Savanna is back with an article about her latest upgrade to the KDE 3.2 desktop. After being on 3.2 beta for several months, she wasn’t expecting too much of this upgrade.
KDE 3.2 – A Quick Review
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 would have thought UT2003-2004 / Quake / Enemy Territory / Americas Army, etc would be considered some of the latest shootemup games. They are all available on linux. Jeez.
I have to agree with the author KDE 3.2 is a great desktop. What I have always liked about KDE is its superb and easy customization. Practically, there’s almost everything one would need in a desktop, with nearly every application nicely integrated to the desktop. KDE is also consistent and dependable.
Although this isn’t really a great review for people in the know, this would be great to show people who are thinking of switching. It’s simple, easy to read, and not very technical, perfect for the average windows user to understand. Too bad it didnt have any pictures (oooh, purdy!).
I agree, Linux does have a ton of “shootem up games,” there are a few noticable absentees: Counter-Strike, BF1942/Desert Combat, and Call of Duty. However the majority of Linux games are FPS (well and arcade/card/puzzle knockoffs). What Linux is really missing as far as games go is RTS games like Warcraft 3, Rise of Nations, and Command and Conquer, and RPG’s (though I’m more of a fan of console RPG’s).
I agree that this article is more appropriate for less technical people. However all the negative references to MS Windows was a bit immature and would likely put off curious Windows users. KDE is a fine DE and can stand by itself.
I guess I didn’t really pay much attention to her comments about viruses and kinda forgot about them. Virii aren’t funny, considering I am basically my parents tech support and they run windows. I would consider switching them but my mom like to use card making software and my sisters play The Sims and some other games, and since I am around 4hrs away and none of them are computer savvy I just let them have XP and do what I can.
for games why not just reboot to windows partition(thats the only reason why my windows partition still remain). ive paid for my windows taxes on both machines u know.
doom3 will be out for windows first then months later for linux and mac.
just reboot, unless ure running linux on Mac?!
Actually a lot of these are covered by Transgaming’s WineX and most work well with WineX and Linux.
http://www.transgaming.com
This review is simplistic for the reason that it focuses on “prettiness” and a short period of stability as the basis for commanding everyone to switch over. It fails to answer the question, “Why?” Windows XP is relatively stable and can be made to be every bit as “pretty” as any theme on KDE. This review needs to be tempered with a little reality.
I think KDE is a decent system. It certainly gives the impression of completeness and maybe is a good/safe jumping off point for Windows users looking to try something different. I use gnome mostly but also KDE w/Knoppix and on my old laptop.
<slight rant>
To me the attitude about not caring about viruses(ii) is dangerous. Just because Linux is generally more secure than Windows it is naive to assume that any such system is completeley virus proof (or exploit proof). As Linux becomes more popular the risk and temptation increases. I do agree that for now it is safer than Windows especially in the area of email. But it’s not really something to “giggle” about or ignore (f-prot or clamav anyone?). As always the “Human Factor” exacerbates any such potential exploits. That’s something we as a community should be raising awareness of.
</slight rant>
Hi
you cannot theme xp as much as kde. kde is far more stable than xp is. you are one not in touch with reality
Jess
KDE does have strong points. In particular, I found KDE 3.2 to be quite fast and responsive, and noone will ever refer to KDE as lean or spartan or lacking features 😉
I cannot help but notice however, that KDE suffers from some key problems that keep me going back to Gnome (despite the fact I started my Linux desktop Odessey on KDE 1.x) and they are:
1.) KDE simply comes with too many applications as part of the base desktop environment. Three KDE standard text editors? Desktop planetarium software? They *really* need to trim this down and make other packages optional, rather than having them ship with the standard KDE desktop release.
2.) The larger problem. The KDE interface is inconsistent and cluttered. Gnome has benefitted from adopting strict HIG (Human Interface Guidelines) that set criteria for Gnome applications to follow that result in a clean, consistent, and highly usable interface. KDE would really benefit from this approach. Konqueror for example, is particularly cluttered and has way way way too many buttons on its main menubar by default. They need to clean things up and reduce the clutter big time.
Being open minded, I will of course continue to evaluate both technologies based on their merit. However, at this time, due to its clean and pleasing interface, Gnome has the edge.
