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KDE 3.1 Released

Ashcrow writes "KDE 3.1 was released early this morning and boasts new usability enhancements, VNC-compatible desktop sharing, tabbed browsing, and a new download manager, among other enhancements. You can read the release anouncement here and start downloading from the closest mirror. Kudos to the KDE Team!"

483 comments

  1. 3.1 is awesome by nitehorse · · Score: 1

    KDE 3.1 is really a step above 3.0. Kudos to the rest of the KDE team!

    1. Re:3.1 is awesome by handybundler · · Score: 0, Funny

      Yuo said: "That is like claiming that dog shit is a step above cat shit."

      Wrong. In a taste test among dogs, they prefered the taste of cat shit over dog shit by a ratio of 2:1.

      So there you have it, I'm sticking with cat turds!

      --


      a/s/l here. Sorry, adding domain tags to your s
    2. Re:3.1 is awesome by ThundaGaiden · · Score: 1

      I just looked at the screenshots and wow , I'm
      willing to risk messing up all the Mandrake specific
      stuff for it :P , I know this should have to be
      the case but I'm still a bit of a newbie
      and I want all the bells and whistles :)

      Wish me luck *Starts hunting for ftp server*

    3. Re:3.1 is awesome by Qinopio · · Score: 1, Troll

      Sweet! Where can I download the Windows version?

      --
      __________
      [Big Brick Wall]
  2. vnc ? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 0
    I have been using vnc with kde since 2.1.

    1. Re:vnc ? by nitehorse · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, VNC has supported X for ages. What this does is provides a KDE-based VNC viewing program as well as a very Windows-XP like application to send an invitation to someone else using KDE or VNC to allow them to connect to your desktop.

      That's what the big news is. That, and if you're running OpenSLP, and you enable it, you can allow your shared desktop to be part of a browseable pool of desktops or you can browse through the pool and see desktops that are available from the SLP.

    2. Re: vnc ? by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Funny


      > What this does is provides a KDE-based VNC viewing program

      What does it do that vncviewer doesn't do?

      > as well as a very Windows-XP like application to send an invitation to someone else using KDE or VNC to allow them to connect to your desktop.

      What does this do that e-mail doesn't do?

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    3. Re: vnc ? by nitehorse · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What does it do that vncviewer doesn't do?


      Well, it integrates into KDE, for one. It doesn't look like ass, for two.


      What does this do that e-mail doesn't do?


      Nothing, it uses email to send the invitation (although it can be configured to send over other methods, iirc). However, it's a lot easier to simply type in the invitee's email address and let krfb set up the VNC server, and send the email with instructions on how to connect. It automates things so that the user doesn't have to know anything about configuring a VNC server.
    4. Re: vnc ? by tjansen · · Score: 5, Informative
      What does it do that vncviewer doesn't do?

      1. A real fullscreen mode that you can switch to while you are connected
      2. Scale the content of the remote side to fit into your window
      3. browse desktop sharing servers in the network
      4. a real GUI for everything
    5. Re: vnc ? by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > > What does it do that vncviewer doesn't do?

      > Well, it integrates into KDE, for one. It doesn't look like ass, for two.

      Funny, vncviewer shows up on my screen as a decorated window, nothing more. Does KDE 3.1 make the window prettier?

      > It automates things so that the user doesn't have to know anything about configuring a VNC server.

      Yes, I always found it dreadfully tedious to type vncserver at the prompt.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    6. Re: vnc ? by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > 1. A real fullscreen mode that you can switch to while you are connected
      > 2. Scale the content of the remote side to fit into your window
      > 3. browse desktop sharing servers in the network

      Thanks. Sounds great.

      > 4. a real GUI for everything

      That one still needs a bit more elaboration.

      Also... This is an application, OK? Does it really require a desktop upgrade?

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    7. Re: vnc ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft should SUE THEIR FREAKING ASSES!

      Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
      Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

    8. Re: vnc ? by infiniti99 · · Score: 1

      One thing I hate about 'vncviewer' for X is that it does not buffer the graphics.. ie, if I minimize / restore the window then it has to redownload everything again. Interestingly, the vncviewer.exe for Windows _does_ buffer the graphics, which is nice as I can leave the program minimized while it downloads a large desktop. Perhaps I missed an option in the X version.

      Better yet, does the KDE viewer buffer the graphics? Btw, whatever happened to Keystone?

    9. Re:vnc ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      VNC *SERVING* on X used to be _strange_ - you ran a whole new X server that was a VNC server too, unlike on Mac and Windows, where you ran VNC and it exported your _existing_ desktop. Then someone wrote x0rfbserver, which does the Mac/Win-VNC like operation of publishing the desktop of an existing X server. KDE took x0rfbserver and KDE-integrated it (i.e. built a Qt GUI...)

