Poll - Happy with KDE 4 or not?

[lucky9]

The User Manual icon is on the Desktop. Look there first, then the Wiki.

[eppoh]

One of my biggest ( unresolved ) issues has been printing.
I would really like to see some KDE4 specific help files for printing under KDE4 in either place.

Wiki refers to 3 stuff and the help file says "Assume everything is pre-configured, how to set up a printer, refer to big manual if there is trouble"..that is CH. 11 no kidding. And the next section Printing From an Application is blank. No matter, the KDE user guide on my desktop is revision 2004-06-16 ,copyrighted 2005
Nothing tells you not to look for something that is no longer there, like Kprint.

Maybe a guide that explains the differences and changes from 3 to 4.

Still can't figure out the Alt F2 thing

[smilliken]

KDE3, what's that?

[tcoulon]

I did not like KDE 4 from the start and no change (even Warren's) have modified this since. I won't use KDE 4, period. And if Mepis becomes a "KDE 4 only" distribution (as far as this has a meaning with Linux) I won't follow.

I've changed for Ubuntu + Trinity and am testing Debian + Trinity at the time, I'd love a Mepis + Trinity.

Thierry

[Eadwine Rose]

Well.. I have been using it for a while. I like it. It does what I need to do and it does so without complaining, so.. I am a happy camper with this.

[cage47]

I have to agree completely with Bigboppercole. I think what warren has done has been excellent how he got 8.5 together. Getting KDE 4 with Debian Lenny was what I was doing with backports. But I am a long-standing KDE3.5 holdout. I don't like the issues that 4 has. Also many programs that were standard with 3.5 are now gone or have been hacked to uselessness. Examples? Kaffeine. (or dvd playing in general) Dragon player just doesn't work right for me. Kaffeine was excellent and integrated great with firefox for streaming audio. The simple cd player KSCD is an archaic 14 steps back in usability. Many of my mind petrifying diversions (games) are no longer. System settings are no longer as simple to access, though Warren's changes improved that somewhat (especially printer configs). And no matter what KDE4 fanboys say, there is a SIGNIFICANT drop in performance from 3.5. And example for me. Install a base Debian Lenny with KDE 3.5 (which I have running now on the big box....again) I can get 3100 fps with my radeon 9800pro. Now with Mepis 8.5 (which is basically a slightly modified Debian Lenny with KDE 4 loaded) and I get 2850 fps. Now in general this isn't noticeable even when playing something like Chromium (the game not the browser or desktop) butit is there.

Granted Kopete works again, but that's more a matter of getting around Yahoo's format change that any real changes to the program.

For myself I am happy with my good old Debian Lenny install. I do have Mepis 8.0 on my Thinkpad. It's older and the soundcard driver is removed from Debian. So it will stay with 8.0 until it dies. But the big box will stay with Debian Lenny for now also. Now when Mepis11 makes it to at least Beta 2 I might give it a test to see how warren has cleaned it up. If it is usable for me I MIGHT consider putting it on my big box. But having gone from Squeeze to Mepis 8.5 to PCLinuxOS back to Lenny, it'll take a major improvement in usability for me to go to a KDE 4-based distro again. I mean if this doesn't meet my needs I might just simply chunk it and wait for KDE 5. I have even tried the Trinity Desktop with sour results (Going to retest that again this weekend)

[Roadblock]

As many of you know, I have not been a fan of the progress(?) that KDE 4 has made. My feeling has been that it was rushed out, and declared ready before it ever was. I also feel that too much emphasis was placed on spinning cubes, wobbly windows, etc., and not enough on pure functionality. I also feel that many features were changed, added or dropped that didn't have to be. It has seemed to me that they made changes just for the sake of making changes. Re-inventing the wheel, as it were, has slowed progress and acceptance unnecessarily.

All that said, I realize that KDE 4 is the future, good, bad or indifferent. There are many features of KDE 4 that I really like and am growing used to. With all my criticisms, fair or unfair, one thing I have always maintained was that the KDE 4 developers would eventually get it right. I just hope that they do that soon and stop making the major changes. You could fill libraries with what I don't know about developing software as complicated as KDE 4, I have great respect for the amount of work that it takes and am grateful for all the efforts that have been made. I look forward to future development.

[DBeckett]

Also many programs that were standard with 3.5 are now gone or have been hacked to uselessness. Examples? Kaffeine.

As they say, "YMMV." Kaffeine plays DVDs very well on my M8.5.

[lucky9]

I'm not a FanBoy of any DE. I use Mepis. Mepis uses KDE. KDE uses 4.x. So guess what. I use KDE 4.

I should point out that I started with KDE and have used Gnome, LXDE, FluxBox, ICEWM. Probably others that weren't used very much. Of the non-KDE desktops I prefer the choices antiX provides. Mainly because of familiarity.
The first time I used Gnome I couldn't understand how anyone would want to use a mis-begotten DE like that. Eventually I learned my way around a Gnome DE. But it was a real learning experience and I never liked not being able to do some things easily or at all (as far as I know at least).

Just for the record I have had real problems with the switch to KDE 4. But you don't build the Pyramids or Rome in a day. It's totally unreasonable to expect KDE to move to a structured, maintainable code base in time to make everyone happy.
I keep an installation of Mepis 8.0.x up to date and I can tell you that on the same equipment KDE 4 as provided by Mepis 11 is way faster than M8 is. Even M8.5.x is a little faster. Of course neither will beat the default antiX 8.2 that I run on my Atom-based Netbook or on my desktop computer.
I agree that KDE 4 did some stupid things with the interface. The tree hierarchy used in KDE 3 and its Control Center was a great interface. I really despise the necessity of moving my cursor to the top left of System Settings (in KDE 4) to get back to the main System settings page. I will not mention the main menu system...I just get angry. Fortunately Mepis and KDE give an optional menu.

You should remember that the version of KDE that's in Lenny is actually finished and tested. Everything else is being tested and is therefore in varying degrees of being finished.

I use Kaffeine on my sidux installation for DVD play. I can't comment on other uses. I don't stream video off the Net because of speed issues. My connection just is not fast enough to be usable for that.

[malspa]

I keep an installation of Mepis 8.0.x up to date and I can tell you that on the same equipment KDE 4 as provided by Mepis 11 is way faster than M8 is. Even M8.5.x is a little faster.

That's interesting. I still have Mepis 8 installed, never did try 8.5, and haven't yet tried Mepis 11. But I do have KDE4 running on a few other distros. I still log into Mepis 8, keep it updated, and use it sometimes. But I much prefer KDE4 over KDE 3.5 at this point.