KDE 4.7 RC Is Here – Has GRUB2+KDM Integration, Better Dolphin, KWin For Mobile

digitizor.com

46 points·dkd903··5 comments

The GRUB2 integration means you can pick the next boot target as you initiate a reboot.

I thought they already had this feature forever?

right. :-)

What's the elevator pitch for KDE4? I tried some earlier releases and found that basic things that were stupid easy to do in KDE3 were now either impossible or or required too many hoop jumps. For example, navigating a system menu using the keyboard via leading letters and/or numbers, or setting a different background color on each virtual desktop.

I'm now a reasonably happy user of the Trinity version of KDE3.5 but don't want to assume that KDE4 will always be unusable for me. However, it seems to be a growing bundle of clever but (for me) bloated widgets and services.

(FWIW I like Konqueror more than Dolphin as a file manager. Maybe I'm just stuck in familiar habits?)

You're not the only one. I've been trying KDE4 from time to time, but I keep returning to KDE3.5, because it's faster, leaner, simpler, better configurable, and less cluttered.

In my opinion KDE4 was inspired by the compositing-window-manager hype in 2008, fueled by Windows Vista, OSX and compiz. Suddenly every self-respecting desktop environment had to have translucent windows (with blurring of underlying graphics), widgets, gadgets, 3D effects, and whatnot. This resulted in an enormous bloat, and this situation was further worsened by taking away user configurability.

Does KDE4 still have that silly 'cashew' in the top right screen corner, which cannot be removed?

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