      So your grandma can call you and say "I can't do this", you can tell her to click "share desktop" (or whatever it's called), and you can fix it for her remotely.

    10. Re: vnc ? by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 1

      I don't think that their donkeys are really likely to be worth suing.

      --
      That was classic intercourse!
    11. Re: vnc ? by tjansen · · Score: 4, Informative

      > 4. a real GUI for everything
      That one still needs a bit more elaboration.


      Basically it frees you of having to read a manual and to remember command line options... and it offers 'profiles' for different network environments, so you do not need to know all the VNC codecs to have optimal settings(did you know that a -encodings "copyrect hextile" results in dramatically better latency values on local LANs than the default TightVNC settings?). And you can switch modes (fullscreen, scaled) while you are connected.

      Also... This is an application, OK? Does it really require a desktop upgrade?

      Not really, it is more about convenience for both user and developer. The newer KDE and Qt version fix a number of bugs that caused problems though. I do not have the time tomaintain backports, I rather work on improvements. You are, of course, free to provide backports for older KDE versions.

    12. Re: vnc ? by tjansen · · Score: 2, Informative

      Better yet, does the KDE viewer buffer the graphics?

      Yes.

      Btw, whatever happened to Keystone?

      Nothing, it never supported any of the compression encodings. Porting the TightVNC client was easier than adding all the stuff to keystone...

    13. Re: vnc ? by tjansen · · Score: 3, Informative
      Yes, I always found it dreadfully tedious to type vncserver at the prompt.

      1. For the intended audience, newbies, it is difficult
      2. I doubt that your vncserver has the ability to generate random one-time passwords that are invaildated automatically after one hour or after a successful login
      3. ... and I doubt that it helps you sending the passwords and a text that includes your IP address, instructions how to connect etc
    14. Re: vnc ? by tzanger · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > What this does is provides a KDE-based VNC viewing program
      What does it do that vncviewer doesn't do?

      Scaled windows, better cut and paste support, no *XResource shit...

      I used to use vnc with KDE... then I found out about krdc... I have never looked back.

      Interestingly, the new kdrc in CVS HEAD also supports RDP right out of the box, and I hear rumblings of Citrix now and again too (using Citrix's libs, IIRC)

    15. Re:vnc ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the be(a)st

    16. Re:vnc ? by CoolCash · · Score: 1

      Also, this version of vnc supports viewing of the primary desktop. Whenever vncserver is run it creates a new X and KDE process. The new version allows sharing of your primary desktop (like vnc for windows), the "server" or user asking for help sees the mouse moving, etc.

    17. Re: vnc ? by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      and if it doesnt connect via ssh tunnling automatically it is 100% worthless..

      VNC needs encryption built in. plain and simple. I absolutely love vnc, specifically tight vnc, but using it securly across the net is damned difficult for people not in the know.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    18. Re: vnc ? by tjansen · · Score: 1

      Yes, but you should know that build-in encryption will make the latency very bad. It wont be fun to use on a LAN (over slow links the difference should be harder to notice).

    19. Re: vnc ? by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > Basically it frees you of having to read a manual and to remember command line options... and it offers 'profiles' for different network environments, so you do not need to know all the VNC codecs to have optimal settings(did you know that a -encodings "copyrect hextile" results in dramatically better latency values on local LANs than the default TightVNC settings?). And you can switch modes (fullscreen, scaled) while you are connected.

      Thanks. Sounds like a cool application.

      > > Also... This is an application, OK? Does it really require a desktop upgrade?

      > Not really, it is more about convenience for both user and developer. The newer KDE and Qt version fix a number of bugs that caused problems though. I do not have the time to maintain backports, I rather work on improvements. You are, of course, free to provide backports for older KDE versions.

      LMAO. Could I interest you in pointing out to some of your fans that that's exactly the position Red Hat has taken w.r.t KDE 3.1?

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  3. And most importantly ... by YeeHaW_Jelte · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... the new drop down shadows for the menu's!

    And a hefty decrease in startup and rendering time for konqueror, and a limit to the gif-animations allowed per second.

    And a brand new splash screen!

    Much compliments to the KDE-team!

    --

    ---
    "The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
    1. Re:And most importantly ... by mark_lybarger · · Score: 1

      i personally didn't find the splash screen appealing. the icons seemed to be out of sacle, kinda enlongated (sp?). perhaps it was just my system.

    2. Re:And most importantly ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "And a brand new splash screen!"

      I'm laughing my ass off trying to imagine what people would say if a winserf came here honking drop-down shadows and "a brand new splash screen" as reasons to upgrade to the latest version of Windows.

