[clug] Kubuntu 8.10 first impressions

[Randall Crook]

I am very disappointed in KDE 4.X so far....

Get the feeling there is a lot of changes just for change sake. The team 
has over simplified the interface. To the point that a lot of very 
useful functionality has just vanished.

Most of what you point out I agree with. I see where the team are trying 
to head, and to a large degree I agree with them, but why is it so all 
or none with these things. The one thing I truly liked about KDE 3 was 
its reconfigurability. You can easily tweak almost anything from the 
Control Centre. With 4 there is very little you can customise from the 
UI itself.

Its become Microsoftized. "We know better than the User about what they 
want." Yes of course most users don't care... But some do, and KDE 3 
worked well for those who do.... I really don't care if the UI is 
redeveloped to cater for the "Don't Care" or "Too dumb" users... Why the 
hell does it have to automatically exclude those who do give a damn, and 
do want more control... Why cant we have both?

That's why I don't like gnome. Too MS... all the cool controls are only 
available via hacking the guts of it.

If KDE3 is going to be dropped from Kubuntu, likelihood is I will drop 
Kubuntu, Move on to Xubuntu or even go back to debian. At least until 
KDE4 becomes a usable and configurable Desktop. So far its not promising.

It's intriguing, When I first tried KDE4 back in 7.10 I thought, Cool, I 
have access to KDE 4 Beta... When it became the default on 8.04 I 
thought "You have to be kidding... Its no where near a finished desktop, 
so much stuff missing...." I was completely blown away when I realised, 
"No, this is it, the almost finished product." It actually made me sad 
to think that such a great desktop had been neutered so badly.

Ok.... Finished my rant....

Randall

Paul C. Leopardi wrote:
> Hi all,
> Along with many others, I feel that it was too early for the Kubuntu packagers 
> to remove KDE 3.5 and leave users to cope with 4.1.2 in Kubuntu 8.10 
> Intrepid.
>
> I do have some specific issues which have to do with the way I work:
>
> 1. I simultaneously use multiple machines all the time, usually my home PC and 
> my office PC, or my laptop and my office PC, and sometime other *nix boxes as 
> well. My methods for using other machines with KDE 3.5 are to use kssh, 
> kio-fish and Konqueror. With KDE 4 on my office PC this gets wrecked or at 
> least slowed down for a few reasons:
>
> 1.1 Compiz on my office PC kills X performance when I use ssh -Y from my home 
> PC. At least I think it is Compiz that's doing it. All I really know is that 
> the interface is really sluggish.
> 1.2 Konqueror as a file manager has been de-emphahsised in favour of Dolphin. 
> This makes it harder for me to side-by side use file: and fish: which is what 
> I do with Konqueror in KDE 3.5.
> 1.3 Bug? Konqueror in 4.1.2 forgets its toolbar settings. Fixed in 4.1.3?
> 1.4 Bug? Quanta in 4.1.2 can no longer open a file using kio-fish.
>
> 2. Plasma has so far been harder to use than Kicker. Are thease bugs 
> or "features"? 
>
> 2.1 If I right click on a widget in Plasma, nothing happens unless it is 
> unlocked. 
> 2.2 Widgets such as the digital clock take up too much horizontal space and 
> cannot be resized. 
> 2.3 The news ticker overflows its boundaries and flows its text over other 
> widgets. 
>
> All this has led me to take up too much time trying to get my panels to 
> work "right" - i.e. the way they work in KDE 3.5.
>
> Maybe I'm just an old fogey? Maybe not. I see that people are already using a 
> repository which tries to put KDE 3.5 back into Intrepid.
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=963695
>
> So, do you think I should nuke my installation and go back to Kubuntu 8.04, 
> try to shove KDE 3.5.10 into 8.10 or just tough it out? Especially 
> considering that somethings that I consider bugs will probably be closed 
> marked INVALID, WORKSFORME, WONTFIX, etc.
> Best, Paul
>