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KDE 4.0 Beta 4 Screenshots

Posted by lqsh on · 23 comments
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This Beta aimed at further polishing of the KDE codebase and we would love to start receiving feedback from testers. Besides the stabilization of the codebase, some minor features have been added, including but not limited to much work on Plasma, the KDE 4 desktop shell.

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Comments (23)

3 earlier comments in the full thread.

> Somehow I expected it to be... prettier.

Yep. I much prefer firm lines and square buttons. I took a screenshot, but realized I have nowhere to post it. :^)
Bob: Please send your screenshots to editors at-sign then the name of this webpage (sorry for the inconvenience of telling it this way, but we suffer from lots of spam), and I will upload them to LXer for you, and you can write an article accompanying the screenshots if you'd like.

Quoting:Somehow I expected it to be... prettier.


Everybody does - and I made the same mistake before. That's because of a misunderstanding: KDE4 is only a framework, it doesn't include nice graphics itself. We discussed this at T-Dose during the talk of Adriaan de Groot, one of the KDE developers, and he agreed there isn't much reason to try KDE4 at this moment if you want to see beautiful new graphics. They are just currently not there (yet).

If you were to upgrade your Java virtual machine which enables more eye-candy and still run the same (web-based) Java apps, would you expect those apps to look prettier? Or, if you have a DirectX10 card and DirectX10 driver, but play an old DirectX 9 game, do you expect the reflections in the water to be prettier than back when you ran it on your DirectX9 card with DirectX9 driver? Of course, the framework itself also includes some graphics; but that's very very little since KDE4 itself mainly is about new 'enabling' technologies. If the apps don't use them, you don't see them. At this moment, almost all apps are still made for KDE3, and therefore KDE4 looks the same as KDE3 at this moment; they still have to be ported to KDE4. Porting is not straightforward if you want to use KDE4's abilities; you have to change lots of stuff to use the new KDE4 layers. So in my opinion there is not much point in using or trying KDE4 if you're not a devel, except from being curious - which I am too by the way.

No, we're not going to see how KDE4 really looks before the apps are ported. We still have to wait for Januar for the final KDE4 to be released, and that may well mean not before Q2 '08 we will see what it really can do I'm afraid; and that only will be the first start. The only thing we can do is don't expect to much from KDE4 'itself' for the time being, and have lots of patience.
>The only thing we can do is don't expect to much from KDE4 'itself' for the time being, and have lots of patience.

KDE folk are notoriously productive, so we may not need *too* much patience.

I applaud them for going about this process in such a sensible manner:

Do the port and get it right. Do the infrastructure and get it right. Release the results so people can bang away and find what you've missed while applications begin to exploit all of the new wonderfulness.

Gotta love a good plan.

hk, thank you for the offer. If the two kids let me, I may try to do it. :^)

But my one real objection so far is the hamstrung main Kmenu. Hopefully, KDE will continue the tradition of maximum configurability and allow the Kmenu to be returned to its old behavior.

Quoting:... and allow the Kmenu to be returned to its old behavior.
Me too don't like the new Kmenu. But what we are going to see in the future is the option to right click the K icon and select the menu flavor. I believe either PCLOS or Mandriva has done that already. I will check.

I played with Dolphin a little, it is pretty cool but it is going to take some getting used to. I like the idea of creating a dedicated file manager as long as Konqueror is kept and maintained. It is still my favorite for now.

Yes, it is only a platform for now, give them time and they will have massive additions of features, capabilities, and eye candy, which this platform was built for in the first place and will enable them to do.

Watch out Windows and GNOME.

>I believe either PCLOS or Mandriva has done that already. I will check.

That's how it works on my OpenSuse 10.2 box with KDE 3.5.8.
Quoting:That's how it works on my OpenSuse 10.2 box with KDE 3.5.8.
Suse? Isn't time to stop using that stuff? :)

>Suse? Isn't time to stop using that stuff? :)

I'll admit, having a solid and dependable distro does take some of the fun out of things...
> I'll admit, having a solid and dependable distro does take some of the fun out of things... Exactly my reason for using Debian Sid. :^)

Quoting:...solid and dependable distro...
I myself must admit too, it wasn't easy for me to change after ~5 years of using Suse.

> ...having a solid and dependable distro does take some of the fun out of things...

So you'll be switching to Slackware now? :)
>So you'll be switching to Slackware now? :)

More accurately, a solid and dependable distro that mere mortals such as myself can comprehend and deal with...
Quoting:More accurately, a solid and dependable distro that mere mortals such as myself can comprehend and deal with...


OK, I understand, and I am very happy to welcome you in our Gentoo-camp.
Yes...Come to the Gentoo side! *evil laugh*
As I write this I have a minimal (stage3) install going, finally up to installing the X server. Talk about a learning experiance.
>OK, I understand, and I am very happy to welcome you in our Gentoo-camp.

Very kind of you to welcome me, but, if I wanted to go back to ports, I'd just go native and do FreeBSD again.

Must admit that FreeBSD served me very well and I have the utmost respect for it. I've just been using Linux longer and for more things.
> More accurately, a solid and dependable distro that mere mortals such as myself can comprehend and deal with...

What's the fun in that? :)
> Must admit that FreeBSD served me very well and I have the utmost respect for it.

I have a great deal of respect for the various BSD's. Theo, on the other hand...

Unfortunately, I've never been able to get the Freesbie disk to boot on anything I own. :(
Quoting:but, if I wanted to go back to ports, I'd just go native and do FreeBSD again.


OK, here you go: http://techbase.kde.org/Getting_Started/Build/KDE4/FreeBSD

Remember to send us your screenhots!
Quoting:I have a great deal of respect for the various BSD's. Theo, on the other hand...


Of course, Theo has to draw some attention, because otherwise a lot of people would probably forget OpenBSD exists too.

However, Linus is becoming a dictator (too?), sadly. Look at how CK disappeared for example. If Linus says it won't make it to the mainline kernel, it won't make it. In contradiction to OpenBSD, it's unclear on what base Linus decides, since he doesn't have a long-term vision for the Linux kernel in the first place. He doesn't come much further than 'Virtualization will be the most important for the following few releases'. Well, if that's his vision, that's not much more vision than Steve Ballmer has for Windows. I agree, like Theo said, Linux suffers from a lack of focus.

Also, when you mail Theo, you have an answer in less than an hour, even it's the first time you're mailing him and he doesn't even know you (own experience). Can't say that of Linus, do you? My conclusion is, both have their pro's and cons, and they seem to be in balance lately.

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