Hi
“.) KDE simply comes with too many applications as part of the base desktop environment. Three KDE standard text editors? Desktop planetarium software? They *really* need to trim this down and make other packages optional, rather than having them ship with the standard KDE desktop release. ”
text editors – kedit which has bidi support that kwrite doesnt.kate uses a kwrite part within itself and is meant for programming.when kwrite gets bidi support kedit will be dropped. kstars is one of the best planetarium software ever.
‘2.) The larger problem. The KDE interface is inconsistent and cluttered. Gnome has benefitted from adopting strict HIG (Human Interface Guidelines) that set criteria for Gnome applications to follow that result in a clean, consistent, and highly usable interface. KDE would really benefit from this approach. Konqueror for example, is particularly cluttered and has way way way too many buttons on its main menubar by default. They need to clean things up and reduce the clutter big time. ”
kde is general has a very very consistent interface. it has more options that gnome but isnt inconsistent. konqueror didnt distinct itself in the option dialog boxes between a file manager and browser. this was pending work which has been done in the cvs. so that example was correct.
any other criticisms?. please be as specific as you can be
regards
Jess
Neverwinter Nights is one game that deserves mentioning when it comes to games in Linux. On my PC, which is fairly old, playing NWN in MS Windows is just torture while in Linux it flies
Huh? KDE ain’t a distro… ain’t even an OS.
She was talking about virtual desktops, but I find the standard Pager applet in KDE horrible to look at. It just doesn’t fit. Enter Kicker Pager. This is a very nice pager applet and fits into the overall look-n-feel of the Kicker. So for all the KDE devs out there, please remove the standard Pager applet and include Kicker Pager instead.
Cheerio
The Debian maintainer of KDE decided that KDE 3.2 wasn’t up to scratch even to get into Sid (unstable). Nice to see he uploaded this version to Sid, but have had a lot of bug fixes etc.
Thats all I have to say, I haven’t even tried it yet, but if its good enough to be uploaded to Sid now, it must be a lot better… congrats to everyone that worked on ironing out the bugs…
I really think the KDE folks should have figured out these bugs existed and not released 3.2, but at least they appear to be gone now…
any other criticisms?. please be as specific as you can be
regards
Jess
Those are the two largest deficiencies as I see them. You are right, KStars is a great piece of software, I really like it myself. I still don’t think it should be in the base KDE release however.
I am pleased to hear that a simplified version of konqueror may be coming down the pipe. I am open minded, so if KDE does geat leaner and tighten up, I will evaluate future releases as they come.
I still think KDE needs to adopt the same kind of HIG process that Gnome has, Sun actually funded a usability study that helped Gnome hackers identify ways to simplify and clean up their interface to make their system easier to use. KDE can only benefit from this kind of discipline and attention to detail .
If KDE is so pretty, then why not include a few screenshots? I’m downloading (torrent) Mandrake 10 Community as we speak. SO I guess I’ll see it soon enough (tonight).
quote:
“Those are the two largest deficiencies as I see them. You are right, KStars is a great piece of software, I really like it myself. I still don’t think it should be in the base KDE release however. “.
KStarts is part of the toys packet and KEdit (as mentioned in another post in the beginning of this thread) is part of the utilities packet, but NOT part of the base packet, as far as I can see.
Installing everything isn’t a basic install.
Quote:
“I still think KDE needs to adopt the same kind of HIG process that Gnome has, Sun actually funded a usability study that helped Gnome hackers identify ways to simplify and clean up their interface to make their system easier to use. KDE can only benefit from this kind of discipline and attention to detail .”
If you add too many options, people complain, if you add too few options people complain.
You can’t win in userinterface design or usability.
KDE has a team that does nothing else than help programmers with the usability of their programs.
And they do a great job.
And you can’t spend 99% of the time on usability and 1% on other things.
Some programmers do that with their programs (not only on KDE), and in the end they look cool and awesome, but are so full of bugs that you can’t use them.
fixing bugs, adding features is also usability.
On the other hand, on Linux, KDE and GNome would benefit from working closer with eachother, at least to have some standards between the desktop environments.
I tried MEPIS linux a couple weeks ago. Kopete, which was included when I did the install, crashed daily, and locked up the system completely about once a week.
And what was the version of kopete?
Were you using kde-3.2?
