[Discuss] First impressions of KDE4

[Murray Strome]

Alan W. Irwin wrote:
> I decided to give KDE4 a try today, and here are my first impressions 
> from
> the perspective of a veteran KDE-3.x (and KDE-2.x) user.
>
> Here are some remarks about my platform since your KDE4 experience 
> definitely
> will depend on platform.
>
> I am running Debian Lenny with kernel 2.6.26.  I have Intel graphics (g33
> chipset).  I think it is fair to say that the Intel X driver has been
> problematic for several years now because of the on-going churn in the X
> stack for Intel.  For what it is worth, I am using the Debian Lenny 
> version
> of that stack, and KDE4 might be better/worse once I move to Debian 
> testing
> and the Intel X stack for that version of Debian.
>
> Lenny has no official KDE4 packages so I followed the directions at
> http://www.debian-desktop.org/doku.php to gain access to an unofficial
> KDE4.3 backport to Lenny. If anybody knows of a better source of KDE4.3
> packages for Lenny, let me know.
>
> After a lot of screwing around with package installation I finally
> discovered the kde4-full meta package which I installed (and which
> automatically sucked in essentially all of KDE4.3).
>
> I had a lot of trouble at first with bits and pieces of KDE4 failing, but
> that turned out to be due to the configuration of the platform I noted
> above.  I had long-since configured X to use the traditional XAA
> acceleration method because that is rock solid with KDE3.5 while the 
> newer
> EXA acceleration method was not nearly as stable (it would typically
> only remain up for 5-15 days before some sort of crash).
> However, with KDE4.3 I discovered that EXA was
> essential.  (With XAA KDE4.3 was grabbing all sorts of X resources so 
> that
> other applications (e.g., tvtime) could not be launched.) After 
> switching my
> X configuration over to EXA, KDE4.3 still was problematic with
> plasma-desktop grabbing so much of the cpu that my xterms couldn't 
> compete
> without renicing plasma-desktop.  Also, the sound mixer quit working.
>
> At that point, I was about ready to give up, but then I recalled some 
> advice
> I gave others here which is when things get rough with KDE, restart X 
> with a
> completely new .kde(4) directory tree.  That (along with using EXA) 
> solved
> all the major KDE4.3 issues I was encountering (knock on wood).
> plasma-desktop is no longer greedy for cpu, and kmix just works.
>
> I am now pretty close to the kind of KDE configuration I had for KDE3.5.
> Here are some of the steps I used to get to this point.
>
> 1. I love the command line for launching most applications, and I 
> reserve the
>    panel for launching the GUI's that I use often such as konqueror and
>    xterm. Thus, I want to get rid of all the "measles" (a.k.a icons) 
> on the
>    desktop.  Fortunately, that was easy.  Just go to the desktop and 
> hit the
>    X to get rid of those icons and make a nice blank desktop. The rest of
>    the blank desktop configuration was done by hitting the upper right
>    "cashew" ==> desktop settings to get a very nice background picture 
> for
>    every desktop.
>
> 2, For the panel configuration, I deleted most icons. I right-clicked 
> on the
>    K menu to switch to the traditional (KDE3.5) menu.  I then 
> re-populated
>    the panel with konqueror, xterm, akregator, kpager, and ksensors 
> (still
>    from KDE3.5, but it worked) icons using the KDE4 trick (at least I 
> wasn't
>    aware of it for KDE3.5) of right clicking on anything from the 
> menu, and
>    taking the choice of installing in the panel rather than desktop.  
> I also
>    configured the pager to control 8 desktops (which I normally need 
> in my
>    development work).
>
> 3. I then used the "cashew" at the right of the panel to change the 
> size of
>    all icons and to help move them around to the positions that I like.
>    (While that configurator is on, just hover over any panel icon then 
> drag
>    and drop it wherever you like in the panel.)
>
> There are still some issues I have noticed with KDE-4.3.
>
> 1. KDE-3.5 clock/calendar configuration follows the locale for date/time
>    which can be changed to anything you like, e.g., the standard ISO 
> format
>    YYYY-MM-DD. I have used KDE-4.3 to change the date format to that form
>    which I far prefer to any national variation. However, the KDE4.3
>    clock/calendar ignores that locale information and uses a date format
>    which I dislike (e.g., 10 Jan 2010 rather than my preferred 
> 2010-01-10).
>    That's going to annoy me on a daily basis until KDE4 gets that issue
>    fixed.
>
> 2. ksensors is not available for KDE4.3.  It still works (see above), 
> but it
>    would be nice to get something similar for KDE4.  I expect there 
> are KDE4
>    plasmoids available for showing system fan speeds/temperatures, and 
> it is
>    simply a matter of finding them.  Suggestions?
>
> 3. ksysguard is available for KDE4.3, but the app has lost its old 
> ability
>    to display minature but very useful plots of cpu/memory use on the 
> KDE3.5
>    kicker. Hopefully, the ksysguard developers will reimplement that
>    functionality for the KDE4.3 panel. Meanwhile, I have put a ksysguard
>    launcher on the panel that is a clumsy workaround for this issue.
>
> Only one of these issues really annoys me (the date one), but OTOH 
> there is
> lots about KDE4.3 that I really like (better backgrounds/nicer 
> themes), and
> also KDE3.5 development is dead, dead, dead, and I have notices some 
> bitrot
> beginning to creep in because of that. Thus, I would only go back
> temporarily to KDE3.5 if forced to do so by bugs/instabilities in KDE4.3.
> The first signs about stability are encouraging.  KDE4.3 has now been 
> going
> for about 5 hours after the X/intel driver reconfiguration to EXA and the
> .kde4 removal that followed that, and so far so good!
>
> Alan
The thing I find less useful in KDE4 than in version 3 is the "System 
Settings".  In particular, I miss the Disk Management (even though it 
was not very solid in 3). Other things like sound and Display are not as 
good, in my opinion. Like you, I prefer the traditional K menu. However, 
by the time I figured out how to get it, I had become used to some of 
the features of the new version. So now I have the traditional one on 
the left end of my panel and the new one on the right.  I use the 
traditional one about 90% of the time, but for some things, the new one 
is neater.

Murray