KDE 4.7 released | Hacker News Reader

KDE 4.7 released

kde.org

96 pointssandGorgon27 comments

It looks very very nice, but I find its features to be almost... useless. I feel like the desktop is trying to grab the spotlight, instead of focusing on the applications.

For example, how many people really do use desktop widgets on a PC? I'm willing to bet you that the majority of users spend most of their time in a web browser and some kind of a text editor (IDE/Office/...). IMHO the KDE project is going in a wrong direction by putting so much emphasis on the desktop. Just let me quickly start my favourite applications, then go away, until I call you back. I think that Ubuntu's Unity is much more closer to this goal.

PS: last time I tried KDE was with Kubuntu 11.04. I just played around adding and removing widgets, until I dragged the clock from the bottom bar to the desktop. Then I had an incredible frustrating experience when it took me almost half an hour to figure out how to add the clock back on the bottom bar. It just kept going under it.

PPS: The second issue was a show stopper: it didn't remember the settings for my dual-monitor setup. The only fix I could find was to edit configuration files... I mean, be serious, it's 2011, not 1999. So I returned to Ubuntu with Unity, which worked just fine.

Each time a new Ubuntu version is released, I try out KDE - but always end up going back to Gnome for productivity reasons.

The fact that KDE is bloated because of all the semantic desktop stuff doesnt help a bit. Since KDE has switched to its SC (software compilation) based nomenclature, I would happily pay for a KDE-light S.C. with NO MySQL, nepomuk, strigi, akonadi, konqueror and just a bare desktop with Chrome and LibreOffice (saying I can disable it doesnt count )

Since, I'm unable to use Unity in any significant way, I'm looking for a way to use KDE.

And I hope they make a much better default theme than what they have - everything said and done, Gnome looks much much more polished.

The first and the only screenshot shows Compress menu with 5 options: Here, As ZIP Archive, As RAR Archive, As ZIP/TAR Archive, Compress To...

Why is saying you can disable it doesn't count?

OSX comes with Spotlight, but first thing I do is install Quicksilver. I don't expect someone to ship an OSX-light without Spotlight.

(I use KDE with all those things disabled on my desktop, OSX on my MBP.)

Why are you "unable to use Unity in any significant way"?

Just went back to XFCE4 after a month or so on KDE4.4 on Debian. I go back to KDE every now and then, when I feel the need for desktop effects and pretty transparency and stuff like that. This time, I really tried to customize my desktop to be as productive as possible, and I almost succeeded. The windows mozaic display from all desktop a-la-mac when the mouse reaches the top left corner was useful to switch from firefox to konsole. I really like gwenview, yakuake and konqueror for file browsing carry useful features.

On the other hand, I couldn't get my networking to work properly. Whether it's network-manager or the kde frontend that's clunky, I don't know, but it made it impossible to switch from a network to another without rebooting the machine.

It also took me DAYS to find how to deactivate this really annoying desktop switch when the mouse reaches the side of the screen. At some point, I was being very careful not to drag my mouse to the side. Terrible user experience.

KDE is full of options, everywhere, but in the end I felt like most of them are useless. The lack of separation between "basic" parameters and "super geek advanced that even the developers don't touch" ends up in big control panel with plenty of options, and you don't even know where to start looking. So you start Googling, which is usually not a good sign.

Being back to XFCE4 is indeed a relief. Like working out after months of junk food.

>It also took me DAYS to find how to deactivate this really annoying desktop switch when the mouse reaches the side of the screen.

OK, I can see how navigating the System Settings can be confounding but search (in the System Settings search bar) on "screen" and "Screen Edges" comes straight up. Then you can disable it. Days?

A while back I tried to make the shift to Gnome, found it impossible to _work_ with, what you're used to makes a heap of difference (eg those familiar with KDE will be familiar with screen edge switching from KDE3 and will find it a lot easier to disable).

There's a know issue with kde network applet and it's been known for some time, kde team is working on fixing it. Meanwhile use gnome-network-manager instead -- remove applet, install gnome-network-manager though apt, then create a symlink to it rhough ~/.kde/Autostart

Does anyone have experience with the KDE 4 version of KMail and whether its GMail integration is any good? IIRC, 4.6 was the first version of KDE4 to include the new KDEpim suite, so this would be their first major update to the new KDEpim.

