KDE 4...What the h*ll happened?

[Eurysilas]

Slashdot | Linus Switches From KDE to Gnome


Even Linus Torvalds, who I thought to be a fairly good judge of all things practical, has (for now) withdrawn his support from KDE. I realize that one shouldn't judge things solely through the lens of another, but the thing is, I've heard from everyone I've talked too (admittedly only a handful of people, my friends on IRC, mainly) that KDE 4 was craptastic compared to 3. And this comes as a major disappointment to me, who had high hopes for it, and even went so far as to recommend it as a "must watch" software project. I'm a GNOME user, but I was seriously thinking about jumping to KDE, 'till THIS hit the fan.

So....Opinions? Comments? One of my goals in posting this was to get input from a wider audience

[MikeTbob]

So Linus is tired of KDE, big whoop dee doo. I don't remember people dumping his software when he released a buggy kernel. It just makes me wonder why he didn't just stick with KDE-3.5.9, but everyone is entitled to their own personal preferences and I do believe I will stick with my personal preference of KDE-3.5.9. I don't really find KDE-4 all that bad, sure it has problems,,,,but they'll get worked out eventually. I'm getting ready to try OpenSuse 11.1 specifically because I have heard a few people say that their version of KDE-4 is the best one they have used.

[questio verum]

Eurysilas,

There's already a lengthy thread on KDE 4, here in this forum. But to respond briefly, I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other. I've Used KDE 4.1.2 and found it non-intuitive and still buggy. That's no great revelation. I'll just bide my time and wait for the pieces to fall into place, or not. If they don't, there's always GNOME, XFCE, and a cast of other players out there. I think right now the KDE teams have spread themselves too thin. Too many divergent projects. If, and when KDE regains it's focus, it will once again be making magic. As for Linus, I respect his accomplishments a great deal, but I try not to get caught up in the cult of personality. His choice in DE is just that. What works for him, might not work for me.

qv

[oz]

...from the recent ComputerWorld interview with Torvalds:

I used to be a KDE user. I thought KDE 4.0 was such a disaster I switched to GNOME. I hate the fact that my right button doesn't do what I want it to do. But the whole "break everything" model is painful for users and they can choose to use something else.

I realise the reason for the 4.0 release, but I think they did it badly. They did so may changes it was a half-baked release. It may turn out to be the right decision in the end and I will re-try KDE, but I suspect I'm not the only person they lost.

My sentiments, exactly, as I've already said in the big KDE4 thread, plenty of times. In the interim, I'm looking forward to much improvement with KDE4 so that I can once again become the KDE fan that I used to be!

[MikeTbob]

Very cool quote ozar, I didn't see that one.

[L4Linux]

KDE 4.2 is released in January 27. Maybe KDE 4 finally gets back on track with this version.

[peteh]

I've tried Gnome several times and I just don't like it. At the moment I'm on openSUSE 11.1 with KDE 4.1.3.
4's not quite as steady as 3.5.10 but once you're used to the differences and get to individualise it (which isn't as easy as 3.5) I quite like it.
I'm looking forward to 4.2 but only because I still can't resist an update.

[MikeTbob]

I've tried Gnome several times and I just don't like it. At the moment I'm on openSUSE 11.1 with KDE 4.1.3.
4's not quite as steady as 3.5.10 but once you're used to the differences and get to individualise it (which isn't as easy as 3.5) I quite like it.
I'm looking forward to 4.2 but only because I still can't resist an update.

I just installed OpenSUSE 11.1 kde-4 tonight too, it's quiet impressive. I like it already.

[oz]

One of the things that lots of users who say they like KDE4 the way it is now forget to mention is that they aren't running KDE4 only, but instead are using both, KDE4 and KDE3, in order to have a fully functioning desktop environment. For example, in order to run K3b, Konversation, Koffice, and certain other applications, you have to have some KDE3/QT3 files installed in addition to the KDE4/QT4 files... or at least that's the way it was the last time I checked.

While some users might not mind doing that, this makes it more of a neopolitan blend of KDE versions.

That said, I plan to wait for KDE4 to be able to stand on its own without having to be propped up by KDE3/QT3. Hopefully the wait won't be too much longer!

[MikeTbob]

One of the things that lots of users who say they like KDE4 the way it is now forget to mention is that they aren't running KDE4 only, but instead are using both, KDE4 and KDE3, in order to have a fully functioning desktop environment. For example, in order to run K3b, Konversation, Koffice, and certain other applications, you have to have some KDE3/QT3 files installed in addition to the KDE4/QT4 files... or at least that's the way it was the last time I checked.

While some users might not mind doing that, this makes it more of a neopolitan blend of KDE versions.

That said, I plan to wait for KDE4 to be able to stand on its own without having to be propped up by KDE3/QT3. Hopefully the wait won't be too much longer!

Yeah, it's still that way ozar, but mixing kde3/4 libraries doesn't bother me, I just look at it as if it were a "Dependency", like so many other things that we install on Linux, you need to install 15 other things before you get what you want, which is what I despise. That's just how it is for now and there isn't anything I can do about it.