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KDE 4.0 was released last week and all hell seemed to break loose. What I view as a solid first step in a very positive reaction was met with some applause, but generally scorn and complaints. I think some perspective is needed, and I humbly offer to try and provide some. I’d like to take issue with some things I see that are just plain wrong.

KDE 4 is Vista. Vista is an operating system. KDE 4 is a desktop environment. Right off the bat, on a basic level, this is wrong. If you only look at the DE aspects of Vista, it still doesn’t stand up. People complain about Kickoff, the new (possibly temporary) menu in KDE 4. Have you used the monstrosity that Vista provides? Plus, if you do not like Kickoff, you can drag the old style launcher to the taskbar and be happy. Vista offers nothing of the sort. KDE 4 runs very well on modest hardware. Vista is painful on modest to good hardware. I had a hardware failure on my main machine yesterday. It runs Linux. I’m stuck writing this from Vista on a 64 bit processor (AMD 3200+) with 3 gigs of RAM and it is unbearably slow. My desktop effects consist of some translucency and some crummy 3-D window switcher. With KDE 4 there are a lot more useful effects this early in. KDE 4 = Free Software. Vista = closed source. Complaints people have with KDE 4 are already being addressed. Some have been fixed. Get that kind of action from Microsoft. The Promised Land, KDE 4.1, is rumored to be released in about six months. The Promised Land for Vista, SP1, is still unreleased a year into its life (and the reports of the beta are less than glowing.) Maybe it kind of looks like Vista with the use of black, but that is about it.

KDE 4 is Gnome. This is usually meant as a swipe at Gnome as well as KDE, based in the belief that the Lords of Gnome sit in their ivory towers deciding how the peons can use their computers. The great Nautilus-Spatial-View Wars of 2004 saw a lot of bickering on this front. Since a lot of configurability that KDE is famous for just wasn’t ready for the 4.0 release people are assuming that it is just gone forever. It is coming; you can relax or file bug reports. If the configurability you are used to isn’t there in 4.1, then I’ll be right there with you. I believe the developers when they say it is coming. It isn’t like there is a lack of options in KDE 4; I’ve even read complaints that there are still too many. It is just that the most visible ones, like in the taskbar, just aren’t there yet. That is right in your face immediately.

This also feeds into the Holy War that Gnome and KDE are locked in. We have choices. Some people like Gnome, some KDE. There are plenty of other choices as well. Fans of gerbils can use XFCE. Enlightenment is cool. FVWM Crystal works nicely. Blackbox, Openbox or Fluxbox. Why so much energy is devoted to Gnome people attacking KDE people and vice versa confuses me, other than people love to have an enemy. In the words of convicted wife-beater Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?” When the negativity impacts development (my 10 things I hate about KDE 4 RC2 article was accused of stopping development for hours, weirdly) then things are getting out of hand. Some thicker skins might be in order as well.

KDE 4 is lacking in cowbell. The “needs more cowbell” joke stopped being funny about three days after you heard a co-worker say it for the first time. That was years ago! Enough already.

It was a mistake to release KDE 4.0. This has already been addressed nicely here, here and here. For the “tl;dr” crowd, the release has to get out into the real world and take a beating. I’m sure the complaints so far have been useful in some sense and will influence direction. This is a complicated issue that has been covered in more detail by people smarter than me; I just wanted to address it. I’m surprised to even see this, since “Release early, release often” is such an ingrained part of Open Source. Imagine if Duke Nukem Forever was Open Source and followed this philosophy.

“My experience with KDE 4 is the One True Experience” There are so many odd combinations of hardware, distributions and preferences that everything becomes equally valid. The experience you have with KDE 4, for you, will set your ideas into stone. I’ve read there were numerous problems with the Kubuntu packages. People who used those are naturally going to be unhappy with 4.0 for good reason. OpenSUSE has done an outstanding job with their packages. I’ve used them and have a positive feeling about 4.0. Nvidia cards perform well with the proprietary driver and KWin’s composite. I’ve read ATI doesn’t work that well. For the ATI owners, composite will be horrible. Some people love Kickoff. Some people hate it more than anything else in the world, apparently. Who is right? People passionately hate Dolphin, others love it. Most people, for these reasons, are going to have very different experiences with KDE 4. If we could just cut each other some slack and recognize the validity of each person’s opinion I think the overall atmosphere will improve.

Things haven’t been perfect. It is too bad that KDEPIM wasn’t ready. From what I have seen and read, it will be worth the wait. Distros have had some trouble with packaging. Things are nowhere nearly as bad as you may read, either. Before my hardware failure, I had been using 4.0 as my main desktop for weeks. I’m starting to prefer it, warts and all.

