The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.0.1, the third generation of KDE’s free. KDE 3.0.1 is primarily a translation release for KDE 3.0, which shipped in early April. In addition, KDE 3.0.1 offers a number of performance and usability enhancements. For an extended list of changes since KDE 3.0, please see the change log. Our Take: I spent most of the day yesterday compiling KDE 3.01 from source on my Red Hat 7.2 box. Here’s a screenshot.
KDE Project Ships KDE 3.01
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
I hope the “usability enhancement” is not the XP-look I see in that screenshot…
This is not XP-looking. It is Connectiva-looking. And it does not come by default with KDE, you have to install the icon set manually from kde-look.org.
I spent half a day compiling it yesterday, and half a day configuring KDE, X, fonts, icons etc. to my liking.
Some user @ Slashdot reported ( http://slashdot.org/articles/02/05/23/122257.shtml?tid=121 ) that Mandrake packages ara broken. I have not personally tested them yet, anyway a backup is reccommended before trying the rpms. Just an advice…
It’s OK then. Maybe they don’t to you, but to me those icons look very Lunaish. Whatever.
I was just reading the release notes, and couldn’t find too many things worth being called usability enhancements. Which is sad, as where I find KDE technically interesting, I do have a problem with its approach to the user. But I don’t expect them ever to be fixed, as that would require a whole paradigm change for KDE.
Scroll down on http://www.PCLinuxOnline.com to find the problem and its solution and the right RPMs for Mandrake.
I was just reading the release notes, and couldn’t find too many things worth being called usability enhancements.
This is a maintance release to head branch 3.x… 3.1 will be the next feature release. Then 3.1.1 will be maintance release to 3.1 child branch etc etc.
Fixing bugs and providing more languages COULD be considered “usability enhancements” though.
…I find KDE technically interesting, I do have a problem with its approach to the user. But I don’t expect them ever to be fixed, as that would require a whole paradigm change for KDE.
Please explain what you mean… what problems? Just saying you have problems with KDE’s approach isn’t really interesting for others to read, nor does it help in solving those problems.
So, how does it perform? Compared to say, BeOS?
It performs the same as KDE 3.0. Slowly on my dual Celeron 533 (where BeOS flies), and pretty fast on my new AthlonXP 1600+ (where BeOS doesn’t run without hacking its kernel
).
“Our Take: I spent most of the day yesterday compiling KDE 3.01 from source on my Red Hat 7.2 box.”
Ah, fairest Eugenia.
How I long for a girl who knows how to compile her own Desktop Environment.
Right. Well, when KDE runs about as well as BeOS I might consider using it it…
Btw, how do you like the athlonxp 1600+? Sounds like a nice system.
> Right. Well, when KDE runs about as well as BeOS I might consider using it it…
There are two ways to answer this:
1. Wait until KDE gets faster (which is “never”, because software gets bloater by the time, by definition)
2. Buy a Pentium4 at 2.53 Ghz with 2 GB Kingston PC-1066 memory and run it as fast as it can run.
In my opinion, KDE has come a long way. It is pretty usable these days. If you read my Gobe article the other day, I also installed Gnome2. Gnome is nowhere near the usability and quality of KDE 3.
Where KDE falls short is in its speed when running on older machines (where even WinXP runs so much better on the same machine where KDE 3 feels slow), and also on the desktop context menus and the KDE menu. They have over-populated menus while the settings and preferences are scattered everywhere, even if they fall under the same logical category. I can explain if you want btw.
> Btw, how do you like the athlonxp 1600+? Sounds like a nice system.
It is a $498 USD WalMart PC with no OS in it. I was sent it for free by the company who does them, in order to test then and write a review about it (expect a review soon). It is much faster than my dual Celeron, that’s for sure. But wait until the review is up.
I hate to break it to you folks, but BeOS is dead. So is *gasp* OS/2. You could wait around until KDE is like BeOS (a very disjointed comparison), or you could simply wait until you can’t find a computer that’ll still run BeOS.
I’ve been using KDE 3.0 for a few days now. It’s a nice step forward. Performance is just fine. As has been the case for a couple of years now, network (Internet) latency is the #1 cause of delay, and RAM is so cheap that I could care less that I’m using over 100M of application memory on my 1GB system. Sure I’d think twice before trying it on my old Pentium box, but I doubt that BeOS would do much better on that old box.
For me, KDE became a production quality GUI environment at version 2. The latest versions are more steps in the right direction, as far as I’m concerned. Those of you who have turned to Linux, FreeBSD etc. to squeeze the most out of old hardware will want to look at one of the lightweight window managers. But if you’re a member of the giga-Hertz and giga-byte clubs, then KDE is a pretty good way to put that capacity to work.
