Another interview with a KDE developer – this time Sebastian Kuegler takes the stage. “So sure, 4.0.0 is not as polished as anyone (especially ourselves) would have wanted it to be. It certainly is a usable desktop, if not up to all the goodness of 3.5.8 (which is what people seem to be used to, which shows that we do deliver quality work). We knew from the beginning that the development cycle leading up to a stable KDE 4 release would be painful. The fact that the definition of stable varies widely within our userbase and the expectations of everyone doesn’t make it any easier.” Additionally, the much-criticised KDE 4 panel can now be, among other things, resized.
Worst text formatting ever.
The interview should be divided in several pages and the questions should have more emphasis (maybe bold-face?).
When Texstar puts KDE4 in his distro, then i’ll know it’s ready to use
and i will gladly do so. Until that occurs, i could care less about its
growing pains.
A nice interview for the most part. I especially found the formation of the working groups interesting since I did not know of that.
However I was somewhat discouraged when I read:
I think kde4 has some great stuff in it but I am not sure he read the same articles and comments I have been reading.
– Plasma workspace or panel crashing with regularity
– System settings extremely incomplete
– Multiple settings functions that were present not being functional.
– Konqueror, a mainstay of day to day KDE use, unstable for browsing.
KDE4 has some great stuff in it and I look forward to using it but to suggest that the criticisms centered around the panel not being able to be resized strikes me as disingenuous.
Ignoring plasma, the rest of the KDE 4.0 framework is about where I expected it to be for the initial release. Most apps still have more work to do before they stabalize with the new API but are usable. Further, in combination with the new frameworks, a few of the apps are significantly improved. But I have not had the workspace stay stable for me for more than 30 minutes at a time. When your desktop and panel crash it becomes pretty hard to use the environment, much less recommend it. This instability is the same on two different machines both with a Kubuntu install and the Suse Live CD. I am sure there are others who have, and do, use KDE4/plasma without problems but based on the Ars article and the comments both here and there I would say I am not alone. I would say I am not even in the minority.
Each update adds a little more stability though, hopefully soon I will be able to use the workspace and not just the apps.
Just a quick note for openSUSE users, the resizable panel is already available in the KDE 4.0.1 packages in the OBS. Just right click the panel, and there’s a new “Configure Panel…” option underneath the “Configure Taskbar…” option.
If you were using the old KDE:/KDE4 repo, you’ll need to switch to KDE:/KDE4:/STABLE/Desktop/openSUSE_10.3 (or /openSUSE_10.2) and update the packages.
what is the deal with the repositories ?
the old is still getting updated.
is the STABLE/DESKTOP a newer one with more updates ?
and is there a UNSTABLE/DESKTOP , and what it is ?
thanks
Not sure what will happen to the old KDE4 repository but STABLE/Desktop features only official KDE releases (plus custom patches, I guess) while UNSTABLE/Desktop will have regular snapshots of the development version like the pre 4.0.0 repository used to.
The old KDE4 repo should be disappearing.
STABLE as you point out is more or less branch, with patches where appropriate, and is currently 4.0.1.
UNSTABLE is trunk, with regular snapshots for 4.1.
Each will have a /desktop, for the core DE packages and related apps, /extra-apps for apps that are not part of the core KDE release, and /community for additional contributions.
There will also be a /backports repo for KDE 3.5.x users that don’t want to install the full 4.x DE.
Doing the infrastructural change that they did is not easy, everybody knows that and yes, the 4.0 release… well.. everybody was expecting it to be huge. Had to do with being “Four dot Zero”, the “New and Improved”… that kind of X factor associated with a whole number release of any piece of software that automagically raises everybody’s expectations. They did raise the bar to much early in the release cycle, however, and that ended up working against them cause it got to much people excited about the upcoming release.
I for one still welcome our new desktop overlords. Sure the release wasn’t up to what most people where expecting, but then again most people never used Gnome 1.4… So they wouldn’t know about pain.
I think the KDE team should just take a deep breath and carry on and don’t let themselves be put down by their critics. They clearly have a vision and they are pursuing it (which is something that OSS lacks, in general: a vision), and even if they have just barely left the starting point it doesn’t mean the race is lost because they’re probably racing down the proper track.
And before anybody criticize KDE 4, remenber Gnome 2… Talk about lack of features… Talk about bad receptions and missed expectations. If you are new here, or just need me to refresh tou memory, take a look at this:
http://osnews.com/story/1280/A_Users_First_Look_at_GNOME_2.0
By Eugenia, circa 2002.
From TFA:
I usually start my reviews with the positive points of a product and then continue with whatever I found as ‘bad’. In this case, I just can’t hide my dissapointment about the new version of Gnome. As a user, I expected more, and I want more.
History repeating. So there. Gnome 2.X series eventually went on to become the most popular DE available on Linux, with many many users, and I’m one of them. So give the KDE folks some time and cut them some slack. Let the 4.X series be to KDE as good as Gnome 2.X turned out to be.
Oh-oh, no, please no, pretty please
I’d rather see it become quickly as good as 3.5.x and then quickly surpassing it.
i have been testing kde4 for a long time.
i have been liking it , and havent found alot of problems. the desktop is stable , as i have had it “online”(without crashing or misbehaving) several days on my laptop ( to test it ).
i have the opinion that there are some bad packages for some distros, that make kde4 break alot.
although i even do like kde4 look and feel, kde4 has a very good adversary , that i think its almost impossible to beat !
Vista ,er not , not even Mac OSX…
its kde3 … to me , my kde3 setup with compiz just blows away everything. it just rules.
it will take along long time for kde4 ever become this good. or if it ever will. i suspect that are some weird features that nobody uses but i absolutly love
that will not make it to kde4.
to me, what would be perfect would be kde3 with all the goodness of kde4 libraries and qt 4.
that said , long live kde4 , although i dont think kde3 will die anytime soon
( if ever , really … to me its desktop nirvana , just the way i love it )
“Earlier already, Olivier Goffart has made it possible to have two rows of tasks in the taskbar”
Sorry, I had to quote that