KDE4 killed Linux on the desktop for me. I loved KDE3, used it for years. And then they stopped maintaining it, and the next version was unusable for years. It's still not particularly good or better than KDE3, it's just different.
There was also Kmail, once a very usable tool for me (I think, the best version also came with KDE3). Then after the update (I guess with KDE4) there where some bugs on receiving eMail that happened again and again. It was nasty (I still can't get it, how they managed to kill the simple POP3 handler) but I could use my mail still. After that with the next update came a version that did not manage to import my old mailboxes that I had managed with Kmail for years. They simply killed this once good application for me! Just for gimmicks. Today I use webmail, though I don't like it. Also they managed to cripple KDE4 more and more ... The desktop applications did not do what was documented and they fixed bugs, that did not exist, thus removing or crippling once valuable options ... There was also a bug filed for that, but the developers just did not listen.
Now I use another desktop, but I fear, one day I also need to kick this one, since I see similar behavior -- adding or removing features, complete rewrites, just because it is a nice mind-game or in fashion. I also where thinking to use a really old desktop that nobody uses anymore, just to be free from feature-creep and fashion-ism. I need the computer to work with, not playing mind-games and update-platformers!
I still think KDE4 is missing lot of the "feel" that KDE3 had.
Applications in the KDE3 time were also better, good example is Amarok.
There's always trinity (http://trinitydesktop.org/)
> It's still not particularly good or better than KDE3, it's just different.
You're right, it isn't better.
When I last tried using it (November last year), parts were unusable -- for example on the workspace switcher (the panel that shows your workspaces) I couldn't see the windows that were on each workspace, because the idiot who had coded it thought it more important to make the control look shiny than to display the windows.
I use xubuntu/xfce now. I've no time for fuckwits who just want to jump on the newest trendiest technology bandwagon