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Jan
10
I’ve complained and cheered about KDE 4 RC2 from openSUSE. I’ve updated to the latest openSUSE packages since writing those articles, and things have moved in a very positive direction. I’ve been able to use it as my main desktop without issues for about a week now. I’d like to commend openSUSE for the outstanding job they have done with KDE 4. Using one-click install, it couldn’t be easier to get it going. With YAST it is very easy to keep it updated. With the release imminent, I thought I would take one last look at what openSUSE terms KDE 4 RC2++. I’ll warn you, the list may be odd, these are just things I have come across in daily usage. I promise no rhyme or reason!
Fixes to my complaints:
-It is no longer crashy and inconsistent. I haven’t had a crash in days. Behavior now works as expected, consistently. Improvement was quick and dramatic.
-Right click in Dolphin now works correctly.
-Right click on the taskbar does give options, albeit limited. There is still no option to change the bar size, but changing my resolution has made this less of an issue. I don’t even mind the transparent strip across the top of it now that I am used to it.
-Blurry fonts are no longer blurry fonts.
General Improvements:
-Responsive. The overall speed of the desktop has improved with the latest updates. Everything feels very close to normal.
-Pager is in the taskbar. I think this will give people a level of comfort. I’m preferring to use Ctrl + F8 and Alt + Tab to move around. Old people will like seeing the familiar four box grid.
-Digital Clock is configurable. At some point for me it wasn’t. It now acts exactly as I would expect it to. You can choose your timezone, font, whether to display a 24 hour format, show the date, basically, anything a configuration junkie would want. It looks nice, too. Now maybe the Clock Nazis can chill.
-Composite effects work nearly flawlessly on my setup (Nvidia 8400 GS). I’m liking the effects more and more. Compiz has always felt like a second class citizen with KDE, this helps to overcome that. The effects are smooth and feel natural. I hope there is a webpage with the keystrokes and tips for using it once 4.0 releases. If not, I’ll make one.
Small things I like:
-The new splash screen and logout screen are beautiful. Nice touches. Pic of logout screen below:
-I like the new default wallpaper. It fits the darker theme but isn’t too dark. There is already a lot of whining about the choice, like it won’t take five seconds to change it.
-Being able to right click the title bar and choose the window opacity. That is slick, and helpful.
-Marble is cool. what is marble, you ask? It looks like GoogleEarth, but uses no hardware acceleration, so it is small and lightweight. More info here.
-Oxygen Cursor Theme- I’m using the White Cursor Theme, it looks nice but is not obnoxious. More info here.
-Deal or No Deal- until they get sued, the game Deal or No Deal from playground, I believe, is a nice little time waster.
Bigger things I like:
Okular- Great interface and it works very well. I love being able to uncheck the “Obey DRM limitations” box. Clever. It is fast. The toolbar is clean, with options to junk it up as much as I’d like. I love that it can handle multiple formats. It is consistent with the rest of kde 4 and fits in well.
KPlayer- I’ve never liked KPlayer, for no good reason. I like the updated interface. Unfortunately there isn’t an openSUSE package for Dragonplayer (formerly Codeine) at the moment. I may actually start using KPlayer.
Kdegames - The games are cleaned up and consistent looking. They look fantastic in SVG. Excellent job here.
KDEPIM- Ridicule me, remind me it is alpha, I don’t care. I really like it and it doesn’t even crash all that much. I cannot wait until it is finished. Pictured is KOrganizer:
Consistency- It has been hard to write this without using the word consistent fifty times. Everything just goes together nicely. I normally wouldn’t care too much about this, but the more I use the desktop the nicer it seems. KDE 4 apps have a KDE 4 identity. That is a good thing.
I could go on and on, but the release is tomorrow and I’d rather write about it.
Final Thoughts:
Once again, I have to applaud openSUSE’s KDE 4 packaging team. Outstanding job. My hat goes off the the KDE developers, the progress in the last few weeks has been incredible, and this release is shaping up to be phenomenal. We are stepping into the future tomorrow, and making a big jump. I respect the courage and hard work that has gone into KDE 4.0 and I cannot wait to install the release tomorrow.
I hope the negativity–that I contributed to–settles down once people use KDE 4. Install it and stick with it for a week. You may not like it at first, you may love it at first but give it a chance. Use it for a week before you start bitching. I think, like me, you will be pleasantly surprised. It is better than you have read. I look forward to KDE 4.1, and can’t wait to see how this grows and changes, but 4.0 will be my desktop of choice. Now that I am used to using it daily, I prefer it to anything else. It isn’t as if 3.5 is going away, or there are a lack of other choices if it isn’t for you. I predict the community will rally around this release. Complainers will still complain and further progress will be made. The bottom line: The future begins tomorrow. I’m excited.
Comments
7 Responses to “A Look Back at KDE 4 RC2++ and A Look Forward to 4.0”
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About the cursor theme, I’m going to make an RC1 and just later a final release. =)
Expected release dates:
* RC1 -> next week
* Final release -> around the 25th
I’ll ensure for the final release that everything will work as smoothly as I’m able to make it do so. =)
Thanks for the comment! I’ve been using it with no problems at all. Thank you for an excellent job.
Take care,
Rich
Wow, KDE has come a really long way. I have not used it since moving on in 2001 or so.
All the people that have always dissed Linux about the cheap looking interface (of course they have no clue about the relationship between the two) will be eating their words next week. This looks fantastic
[...] Referência: Linux Tech Daily [...]
They’d better add some preferences so that we can change the size of the panel, and get rid of the translucent edgeing (at least on the vertical sides so that the K menu can be at the extreme-left of the panel).
I would hate to see KDE dumbed down to the point where it takes away preference options much like GNOME has forced people to like it their way or lump it.
I too was very critical of KDE 4.0 rc2. I’m looking forward to seeing if life is better. I’m a huge KDE fan…. so it really does need to work.
I am author of this new default wallpaper
and I wanted to let you know that you can download it in many color variations from http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpapers/?keyword=eos
thanks!