Anyone else annoyed with KDE 4.X?


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Thread: Anyone else annoyed with KDE 4.X?

  1. #1
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    Anyone else annoyed with KDE 4.X?

    I still run KDE 3.5.9 on my OpenSuSE 11.0 x86-64 systems since I just can't find anything useful with KDE 4.X. My daughter needed her laptop updated so I installed Mandriva since it's the best distro I have found to date for use with children and newbs.

    Of course the default is KDE 4.2 and it's a massive PITA to set up how I want it. If I select slide show for the desktop background then the desktop icons disappear. I can't find the equivalent to the KDE 3.5.9 quick launcher (which we both use heavily), the menu system just plain sucks. And dolphin... could we use a bit more real estate?

    Overall I have been finding KDE 4.X a complete kludge and why I refuse to upgrade my own systems. And no I don't like Gnome either, I find it just about as limited as KDE 4.X. I dunno, I have a set up that works for me at the office and at home that I just have not been able to replicate with KDE 4.x or Gnome DE's.

    So has anyone else run into this or felt this way? Who knows maybe I am just an old fart that doesn't want to change, but I really can't find many redeeming qualities in KDE 4.X.
    One by one the penguins steal my sanity...

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  2. #2
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    Yep, I do, I have never been a fan of Gnome, looked at it several times, each time I still think the same thing : less is less, not more...

    As for KDE 4.x, I fiddled with it on Mandriva, was not terribly impressed, at least PCLinux 2009 was clever enough to stick to KDE 3.
    Feel free to PM me for help

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  3. #3
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    I just

    noticed that PCLinuxOS still uses KDE 3.5.10... I think I may drop that on my daughters laptop instead...
    One by one the penguins steal my sanity...

    Vanpooling now...

  4. #4
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    Has bb_j read this yet?

    Oh, and by the way, I ain't too fond of KDE 4.x either.
    Last edited by i845_; 07-07-2009 at 12:24 PM.

  5. #5
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    Right click on the cashew, appearance settings, select "Folder View". Pretty much KDE 3.x at that point. Konqueror is also installed by default, I replaced the "Home" folder with Konqueror under right click properties --> application. I like KDE 4.2(mandriva). It runs faster than 3.x did on my aspire one netbook. Plasmoids are cool and the themes are pretty good. I can maximize real estate with a tiny tiny taskbar at the bottom. Also, KWin desktop effects are pretty amazing, nobody believes it when I show them on a netbook.

    Oh yeah, if you unlock widgets (right click on desktop anywhere) then right click on the start menu, you can switch to the classic menu style.

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  6. #6
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    There was opposition to XP when it first arrived on the scene too. Quit yer bellyaching!!!
    Everything passes in time!
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    the speed limit is 55 miles an hour?" And I said, "Yes, but I wasn't going
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  7. #7
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    Not belly achin

    just calling it like I see it. And I still haven't accepted XP... or Vista or any other iteration of Windows except Win 2K
    One by one the penguins steal my sanity...

    Vanpooling now...

  8. #8
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    The only thing that really annoys me is the lack of attention given konqueror as a web browser. For me it is pretty much useless at this stage of kde-4.2.4.
    You can tuna piano, but you can't tune a fish.

    http://www.lunar-linux.org/
    It's worth the spin.

    http://www.pclinuxos.com/page.php?7
    Puts the rest to shame.

  9. #9
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    I'm using KDE4 on Slackware and it is amazing. Looks great, and works well, even on my old crappy work-supplied laptop. I can totally tell that it it using less resources in this machine. (And a couple of others I have upgraded.)

    For you maladjusted old farts, Mepis is a very solid distro that last I checked still ships with KDE3.

    It did take me a couple of days to configure it to my liking, and I will now never turn back.
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by i845_ View Post
    Has bb_j read this yet?
    Funny you shouid ask...

