KDE 4.2 Review
I recently did a bunch of package unmasking in my desktop Gentoo installation and did an emerge of KDE 4 .2 and I thought I would share my experiences in my shiny new desktop environment (unfortunately I was unable to see how Amarok2 integrated with KDE 4.2 due to some MySQL embedded compilation issues for 64-bit Linux).
Firstly, KDE 4.2 feels far superior to the KDE 4.1 release. Unfortunately, I still experienced crashes on many plasmoids when I was interacting and a few times when I was doing nothing more than launching Firefox. The initial Ozone/Oxygen window decoration is extremely unpleasing on the eyes. The first thing I did after seeing it was to switch the window decoration to Plastik. The KDE Control Center now appears to be a clone of the Mac OS X Preferences manager and sacrifices the ease of fast-clicking through the different configuration options for a shiny interface that requires more clicks to find stuff (especially annoying if you need to navigate through multiple parts to find a specific option) and no expandable tree that lets you see a subset of configuration options before you enter the config screen for a specific option. Most annoying was the “Add Widgets” box. Using the default Oxygen color scheme makes it almost unusable because it leaves it with using white text on a white background. Mousing over leaves white text on a very light blue background (still fairly unreadable) and clicking on a specific widget option leaves white text on a dark blue background (hey, its readable now!).
Can anyone read that?
So the only way to easily read the name and description of a widget is to click on it = PITA when you’re browsing through these things for the first time. Now that these annoyances are out of the way lets get on to all the good things that KDE 4.2 has to offer.
So far, I have enjoyed using the Dolphin file manager over the old KDE 3.X stalwart Konqueror for file management. Dolphin has been very stable so far and it feels like a fairly polished file manager, similar to what Nautilus has become. I only make the comparison to illustrate how the GNOME project decided that Nautilus would be a pure file manager and that over the GNOME 2.X lifetime it has become polished because all it tries to do is manage your files. I never had any issues using Konqueror for file management, but it always felt like they were trying to keep a balance between the web browsing and the file management so neither part felt like it ever achieved its full potential in respect to the other parts of the KDE desktop. With Dolphin, I see the potential for a truly excellent file manager and the ability to free Konqueror up to become an even better web browser in the future. The SVG icons scale up and down nicely when changing the zoom level of the folder and the split screen view was a pleasant surprise that I don’t recall having seen in Konqueror before.
The plasmoids I enabled on my desktop mostly related to system monitoring. I initially tried to use the big, all encompassing System Monitor, but soon found one of my first annoyances. For one, none of the customizations I made in this particular widget seemed to be remembered. I would change the network interfaces to monitor, the temperature sensors to monitor, and which partitions I wanted shown and upon a logout/login they would all be back to the default values. In addition to that, I have my system heavily partitioned and deselecting all the partitions that I did not wish to see resulted in the widget window shrinking to the correct size, but left the text for those partitions below the window at what would have been the bottom of the original list of partitions. I attached a screenshot below to illustrate this. The issues I had with the all encompassing system monitor were not exhibited by the individual components that are offered as separate plasmoids: the settings are remembered and the text stays inside the widgets. I also tested out the KDETwitter plasmoid that has so far been the most stable pure Linux twitter client that I have used so far. I have tried Twitux and GTwitter but both of those always would just quit getting updates shortly after launching them. The only downside for KDETwitter is its maximum 20 tweet history.
The Kickstart menu still clashes with my philosophy on what a menu should be. I know they offer the old menu option, but I do not see the need for the new one. If you accidentally mouse over the bottom tabs while browsing the menu you are switched to that tab. Going to a different level of the menu to see if something is in there requires a click to return. Why? Sometimes I forget where things are in the menu and I need to navigate quickly between different submenus. I like the simplicity of the old menu style and I appreciate the KDE developers leaving that option in for people like me.
A few minor things: the new KDE panel feels mostly the same as the old one with the exception of needing to click the “Add Plasmoids” option to be able to move icons around, Konqueror feels mostly like the same old Konqueror, I can still easily add application startup shortcuts via the menu editor (thanks for not pulling a GNOME on this one 
) and the overall feel is still KDE.
Overall, KDE 4.2 feels like a HUGE step forward for the KDE 4.X releases and is more what I would have expected the initial KDE 4.0 release to have been. This release feels like a usable desktop and has definitely made me 180 on my post KDE 4.0 release switch to GNOME. The KDE developers have made a strong case on why those users who switched away from KDE because of any disappointment in the 4.0 release should come running back.
EDITED TO ADD: I forgot to talk about one of the big things that KDE 4 has added in: compositing window effects. I have an NVidia 8800 GT graphics card and the window effects have worked great so far. Also, it’s entirely possible that some of the issues I encountered are Gentoo-related…
(Gallery needs some fixing, but I decided to publish anyway…)
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- Dolphin’s default file view
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- Nice twitter client, lacks history…
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- Still trying to adjust to Kickstart…
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- Konqueror’s default file display
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- LCD Weather Plasmoid is nice and polished.
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- Same old panel look, except shinier.
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- The System Monitor pieces all work much better separately
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- Really? You can’t keep the text in the box?
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February 7th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I must say this is a great article i enjoyed reading it keep the good work
February 8th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Thanks, nice to see a former ‘angry with KDE person’ who recognises that KDE is on the right track after all…. 4.0 is water under the bridge.
