How can I eliminate all of the clutter and the huge tool tip billboards that KDE 4.5 has placed on the desktop? It seems that KDE 4 is more focused on glitz, glitter, eye-candy, and being cute than on being efficient and functional. KDE 3.5 was vastly superior to KDE 4.5.

Things that I do not want keep popping up all over the screen. Windows change size when I don't want them to. The huge bill-board sized tool tips keep popping up getting in the way of my work. I can't find a way to hide the main panel (task bar or whatever it's called) the way one could with 3.5.

Kwrite has many annoying problems that I did not have with 3.5.

I prefer a "clean" desktop/display screen with no icons cluttering it up and you have now placed a bunch of even larger icons all over the screen and I can't figure out how to get rid of them all.

How can I eliminate the huge tool-tips?
How can I make KDE 4.5 work just like KDE 3.5?

I've tried to report some of the many problems I am having but the bug report procedure doesn't work either.

You have created a colossal mess.

Please PLEASE bring back support for KDE 3.5

I'd like to see a list of what you think is better about 4.5 and compare that to all the things that used to work in 3.5 that have gone missing or no longer work correctly with 4.5. For example that handy image viewer feh used to work on 3.5 but it no longer works with 4.5.

Check this out: http://www.upquick.com/linux/kde45

You are using the "search and launch containment". That is part if the netbook version of plasma, not the normal version. I am not sure how you got that unless you specifically changed it or your distribution defaults to that for some reason. This is not the default KDE provides, if you didn't set it that way then your distribution did.

If you want to use a more normal desktop, then open system settings or personal settings, select workspace settings, and change "workspace type" to "Desktop". If that doesn't work, or if it was already like that, there is a swirly thing in the upper left-hand corner of the desktop. Click that and you should get a list of options. There should be something like "search and launch settings", or some settings entry other than "shortcut settings". Click that, then click "activity", then change it to "desktop".

To remove tooltips, open system settings or personal settings, go to "workspace settings", then push the down error on "informational tips" until it gets to "do not show".

If you don't want windows to maximime at the screen edges, open system settings or personal settings, select window behavior, then screen edges, then uncheck both then uncheck the two check boxes under "Window Management". The first one starts with "Maximize windows" and the second one starts with "Tile windows".

...
Please PLEASE bring back support for KDE 3.5
...

There is a project that keep KDE 3.5 alive. You can find it here:
Trinity project

And you can download a version of Kubuntu (10.04 lucid) based only on KDE 3.5 here:

KUbuntu-Trinity

TheBlackCat wrote:You are using the "search and launch containment". That is part if the netbook version of plasma, not the normal version. [snip]

... open system settings or personal settings, select workspace settings, and change "workspace type" to "Desktop". If that doesn't work, or if it was already like that, there is a swirly thing in the upper left-hand corner of the desktop. Click that and you should get a list of options.

Thanks Black Cat. I am very thankful to finally be rid of the annoying tool-tips and windows resizing problem. But still have not found a way to get rid of the desktop clutter that the latest update installed as the default. I certainly did not select that. When I followed the steps that you suggested, it shows "Desktop" as the current setting, not "Netbook." So, the update forced this clutter on me as the default.

As I tried to experiment with the cashew options, but doing that obliterated the multiple desktop settings that I previously had set up. Thanks cashew. How do we get rid of these cashew annoyances, both on the upper left corner and on the far right of the main panel task bar?

And how do we get the task bar panel "hide" buttons back?

PS: I've updated the screen captures with new comments and images at this link: http://www.upquick.com/linux/kde45

You still have the netbook Search and Launch containment as your desktop, somehow. That setup is designed to be that way, what you see as clutter is the Internet menu displayed on your desktop. But this is not the default in any way, even in PCLOS iirc.

To get rid of the Task Manager tooltips you are seeing, you just need to right-click on an ampty space on it, select "Task Manager Settings" and de-select "Show Tooltips", that will turn that off.

the folks at the PCLOS forums are telling you the same things we are

btw KDE 3 had tooltips like this as well, and you edited the option the same way, except having to drill down through a maze of config options ofter the right-click

That happened because you skipped a step. As I said, you were supposed to click the cashew, then click "Configure Search and Launch", then click "activity" under that. You clicked the cashew then immediately clicked "activities".

This is now mostly, but not entirely solved. Finally got rid of the tool tips and most of the clutter ... but still have the cashews. How do we get rid of those in both places and how are the various functions accessed via those cashews found without them (i.e. where in the menu(s), etc.)

Also, how do we get the task-bar panel hide buttons restored?

Joseppi wrote:This is now mostly, but not entirely solved. Finally got rid of the tool tips and most of the clutter ... but still have the cashews. How do we get rid of those in both places and how are the various functions accessed via those cashews found without them (i.e. where in the menu(s), etc.)

The ones in the panel(s) disappear if you lock the widgets. The other can be removed by http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/I+ ... tent=91009 (note: I don't know how well it works in KDE 4.5.0). The activities features of the main cashew can be brought up by hitting meta-key plus Q (meta is usually the windows key). Desktop settings can be brought up by right-clicking on the desktop. The shortcut settings can be found under "Shorcuts and gestures" in System Settings.

Joseppi wrote:Also, how do we get the task-bar panel hide buttons restored?

You can't, except filing a wishlist on bugs.kde.org.