KDE4 learning curve
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| perspectoff Nov 22, 2008 7:32 PM EDT |
A long time ago I was a Windows 3.1 user. Quite a humbug operating system compared to the Macintosh, I was told. I went to a job where they had lots of Macs -- only no one knew how to use them. it took me months to learn how to use the Mac interface - "the easiest in the world", and longer how to customise them for our business (some stuff could never be customised). This is true with every computer system I have ever used -- there is always a learning curve. My learning curve with KDE 4 (on Kubuntu Intrepid Ibex) has taken 3 weeks, but now it works great and I wouldn't go back. There are a few programs that haven't yet been ported from KDE 3 to KDE 4, but only a few. Many of the old standards work stylishly and well. Both the Windows Vista and the Mac OS X desktops are pretty, and KDE 4 equals (and often surpasses) them. The modular widget status of KDE 4 is the future. There is no going back. Embrace your destiny. |
| tracyanne Nov 22, 2008 8:44 PM EDT |
I don't use KDE4 because it's not stable enough, and I've rolled all my users back to KDE 3.5.10 until KDE4 is sufficiently stable. The missing functionality is a big issue where I'm personally concerned. |
| herzeleid Nov 22, 2008 9:29 PM EDT |
I've been a kde fan for some years - but the net effect of the push towards kde4 has tranformed me into a gnome user, at least for the present. |
| rijelkentaurus Nov 25, 2008 10:17 PM EDT |
I am using Etch at work with KDE 3.5.x, and running FVWM-Crystal on my Ubuntu machine. I am apt-getting kubuntu-desktop right now to see how it is. Ubuntu's gnome is not as bad as it used to be, but I still prefer KDE. My work laptop is running Mandriva with 4.1.2, it's pretty nice and there are several features that I have simply grown to love, particular the folder view on the desktop...or is that available for 3.5.x also? |
| ColonelPanik Nov 25, 2008 11:18 PM EDT |
I just found out that I can make KDE .somethin, look and almost
function like GNOME. w00t. But.... I know in my heart it isn't really GNOME. |
| rijelkentaurus Nov 25, 2008 11:40 PM EDT |
Kubuntu's implementation, so far, is far better, more consistent and more stable than Mandriva's...granted, haven't played with it much, but I like it better at this point than I have ever liked Mandriva's (and I liked Mandriva's, don't get me wrong). |
| Scott_Ruecker Nov 26, 2008 12:52 AM EDT |
I have been using KDE 3.5.9 for a while now and even though I am a big KDE fan and like a lot of what I have seen in 4.0, I really have zero urge to upgrade right now. I have my computer(s) just the way I like it, everything works just the way I want and when I want them too..its love. And I am a happy man. I just don't want to mess with getting 4.0 to do exactly what I want when I already am with 3.5.9. I need to run a good live distro that has 4.0 on it and mess around with it for a week or two. I think that after the recent updates it is probably worth a good walk through. Any suggestions on a good distro to check out KDE 4.0 on? |
| tracyanne Nov 26, 2008 1:07 AM EDT |
Quoting:Any suggestions on a good distro to check out KDE 4.0 on? I don't recommend Mandriva 2009.0, unless you are willing to install and hope the updates have improved it. |
| rijelkentaurus Nov 26, 2008 1:34 AM EDT |
Try the new Fedora, KDE edition. |
| dinotrac Nov 26, 2008 8:24 AM EDT |
Hmmmm. This strikes me as a problem. From the pre 1.0 betas, I have moved to every version of KDE that came out well before they went gold. Nobody -- N-O-B-O-D-Y -- has made KDE 4.x remotely interesting. I don't see what advantages it brings,but, unlike pre-releases of older versions, it seems to bring the "benefit" of being unstable and not working especially well. Very disconcerting. |
| mortenalver Nov 26, 2008 9:08 AM EDT |
