Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE)
trinitydesktop.org
trinitydesktop.org
>What is TDE?
>TDE is the Trinity Desktop Environment. The project was initiated by Matthias Ettrich in 1996 and originally called the K Desktop Environment.
>Why the rebranding and renaming efforts? Why not continue calling the software KDE?
>The "KDE" name, various logos, and related efforts are trademarked by the KDE Foundation. Since the Trinity project is not affiliated with the KDE Foundation, legally we can't use their trademarks.
It's like the FAQ is trying to hint that TDE is the "real" KDE, a continuation of the same project initiated by Matthias Ettrich (who, afaict, has no connection to TDE), and that the KDE Foundation's project is an impostor. But the FAQ page doesn't quite make that claim explicit, or provide justification for it, so I don't know what to think. The Wikipedia page on TDE is also of no help. Does anyone know if there's a backstory?
Certainly that's one interpretation. The other interpretation is exactly what is said and no more. Where did this "imposter" accusation come from?
Viewed in this context, the second point sounds weird: it was never rebranded, the fork was called TDE from the beginning, and the reason it can't (shouldn't) call itself KDE is because it isn't. What the KDE leadership calls KDE is KDE.
They also kinda imply that they would use the KDE name, if they were allowed to, but someone else owns the rights for it. ("Why don't you do this very natural thing?" "I am not allowed to.")
They indeed don't claim or imply that the KDE Foundation is an "imposter". They also don't say anything about whether the KDE Foundation is also a continuation of the same project.
> The TDE project began as a continuation of the K Desktop Environment (KDE) version 3. The name Trinity was chosen partly because the word means "three" and TDE was a continuation of KDE 3. TDE now is its own computer desktop environment project.
> The TDE project was founded by Timothy Pearson. Timothy is an experienced and skilled software developer and was the KDE 3.x coordinator of previous Kubuntu releases.
Some elbow grease might be necessary - like all the time the TDE developers have put towards their project - but the important part is that it is possible.
That said, i do think that TDE would benefit from a couple of more aesthetically pleasing themes in the screenshots - even the original KDE3.5 default theme (preferably with a bit less gradient galore) would be better than the current shots that look like a hodgepodge of themes thrown together.
So while in Linux it’s intentionally modular, I wouldn’t say it’s the only place it’s possible. Maybe the most practical, for sure.
As we move more to service oriented everything though, that becomes increasingly less feasible. I suppose to some degree it’s more flexible because web apps at some point give you all the rendering code locally to muck with however you may want to but the frequency of change in UIs on top of its complexity seems like this world will always be unapproachable for customization, and that’s for services that are using browsers. Forget it if theres some local application doing rendering (like the Microsoft app with Azure services).
Meanwhile if i desire i can download the official source code for Gtk and modify the painting code to be as pixel perfect as i want (and in fact i did exactly that some years ago to make XFCE look like Windows 95 because the available themes looked off :-P).
For webapps, yeah you can't do much but personally i prefer local apps where possible anyway - and for the other stuff, if i care enough, Stylus and Greasemonkey are there to help. I do use a custom Stylus theme i wrote for HN for example :-).
There are still KDE3 features I miss that neither KDE4 nor KDE5 has ever had. The one that sticks out in my mind is the ability to edit the start menu directly, rather than having to move to a weird parallel world.
That does remind me though - why isn't "icons on the desktop" a thing by default anymore? I'll admit I stopped bothering to go edit the defaults for every new install, but why?
How many program positions on your desktop can you reliably remember without having to search? Isn't it just about the same amount as you can fit in the menu bar you've got on KDE/unity/gnome? And if you've gotta search, isn't the launcher with fuzzy search quicker anyway?
nowadays I've just given up on desktop environments entirely and just use xmonad and dmenu. I got fed up with people having their own ideas of how my computing experience should be.
If they close it, odds are having a shortcut on the desktop they can just tap to re-open it would be most welcome. No?
If something works well on such a platform doesn't man it's useful on the other
This is why being able to move the icons where you want is helpful: takes advantage of spatial memory :-).
(though on Linux where i use Window Maker - and thus have no desktop icons - i just use task-specific workspaces and each workspace has its own icons/launchers on the clip for the stuff i use most often, which acts as a workspace-specific dock)
I'm not sure about this explanation. Almost everybody has icons on the screen of their phones amd tablets, and multiple pages of them, and they seem to remember well were those icons are.
Wide screens and HQ displays. More pixels, more space, less need for maximized windows as maximized windows look ridiculous on modern setups.
Most people make the windows smaller, sometimes with other programs next to them, sometimes alone. Often you have them floating and you don't want icons ruining the view or being distractions, this way the desktop becomes a wallpaper or infinite backdrop of art to your windows to let you focus. It's very zen and peaceful to open a window in the expanse of space.
They actually made "Folderview" (the mode where the desktop shows all files inside the ~/Desktop directory) default again for new installations in Plasma 5.10, released 7 years ago.
https://blogs.kde.org/2017/03/01/plasma-510-folder-view-defa...
A new version of the Trinity desktop is out, with a new window-snapping feature. And that's not the only way it's snappy.
The Trinity Desktop Environment (latest release 14.1.1), or TDE for short, is a fork and continuation of KDE version 3.5, the last release of KDE 3. It's loosely comparable to MATE, which is a continuation of GNOME 2 after the developers moved on to the radically different GNOME 3. KDE 4 wasn't as radical a change, but it introduced a significantly different design based around customizable widgets called "plasmoids."
https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/02/trinity_desktop_q4os/
EDIT: here's the latest changelog: https://wiki.trinitydesktop.org/Changelog_For_R14.1.3#amarok
They've recently pushed out a new release with the code base ported to Qt/Plasma 5 and are now going for Qt/Plasma 6.
But I am glad it exist, it proves you do not have to make changes "just because", but just change to make it run a bit better, eliminate bugs but keep the same "soul".
FWIW, I stick with fvwm, now on v3.
KDE4 was better but the issue still existed. KDE5 I can last most of the day. Hoping KDE6 is better. FWIW, Gnome* also never caused issues.
I did spend lots of time looking for a color theme for it and in the 4.0 days I found a theme I think was called "happy_eyes", it worked with minor tweaks. For KDE5 I found calm-eyes.