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The Win9x Qt theme is light and snappy. Unfortunately, much less can be said of almost every Plasma theme out there; the whole lot of them seem to use gradients, transparency, and fade effects all over the place.

For users who would like to ditch as much eyecandy as possible from their KDE setups, I therefore suggest that a matching Win9x Plasma theme be implemented, and added to the default KDE distribution. The only concessions to eyecandy I would recommend would be to match the Qt theme's colors where possible, and pseudo-transparency for widgets on top of the wallpaper. Otherwise, the theme should have
- No gradients at all
- No rounded corners
- No shadows
- No zoom/fade effects

Hopefully this would be a bit more friendly to older computers with weak graphics chipsets.

Hopefully this would be a bit more friendly to older computers with weak graphics chipsets.

Short answer: "no"
Try the "plain" theme which, well, "invokes" the Qt style.

luebking wrote:

Hopefully this would be a bit more friendly to older computers with weak graphics chipsets.

Short answer: "no"
Try the "plain" theme which, well, "invokes" the Qt style.

There's win-classic
http://kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=137614

luebking wrote:Short answer: "no"
Try the "plain" theme which, well, "invokes" the Qt style.

What "plain" theme? It doesn't ship with any distro I've tried, and as far as I can tell doesn't exist on kde-look.org.

With PAE-support on CPU's becoming a requirement going forward on most "modern" oriented Linux distribultions, there is really no need for this at all. If you want to be minimalist, you're likely better off with LXDE or XFCE.

See: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA3ODQ

IOW, users of old hardware should have a choice of:

a) settling for reduced functionality, i.e. loss of features that used to be there

or

b) upgrading their hardware in order to achieve the same level of functionality they used to have

right?

This is the same cycle of enforced obsolescence that Windows users have to deal with - one of the reasons people make the switch to Linux/BSD.

It's bad for the environment because it promotes the disposal of tons of computers as electronic waste. It's bad for people, because both the workers who recycle old computers and the ones who assemble new computers are generally treated like dirt. It's bad for end users, because they end up having to pay for hardware upgrades, and dealing with the annoying consequences thereof.

Sorry if I'm coming across as rude... I realize KDE is a free project. I would just like to see the cycle of obsolescence slow down a bit, even if it can't be stopped altogether, and I think projects like KDE could play a role in that - if the developers wanted.