      I'm trying to interpret your post as humor, but the observations about konqueror are obviously dead serious.

  4. Screenshots From Site by TheRIAAMustDie · · Score: 5, Informative

    screenshot 1

    screenshot 2

    screenshot 3

    screenshot 4

    Don't know how the lameness filter got involved, but here's what I'm doing about it.

    --

    Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. it's the only thing that ever has.
    1. Re:Screenshots From Site by nitehorse · · Score: 5, Funny

      ::wince::

      You really didn't have to do that. The KDE.org site is already taking a Slashdotting as it is.

      Oh well. It sure is gorgeous. :)

    2. Re: Screenshots From Site by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > Don't know how the lameness filter got involved, but here's what I'm doing about it.

      Yeah, it's amazing how often you have to add some lameness to a post just to sneak it past the lameness filter.

      Kind of like your company's fiscal responsibility rules that end up making you buy expensive stuff from a closed list of vendors when cheap stuff from the open market would have done just as well, I suppose.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    3. Re: Screenshots From Site by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > Wow, your company's fuct.

      > Are you hiring? haha

      They may be in a day or two!

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    4. Re:Screenshots From Site by pamri · · Score: 1

      The promotion guide in one nice page. BTW, the default desktop is pretty clean.

    5. Re:Screenshots From Site by Malcolm+Scott · · Score: 1

      Hey, since when did 2 equal 4? :-)

      or: "I know, I'll /. them even worse by posting the same image link twice!"

    6. Re:Screenshots From Site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Temporary mirror of the screenshots.

    7. Re:Screenshots From Site by StarbuckZero · · Score: 1

      It looks nice and all but the only thing I hate is when you are running a nice KDE/QT program, then you click on something that use GNOME/GTK like GAIM and have the look and feel go down the tubes. Is there anyway to make KDE and GNOME apps share themes?

      --
      From Zero to Hero... Starbuck Zero
    8. Re:Screenshots From Site by akc · · Score: 1

      Theres a Geramik theme that matches the Keramik theme. Google search reveals lots of different links for different distributions

    9. Re:Screenshots From Site by Ari+Rahikkala · · Score: 1
      * looks at Screenshot 6 *

      WTF is Enterprise-Class Print Management supposed to mean? Is it a big ship that moves print jobs around in a network?

      ;-)

    10. Re:Screenshots From Site by squiggleslash · · Score: 1
      Having finally obtained an old PowerMac, set up Mac OS X 10.2 ("Jagwire") on it, and played with it all this weekend (ahhhhh, bliss!) I really, really, wish the copying from other GUIs concentrated not on the things everyone notices (oooo! Translucent rippling scrollbars and progress meters!) but on the things nobody ever does. It's the things that you don't notice, you just use, that are the things that make an interface sing.

      I like a lot of KDE. They're one of the few environments for instance, that's willing to put the menu bar in what an old Mac/Amiga/GEM user like me considers the right place (or rather, at least offer it as an option.) While they don't particularly like spacial file management, they're willing to at least ensure the default file management system doesn't hide the underlying file system too, at least not to the same degree as the rivals.

      I think Linux was ready for the desktop two-three years ago, but as the interfaces have steadily been worked on to add new bits and pieces, the underlying complexity has increased and rarely at the advantage of usability, to the point that I don't believe it is any more. I see a lot of great things in the current KDE, and I hope they're able to steer a little further away from the icebergs and back towards the end goal. In the meantime, despite the slow speed of the Mac I've gotten, I think... I think Apple may just have bought another soul. Still, at least I'll be able to power my car on my drives to work using my own sense of smugness ;)

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  5. redhat? by DataDevil · · Score: 1

    Wheres the rpms, or do i really have to wait for rh8.1?

    --
    -- signed for your pleasure --
    1. Re:redhat? by nitehorse · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Ask RedHat. Or didn't you read the KDE binary package policy?

      (Just so you know, the KDE developers gave binary packagers plenty of time to get their packages together. If RedHat didn't bother to, that's RedHat's fault. 3.1 has been delayed more than enough already, but it's out now, so it's time to celebrate.)

    2. Re:redhat? by XavierXeon · · Score: 1

      kde and redaht do not go well together

      see http://www.mosfet.org/noredhat.html

    3. Re:redhat? by roalt · · Score: 0, Redundant
      Ask RedHat. Or didn't you read the KDE binary package policy?

      Red Hat is not the only distributor that uses .rpm's...

    4. Re:redhat? by roalt · · Score: 0, Flamebait
      kde and redaht do not go well together

      Neither does slashdot and typing courses

    5. Re:redhat? by nitehorse · · Score: 2

      Hey, did you bother to read the parent post?

      He asked (and I quote) "where's the rpms, or do I really have to wait for rh8.1?"