“If you add too many options, people complain, if you add too few options people complain. You can’t win in userinterface design or usability. ”
It’s not about “winning” but doing it right. That’s going to be true of a lot of things, not just UI’s. But at least with OSS it’s a bit easier to please people e.g. GNOME vs KDE.
“And you can’t spend 99% of the time on usability and 1% on other things. ”
Unbalanced conditions are generally bad, be it software or other things.
“On the other hand, on Linux, KDE and GNome would benefit from working closer with eachother, at least to have some standards between the desktop environments.”
Freedesktop.org. Competition has it’s place, and cooperation has it’s place. Wisdom is in picking which one, at what time.
One extremely good reason to switch to Linux/KDE is security. Computing experience under Linux/KDE is simply much more enjoyable compared to that of MS Windows since there are A LOT less security issues (virii, attacks, trojans) in a Linux/KDE environment.
Linux+KDE can already do a lot of wonders for end users. The magic truely shines when an user does not have any specific piece of software already in use that he or she can not live without. For all intent and purposes, there are almost always comparable Linux/KDE alternative soluations available.
However, if an user got some software or certain commercial codec that he/she must use, then Linux+KDE will probably not be able to serve as a complete replacement since such piece of software or codec may not be available to this wonderful plateform.
One extremely good reason to switch to Linux/KDE is security. Computing experience under Linux/KDE is simply much more enjoyable compared to that of MS Windows since there are A LOT less security issues (virii, attacks, trojans) in a Linux/KDE environment.
Linux+KDE can already do a lot of wonders for end users. The magic truely shines when an user does not have any specific piece of software already in use that he or she can not live without. For all intent and purposes, there are almost always comparable Linux/KDE alternative soluations available.
However, if an user got some software or certain commercial codec that he/she must use, then Linux+KDE will probably not be able to serve as a complete replacement since such piece of software or codec may not be available to this wonderful plateform.
KEdit and KStars are not part of the base KDE install. When you do “apt-get install kde” (or the equivilent on your distro) it doesn’t mean to install the kde base system. It means to install *all* of KDE. That includes all the optional software that’s under the KDE Project umbrella. If you want just the base system, you do “apt-get install kdebase” (or the equivilent on your distro). If you’re on Debian, you can even install software individually (eg: “apt-get install juk”).
“KEdit and KStars are not part of the base KDE install. When you do “apt-get install kde” (or the equivilent on your distro) it doesn’t mean to install the kde base system. It means to install *all* of KDE. That includes all the optional software that’s under the KDE Project umbrella. If you want just the base system, you do “apt-get install kdebase” (or the equivilent on your distro). If you’re on Debian, you can even install software individually (eg: “apt-get install juk”).”
I shall have to keep that in mind next time I emerge kde onto my gentoo box. As I like to be open minded and evaluate both technologies on their merits, I will be taking KDE 3.2.1 for an extended test drive while I wait for Gnome 2.6 to ship.
I still think the interface needs to adhere more to the KISS principle however. Let’s see if they clean things up going forward. I am not a KDE hater, I am just sharing my viewpoint as to how I think the system could be improved.
Hi
“Huh? KDE ain’t a distro… ain’t even an OS.”
which idiot told you only OS and distros can be secure. kde as a product can be secure also. its funny you are not able to grasp that
Jess
I shall have to keep that in mind next time I emerge kde onto my gentoo box. As I like to be open minded and evaluate both technologies on their merits, I will be taking KDE 3.2.1 for an extended test drive while I wait for Gnome 2.6 to ship.
Ok good. And I believe they are planning on dropping kedit when kwrite is up to scratch.
I still think the interface needs to adhere more to the KISS principle however. Let’s see if they clean things up going forward. I am not a KDE hater, I am just sharing my viewpoint as to how I think the system could be improved.
Unfortunately I don’t think you will ever be as happy with KDE as you are with Gnome. Gnome is all about keeping it simple and giving the user one clear way to do things. Some people love it, others, like me, can’t stand it at all. KDE has always been about allowing users to easily customize their desktop to the nth degree (this doesn’t mean the desktop isn’t consistant). It’s not an argument over what is better, its just what you feel most comfortable with.
Gnome has always felt a little more polished to me, but after 10 min I can’t stand working with it anymore because its idea of how I should be doing things does not coincide with mine and I can’t change it.
To each his or her own,
Leo