KDE 3.5 rant

[kazetsukai]

Sorry to double-post, but here's one thing we had in KDE 3.5, which is missing in 4.x.

This massive, glaring bug has been here since the first KDE 4 build, and has never been properly addressed. Anyone else experiencing this infuriating problem?

Separate X Sessions on Dual Screens for KDE4 (NON-TWINVIEW!!!) not working

[kazetsukai]

I don't understand the complaints about Dolphin.

Konqueror is still there, you can still use it as a file manager, what's the problem?

Dolphin is getting all of the feature commits and bugfixes, and is getting UI updates for file browsing, Konqueror is getting browser engine updates (which are just half-assedly being pulled from WebKit now).

Konqueror development is, I dare say, stagnant.

[daedaluz]

All the biggest problems KDE4 had have been pretty much solved now, like porting of Qt3 apps for it, inconsistensies and non-stop crashing. I have KDE 4.4.2 installed on Kubuntu and it's almost "there". Quite impressive, consdiering KDE4's age. 4.5 is going to focus further in consistency and stability, which is always good. I've been using it since 4.3 regularly, had to switch to GNOME during 4.0-4.2.

I really have no complaints of it at this point. Largest problem IMHO is that distro vendors really don't pay much attention to defaults, leading to pig disgusting looks & funtionality out of the box. Not a single distro imposes different activities for each desktop (one of the best features) by default, for example.

[sabriah]

Am I just stuck in my ways or does anyone else find KDE 4.3 to be complete garbage. I've been using Linux since 2003 and I've always loved and used the "K Desktop Environment". Now it seems they are taking this brand a completely different direction... Hell KDE doesn't even stand for anything anymore I just want my old desktop back

KDE 4.x > 4.2 is great!!!

[cb88]

The problem is... 3.5 isn't really supported anymore or actively integrated into any distros so I can't compare it on the same playing field as KDE4

That said I do believe KDE4 to be mostly garbage...I'm just not pleased with the direction they have taken at all it isn't that I can't use it I did for about a month and I just don't like it at all VS kde3.5

currently I'm using LXDE with two panels and it suites me its almost as configurable as KDE3.5 in the areas I want anyway and is snappier than KDE4

[jmcharron]

Not to bump this thread again but I have to say I've seen the light... I've installed KDE 4.4.3 from the OpenSuse Build Service and found completely new level of fit and finish compared to 4.3. I honestly don't miss 3.5 at all and completely removed it from my system.

And Yoshi. I'm not sure if its a OpenSuSe thing but they have "plain" desktop setting to remove the stupid plasma icon from the corner of the screen. Also locking your widgets removes the plasma icon from the right edge of the taskbar.

[V!NCENT]

The first gen netbooks are very old hw.
I got the first asus eee 8,9 inch and on that one even Xfce isn't the best option. The Ubuntu based CrunchBang! Linux with Openbox is running fine

[t.s.]

This is just silly. Increasingly, computer are being outfitted with more memory and certain modern desktop environments should exploit that. If you want a lightweight environment go for one that is intended to be so. KDE 4.x doesn't happen to be one of those and I don't see any reason for that to change.

Hm.. not reading my following post, yes?
Well, if I, say, want to use KDE SC on something-like-tablet with just 512mb RAM, how can I do that? Yep, a vanilla KDE SC if not too much a memory hog, but still it is.
.. and it's overcomplex
.. and it's ugly when you turn off compositing
but, still, I'm happy with KDE SC on my desktop

and yes, I've thinking about using other DE for tablet and the like: more lightweight DE and WM, like E17 or fluxbox (openbox's more heavy, IMO).

[V!NCENT]

You people don't even know what KDE is for, right?

Everything is a widget. Even the freaking taskbar. Don't like it? Find more widgets. Any of them rly, because KDE supports Yahoo! and Apple widgets too.

Icons, text and window borders scale automatically to your screen resolution. Don't like that? Go to setting and simply tell it to scale everything larger/smaller.

There is even a package to remove the Plasma icon! There is even a text only widget for managing windows. This is more minimal than fluxbox!

*sigh*

[yoshi314]

from my point of view kde4 feels like it's designed to waste desktop space.

the panel is difficult to use when too tiny (especially the clock). that plasma corner is annoying (can you turn it off?)

also i feel like kde4 in general likes to waste screen - windows have fat borders, titlebars are big, etc. it's hard to come up with something with a minimal look, without having to set a lot of things manually.

i guess kde4 is just not for me - which is ok, one product cannot possibly fit everybody's needs. i like the apps that come with it, though. especially gwenview and okular.

i must say it was easier to setup kde3.5 to behave like a (visually) minimal desktop. it was much closer to what i wanted.