57

In KDE 3, there was a configuration dialog that appeared the first time KDE was started. This dialog allowed the user to configure sounds, special effects, graphical themes, and other things that could affect desktop speed and functionality. There were also preset configurations for computers of different performance levels.

KDE 4 does not have such a dialog. It starts in a default configuration with a very heavy Qt theme (Oxygen), most of the special effects (often including composite effects) turned on, resource-hungry desktop search utilities enabled, desktop sounds enabled, etc. This creates an impression of sluggishness on many computers, including both older Pentium IV era machines and newer netbooks and laptops. It is possible to configure KDE 4 for better performance, but not always obvious how to do so, especially for novice Linux users.

So, I propose a first session config dialog, like in KDE3. Because I'm no good with the GIMP, I'll use plain text to show what I think would work. Thus...

Code: Select all

Welcome to the KDE 4.x Setup Utility. This utility lets you configure KDE's behavior before you start using it.

Qt Backend

The native Qt backend provides 2D acceleration for graphical applications on modern video cards. The raster backend is software based, but may be faster for old or slow video cards. If in doubt, use the native backend.

[*] Use native Qt backend (default)
[ ] Use raster Qt backend

Composite Effects

Composite effects, such as fading and gliding windows, are possible on KDE with a modern video card. However, these effects may severely impact desktop performance on less powerful hardware. You should not enable composite effects unless you are sure your video card can properly support them.

[*] Composite effects are disabled (default)
[ ] Composite effects are enabled

Desktop Theme

Several theme engines are available for KDE. Note that some of them may make the desktop less responsive on less powerful computers.

[*] Use the Plastique theme (fast, default)
[ ] Use the Oxygen theme (slow)
Use other theme: [ Theme Menu ]

Semantic Desktop

Strigi and Nepomuk provide a novel way to search through and catalog your desktop file collection. However, the file indexing mechanism may slow down less powerful computers, and reduce battery life on laptops.

[ ] Enable the semantic desktop
[*] Leave the semantic desktop disabled (default)



Update: edited my example to add stuff about disabling/enabling the semantic desktop. And no, I don't have the slightest clue what a semantic desktop actually does, other than indexing files in the home directory and slowing KDE down.

This would be pretty useful. Maybe plasma mode should be selectable too: desktop/netbook (I think it wasn't, but I'm not sure right now).

The main point of your concern was the technical aspect, and how novice users wouldn't use the configuration. But a questionnaire sounds almost intimidating.


If something like this were to be implemented, I would reduce it down to one or two sliders. A slider for effects. And a slider for features like search, anakondi, etc.

One end would be "Performance" and the other would be "Features", or something like that. I'm terrible with wording. Below it would be a summarized list of features, which would be either checked or X'd depending on the slider.


Being said, I'm actually against a popup that asks anyone about their computer. People who know their computer wouldn't want it, and people new to them would likely be intimidated. Additionally, no 2 computers are the same, some run better with feature X while others run better with feature Y. I know on my netbook, compositing is faster because the tiny CPU can't handle the drawing operations. The tiny GPU may only be able to handle Xrender (OpenGL crashes) - but it still takes load off the CPU.


I think a much better approach would be a simple profiler utility. Kinfocenter can tell you all about your computer, like CPU speeds, graphics capabilities, etc. With that info, we can have the system smartly guess what services to run.

Just have the profiler start with KDE, every time. It would be tiny, and close immediately after startup. All it would do is check to see if your hardware/drivers have changed. If they have (which, on first boot, they would have!), it would profile your computer and pop up a notification if it would recommend a change from your current configuration; It would then save that configuration (or a hash of some kind) to reference future startup configurations.

The notification might look like...

"You have updated your computer, KDE recommends you...
- Enable File Indexing
- Disable Desktop Effects
[Open Control Panel] [Apply Settings] [No Changes]
( ) Never ask again"

1 time popup is actually better than outright starting everything. Otherwise nasty CPU intensive (intended or not) things might start and user will not like it either.

How is a user supposed to know whether his or her computer can handle the 'slow' Oxygen theme, a semantic desktop, native or raster backends etc.?
You boot up your system and the first thing you get is a prompt on your computer asking YOU whether the machine this prompt is running on will be able to run a set of features only the system itself knows…
Detecting, not asking, is the userfriendly way to go (in my opinion).

Useful idea, but even better would be to ship it all the gloss & effects turned off.

Just add a infobubble telling "Strigi is working and system may appear slower than usual for some time, please see <icon> in tray for more info."

I agree with posters above, technicalities should be hidden from the user. Autodetection is the way forward. One of the reasons Windows confuses people is that it forces people to make decisions they don't understand or care about. KDE should be user friendly to the extent that everything seems to just work without intervention.