I would assume that such an email client would have half-decent IMAP support. Besides copying your contacts from gmail, this should do everything you require.

Besides copying your contacts from gmail, this should do everything you require.

The problem is that you don't want a copy, you want a maintained copy. You want your data synchronized.

Outlook does this very neatly with Exchange, which is why it rules the enterprise. Android does this very neatly with your Gmail/Google account. The iPhone also does this to some extent (at least against Exchange contacts).

Once you get used to the idea that there is only one set of data, going back to working on different sets, different copies of what should be the same data feels very, very wrong.

You can say what you like, but a copy alone will not do "everything you require" for most people these days.

IMAP handles the email synchronisation(1), the only problem is the contact synchronisation. Contacts don't change that much though, so occasional, manual copies to your devices is possible. It is strange that there isn't a good solution like IMAP for this.

1. http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=75725

With Gmail, my contacts change all the time. That is, every time a new person emails me, and I email them back.

I used to have the same issue. Thankfully Thunderbird, which I switched to, has a bidirectional contact sync plugin for google contacts.

FWIW the last time I tried KMail with GMail, there were some issues with how the folder-to-tag mapping worked. This ended up with me needing to untag a lot of stuff manually in my GMail. But since this was over a year and a half back, I wont really go by this. Things could well be better now

Having a read to the announcements worths it. Want to test digikam2 and git integration among others.

Waiting for Kubuntu version. I still use Debian in another computer but I know Kubuntu one will come first.

I'm not a Linux guy, but I'm curious. And I prefer "vanilla" experience when I'm trying a new toy. Which Linux distribution should I use if I want to test a KDE as clean as possible?

Slackware Linux currently features a vanilla KDE 4.5.5. Tastes differ so you might like others (like Kubuntu and OpenSuse), too.

* Slackware patches KDE to remove the PAM dependency.

* The Slackware devs do not much fancy the new HAL replacements.

* KDE apparently changed the compilation infrastructure such that everything comes as a lot of little packages, which makes maintenance harder for them. Without somebody to step up, Alien Bob has even implied that KDE might get dropped from the official package list.

I have no complaints about Fedora. I don't think that they change anything else but the wallpapers.

Arch Linux is the most "vanilla" distribution you'll ever find -- their philosophy is that the machines should download original packages directly from upstream and customize them as little as possible. I know quite a few KDE devs work on Arch. Btw, for the same reasons, installing Arch is not as easy as Ubuntu or SuSE; you'll have to dig in quite a few config files.

When I was considering moving from Kubuntu (my previous long term distro was Slackware; I tried a lot in between) I was considering OpenSUSE because they appear to integrate KDE better than other distros. It's not vanilla but I hear it's KDE done right, properly integrated and extended - I've not made the jump (too entrenched now probably).

I'd say Arch gets most often reported as most vanilla, but I don't think most vanilla is necessarily a good thing.

http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=6673&start... (the question comes up often) http://www.tylerburton.ca/2010/03/my-search-for-the-best-kde... (a bit old now) http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/hpcmr/what_is_the_bes...

Arch Linux. They have new KDE packaged very quickly, it's pretty vanilla. There is some more leg work to get set up right after installing than an Ubuntu or Debian.

Cool, but I'm gonna stick to XFCE4. Don't like the aero in KDE..

If that's your only complaint, the desktop effects can be easily disabled.

Sounds like he's happy w/ xfce anyway. I'm not sure why he felt compelled to let us all know he wasn't switching. Eventful, to be sure.

Yes, desktop effects can be easily disabled, or modified which one to be enabled, System Settings -> Desktop Effects.

And, the default theme 'Air' can be easily changed too, System Settings -> Workspace Appearance.

Screenshot for both: http://freedupthoughts.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/kde-syste...

It's sad to see users choosing desktop environments based on factors like looks, not features/functionality/etc...

As an aside I tried XFCE the other day wanting to squeeze the last bit of performance out of my old comp, that normally runs KDE4. I was quite surprised to find that KDE was ever so slightly snappier - all I do is run FF, TB and libreOffice (occasionally). I ran the default theme on both.

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