KDE's Plasma To Be Reworked, Use More OpenGL

[pingufunkybeat]

What 'should be' and the actual outcome are not always the same. In the end it probably will be visible to end users in a not so pleasant way. We'll see a lot of angry KDE users, then we'll see a blogpost from the KDE devs shifting the blame to others (God forbid that for once they take some responsibility for their own cock-ups!) In short: L'histoire se r?p?te.

This is the definition of FUD.

You are criticising them for things that haven't even happened.

Oh no, they are introducing changes, this will lead to breakage, this will lead to angry users, this will lead to terrorism, this will lead to a nuclear conflict.

Change is often necessary, and often good. It's not like that other desktop environment did not piss off their users countless times by changing things around first, then trying to convince all their users that they don't know what's good for them:

- Shift from browser-like navigation to spatial mode, then apparently back again
- Reversing Cancel/OK buttons
- File Open dialog changes

[dfx.]

I'm still waiting for an adequate replacement for Konqueror's formerly glorious file-management features. Thanks to myriad "kfile-plugins" packages, you could hover over a file in Konqueror 3, and it would be surprising if Konqueror didn't have a bunch of things to tell you about it. Like hovering over .torrent files, the size of the torrent's data, the directory or file it contains, the tracker listed, etc, all this info would be at your fingertips. Hover over a video or audio file? Length info, bitrate info, framerate info, etc etc.

Dolphin has the "information" panel which does basically nothing except lag out the UI coming up with miserable thumbnails. It tells the size of a file, and the modification date, and, well, that's just about it. Guess what KDE devs? That information is already available in the file list!
/lament

very true, dolphin is just pathetic.
it looks like a trend of requiring more actions for the same tasks with kde4. for one more example, plasma info panel in kde 4.5 in comparison with 4.4 wants like 2-3 more clicks to show same basic info :\
eh, someday, i should also devote a shitload of time to actually write few dozens proper bug reports about most obvious things they fucking up since 3.5 it sooo damn hard to try to express it in coherent phrases and not to swear; only picturing in mind horrors of what is gnome 2 helps to appreciate what we have got with kde4.

by the way, plasma/plasma-desktop completely unusable (in contradiction to kicker) in systems with ati cards with "zaphod mode" and, possibly, with any proprietary driver in same multi-screen setup. fixing that would be a good time spent. maybe they will want to do so while rewriting anyway. with the Power of Scie^WOpenGL!

[pingufunkybeat]

Perhaps if you're running the nvidia blob like the KDE devs do.

I run open source drivers.

I've never seen flicker with KDE 4, although I have been using the radeon+KDE combination for over a year. There were issues with KWin and Mesa (no flicker, just suspended compositing), but they have been fixed in the meantime.

In an open-source community, it is customary to report bugs instead of spreading FUD.

[pingufunkybeat]

You mean the as of yet non-existent, OpenGL 3 using KDE? You traveled to the future?

Oh yeah.

Now we're criticising the not-yet-existent OpenGL 3 KDE, which will certainly break everything, althought we don't really know.

Take that, KDE devs! You will create programs which will not work in 2 years! Therefore, you suck.

[monraaf]

This is the definition of FUD.

You are criticising them for things that haven't even happened.

No I'm just predicting what will happen based on their previous actions. KDE has made huge mistakes in the past, but they never take responsibility for them, they always blame somebody else. It's okay to make mistakes but if you don't acknowledge that it's you who made the mistake you will not learn from it. So I say they will make the same mistakes again and again and again.

[marek]

KDE or graphic drivers fault? Or both?

Almost always both. Both KDE and driver developers should talk to each other and resolve any issues together, especially when KDE people launch a new product the driver devs don't know about or don't test (they are usually more busy with making games work and fast).

[marek]

Also gfx driver developers are usually highly-skilled graphics experts, not some dumb geeks, and they MUST know OpenGL and the underlying hardware better than anyone else ('cause they make the drivers!), so it's not a bad idea to just talk to them and see what they have to say.

[smitty3268]

No I'm just predicting what will happen based on their previous actions. KDE has made huge mistakes in the past, but they never take responsibility for them, they always blame somebody else. It's okay to make mistakes but if you don't acknowledge that it's you who made the mistake you will not learn from it. So I say they will make the same mistakes again and again and again.

Based on the same logic, I am hereby predicting that every single post you write from now to eternity will be filled with nothing but FUD.

[EmbraceUnity]

I think it would make sense to use OpenVG. Also, if going the OpenGL route, it would likely make sense to use OpenGL ES.

[BlackStar]

I think it would make sense to use OpenVG. Also, if going the OpenGL route, it would likely make sense to use OpenGL ES.

Oh right, because OpenVG and OpenGL ES are so well accelerated...