It’s the bastard child of XP and OS X!
just compile it with objprelinking and –enable-fast-malloc=full and u’ll get a highly optimised KDE. on my PIII 450 it only takes 10 seconds to start, and konq opens up within 3 seconds (2 if it’s cached already)
Now all you need is that Mosfet Liquid look 🙂
10 seconds for start and 3 seconds is not fast enough if we compared to Window$ application. My IceWM start faster than that. However I like KDE because in Linux world it is the most featureful DE although as Eugenia said, the menu is over populated which means need some cleanup by ourselvef if we dont like it.
> Now all you need is that Mosfet Liquid look 🙂
That is one of the most ugly-looking and unintuitive themes I have ever seen. I have already ellaborated on it, in the past, in this very forum.
Eugenia… try e17…
BTW I still think that Gnome2 is quite good and KDE compiled on gentoo is quite fast, the only cons I can find is one:
I can make the system compiling a kernel or someting heavier (say Mozilla) and still use it on gnome (using gnumeric and stilli listening xmms playing w/out skips), doing he same on kde3 isn’t possible…
I have Gnome2 installed. I like it better than before (to be more precise, I like Nautilus better), however, it is nowhere near KDE’s looks and usability levels.
But do not worry. I have surprises for the KDE folks. I am thinking of writting an article where I will show, point by point, screenshot by screenshot, pixel by pixel, exactly where their GUI sucks and where does it need more work.
Do not worry. I never said that KDE is “there” yet. Because it’s not.
>>That is one of the most ugly-looking and unintuitive themes I have ever seen. I have already ellaborated on it, in the past, in this very forum.<<
I know, I am just giving you a hard time 🙂
Is it compulsory to have the window close button at top right, next to
the maximise button?
Why do Linux people have to copy all the bad features of Windows. You
would think they had never used any other OS.
It’s not compulsory…. you can move it to the other side if you want.
Please explain what you mean… what problems? Just saying you have problems with KDE’s approach isn’t really interesting for others to read, nor does it help in solving those problems.
You will see that describing my problems won’t help…
What’s wrong with KDE for me is that they make everything an option, and don’t make decisions. Global or local menu bar? Hm…no idea. Let’s make it an option. Windowshading or maximizing on title-double click? Hm…an option. Close button to the left or to the right? Add it as an option to the prefs.
So they end up filling and overloading their prefs dialogs with options so complex no one’s gonna use them anyway. The price of it is that when you need to change an option, it is hard to find inside that mess. Why don’t they apply the KISS-principle on their UI?
It is also bad for the developer. Usually, you would use different orders for the menu items depending on wether the menu’s global or local. You would try to make your own custom widgets fit in the system’s look. However, since none of that is a constant, you have to compromise as a developer and are restricted to the common denominator.
OS/2 ain’t dead. There is a new version now, it’s called eComStation. You can see screenshots @ http://www.ecomstation.com/
It’s what Linux should try to Be like. Dependable and human friendly.
I think there is a MWM (Motif) decoration theme…
with e17 I meant enlightenment .17
from what I saw looks interesting.
btw did you compiled KDE using icc, gcc3.1 or the standard RH gcc?
In KDE you can move the window close, maximize, minimize, and restore buttons where ever you want on the title bar
Is it compulsory to have the window close button at top right, next to the maximise button?
Of course not! Widgets can be moved to wherever you want. Just because that arrangement seems to work for most folks doesn’t mean that it’s mandatory. KDE is not Windows or OSX, remember?
Why do Linux people have to copy all the bad features of Windows. You would think they had never used any other OS.
What bad features? If you’re still talking about the widgets, I have to disagree with you. I came up using a number of window managers, like mwm, twm and other oldies, as well as MacOS and the old DOS-based Windows. When the Chicago beta came out, I was quite impressed with how fast and intuitive the min-max-close arrangement was. There are a lot of things to dislike about Windows, but I must give credit where credit is due. IMHO the scheme is a winner. Just because Microsoft had it first doesn’t mean that we have to rail against it.
It’s not a very bad feature. I have NEVER clicked the X by mistake when I meant to maximize.
A close button far away means more mousing and I think that’s bad.
But you’re right about the copying. They bitch like hell about windows and then goes back coding their own clone of some app or feature. It’s all about recycling and reviving old tech. No innovation at all and the more hardcore, bearded unixheads often seem to strive to bring computing back in time. Meh
Congratulations on your (our) birthday! =)
geez 3.0.1 is out already and there isnt a kde 3 out for debian yet.
I have the close button on the left border on some settings
on some others I don’t have at all (chose from the menu->close)
Linux people usually work on the kernel… since linux is JUST THE KERNEL
if you are talking about the theme writer… hmm I think that you can fing everything you want.
(consider that for making a theme you don’t need to code, for enlightenment you have a interesting GUI tool for make your theme)
That is not KDE 3.01, but 3.0.1. There is a difference.
I don’t know about you all, but I run kde on my thinkpad, with 319 megs ram and a 700mhz p3. Not exactly a screaming system, I’m well aware.
