A Look Back at KDE 4 RC2++ and A Look Forward to 4.0
I’ve complained and cheered about KDE 4 RC2 from openSUSE. I’ve updated to the latest openSUSE packages since writing those articles, and things have moved in a very positive direction. I’ve been able to use it as my main desktop without issues for about a week now. I’d like to commend openSUSE for the outstanding job they have done with KDE 4. Using one-click install, it couldn’t be easier to get it going. With YAST it is very easy to keep it updated. With the release imminent, I thought I would take one last look at what openSUSE terms KDE 4 RC2++. I’ll warn you, the list may be odd, these are just things I have come across in daily usage. I promise no rhyme or reason!
-It is no longer crashy and inconsistent. I haven’t had a crash in days. Behavior now works as expected, consistently. Improvement was quick and dramatic.
-Right click in Dolphin now works correctly.
-Right click on the taskbar does give options, albeit limited. There is still no option to change the bar size, but changing my resolution has made this less of an issue. I don’t even mind the transparent strip across the top of it now that I am used to it.
-Blurry fonts are no longer blurry fonts.
General Improvements:
-Pager is in the taskbar. I think this will give people a level of comfort. I’m preferring to use Ctrl + F8 and Alt + Tab to move around. Old people will like seeing the familiar four box grid.
-Digital Clock is configurable. At some point for me it wasn’t. It now acts exactly as I would expect it to. You can choose your timezone, font, whether to display a 24 hour format, show the date, basically, anything a configuration junkie would want. It looks nice, too. Now maybe the Clock Nazis can chill.
-Composite effects work nearly flawlessly on my setup (Nvidia 8400 GS). I’m liking the effects more and more. Compiz has always felt like a second class citizen with KDE, this helps to overcome that. The effects are smooth and feel natural. I hope there is a webpage with the keystrokes and tips for using it once 4.0 releases. If not, I’ll make one.
Small things I like:
-Marble is cool. what is marble, you ask? It looks like GoogleEarth, but uses no hardware acceleration, so it is small and lightweight. More info here.
-Deal or No Deal- until they get sued, the game Deal or No Deal from playground, I believe, is a nice little time waster.
Bigger things I like:
I could go on and on, but the release is tomorrow and I’d rather write about it.
Final Thoughts:
Once again, I have to applaud openSUSE’s KDE 4 packaging team. Outstanding job. My hat goes off the the KDE developers, the progress in the last few weeks has been incredible, and this release is shaping up to be phenomenal. We are stepping into the future tomorrow, and making a big jump. I respect the courage and hard work that has gone into KDE 4.0 and I cannot wait to install the release tomorrow.
I hope the negativity–that I contributed to–settles down once people use KDE 4. Install it and stick with it for a week. You may not like it at first, you may love it at first but give it a chance. Use it for a week before you start bitching. I think, like me, you will be pleasantly surprised. It is better than you have read. I look forward to KDE 4.1, and can’t wait to see how this grows and changes, but 4.0 will be my desktop of choice. Now that I am used to using it daily, I prefer it to anything else. It isn’t as if 3.5 is going away, or there are a lack of other choices if it isn’t for you. I predict the community will rally around this release. Complainers will still complain and further progress will be made. The bottom line: The future begins tomorrow. I’m excited.
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