Hi,

Dropped a 40Gb drive in this laptop and decided to load Slack 13 and
KDE 4.3. Been used to 3.5. Why the change in the desktop logic?
Cripes, minimize an app and it's gone. Can't even intuitively put a
shortcut to an application on the desktop like before. And the taskbar?
Can only stick "widgets"? in there. Been googling stuff and it's a real
pain trying to find the answers.
Is there a page for 3.5 dummies to read to get up to speed? Been running
Slack since 94 and KDE since is came out. I don't always upgrade to the latest and greatest because usually when I set something up, it satisfies for a long time. Wished I could click a button to get it to use the old
logic.
4.3 does run faster on this laptop over 3.5 but heck, it sure is harder to figure out.
Best regards,
Kurt

You may wish to switch to using the ~/Desktop for your desktop background.

To do so: Left click on the "Cashew" ( located top-left of your screen ) and select "Desktop Settings"
Then click on the "Type" drop down, and select "Folder View". Click apply.

Thanks,
Is it possible to stick apps on the desktop or in the taskbar anymore?
Seems only thing one can do with the taskbar is put system utilities there.
Haven't been able yet to put the volume/mixer control in the taskbar like before.
I used to stick Midnight Commander on the desktop when I manually wanted to
move stuff around. Sometimes the keyboard is better than scroll, click, scroll,click
and more scroll, click.

Kurt

ksaves2: yes, but it's different from in 3. 5. You should find most of your questions answered in http://userbase.kde.org/Tutorials/KDE3toKDE4

ksaves2 wrote:Thanks,
Is it possible to stick apps on the desktop or in the taskbar anymore?

Sure. If you use the default start-menu, all you need to do is right-click on the app in question and select either "Add to panel" or "Add to desktop" depending on where you want it. If you use Lancelot, just drag-and-drop.

One thing to understand in KDE 4 is that everything on the desktop or panel is a widget. Even the desktop and panel themselves are really widgets, although they are not called that in interface. The application launcher is a widget, as are the task manager, the system tray, and everything else.

Most widgets that come with KDE are designed so that they know where they are an behave appropriately. So for instance a folderview widget will show a box with files when on the desktop, but will show and icon that you click when in a panel (unless the panel is really big, in some cases). This gives a lot more flexibility because people only have to program most of the widget once, instead of having to program separate widgets for the desktop and the panel. So the panel items you are used to using in KDE 3.5 are, for the most part, still available, and behave largely the same when on the panel. However, they can also be placed on the desktop, sometimes with signficantly different functionality. Similarly, widgets designed for use on the desktop can also be placed on panel (although this does not always work out so well, particularly for third-party scripted widgets).

This also makes it a lot easier to write new stuff for the panel or desktop. For instance there are currently 3 applications launchers (plus two more that are still very early in development), 4 task managers, 2 panels (plus 1 in development), and 3 desktops (plus 1 in development).

I am not sure what the issue is with minimizing applications. That should not happen. Did you remove the task manager widget from the panel by any chance?

Thanks for the above replies, it will be a real help. I still have the task manager
on the tool bar. I think once I start to get the apps where I want them, I'll be good to go and continue exploring the syntax and format of application use.

That's why I stuck the system on an extra drive to learn/work with while I still have the old one/drive to run.

Kurt

Kurt: my suggestion - feel free to ignore it - set yourself a time limit, say one or two weeks, to explore all you can. Make a list of issues you encounter, and prioritise them. Starting with the highest priority ones, ask for help/guidance, one issue per thread. At the end of your allocated time you should have your highest priority ones sorted out. Try then to work with 4.3 full time, again, asking as often as you need to. To some extent it is harder to learn the new ways when you are constantly swapping back and forth, so you should find this system less exhausting and more rewarding.