Here is my somewhat lousy analogy for KDE 4. You’ve lived in a house (KDE 3) for years. You have everything set the way you want it to, have gotten used to the oddities of it and love it. Some major parts of it have fallen into disrepair (arts) and it is time to move. You decide to build a new house from the ground up (KDE 4). It reaches a point where you can move into it, or stay in the old one for a few more months. You decide to move. The old house had cable. The neighborhood for the new on is being wired for cable, but it isn’t available just yet. Is your old house better because it had cable? Is the new one a failure because cable isn’t ready yet? The new house has a different thermostat that is quite different from the old one, and you can’t set it the same way you could the old. The builder promises that in a couple of months you will have three thermostats to choose from that are a lot better than the old one, but at least the current one works. The builder also says that if you do move in, he’ll listen to things you don’t like and give you the opportunity to change things, instead of just giving you something set in stone. He even promises to continue to improve the house for years to come. You can either live in the old house for a while longer and watch the progress of the new one and stay comfortable; or jump into the new one and get used to it. Odds are you aren’t going to complain that you shouldn’t even have built a new house. Particularly because it is free and built at no cost to you. It could be worse; you could be in the luxury prison down the street, where the prisoners complain that the old one, while bad, was much better than the new one.

The KDE Release Event is today. I had hoped to go, but the complete lack of free flights complicated it. Congratulations again to everyone involved. You have a lot to be proud of, and a lot more work ahead.

KDE 4.0 is out as of today. Click here for the official announcement. A separate announcement with info on packages for different distributions is here. OpenSUSE had the updated packages available when I checked at midnight last night–great job yet again by the packagers (or packager?).

A wll written and helpful Visual Guide to KDE 4.0 is available here. It has plenty of screenshots and information.

A post on Aaron Seigo’s blog  is very interesting, and gives you more of an idea on why you should be excited about the KDE 4 series. Click here for that. If anything, it should give you an appreciation for what the devs are going through and the hard work they put in. All for something we get for free.

This is a big step forward, and the first of many big steps for KDE. Congratulations to all of the developers and to everyone involved!

Using KDE 4.0 yet? If so, leave a comment with your experience.

Update! The following link, and Emergency FAQ, has been posted and is helpful:

http://software-libre.rudd-o.com/KDE_4.0.0_emergency_FAQ 

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.

Fused Network is the best webhost, period. When I have a problem, I hear back almost instantly. When my site was flooded, it went offline for four minutes, compared to two days with my previous host. I’ve reviewed them here. Fused’s David McKendrick is amazing work with. He serves as an inspiration. Of the many great things I can say about David and Fused, two jump right out. Fused Network has offered free web hosting for Open Source projects since 2005. Can you say that about your web host? They also recently ended a Holiday Giveway where 100% of proceeds from the month of December went to the charity of your choice. David agreed to be interviewed, after humbly telling me my readers would be more interested in hearing from a coder. I thought you would like to hear about someone that loves Open Source (sorry RMS–Free Software) and puts his money where his mouth is.

Interview with David McKendrick of Fused Network:

1. Fused Network has a generous offer to host open-source projects for
free. Can you tell me about the projects you currently host, and give
details on the offer?

Well, since our inception back in 2003 under an alternate brand name,
we’ve always been firm supporters of open source. Fused Network was
primarily initiated to help cover the costs of hosting a couple of
existing open source projects like e107 (http://www.e107.org), a content
management system that I’ve spent several years using personally.

Since starting the open source hosting program (which is less than
official) we’ve hosted the likes of e107, BitComet, mirrors for FreeCiv,
Lingua and a wide range of other projects. We’re always on the lookout
for new projects to host, it’s our way of giving back to the community.

Essentially the offer is for any open source project that requires web
hosting of any sort, we’re open to any arrangement of any capacity.
While most projects these days are satisfied with providers like
SourceForge, it never hurts to have alternatives just in case they want
a full-fledged site and a bit more control. Fused Network offers just
that along with very reliable connections, gorgeous performance and a
small vessel full of features.

2. What is the appeal of open-source to you?

Almost every aspect of open-source appeals to me in some form. There’s a
number of key features of the movement itself that really spark my
interest though. Primarily, the fact that it’s community driven is one
alluring quality. Not only is it powered by people from all different
walks of life but in a number of cases they’re developing selflessly for
the greater good. The end-users are equally as vibrant though: Open
source offers a wide range of benefits all the while being free in most
cases!

The second reason is the fact that it’s open. The ‘open’ aspect of it
allows there to be greater security (ironic, isn’t it?) in that masses
of people can audit the code, add & subtract from it and develop it to
fit their needs. If they need a specific feature they can add it in;
Likewise, if they don’t need a specific feature they can remove it to
lessen the bulk of the software itself.

That isn’t to say that closed-source or proprietary software doesn’t
have its’ own benefits as well but it’s simply not as selfless. There’s
a great deal of downsides to closed-source as well including lack of 3rd
party code auditing and in the end if a company goes under, the entire
project tends to cease. Anyone left holding a license is essentially
left holding a worthless piece of paper.

Open Source tends to alleviate a lot of those fears because projects can
continue on essentially forever.
In a nutshell, Open Source is freedom.

Freedom from obscene licensing fees, freedom from oppressive licensing
structures & with it comes the ability to contribute, use & spread
software freely.