      Of course RedHat isn't the only distro to use RPM. Hell, SuSE has RPMs available. Guess what? They don't work on RedHat and they won't help him because he's (apparently) using RedHat 8.

    6. Re:redhat? by yobbo · · Score: 1

      I really like the way Redhat does it.

      They don't bother packaging it, I don't bother downloading it. Perfect.

    7. Re:redhat? by mark_lybarger · · Score: 1

      yep, just try to install mandrake rpms on a RH system. see how well that one goes. some might work on the surface but sooner or later you'll end up in RPM hell.

      IIRC, redhat doesn't have an active kde maintainer, but it should be in the next distro release. i'm sure it's quite different making rpms on a 8.1 system than it is on a 8.0 system. dependancies and all that jazz. (you need libxml-2.1.0.3.rpm not libxml-2.1.0.2.rpm :) )

    8. Re: redhat? by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > Ask RedHat. Or didn't you read the KDE binary package policy?

      > (Just so you know, the KDE developers gave binary packagers plenty of time to get their packages together. If RedHat didn't bother to, that's RedHat's fault. 3.1 has been delayed more than enough already, but it's out now, so it's time to celebrate.)

      Yes; clearly it's Red Hat's fault that they didn't include today's release of KDE in a release of Red Hat that came out all the way back in September.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    9. Re: redhat? by nitehorse · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The original poster was referring to a lack of downloadable RPMs of KDE 3.1 for RedHat 8.0.

      I responded explaining that RedHat failed to provide such RPMs for download, despite being given plenty of time as well as access to the source tarballs well in advance of today's release. That's all. I meant nothing about including 3.1 on their CDs. (Although they DID include a 3.1 beta on the 8.1 beta CD.)

    10. Re: redhat? by tom.allender · · Score: 2, Informative
      Yes; clearly it's Red Hat's fault that they didn't include today's release of KDE in a release of Red Hat that came out all the way back in September.

      But they have included a KDE 3.1 snapshot in the latest beta ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/beta/phoebe/ . Tagged as '3.1-0.11 Red Hat'.

    11. Re:redhat? by gowen · · Score: 2, Informative
      RedHat hates KDE and has laid off their only KDE-developer
      You mean bero? He wasn't laid off, he left in a snit
      --
      Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
    12. Re:redhat? by XavierXeon · · Score: 1

      you are right

    13. Re:redhat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, and Mosfet himself has been the paragon of virtue and cooperation with respect to KDE. His rant is self-contradictory, and I quote: The only person they had working on KDE and had any experience with it's codebase was Bero, who was forced to make KDE packages in his spare time because RH refused to put any resources in KDE. He has now quit RH because of their crippling of KDE and screwing up the codebase. Take a look at RedHat's source RPMs if you want to see all the modifications they made with absolutely no experience or peer review.

      In the first sentence he claims that only Bero could actually work on this project and only in his spare time. Then in the next sentence he claims there are inordinate levels of changes that were made by all the "resources" that KDE supposedly hadn't put into KDE. I'm sorry, but it's one or the other. Either RH was willing to work on it, and for some stupid reason sidelined Bero, or they didn't really work on it that much to begin with and therefore couldn't have changed so much that this is worth getting excited about.

    14. Re:redhat? by stilborne · · Score: 1

      it's a confusing timeline as it's presented there, indeed. there was a time when Bero was the only person working on KDE in RH's employ, and he did package KDE in his spare time.

      then RH decided to make KDE a focus and an officially supported part of their OS. so they put more people on it and that was when Bero quit because he didn't like what they were doing with their packaging of KDE.

      it's somewhat ironic that when they had just one person that packaged KDE in his spare time, there were less problems than when they decided to actually focus on putting effort into it.

      personaly, i'm not really sure WHAT to make of that state of affairs. my guess is that it's a combination of bumbling and poor decision making on the part of various RH developers and PR people, the high standards KDE users have grown used to, and a vocal (if relatively small) group of people who ma[dk]e a lot of noise on the Web about it thus managing to bring attention to the whole matter.

  6. KERAMIK! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    KOOL! Keramik is the best looking theme I have ever seen in my whole life. People are bored with Mac OS X. KDE can deliver something much cooler than apple. Let's face it - who thinks that Aqua looks cool? Not many.. not anymore. We've got used to it and now it looks boring.

    1. Re:KERAMIK! by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 2, Interesting
      KOOL! Keramik is the best looking theme I have ever seen in my whole life. People are bored with Mac OS X. KDE can deliver something much cooler than apple. Let's face it - who thinks that Aqua looks cool? Not many.. not anymore. We've got used to it and now it looks boring.

