

KDE 4.7 released - sandGorgon
http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.7/

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bobo888
It looks very very nice, but I find its features to be almost... useless. I
feel like the desktop is trying to grab the spotlight, instead of focusing on
the applications.

For example, how many people _really_ do use desktop widgets on a PC? I'm
willing to bet you that the majority of users spend most of their time in a
web browser and some kind of a text editor (IDE/Office/...). IMHO the KDE
project is going in a wrong direction by putting so much emphasis on the
desktop. Just let me quickly start my favourite applications, then go away,
until I call you back. I think that Ubuntu's Unity is much more closer to this
goal.

PS: last time I tried KDE was with Kubuntu 11.04. I just played around adding
and removing widgets, until I dragged the clock from the bottom bar to the
desktop. Then I had an incredible frustrating experience when it took me
almost half an hour to figure out _how to add the clock back on the bottom
bar_. It just kept going under it.

PPS: The second issue was a show stopper: it didn't remember the settings for
my dual-monitor setup. The only fix I could find was to edit configuration
files... I mean, be serious, it's 2011, not 1999. So I returned to Ubuntu with
Unity, which worked just fine.

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sandGorgon
Each time a new Ubuntu version is released, I try out KDE - but always end up
going back to Gnome for productivity reasons.

The fact that KDE is bloated because of all the semantic desktop stuff doesnt
help a bit. Since KDE has switched to its SC (software compilation) based
nomenclature, I would happily _pay_ for a KDE-light S.C. with NO MySQL,
nepomuk, strigi, akonadi, konqueror and just a bare desktop with Chrome and
LibreOffice (saying I can disable it doesnt count )

Since, I'm unable to use Unity in any significant way, I'm looking for a way
to use KDE.

And I hope they make a much better default theme than what they have -
everything said and done, Gnome looks much much more polished.

~~~
shazow
Why is saying you can disable it doesn't count?

OSX comes with Spotlight, but first thing I do is install Quicksilver. I don't
expect someone to ship an OSX-light without Spotlight.

(I use KDE with all those things disabled on my desktop, OSX on my MBP.)

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jvehent
Just went back to XFCE4 after a month or so on KDE4.4 on Debian. I go back to
KDE every now and then, when I feel the need for desktop effects and pretty
transparency and stuff like that. This time, I really tried to customize my
desktop to be as productive as possible, and I almost succeeded. The windows
mozaic display from all desktop a-la-mac when the mouse reaches the top left
corner was useful to switch from firefox to konsole. I really like gwenview,
yakuake and konqueror for file browsing carry useful features.

On the other hand, I couldn't get my networking to work properly. Whether it's
network-manager or the kde frontend that's clunky, I don't know, but it made
it impossible to switch from a network to another without rebooting the
machine.

It also took me DAYS to find how to deactivate this really annoying desktop
switch when the mouse reaches the side of the screen. At some point, I was
being very careful not to drag my mouse to the side. Terrible user experience.

KDE is full of options, everywhere, but in the end I felt like most of them
are useless. The lack of separation between "basic" parameters and "super geek
advanced that even the developers don't touch" ends up in big control panel
with plenty of options, and you don't even know where to start looking. So you
start Googling, which is usually not a good sign.

Being back to XFCE4 is indeed a relief. Like working out after months of junk
food.

~~~
prolepunk
There's a know issue with kde network applet and it's been known for some
time, kde team is working on fixing it. Meanwhile use gnome-network-manager
instead -- remove applet, install gnome-network-manager though apt, then
create a symlink to it rhough ~/.kde/Autostart

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w1ntermute
Does anyone have experience with the KDE 4 version of KMail and whether its
GMail integration is any good? IIRC, 4.6 was the first version of KDE4 to
include the new KDEpim suite, so this would be their first major update to the
new KDEpim.

~~~
keeperofdakeys
I would assume that such an email client would have half-decent IMAP support.
Besides copying your contacts from gmail, this should do everything you
require.

~~~
trezor
_Besides copying your contacts from gmail, this should do everything you
require._

The problem is that you don't want a copy, you want a _maintained copy_. You
want your data synchronized.

Outlook does this very neatly with Exchange, which is why it rules the
enterprise. Android does this very neatly with your Gmail/Google account. The
iPhone also does this to some extent (at least against Exchange contacts).

Once you get used to the idea that there is only one set of data, going back
to working on different sets, different copies of what should be the same data
feels very, very wrong.

You can say what you like, but a copy alone will not do "everything you
require" for most people these days.

~~~
keeperofdakeys
IMAP handles the email synchronisation(1), the only problem is the contact
synchronisation. Contacts don't change that much though, so occasional, manual
copies to your devices is possible. It is strange that there isn't a good
solution like IMAP for this.

1\. <http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=75725>

~~~
Wilduck
With Gmail, my contacts change all the time. That is, every time a new person
emails me, and I email them back.

~~~
shadowfox
I used to have the same issue. Thankfully Thunderbird, which I switched to,
has a bidirectional contact sync plugin for google contacts.

FWIW the last time I tried KMail with GMail, there were some issues with how
the folder-to-tag mapping worked. This ended up with me needing to untag a lot
of stuff manually in my GMail. But since this was over a year and a half back,
I wont really go by this. Things could well be better now

------
brainsqueezer
Having a read to the announcements worths it. Want to test digikam2 and git
integration among others.

Waiting for Kubuntu version. I still use Debian in another computer but I know
Kubuntu one will come first.

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tbassetto
I'm not a Linux guy, but I'm curious. And I prefer "vanilla" experience when
I'm trying a new toy. Which Linux distribution should I use if I want to test
a KDE as clean as possible?

~~~
omn1
Slackware Linux currently features a vanilla KDE 4.5.5. Tastes differ so you
might like others (like Kubuntu and OpenSuse), too.

~~~
koenigdavidmj
* Slackware patches KDE to remove the PAM dependency.

* The Slackware devs do not much fancy the new HAL replacements.

* KDE apparently changed the compilation infrastructure such that everything comes as a lot of little packages, which makes maintenance harder for them. Without somebody to step up, Alien Bob has even implied that KDE might get dropped from the official package list.

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TobbenTM
Cool, but I'm gonna stick to XFCE4. Don't like the aero in KDE..

~~~
w1ntermute
If that's your only complaint, the desktop effects can be easily disabled.

~~~
moondowner
Yes, desktop effects can be easily disabled, or modified which one to be
enabled, System Settings -> Desktop Effects.

And, the default theme 'Air' can be easily changed too, System Settings ->
Workspace Appearance.

Screenshot for both: [http://freedupthoughts.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/kde-
syste...](http://freedupthoughts.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/kde-system-
settings.png)

It's sad to see users choosing desktop environments based on factors like
looks, not features/functionality/etc...