I like KDE 4.1 very much, I've been using it with Mandriva 2009. However, it seems quite shaky, and I've had several issues (like wheel mouse scrolling glitches, and sometimes problems with automatically mounting a USB stick). If they can fix the bugs and the annoyances (such as making it difficult to put quick application launchers on the task bar), it will be a wonderful desktop environment. I still think Mandriva should have stayed with KDE 3.5 for this version. |
| jdixon Nov 26, 2008 10:09 AM EDT |
> Any suggestions on a good distro to check out KDE 4.0 on? The new version of Slackware is supposed to come with KDE 4. I have no idea when it will be out though. If Patrick ships it, I think you count it at least being stable, if not fully functional. |
| bigg Nov 26, 2008 10:37 AM EDT |
I was under the impression that you can install KDE 4 on Slackware 12.1. My favorite KDE 4 desktop is Kubuntu. It's available for either 8.04 or 8.10. I haven't found any reason to choose 4 over 3, but for me at least, KDE 4 looks so much better. I will consider moving to KDE in another year or so. |
| jdixon Nov 26, 2008 11:17 AM EDT |
> I was under the impression that you can install KDE 4 on Slackware 12.1. It's in current, so in theory you can. It's not a simple process though. You'll have to remove all of the current qt and kde packages and upgrade to the newer ones. There may also be other dependencies involved. Robbie Workman used to have test packages available, but they don't seem to be there anymore. |
| hkwint Nov 26, 2008 2:08 PM EDT |
If I can find out how to install KDE4 on Debian, I'll try it. Can't be that hard, can it? |
| bigg Nov 26, 2008 2:18 PM EDT |
http://pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org/kde4.html Already done it, their implementation is great. One other that I forgot to mention is Arch. They have kdemod which is quite popular among the KDE crowd. |
| flufferbeer Nov 26, 2008 2:24 PM EDT |
FWIW, I've had good results with using distros (like maybe Slackware?) that you can easily switch back and forth from KDE 3 to KDE 4. Emphasis on the EASY part here! For testing purposes, I can also use liveCD's such as Kubuntu that either have KDE 3 or KDE 4. A single KDE liveCD gets a single session until the next reboot. |
| jdixon Nov 27, 2008 8:57 PM EDT |
> (like maybe Slackware?) You could probably install both KDE 3.x and KDE 4.x on Slackware, but I'm not sure switching back and forth between would be a simple matter. I believe they use different versions of the same libraries, which would make things difficult. |
| gus3 Nov 27, 2008 10:46 PM EDT |
No, you cannot install both v3 and v4 of KDE on Slackware. In fact, it's even advised that you move /etc/kde and ~/.kde to /etc/kde3 and ~/.kde3, respectively. In the current-testing directory containing the KDE4 packages, there's a README file explaining this, plus a couple scripts handy for ripping out any conflicting packages before switching versions. |
| jdixon Nov 28, 2008 4:52 PM EDT |
> No, you cannot install both v3 and v4 of KDE on Slackware. Well, you can't install the default packages of both, no. You could probably compile them both yourself and install them into different locations (or possibly just change the root installtion point for the packages). But even if you do that, I don't see any way to switch back and forth between them easily. And the .kde folder problem has bitten people upgrading versions of kde before, so yes, it's a good idea. |
| rijelkentaurus Nov 28, 2008 6:28 PM EDT |
Quoting: You could probably compile them both yourself and install them into different locations (or possibly just change the root installtion point for the packages). And you can juggle lit matches and dynamite at the same time, but you probably don't wanna do that, either. VMs were made for this sort of thing, IMO. I don't think you'd want to be able to switch back and forth, really, you'd stick with one or the other. Try it out virtually or on a live CD, then choose 3 or 4. My 2c and all that. |
| jdixon Nov 30, 2008 12:28 AM EDT |
> And you can juggle lit matches and dynamite at the same time... Probably a pretty good analogy, yes. However, as long as the dynamite isn't fused, you should be safe. :) |
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