3. What open-source software do you use the most? Do you have favorites?

One of the benefits of open source software is the ability to try
multiple projects. At any given moment I’ve got at least ten different
audio players, browsers & operating systems floating around on my pc and
laptop. I’m a kid in the candy store when it comes to options.

On the larger scale, there’s a wide range of ‘internet only’ open source
applications I’ve been utilizing as well. To merely say I’m addicted
would be a far cry from the truth.

These days, wordpress & e107 are my current favourites on the web. Both
projects have excellent leadership, development speeds and goals. While
each has an entirely different purpose, to me each are gorgeous in their
own respects.

Wordpress allows the easy dissemenation of information & e107 allows
communities to be effortlessly constructed. There’s a number of other
projects out there like Filebrowser, Vanilla & SMF that I also consider
works of art.

On my desktop, Ubuntu’s release of Linux is probably 3rd in line for my
love: It’s a feature-packed distribution that makes it very easy for
end-users to utilize the product. Aeons ago, I recall being reprimanded
for destroying our home computers with my horrible linux administration
skills. At the time, we were floating around on the slowest dial-up in
existence so I kept finding copies of redhat in the bargain bin at
walmart to supplement my needs.

These days, I’ve had everyone from my aging grandparents to family
members try out Linux. It’s impressive to watch them try it for the
first time & see just how easy it is for the end-user. They themselves
are surprised at the ease of use. Most find it easier to wrangle than
Windows!

Beyond the operating system itself, I’m a huge fan of XMMS, Audacity,
gnuCash, Ktoon, Songbird, Firefox & most of all the SWORD project. All
of the software I enjoy using fills a need in my life that never could
have been fulfilled in a closed source operating system: The licensing
fees alone would have bankrupted me long ago. There’s hundreds of other
projects that I could mention and use frequently but I’ll spare that for
another time.

4. Tell me the history of Fused Network.

Fused Network has been involved in the web hosting industry since
February 2006. Prior to 2006, I had operated a smaller web hosting
provider that merged with Fused Network. Since our inception, we’ve had
absolutely insane growth rates. Just this year, we’ve tripled our
clientbase and now host almost 1,000 domain names — a far cry from the
150 we hosted at the beginning of this year.

A large part of our success can be attributed directly to open source
projects. A great number of users from every project have signed up as
clients after hearing about us supporting their projects selflessly.
It’s great seeing the community rewarding those involved.

5. If you don’t mind, tell us about yourself.

How in depth one could go on about this question, I was born in the
woods & raised by wolves? Not quite, but close.
I’m just a regular ol’ joe, since about 2003 I’ve been involved in web
hosting, web development and online media.

After having spent a number of years handling support for web hosting
companies like HostGator, Hostingplex & several others I decided it was
time to launch a solid provider for a change. At the time while working
my full-time job, I had a small ‘hobby provider’ but there was always a
limit on how much time I could really devote to the project. In April of
this year, I went full-time with Fused Network and haven’t looked back
since.

Every day since our inception we’ve experienced explosive growth and
there’s always something different going on.
As far as myself — I’m fairly regular. I enjoy sailing, technology,
scuba diving & piloting small cessnas are on the top of the list of the
things I enjoy most though. I spent most of my childhood living in a
number of diverse areas like Florida, Costa Rica & Prince Edward Island.
In 2001 I returned to Canada for University and spent a couple of years
hacking away at an Economics degree at the lovely Carleton University in
our nation’s capital, Ottawa. It wasn’t for me, so I tried web hosting
instead: Less math that wasn’t directly related to cashing cheques.

The majority of my days are spent helping clients and exploring the big
city of Toronto while chowing down on more raw fish than any man should
intake.

6. What prompted the Holiday Giveaway Promotion?

Well, since our meager beginnings, Fused Network has always been
involved in charitable activities. I would consider myself a
philanthropist of sorts, and I’m always on a quest to help others no
matter how small or large the cause.

In Toronto and any large city we often see the needy strewn across
sidewalks & sleeping under stairwells. We’re reminded daily that there
are others out there that are not as blessed as we are — so that’s one
place these programs launch out of, pure need.

Spending 12 hours a day helping clients & generating revenue simply
isn’t enough, each of us has a responsibility to help those around us.
Since I can’t get out there as frequently as I would like to myself,
this program simply offers a way for myself and my clients to help in
whatever way we can, no matter where we’re at in life.

7. What do you find the most challenging in web hosting? The most
rewarding?

Technology is always a challenge. The beauty of it, is every day there’s
something new going on. That’s also a downside, though. The entire
industry seems like it changes on an almost daily basis — what users
might want today, will be entirely different tomorrow. Technology can be
fun on the other hand in that it’s quite exciting to work with something
or someone new, all of the time.

The most rewarding aspect is definitely the giant smiles & the thank
yous. Client satisfaction is what I got into the industry for and it’s
what has kept me here. Just recently, a new client from Germany
overnighted me a bundle of chocolate and a postcard telling me about her
city — the mere thought of having someone from halfway around the world
thank you from the bottom of their heart — ah, that’s what keeps me
going

My clients are blessings.

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