    No woman has ever been as good at pushing my crazy buttons as KDE4. It isn't that I hate it, it's that I am almost irresistably fascinated by it, keep installing, and keep being incredibly frustrated by it. Again and again, I fall in love with the idea of KDE4, and come slamming up against the actual experience. Somewhere on the web, you can find me expressing every possible opinion of KDE4. It probably hasn't been good for my credibility. It got me banned from the Kubuntu forum.

    You just can't imagine how much KDE4 has disrupted my life, at a time when I had stopped compulsively reinstalling my OS, I've done maybe six reinstalls over the past few days. I don't have a clean dish in the place. So yeah, for purely selfish reason, I sort of wish it had never happened. For me, no matter how great it turns out to be, it's never going to be worth the trouble.


    On the other hand, I'm running the KDE 4.3 Release candidate on Kubuntu right now. I... think... I... like it? Stay tuned.
    Last edited by blackbelt_jones; 07-08-2009 at 01:00 PM.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by blackbelt_jones View Post
    I've done maybe six reinstalls over the past few days. I don't have a clean dish in the place. .
    Ahh!! Those were the days before the present little woman!!!
    "I was pulled over for speeding today. The officer said, "Don't you know
    the speed limit is 55 miles an hour?" And I said, "Yes, but I wasn't going
    to be out that long."

    How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
    COME VISIT ME IN RUSSIA NOW!!

  12. #12
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    I'll say this much. love it or hate it, you have have to see KDE 4.3 in order to say that you've seen KDE4. KDE4.3 is packed with amazing, beautiful features; it's objectively awesome. Bugs? Sure, there are bugs, but the bugs aren't the issue and never were. The only question is how much do these super duper features really contribute to getting tasks done. Not much, as far as I can see, and so we are divided between those for whom the plasmoids and all that jazz are comfortable and fun, those for whome it is obtrusive and annoying, and poor shmucks like me who can't make up their minds.

    Screenshot!

    It's pretty amazing. Note that this is a shot of the Folderview mode, which is KDE4's confusing name for a traditional desktop. The icoms are directly on the desktop, and yet, I've got some plasmoids up there, too. I'm pretty sure that I couldn't do this with KDE 4.2.

    I think I'm going to keep this, and just start using fluxbox to run KDE applications, just like I used to do when this whole thing started. And, hopefully, I'm also going to do the dishes.
    Last edited by blackbelt_jones; 07-08-2009 at 07:56 PM.

  13. #13
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    http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/01/talking-bluntly.html


    Here's Aaron Seigo on the future of KDE3.5, this is the article that got me banned from the Kubuntu forum. The important thing to note is that KDE3 wll be maintained as long as it has users. he problem, of course, is that KDE3 isn't going to have many users if you can't find it in a distro, and the distros that support KDE3 is dwinding all the time.

    Mepis is based on Lenny, so it's KDE3, but what happens when Squeeze becomes the stable version? I don't use Lenny because I don't like feeling like my Desktop is doomed. I'm looking for a distro that is not going to dump me the way that Kubuntu did, a distro that is committed to offering KDE3 as an option.

    There's an unofficial KDE3 version of Kubuntu (I'll post the link later). It works great except that I couldn't find the commands to open the applications. "konqueror" refers to the KDE4 version. "konqueror-kde3" doesn't work. This makes using this version of kubuntu with fluxbox out of the question; I can't program fluxbox without the commands-- and that makes it out of the question for me... but KDE3 fans who want to confine themselves to KDE3 would probably be very pleased, and here is a distro that will stay with KDE3 as long as it has a userbase. Now here's the link:

    http://apt.pearsoncomputing.net/cdimages/

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by blackbelt_jones View Post
    It's pretty amazing. Note that this is a shot of the Folderview mode, which is KDE4's confusing name for a traditional desktop. The icoms are directly on the desktop, and yet, I've got some plasmoids up there, too. I'm pretty sure that I couldn't do this with KDE 4.2.
    Yes you can do that in 4.2

    Well, maybe you can't, but it can be done...
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  15. #15
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    But since I know you won't believe me:



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