      Well, personally I think the Aqua widgets look better than the Keramik ones (if you ignore the stripes! argh!). However, I prefer the Mist theme for GTK2 above all those, they look good, clean, and imho pretty sophisticated. They look good while avoiding being theme overkill. It's completely personal opinion though, these things always are. I think Keramik is a bit fat.

      You raise a good point wrt theming though. Sure, everybody thought Aqua was cool when it first came out, and I guess many still do, but looks are about fashion and taste, and fashion changes. I remember when Windows 95 came out I thought it looked brilliant!

      Now everything supports theming, new "in" styles come and go like anything. I know you can hack theming support onto MacOS, but without actual support from Apple that's all it is, a hack. I wonder if that's really a good idea in the long run. Maybe they'll introduce charged for visual styles, to give value add.

    2. Re:KERAMIK! by Moritz+Moeller+-+Her · · Score: 1
      However, I prefer the Mist theme for GTK2 [ximian.com] above all those, they look good, clean, and imho pretty sophisticated. They look good while avoiding being theme overkill. It's completely personal opinion though, these things always are. I think Keramik is a bit fat.

      I agree. Check out the Light Styles (2 and 3) in KDE, looks like that is where Ximian good the inspiration for their "Mist", which means crap in German btw. :-) Check it out!

      --
      Moritz
    3. Re:KERAMIK! by tzanger · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Personally I like the Keramik window decorations, but I despise the widgets.

      I use the KDE default widget set (HighColour Default I think it's called), Keramik for the window decorations, "Desert Red" for the colour scheme (I get so sick of blue or black-based schemes) and Noia for the icons. I'm not a big fan of transparency, but I have just a hint (96 or 98% opacity) for the menus -- what the hell, it's kind of neat and I have the processor power for it.

      Screenshot is here. The IM app you see is Psi, the best damned Jabber IM I've run across. I'm not the author, but I have contributed a few patches to help the project.

    4. Re:KERAMIK! by fault0 · · Score: 1

      > However, I prefer the Mist theme for GTK2 [ximian.com] above all those, they look good, clean, and imho pretty sophisticated.

      erm.. I think that looks a bit... hmm.. flat.. looks like a mix of the light v2/light v3/ and dotNET styles for kde.

      but I guess to each to their own :)

      Aqua really changed the whole themeing scene, however. Windows95 did similarily. How many UI's similiar to Windows 3.1 did you see after 95 come out?

  7. slooowwww by John_Renne · · Score: 1

    Well it looks like lots of enthousiasts out there have started the download immediately. The site is pretty slow :-( I guess I'll just wait a while untill the first storm is over

    --
    /(bb|[^b]{2})/
    1. Re:slooowwww by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heh heh heh, it was up last night, you can't always wait for /. to tell you something :). 3.1 installed and started in under 10 minutes total, and runs excellently btw.

  8. Oops... by Loonacy · · Score: 1

    I think we /.ed the KDE site.

  9. superb desktop, always top notch from the KDE team by mark_lybarger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    what an awesome (and of course slightly :) behind schedule) release.

    tabbed browsing is an excellent that i love to use in moz. i notice it in konqueror, but the hot keys are different. perhaps there's a way to change them, but after months and months of using ctrl+t to get a new tab, i konq uses something different. i'm curious why not use the "standards" the moz dev team included. yeah, there's probably not an rfc for hot keys on opening a new browser tab, but something i use daily is standard.

    another thing. i test drove konqueror in rc6, and pop-up windows were enabled by default. i guess this just makes the user find out how to turn them off? most people might not even know that they can turn them off. i think pop-up s/b off by default.

    all in all - a very well polished desktop. the kde team delivers quality code as usual!

  10. Random complaints by dizzyPhoenix · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, no RedHat packages, which is not surprising considering the 'treatment' that KDE was subjected to by RH.

    Also, I never managed to get the Win key mapped to anything in KDE 3.0.x. I wonder if the situation changed. As I recall, KDE wanted a 'Win' modifier and xmodmap did not have any knowledge of a modifier called 'Win'. Rather unfortunate.

    1. Re:Random complaints by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The packages for the commercial distributions are done by the vendors. RH didnt provide packages, that's why you cant download them...

    2. Re:Random complaints by mark_lybarger · · Score: 1

      it seems that redhat doesn't have an active maintainer of the RPM's for kde releases. I'm sure it'll be included in 8.0 or 8.1 which ever their next release is.

      if you're interested in making RPM's for more current releases, i'm sure you could find someone to give you some config files or whatever RPM uses to get you started. you might want to contact bero to see if he's got any scripts or whatever still laying 'round.

      that or i hear suse is a nice desktop too.

    3. Re: Random complaints by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > Well, no RedHat packages, which is not surprising considering the 'treatment' that KDE was subjected to by RH.

