tips on getting TDE to run smoothly

I've been trying out TDE off and on since the project started; ever since they killed KDE3, and I looked around for something as usable and practical as the KDE3x desktop (which I first used on PC Linux, and later on Ubuntu Hardy 8.04). When trying to install over various 'buntus (mostly Ubuntu, Kubuntu or Lubuntu), I always ran into problems, and always was forced to abandon TDE. I kept a running copy of Hardy 8.04 on a separate partition, just so I could get work done, but it kept getting more and more outdated, and seriously insecure; yet none of the alternatives were working. Finally Hardy 8.04 ceased to be functional or practical, and I was forced to do something new and different, so I resolved to learn how properly to install and configure a Debian system with TDE, and am glad to report nearly complete success, with only a few nagging bugs, most of which are fairly small. My big breakthrough came when I realized that even after I had installed TDE, and no longer ran the newer versions of KDE4/5 (whatever) or Gnome, that my newer KDE settings were somehow "bleeding over" into my TDE desktop environment. (I mean, for example, colors, and various other configurations, in Firefox, soundKonverter, Mousepad, and lots of other programs; these use the KDE settings, and look like the KDE4/5 desktop, whereas other programs have a TDE appearance, even when they are not programs specific to KDE4/5.) I believe that this has something to do with TDE's use of that /opt folder, since it is installed to ride piggyback, as it were, on top of another system, and has yet to be released as its own stand-alone system. (I've tried the TDE installation discs for Kubuntu 10.04, 12.04, 14.04, as well as Devuan, Q4OS, exeGNU, and maybe three or four others; and had those same problems, where the system eventually became unusuable, and I was forced to abandon it.) What I did seems a little counterintuitive, but it might help others. Then again, it might seem obvious to many of the readers out there, but perhaps it will help some users, at least the n00bs. And maybe others will have their own observations to add to this thread. I installed Debian Jessie 8.8.0 with the latest KDE desktop, and did not bother at all with TDE for at least a month or two. Instead, I went through all my settings for KDE, and tweaked and reconfigured obsessively, until I got KDE to run fairly smoothly. I disabled all the unnecessary bells & whistles in KDE that hog the CPU; I went into window-specific settings, and forced "focus stealing prevention" (set for "extreme" in most cases). I disabled my network managers (wicd, et al.) from connecting automatically; and so on, and so on. There are a million little tweaks and configurations and refinements I could list, but maybe I will start separate threads for as many of them as I can remember, and others can add their own. Sorry to run on, and risk making this into an epic tale; but the short version is: Only after I had got KDE running as well as can be expected (from such piece of crap), then I enabled the Trinity repositories, and installed the TDE desktop; and, voila! presto! TDE works almost without a hitch, the same desktop pretty much that I have used, which keeps all my work organized and accessible, and allows me to be in control of my own system - the only desktop I've ever loved. In other words, it was the KDE desktop environment, and the default settings therein, which were interfering with the smooth operation of TDE. It seems to me that TDE is pretty much ready for release into the standard repositories; although my brief bit of research has discovered that a lot entities out there want to block its inclusion in the repositories. So I am wondering: Is there is some way that TDE can get into the regular repositories (Debian, Ubuntu, etc.)? or if a dependable stand-alone installation disc image can be developed (which does not ride on top of another desktop like Gnome or KDE4/5)? Then we could get out of that /opt folder, and my hunch is that everything would run better. It seems to me that TDE is nearly ready for release; and if not, it ought to be released through the Trinity repositories. (I mean, not as separate packages, but as its own installation disc.) T Bill