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"Mark Haney" <mhaney@××××××××××××.org> posted |
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47D921FE.6030809@××××××××××××.org, excerpted below, on Thu, 13 Mar 2008 |
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08:45:50 -0400: |
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|
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> I swear I think I missed the threads on KDE4 after it was released. I'm |
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> sure by now at least some people are using it, so how is it on amd64? I |
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> know it's buggy and all that, but is it functional? Are there any |
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> showstoppers you've seen? |
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> |
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> I'd like to throw it on my dev box, but I'm not sure I want to spend a |
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> lot of time mucking with compiling it if it's not at least somewhat |
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> usable. |
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|
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Well... I've been compiling KDE-svn from the overlay for some months, but |
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unfortunately hadn't really had any time to decently test it until this |
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last week. Because I was doing the SVN version, it was more crashy but |
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more featureful than the current 4.0.x release will ever be. |
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|
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Here, after actually getting a bit of time to test what I had been |
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compiling, I gave up. Due to lack of what I consider necessary features, |
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it's simply not worth any more of my time until at /least/ pre-4.1.x |
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feature-freeze, and at this point, honestly, it could easily be pre-4.2.x |
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feature-freeze. |
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|
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Individual applications may have a bit of eye candy and be worth running, |
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but the desktop as a whole isn't, at least not for "power users" like me |
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that tend to use the powerful customization and productivity elements of |
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the mature KDE-3.5 desktop such as multiple panels and personalized |
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hotkeys and colors. Huge swaths of GUI customization simply isn't there |
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or doesn't work as originally advertised that KDE-4 would work. True, |
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users that are as comfortable configuring text files as clicking a button |
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or dragging a slider can already configure a lot of that stuff manually, |
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but what's the point of spending time in a GUI if you can't even |
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configure itself with itself? (That BTW is one of the points I've |
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brought up against GNOME any number of times, advanced GUI config can |
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only be done by editing text files, or worse yet for those of us who |
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still have MS nightmares from time to time, registry edits.) |
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|
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Granted, there's the bit of limited functionality there that GNOME style |
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users who prefer NOT to have advanced GUI config options to worry about |
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(either because they configure them manually or because they just accept |
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the defaults) should appreciate -- they may in fact /love/ it -- but for |
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those KDE-3 users who've grown to love its GUI tweakability, there's a |
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LONG way to go yet before KDE-4 gets even close, let alone has all the |
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fancy new KDE-4 features we were sold as worth the long wait. It may |
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indeed ultimately be worth the wait, I certainly hope and expect so, but |
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if so, that wait isn't over yet. |
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|
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So put simply, I recommend staying put with KDE 3.5.9, for now. There |
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will be time enough to try out KDE 4 after 4.1 comes out this (northern |
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hemisphere) summer, or 4.2, early next year I'd guess. Right now, the |
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rumors saying it's little more than a developer's preview and base on |
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which to build are all too true. |
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|
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As an example... remember all the talk about plasma and the ability it |
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was supposed to have to move apps seamlessly from floating to panel to |
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desktop and back again? Well, desktop to panel sort of works, but |
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there's no way to move stuff around in the panel at all without deleting |
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it and re-adding it, let alone back to the desktop, and there's no hint |
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of the formerly promised moving between a floating app and either the |
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desktop or panel. That, coupled with the fact that there's no way to |
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create additional panels, and on dual-head displays, the panel can |
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apparently move to any side -- of ONE head -- it can't move to another |
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head at all, means the desktop is essentially useless for me with my five |
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separate panels each with separate functions and configuration on KDE-3. |
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It was nice to be able to move applets from the panel to the desktop and |
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I tried using that as a bit of a workaround, but it's not the same, and |
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there then seems to be no way to remove the panel. Further, even just |
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being able to set the size of the panel at all is a feature brand new to |
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KDE-4.0.2, and not much older in SVN-trunk. |
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|
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As I said, there's a LONG way to go! No way could I recommend it at |
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present, except for those (like myself) that simply have to see for |
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themselves, and have the time and the energy to do so. It'll be nice |
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when it gets there, but it's not there yet. |
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|
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |
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|
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-- |
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gentoo-amd64@l.g.o mailing list |