      Yes, the availability of Red Hat packages for KDE 3.1 is really shameful.

      Fucking KDE crybabies.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    4. Re:Random complaints by sultanoslack · · Score: 2, Informative
      Well, no RedHat packages, which is not surprising considering the 'treatment' that KDE was subjected to by RH.

      No, this certainly isn't surprising. Redhat has always been bad about this, indeed in getting along well with KDE in general, the notable exception being Bero, who left Redhat full of sincere frustration over the worsening of the situation. He was the guy that typically produced the Redhat packages. I know that there's a new guy who's doing their KDE packaging, but I have no idea if he / Redhat intends to release updated KDE packages.

      Also, I never managed to get the Win key mapped to anything in KDE 3.0.x. I wonder if the situation changed. As I recall, KDE wanted a 'Win' modifier and xmodmap did not have any knowledge of a modifier called 'Win'. Rather unfortunate.

      Actually this is pretty easy if your keyboard is configured properly in X. You need to have it set to using a pc104 keyboard instead of the standard pc101. After that, mapping the key in the KDE shortcuts menu works beautifully.

    5. Re: Random complaints by nitehorse · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Right.

      RedHat posts KDE 3.1 beta snapshot RPMs, for a beta release of their distro, provides no guarantees that these RPMs will even install (let alone WORK) on the latest RELEASED version of their distro, and that's support?

      Fucking RedHat apologists.

    6. Re: Random complaints by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > RedHat posts KDE 3.1 beta snapshot RPMs, for a beta release of their distro, provides no guarantees that these RPMs will even install (let alone WORK) on the latest RELEASED version of their distro, and that's support?

      AFAIK, Red Hat has pursued a policy, since long before KDE existed, of releasing post hoc RPMs only in the case of security patches and serious bug fixes. There have been times in the past when a Red Hat release came out just a few months before a GNOME release, and GNOME got exactly the same treatment KDE is getting now.

      Same goes for any other application. Red Hat has never ensured that the latest version of anything will work with the latest version of Red Hat. Instead, they spend their time making sure everything they ship with their next release actually works together.

      Sounds to me like KDE adopted a foolish policy - assuming they actually want people to be able to run the latest KDE under the latest Red Hat. (It's a bitch not being able to kick bigger enterprises around, ain't it?)

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    7. Re:Random complaints by teslatug · · Score: 1
      Actually this is pretty easy if your keyboard is configured properly in X. You need to have it set to using a pc104 keyboard instead of the standard pc101. After that, mapping the key in the KDE shortcuts menu works beautifully.
      It's still messed up. You have to use the Winkey + something (instead of just Winkey) to bring up the menu of applications, and even then it opens up on the location of the cursor (not on top of the K). This is from 3.0.1, I don't know if they've changed more recently.
    8. Re: Random complaints by manyoso · · Score: 1

      An excellent post on why people should stay clear of RedHat. If you expect to have the latest Free Software from the coolest software projects you can not get that with RedHat. Thank you very much for your informative post on *why not to use RedHat*.

    9. Re: Random complaints by fault0 · · Score: 1

      I think that people meant a set of RPMS for rh 8.

      > Fucking KDE crybabies.

      uhh....? Is it too unreasonable to expect a distro to support their current version of RedHat?

    10. Re:Random complaints by jaavaaguru · · Score: 1

      'treatment' ?

      I don't notice what they've done with KDE in their distro. I've been using Gnome since they got Gnome 2. My girlfriend continued using KDE when we upgraded the PC in the livingroom to RedHat 8.0 and the only thing she noticed that was different was lack of MP3 support. Konqueror, KMail and KWord still worked so she was happy.

      Perhaps someone could enlighten me about what nesty thing RedHat did?

    11. Re: Random complaints by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not only that, but I'm USING those beta RPMS right now, and they suck. Not because they're compiled or packages wrong, but because RedHat has fucked with them intentionally. All of my applications are hidden deeper in the menus than they would be anywhere else on the planet, which wouldn't be such a big problem if KMenuEdit wasn't left off the packaging list (oops! Look everyone Gnome's way easier to use--you can edit your menu entries in Gnome, but not in KDE) Not only that, but KonCD has officially left the building, nowhere to be found (Gnome is SO much easier to use than KDE--just TRY to burn a CD in KDE, I dare ya!) and of course the infuriatingly inexplicable removal of the ability to shut the computer down from KDE (cuz RedHat wants KDE and Gnome to function exactly the same, and you can shut down from Gnome, so you should be able to...wait a minute! That makes no sense!) And the theme stil sucks, but at least you can still change that.