One remark: I find the Lancelot menu the best menu I have seen ever. It makes its way onto my KDE 4 as the first plasmoid to be installed. Furthermore, the new Krunner (Alt-F2) is a serious ass-kicker. In fact, I launch almost all my apps via Alt-F2 now.
Oh, and split view has existed in Konqueror for a long time. I just wish they would bring the ‘File Size View’ to Dolphin as well….
February 8th, 2009 at 11:52 am
(…) the split screen view was a pleasant surprise that I don’t recall having seen in konqueror before.
It actually is there. Dolphin actually has less functionality: (in my experience) it only splits in left/right. Konqueror on the other hand, can split screens left/right and top/bottom as much as I ever felt the need to.
Try ctrl-shift-L or ctrl-shift-t, and again for a nested split. Ctrl-shift-r to remove the currently active split.
February 8th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Check Lancelot as Start Menu. It´s a blend between the functionality of the classic KDE start menu and the looks of the new one… and actually, they were thinking of making it the default for 4.3.
Despite I don’t experience the same bugs (for instance, I haven’t had any problems with the add widgets box on my Debian AMD64), in general my opinion is quite the same: more improvements must come.
February 8th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
I upgraded my Gentoo system to KDE 4.2 over the weekend. And I didn’t notice any issue such as you report with readability of the Add-Widgets dialog—it comes up just fine for me.
Only thing is, I cannot add the World Clock widget: any attempt to do so hangs the plasma process.
Also, I tried the Marble widget, which works fine, but took 20% of my CPU.
February 8th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
I actually encountered a similar problem with (in my case) black-text-on-black-background, back when I was running the pre-release versions of 4.2 out of the kde-testing overlay. I think the problem was actually one of missing packages – once I got all of the necessary bits installed it worked normally for me. Switching styles/themes to reset all of the color options might help, too.
KDE 4.2 has been running beautifully for me here on my 3-year-old AMD64 laptop. All we need now is the finished port of k3b, digikam 0.10 to be released (currently in beta), and someone to care whether Quanta+ ever gets ported…
February 9th, 2009 at 2:23 am
[...] KDE 4.2 Review I recently did a bunch of package unmasking in my desktop Gentoo installation and did an emerge of KDE 4 .2 and I thought I would share my experiences in my shiny new desktop environment (unfortunately I was unable to see how Amarok2 integrated with KDE 4.2 due to some MySQL embedded compilation issues for 64-bit Linux). [...]
February 9th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Im sorry I still dont get why a bunch of whining geekstook a hissy fit last February when 4.0 came out and left?
What the hell was wrong with 3.5 which still got updated twice in 2008 (once at the end of the summer) that you HAD to leave?
Everything I read about 4.0 said, ‘no way is this ready but to look at and get any idea’ but lemmings still went out and then were shocked when it acted like they were told it would. Distros get my biggest scorn for pushing even the 4.1 as a default.
I sure as hell wasnt changing my kids, wife’s or parents computers from their 3.5 desktops until I knew that 4.x was ready.
4.1 was better but not ready.
4.2 is ready for them to switch while I will wait for 4.3.
My mom is now rocking Mandriva 2009 instead of PCLinuxOS2007 and she loves it.
I still have a few things that bug me and I will wait till June for 4.3 before I change my own machine but guess what?
KDE3.5 will do fine till then.
I use two proprietary desktops; XP/OS10, as well as KDE and those ones havent changed their desktops in 8-9 years, so I really have nothing to complain about.
Could some things have been done differently? Sure. People could also learn how to read but that’s life.
Having used Gnome/Ubuntu on the Dell Mini 9 for the past 3 months and having my wife beg to put something else because it looked ‘depressing’ like using Windows 95 (!!), I can honestly say the road to 4.2 from 3.5 doesnt pass through Gnome.
Im not saying we cant appreciate greats ones like XCFE which runs on all my old hardware or E17 but I fail to see how some minor incovenience on a proclaimed unfinished release would force me to abandon 3.5 for another desktop.
Of course, I heard too many stories of people installing 4.0 on their main machine and then bitching when they bork it. Anyone who does that with unfinished software deserves all the grief they get.
I still havent gotten around to all the different 4.2 versions but in KDE 4.1, Mandriva was again the cream of the crop and Kubuntu again reminds me why it lost out of PCLinuxOS 2-3 years ago as my ‘family’ distro and its still buggy enough that I have to hold my breath when I click anything.
February 9th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Thanks for the positive comments everyone!
@Wankel and @Carl: thanks for the konqueror split-screen info!
@Carl and @Mott: thanks for the tip about Lancelot, I’ll definitely check that out
@guy lafleur: I kept using KDE 3.5 after KDE 4.0 came out but when it became apparent that KDE 4.1 was still not going to be what I thought it should be I decided to switch away. Because of the way they were choosing to release what i considered unstable and incomplete code as stable I started to question the direction they were going so I decided to switch at that point instead of using KDE 3.5 and hoping a future KDE 4.X release would be what I wanted (and I also did not expect to see both KDE 4.1 and 4.2 released so soon after the 4.0 release). The KDE guys came through and proved my hasty decision to be wrong.
I used to be a GNOME 1.X user and when they released 2.0 there were similar issues of incompleteness and Nautilus being memory intensive and crash-prone. I decided then to switch to KDE 3 and I was extremely pleased with it through the whole 3.X cycle. That’s the major reason I was so disappointed with 4.0 and 4.1 (and after using KDE 3.X for so long I most likely forgot some of its early release growing pains).
February 9th, 2009 at 11:22 am
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