But the thing is, KDE runs beautifully, and I don’t know what people are always griping about. The only thing people seem to yell about is how slow KDE & its apps take to start. And yes, it *is* slow — KDE takes about 10 to 20 seconds to start (depending on how much session management needs done), which is longer than it takes my machine to boot from bios to X login. So what? I boot my machine once a day (it’s a laptop, so I shut it off when I carry it around). So, sheesh, it’s like I’m losing an entire 10 seconds every day.
And of course, all those slow to start apps. Yes, it takes Konsole ~1/2 second, Konq ~2 seconds, KDevelop ~ 7 or 8 seconds, etc. But, once again, I start the app, I wait (gasp) a few seconds, then I *use* it for hours and hours.
So what’s the trouble here? KDE apps run fantastically, once they’re running. I’ve never had trouble with the performance of any kde apps (except KWord), especially now that multithreading is officially kosher, and apps no longer need to use QTimer timouts for background processing. The APIs are generally consistant, with the exceptions being apps written by folks who choose to avoid the UI guidelines, and that’s the same problem under windows.
The fact is, while there are performance problems, they are the fault of the crappy gnu binutils and gcc, not KDE. In my mind, KDE has the most mature and polished API and framework in general of any unix desktop. The design is solid, well documented, easy to program, easy to understand, and straightforward to modify. What more could you ask for?
And to continue my rant
People really should stop moaning about how bad X is. Unless you’re a fulltime gamer, X is not just fine, but actually pretty damn good. I can do all the stuff I want, from watching dvds (windowed or fullscreen), web, gimp graphics, programming (99% of my time spent) and whatnot with XFree without a hitch. I also play a few games, though my sad little thinkpad has no OpenGL, so I play Quake 2 and Heretic 2 windowed & fullscreen with software raster and it’s fine. And oh yeah, I can run complex remote gui apps like they’re local 
I think people just bitch and moan because they’re too lazy to figure out how to use/configure the system.
>Is it compulsory to have the window close button at top right, >next to the maximise button?
No, it’s configurable on most of the window decorations in KDE.
Looks good from here. Looks like linux might actually have a world class UI to rival Aqua and Explorer/XP.
Gotta go reformat my backup HD and try it out.
lu_zero: do the following to make kde audio skip-free.
$ sudo chown root.root `which artswrapper`
$ sudo chmod +s !$
(alternatively, su to root, and drop the sudo’s).
Then, either logout/in of kde, or go into the audio preferences and restart artsd (after making sure “use real-time priority” is checked).
There, never have your audio skip again. w00t! 🙂
Don Cox: the use one of the other themes, that *don’t* have the close button next to the maximise. This is a long, and usually drawn-out argument, but the gist of it is, the kde hackers want a “familiar” default, with the ability to change it if you want it. And I don’t think it’s arguable that there are more windows->linux converts than mac->linux. Oh, and themes that seperate the two are shipped by default with KDE, so you don’t have to go to kde-look.org and rummage around.
HTH and HAND!
> .. try e17..
Are you saying the current beta version of E 0.17 is useable as one’s default desktop environment?
> Right. Well, when KDE runs about as well as BeOS I might consider using it it…
There are two ways to answer this:
1. Wait until KDE gets faster (which is “never”, because software gets bloater by the time, by definition)
2. Buy a Pentium4 at 2.53 Ghz with 2 GB Kingston PC-1066 memory and run it as fast as it can run.
Ha ha! Lol…
In my opinion, KDE has come a long way. It is pretty usable these days. If you read my Gobe article the other day, I also installed Gnome2. Gnome is nowhere near the usability and quality of KDE 3.
Where KDE falls short is in its speed when running on older machines (where even WinXP runs so much better on the same machine where KDE 3 feels slow),
Ah. No wonder it runs so slow on my BeOS box (under 500 mhz). Still runs slow on my windows box (700mhz). But since that was an older version of KDE, I might try putting Linux back on my windows box… hopefully it will run halfway decent.
and also on the desktop context menus and the KDE menu. They have over-populated menus while the settings and preferences are scattered everywhere, even if they fall under the same logical category. I can explain if you want btw.
I know what you mean, it took me forever to figure out how to change things like the refresh rate, screen resolution, etc. What a mess!
> Btw, how do you like the athlonxp 1600+? Sounds like a nice system.
It is a $498 USD WalMart PC with no OS in it. I was sent it for free by the company who does them, in order to test then and write a review about it (expect a review soon). It is much faster than my dual Celeron, that’s for sure. But wait until the review is up.
Ah, I remember hearing about thoese. Well, it’s good too hear you have a better system now, and I look forward to the review
I think you’re absolutely right! People are too lazy to config/setup their systems properly so they just turn to moaing instead. For example – what about that guy who, earlier in this thread, complaind about the “window close” button beeing too close to the “maximize” button… Its like everything in life – dont knock it til you try it. And please, if dont know what you’re talking about – dont!
Best Regards jens