    12. Re: Random complaints by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too bad they can't even stick with that, and don't release even the security updates. Look at when gv and ggv updates were out - do you see the same update then to kdegraphics to fix the identical problem in kghostview? No, you don't.

    13. Re:Random complaints by karlandtanya · · Score: 2, Informative
      Go over to mosfet's website and read about it No RedHat

      He's got a pretty good rant^H^H^H^H essay on the subject.

      --
      "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
    14. Re:Random complaints by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For starters, introduces a bunch of crashing bugs - their window decoration crashes the WM if you breathe too hard, crashes of panel which don't occur anywhere else, part of apps outright missing, etc.

    15. Re: Random complaints by Karn · · Score: 1

      "RedHat posts KDE 3.1 beta snapshot RPMs, for a beta release of their distro, provides no guarantees that these RPMs will even install (let alone WORK) on the latest RELEASED version of their distro, and that's support?"

      KDE 3.1 hasn't even been out for a week, and you expect them to have RPMS ready AND support them? Redhat will include 8.1, and SUPPORT it when 8.1 is released. I don't see how this is unaceptable to you. I wouldn't support something I hadn't formally tested if I were in their shoes either.

      "Fucking RedHat apologists."

      It's clear that they will never be able to please you, no matter what they do.

      --


      Why do I keep typing pythong?
    16. Re: Random complaints by nitehorse · · Score: 2, Informative

      In case you're not familiar with the KDE binary packaging policy, let me make it more familiar to you.

      KDE provides source packages. That's it. We give source to users and developers and everyone else in the world. But the way that we do it, we give the source packages to the distribution maintainers first, and we let them know loud and clear that it is 100% their responsibility to package KDE properly for their distro. SuSE understands this; Mandrake understands this; Slackware understands this, Debian understands this; hell, even Gentoo understands this, and Gentoo hasn't even been a real distro for a year yet.

      RedHat does NOT do their users the service of providing binary packages. That's fine, but YOU don't have to listen to all of the RedHat users bitching and complaining that they don't get to run the latest KDE, and their friends running SuSE and Mandrake do, and that's not fair, and KDE is anti-RedHat.

      If RedHat would do the same for KDE as any one of the other distros does, that would please me to no end. Instead, they take our source code, they strip out the information about the project that provides it, they ruin our desktop by adding hacks to Qt that make it more unstable, they ship pre-release versions of the base libraries and applications that comprise the entire system, and I'm supposed to be happy with that? Please.

      I was only responding in kind to Black Parrot's post where he claimed that KDE developers are a bunch of "fucking crybabies" when in fact RedHat does everyone a disservice and you people can't climb over eachother fast enough to kiss their ass when they do.

    17. Re: Random complaints by Alien+Being · · Score: 1

      "and SUPPORT it when 8.1 is released"

      And then end-of-life it 12 months later, or so I've heard.

    18. Re: Random complaints by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > An excellent post on why people should stay clear of RedHat. If you expect to have the latest Free Software from the coolest software projects you can not get that with RedHat.

      Actually, most of the projects I use either provide RH RPMs for the several most recent versions (and similarly for other popular distros), or else have a system where volunteers provide them and the project links to them.

      Wonder why KDE can't do the same?

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    19. Re: Random complaints by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > KDE provides source packages.

      Sounds like KDE isn't supporting their userbase very well.

      Is Red Hat also obligated to provide a retrorelease of Freeciv 1.14 for Red Hat 8.0? Are they obligated to provide a retrorelease of my software for Red Hat 8.0?

      > RedHat does NOT do their users the service of providing binary packages. That's fine, but YOU don't have to listen to all of the RedHat users bitching and complaining that they don't get to run the latest KDE, and their friends running SuSE and Mandrake do, and that's not fair, and KDE is anti-RedHat.

      Sounds to me like KDE adopted a stupid policy and some of their users want to blame someone else for it.

      > If RedHat would do the same for KDE as any one of the other distros does, that would please me to no end. Instead, they take our source code, they strip out the information about the project that provides it, they ruin our desktop by adding hacks to Qt that make it more unstable, they ship pre-release versions of the base libraries and applications that comprise the entire system, and I'm supposed to be happy with that? Please.

      Sounds like RH treats KDE the way the treat everything else. Don't like, don't release as open source.

      > I was only responding in kind to Black Parrot's post where he claimed that KDE developers are a bunch of "fucking crybabies"

      Ah, but I didn't say anything about "KDE developers". My comment was directed toward the krybabies themselves.

      (Traditionally it has been the KDE users rather than the KDE developers that have been the big krybabies. Is that trend changing?)

      > when in fact RedHat does everyone a disservice and you people can't climb over eachother fast enough to kiss their ass when they do.

