features that were in KDE3 simply have to be re-implemented completely from scratch (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=165999 is a great example of this). Qt3->Qt4 is a big and very disruptive change.

Thank you for that answer.

GeneralZod wrote:I wish people would stop simply assuming that things have been deliberately ditched whenever they don't see them in KDE4.

Well, i was reacting to the first information i received that there were no apparent plans to reimplement the above mentioned features.

In general its not that difficult to understand why people react the way they do. Personally i've always been a great fan of KDE and i still am. Because of this i get edgy and worry that KDE is heading in the wrong direction, whenever its not obvious why features in KDE4 are missing. In the case of file manager functionality this worry is primarily fueled by the introduction of Dolphin as the default file manager, which to me seems to be motivated by a "gnomish" usability philosophy.

I've installed Kubuntu 8.10 because of a new PC, on wich almost no other distro
can run it appeared. (Intel Celeron 2core 64 bits, exchanged for an AMD 2core 64 b
wich was not quite stable.) My old machine was a Coppermine Dell.

KDE 4.1 is beautiful, but in my opinion it is a mistake to strip down applications on wich
people depend(ed). The window-definition (colour, borders and lines) is rather poor.
KDE 4 is also a little touchy, I had to install Kubuntu 6 times.
It crashed after a while, maybe because I did tiny things wrong. Now it is running fine
because of my precautions.

I like to ask a for me important question:
How do you guys copy between your partitions or other harddisks in a normal
drag and drop-way?
Edit:
In the meantime I can report that after doing some homework I found out.
(Sudo) Dolphin has more fascillities like I thought. And there is an other
backdoor way. End edit.

I'm learning a lot and I'm quite happy with Kubuntu 8.10.
But you must dig. But.. I have to say I'm happy I had some years experience
with Linux...! Things are not all that easy.

I to missed konq filemanger so I simply tried creating a menu entry the same as was in kde3 ("kfmclient openProfile filemanagement) before dolphin was foised on us as the default filemanager.

It works ok, mostly but the ability to drag n drop files from the file pane to the tree pane is gone and crashes are common

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who really misses this feature. Now I understand why some feature implementation is taking so long, didn't know the change to Qt4 was so hard. I do hope this gets added to 4.3.

is there any news on the subject?
it doesn't seem to work in KDE4.3
what alternatives are there?
which programs show me the bitrate and id3 information of a whole folder in 1 view?

I've been using alternative view modes in KDE4.2; so I would have thought they are in KDE4.3.

The loss of id3-based columns is quite disappointing in kde 4.3. I've had to resort to using nautilus with a python script to get music file management at the file level back.

I like to create folders for mp3s based on artist and album and it's a pain when sometimes you can't tell what album a group of files belongs to.

If anyone has some insight as to how to accomplish id3-based columns in konq or dolphin, I'd love to hear it.

It is likely that a functioning Nepomuk system offers this. Make sure you have the Sesame2 backend installed, then check the settings in System Settings > Advanced > Desktop Search.

john_hudson wrote:I've been using alternative view modes in KDE4.2; so I would have thought they are in KDE4.3.

which alternative view modes are you talking about? how can i view id3 information in konqueror kde 4.3?

Alternative view modes are those such as Tree and List view. Viewing ID3 information in Konqueror in KDE 4.3 requires enabling the Dolphin tooltips and having a functioning Nepomuk system ( with the Sesame2 backend )

Long time and its nice to hear that its because its a bit difficult. But I think the other probably got the same responses I got. Use dolphin, even thou we say we want konq file manager mode. Plus the strong hints that it was never going to be brought back. the features, same for all the missing in konsole etc. Apps that we done thing must better in . But it sure has been a long time now and I've seen pretty things added that don't help the functions at all. I wish the looks would get a lot less preference.
Also you didn't have to make the menu entry for the file manager mode.
mcedit /usr/share/applications/kde4/Home.desktop or vi etc to edit it
and change the nodisplay to False from True
Then it will be in the menu ,classic menu under the help . new one I dunno and don't really care:)

I would like to know who to ask to have that removed so at compile I don't have to add sed to my build script.
I keep forgetting to and every darn upgrade I have to edit that file.
I will never understand why nodisplay=true was used at all.
NOT all of us want the dolphin .
Anyway i hope its fixed upstream.
Plus all the rest of the missing features. This is one reason so many people go back to 3.5 . But I also wish they would start joining in and getting things done .