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Here is an interesting thread:

http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get- ... -lock.html

Personally, I consider it a condemnation of the shifting sands of KDE interfaces. The particular issue is the fact that folks set their screen savers to not lock, for a variety of reasons not the least of which might be that they are using their computers to watch videos that might last longer than 15 minutes. Unfortunately, with both this and many other instances as examples, it is clear that the KDE makes interface change decisions without actually trying to find out what kind of impact it might have on folks other than the KDE development community. I would like to recommend, as strongly as possible, that interface changes be resisted as much as possible and that if there is overwhelming, compelling reason why it has to be made, then two things should happen:

1. Install a "wrapper" that either performs the old action in the new way where one once found the old method, or

2. a "we are sorry but we had to" page is set up with lots of relevant, google-able terms that describe what one needs to do to accomplish what one might actually be trying to do. And please use consistent terminology.

For example, people trying to be helpful suggest going to "system settings", expecting that KDE neophytes will "just know" that by clicking on "personal settings" they will get "system settings".

Sorry to be so cranky. I'm just trying to use my system and stubbing my toe all the time is a bit of a nuisance. Thank you.

One problem is anticipating all the things that different distros do to vanilla KDE. I have been helping someone in a person-to-person long thread, and it took several to and fro messages before we both understood that what he sees in "Personal Settings" is in fact what I see in "System Settings".

For that particular issue, once identified, make the recommendation to distro packagers, "If you want the word 'personal' associated with it, then please use 'personal system settings'".

What I think is the larger issue is the fact that KDE configuration settings change in mysterious ways that leave users befuddled and frustrated. Elaborating here on the above reference, I have always disabled the screen locking on my private machine in my private office. Someone inserted a new locking mechanism hidden away in advanced personal settings under power management. I would be surprised if anybody thought this might be easy to find. The _very_minimum_ that should have been done would be to annotate the "password required" entry of the screen saver page to reference this obscure setting that has now become required.

To reiterate: this is an example and not my main point. The main point is that changes like this are all too common, need to be minimized, and need to be ameliorated when they do have to be done.

Installing wrappers is much too much hassle to be practical.

As for your second point about making a document about changes in a guide format, I will talk about this to the people in charge.

I am not recalling the issue where I thought a wrapper was appropriate. Certainly would not be in all cases. In the case of the "no password required" for a screen saver turning off password requirements on power save, that indeed might make for an interesting challenge. Just a comment there saying, "go see password requirements in the advanced/power saver section" ought to suffice.

That was the situation I was thinking about most: rearrangements of menus. It should not be hard to leave around either a reference in the "bad old" menu or even a duplicate entry there. It is *MUCH* easier to scroll down a long menu than meander around a complex menu structure looking for something you know has to be somewhere. "What was that called? Did the name change? What might it be called now?"

Anyway, a guide would be very helpful. Thank you.