15 Oct
2012
15 Oct
'12
9:29 p.m.
Quick update. I burned the image to a CD, which
resolved the crashing issue. While I note that KDE4 has drastically improved
since the early days, it still is not something that I would choose to use
over TDE/XFCE. Even after "reverting" to folder view and other KDE3-esque
settings, I found myself not only using many more mouse clicks than
under TDE but also it seemed like I did not have full control of the
environment. Setting a screen saver? Not intuitive (actually I was not able
to find the control at all within a reasonable time). Opening a
terminal? All the lines were cut in half. Run a custom command? Could not
find a way to launch the minicli from a menu. Press the power button (e.g. to
power off)? The screen corrupts itself.
In short, I think KDE4 needs a lot more work to be useful
for people like me who want to hybrid an old-school terminal and modern GUI
experience.
I have not yet tinkered in a serious manner with KDE 4.8.5, which is part of the stock
Slackware 14. When I last tinkered I used version 4.5.5. At that time I experienced
sufficient frustration.
I imagine that folks who have been with KDE4 since the first release have grown accustomed
to the different ways of doing things. I accept that anybody moving from KDE3/Trinity must
remain open to doing things differently. The point that can be resolved only by each user
is whether the different way is more productive or more efficient. Each to their own is
the best answer about that.
Discouraging to me is akondai, nepomuk, and strigi continue to grow deeper roots into the
entire KDE4 desktop. Reminds me much of how Internet Explorer grew to a point of not being
able to be removed from Windows. There does not seem to be any option to build KDE4
without those three layers. Perhaps that is possible, I don't know, but I haven't
found any tutorials about the topic.
For myself, I want a cohesive desktop environment. I don't like mixing and matching
apps using different widget tools. That is a personal fetish. Many people don't care
about mixing apps. For me to use KDE4 means I want to use the kdepim suite. For the life
of me I still don't comprehend why I need to run a backend database cache for the
handful of emails I receive during the day. Or why I need to run that database cache for
the few akregator feeds I receive or the dozen and half tasks I maintain in kalarm.
I don't know why features like strigi indexing, nepomuk, and compositing are enabled
as the defaults. Many of the complaints I read are about that overhead. The last I read,
kdepim apps remain buggy.
I remain open to new technologies but there has to be real choice. The choice of using or
not using KDE4 is simple enough, but true choice allows compiling KDE4 without the evil
three and still have a fully functional desktop environment.
I still don't like the way KDE4 looks. The wide sidebars in apps, the flat look, the
big buffoon mouse pointers all are not appealing to me. Seems no matter how I tinker with
themes, styles, widget looks, etc. I can't find a look-and-feel I like. If my desktop
is not relaxing to me then I'm only increasing my frustrations.
I don't care that other people call KDE3/Trinity old. I don't care that certain
people think that some of the patches we push are trivial. I find Trinity useful and
visually pleasant.
I don't care that other people want to be excited about the software they use. I only
ask they allow others the same liberty.
We don't bother anybody. We advertise with a news release to invite others to use
Trinity, but we don't pimp our efforts. That really is the whole debate in a nutshell.
We don't bother anybody. So why can't other people do likewise?
Darrell