regurgitated words

Story: Linux backers foresee desktop gainsTotal Replies: 6
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mojavelinux

Apr 23, 2004
8:05 AM EDT
I'm sorry, but anyone who doesn't think that KDE 3.2 with the plastik theme and the crystal SVG icon set is not the most beautiful desktop they have ever seen, then they are looking a life through an ugly kaleidoscope. I am not saying that the desktop doesn't need work, but there are plenty of areas that Windows XP falls well short of usable. I am sure Gnome has plenty of ups on Windows XP as well.

The link below should prove my points:

http://www.actsofvolition.com/archives/2001/december/windows...
dave

Apr 23, 2004
8:18 AM EDT
Do you have screenshots of KDE 3.2 with the extras you mentioned? I'd love to see them.

dave
mojavelinux

Apr 23, 2004
9:04 AM EDT
One of my personal projects has been to try to capture why KDE is such an amazing desktop environment. I have come to the conclusion that screenshots, while revealing, fail to really capture the essence of the desktop. KDE is so powerful that fitting it in one sentence is just too mind boggling. All I know is that when I need to get something done, there are so many different ways of doing it in KDE it is incredible, many of those ways being both productive and fun. Windows to me is just not fun at all, it is more like pushing a rock up a slope.

If I do have to give a list of what rocks about KDE, I would certainly start with the following items:

* split views in konqueror for side-by-side work, mixing web content + file management + ioslaves (sftp, smb, ftp, etc) * dockapps, such as the media control, knotes, klipper, kwallet and kweather * excellent fonts, so nice you want to reach out and pet them * tabbed views all around, an extremely productive way to work * intelligent window managment, including always on top, smart resizing, and window shading (like mac) * great apps, like juk, konsole, kcontrol (control center), konqueror + plugins * tools, tools, tools...kcolorchooser, kruler, ksnapshot, klipper, spell checking in all input forms, integration done right, powerful file selector

To me, KDE just has what I need. I don't need to go fishing on the internet for tools to get my daily work done. If that isn't enough to convince someone to use KDE, then they don't hold productivity in high regard.

Here is the screenshot:

http://www.mojavelinux.com/cooker/incoming/kde32_konq_juk_ba...
dave

Apr 23, 2004
9:32 AM EDT
I used fvwm in 1995, and Afterstep in 1996 through 2000. In 2000, I switched to WindowMaker where I have been happily since.

Every so often (whenever a new version comes out) I give another try to the various windowing systems out there, like GNOME, KDE, and XFCE.

I see that KDE 3.2 is out now and peradventure it is time to give it another shot. I almost switched to KDE back in the 3.0 days but ultimately the lack of my favorite dockapp functionality drove me back to WindowMaker. I just can't live without wmbiff and the biff tool that I had to download and try to get working with KDE was abyssmally lacking.

Anyway, I'm downloading and working through dependancies right now. Installing KDE 3.2 on Fedora Core 1 seems a little non-intuitive.

dave
dave

Apr 23, 2004
10:07 AM EDT
Well, this looks pretty good so far. I had very few problems installing the RPM files and the setup was a snap. The control panel allows me to configure my keyboard shortcuts (I need Alt-[1-8] for desktop switching!).

All told, this looks good. I'll try this for a few days. Mojavelinux: Do you know of any good mail biff-type program for the KDE panel?

Screenshot here: http://yucca.standardout.com/~dave/kde3.2_screen.png

dave
mojavelinux

Apr 23, 2004
12:17 PM EDT
...add to my list above a visual differences viewer when overwriting a file on save. To demo this feature, save an image and then save another image using the same name. It will actually bring up a window that shows the original image next to the new image...incredible!
mojavelinux

Apr 25, 2004
10:20 PM EDT
Dave, I wish I had caught you before you upgraded to KDE3 because I totally forgot to mention that there is a way to try out a build of KDE without even touching the base system. This task is accomplished by using Konstruct, a build utility based on Garnome from the Gnome project. I just finished a tutorial article on how to get started with it.

http://www.mojavelinux.com/articles/konstruct.html

Definitely give it a try if you get a chance. It is really no trouble at all. This message was edited Apr 26, 2004 2:20 AM

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