Re: [kubuntu-kde3.5-users] What's missing in KDE 4: let's file some bugs

Hi Dotan, While I don't agree with the tone of some of the replies you received (I do appreciate what you are doing here) I need to respond to this particular point. I *am* developing KDE3. If you look in the PPA that I maintain, you will see a whole slew of my patches that add new features, fix old bugs, and generally keep the code compilable and functional as the backend libraries change over time. Now, from all appearances, *if* I were to stop development then yes, KDE would bitrot and become unusable--purely because no one else has stepped forward to assist. I use KDE3.5 for a different purpose than some. My desktop is configured to look, feel, and act like an enhanced version of Windows XP in "Classic" mode. Like it or not, and I know many would argue with me, Microsoft had one of the best desktop interfaces available with that release. If they hadn't abandoned it, I would still be an avid Microsoft user. Likewise, I know I will be argued with up and down on this, but KDE4 seems, from a look-n-feel perspective only, to be a hybrid of Windows Vista and the latest Mac OS. I hate those two operating systems. In almost every design choice. Period. I am not alone here. Many engineers I have talked with do not like the new interface. There are some of us who use a GUI simply because more information can be placed on it, and many tasks made faster, than the command line. Gnome and KDE4 don't have very much *useful* and *relevant* information on the screen at any given time. These people have also mentioned that the interface has a clunky feel, that they are having difficulty just getting basic tasks done in a streamlined, efficient fashion. Simply, more clicks required in the UI per task == more time wasted. The clunkiness has a direct impact on this. The DE should recede into the background, not constantly push its way into the foreground. When it shoves its way into the users programs, in the form of excessively large menu bars, taskbars, and buttons, valuable screen space is stolen from the user's application, forcing more scrolling, window management operations, and application menu use inside the user's program. This is a common flaw with the new direction all desktops seem to be heading in. They are all pretty (well, actually, the Mac OS is pretty, while Vista and KDE4 are really ugly), and seem to work well--until you try to use them in your job, when you have 4 clients and 2 managers demanding you get X, Y, and Z done *NOW*. Then you find that in order to multitask in any sensible form you will need to learn to click constantly, everywhere, and end up purchasing a really big replacement monitor. Yet, somehow, your old monitor was perfectly adequate under Windows XP and KDE3.5. Your programs haven't changed. So why again is your DE forcing you to buy new hardware and slowing you down? Hmmm. No thanks. I have even caused some older folks, who have used Windows since it came out, to switch to Linux. How? By showing them a truly better desktop interface: Windows XP classic + some sorely needed features--in other words, KDE3.5. They all hated where Windows was going, and Mac was too limiting. So, rant aside, try adding a "super-tiny-taskbar, icons, buttons, and menus" option. Also make an "angular buttons option" so that they can be compacted on the screen the way they always were. (Actually IIRC that last one finally does exist in KDE3). Also, make it so that the shiny stuff can be turned off. Menu drop shadows are OK, but shiny rounded menus are distracting. Bring back the old KDE control center. Bring back task tray icons as plasmoid replacements. I DON'T LIKE having to minimize my windows (an extra click) to get at something critical like the network manager plasmoid and then have to un-minimize them all again when I am done (another extra click). To say nothing of having to check connectivity in another program and then go back to the plasmoid....click click click click click....grrrr...Windows was so much better... This is a massive waste of the user's time and is, bluntly, a really, really stupid design decision. You NEVER want to make the users think what I just wrote. I like putting icons on my desktop. Only icons. Can we turn off that stupid cashew yet? The UI fonts are way too large. Why can't I *easily* and *intuitively* reconfigure something as basic as my desktop??? You get the point. Many of these items are design decisions that the developers made to "set KDE4 apart". I don't think they will be fixed anytime soon. Feel free to surprise me though! :-) Timothy Pearson KDE3.5 Maintainer Embedded Systems Engineer Raptor Engineering