      I think Red Hat does everyone a big service by trying to make reasonably current stuff work together in each new release, and then letting well enough alone and concentrating on a new release with new goodies in it. You simply can't hold Red Hat responsible for packaging everyone's newly released software for RH 8. They don't do it for anyone else; why should KDE get special treatment?

      OSS is ultimately about taking responsibility. Lots of KDE users are more interested in finding some non-KDE entity to blame. That krybaby mentality is why lots of us don't want to be seen using KDE.

      > when in fact RedHat does everyone a disservice and you people can't climb over eachother fast enough to kiss their ass when they do.

      They sure as heck didn't get a lot of ass-kissing over gcc-2.96. Get a grip on reality.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    20. Re:Random complaints by jbolden · · Score: 1

      They were pretty bad. Even RedHat admited that in their unified desktop setup they kind of shafted KDE (i.e. we have more Gnome experience...). If your girlfriend is a regular KDE user I'd recommend you just deinstall RedHat's KDE and give her a clean KDE install.

    21. Re: Random complaints by jbolden · · Score: 1

      Come on, that applies every distribution that worries about unification and interopability. There is a continium with Linux in terms of getting stuff to work together vs. leaving it as mess for the user to clean up with high stability distributions on one extreme (sone of which still use the 2.2 kernels for example) going to debian to redhat to mandrake to gentoo type distributions.

    22. Re: Random complaints by damiam · · Score: 1
      If you expect to have the latest Free Software from the coolest software projects you can not get that with RedHat.

      Of course you can. You can't expect that Redhat will package every single free software program out there on the day of its release, for a stable distro version. If you want KDE3.1, you can compile from source, or you can use any of the trillions of unofficial RPMs floating around. Note in fact that the only major distros to have KDE3.1 packages are SuSE and (suprisingly) Debian. No

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    23. Re: Random complaints by stilborne · · Score: 1

      > That krybaby mentality is why lots of us don't want
      > to be seen using KDE.

      so you consider the software you use a fashion accessory or status symbol? personally, i pick what appeals to my aesthetics and ethics and that works for what i need to do. why would you care who else uses the same software you do?

    24. Re: Random complaints by stilborne · · Score: 1

      http://kde-redhat.sourceforge.net/
      http://www.mat h.unl.edu/~rdieter/

  11. Screenshots by Guiri · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here . It's amazing... Some people are complaining that they didn't use AA fonts for the screenshots, and that's a bad PR decision. More on Osnews

    1. Re:Screenshots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Holy crap, that's my first time reading OSNews, and Eugenia seems like a huge jerkoff. I don't think I'll be going back.

    2. Re:Screenshots by axis-techno-geek · · Score: 1
      Here are a few with AA that I did for a Mandrake Beta 1 & 2 review using KDE 3.1rc6:

      --
      This is not the sig line you are looking for... -- Old Jedi Sig Line Trick
    3. Re:Screenshots by jaavaaguru · · Score: 1

      The content of the KMail window in this screenshot is probably also pad publicity for a desktop environment that's trying not to be too bloated.

    4. Re:Screenshots by boy_afraid · · Score: 1

      WOW! I've seen discussion after discussion how AA is better than regular font, but I never gave it much thought and acknowledge that they were right, but after comparing the images side by side I was blown away. I have an iMac (come one, let it out, let me have it) and I've always loved how the screen looks, but I didn't know that THAT was AA. It's just so much cleaner, crisper, easier on the eyes. Why WOULDN'T a desktop default to AA fonts? I'm starting to hate Sans Serrif font now.

    5. Re:Screenshots by Archie+Steel · · Score: 2, Informative

      For even better looking fonts on a KDE Desktop, use Andale Sans (at font size 10 to 13, depending on your resolution) and David Chester's Xft + Freetype hack.

      --

      Reminder: find a new sig
  12. DNF? by secondsun · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does this mean Duke Nukem Forever is out? Or can I have a snowball fight with Satan?

    Really though, I have been using KDE 3.1 since beta2, watching it move through its different stages to what is is now has been a great joy. The new control panel is much more intuative, keramic is purdy, and all the little toots and whistles you will find will make it enjoyable. KDE is the main reason I don't go back to windows.

    --
    There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
    1. Re:DNF? by CoolVibe · · Score: 1
      Heh,

      Well, I don't like Keramik, but hey, Mosfet is still hacking away at mosfet-liquid, and that looks pretty too.

      Maybe tonight I will finish building (I hope) so I can use the new goodness. Woohoo!

    2. Re:DNF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No the Debian packages are not released yet.

    3. Re:DNF? by Internet+Ninja · · Score: 2, Informative

      Hmm nobody seems to have posted the apt sources for debian.

      Woody:
      deb http://ktown.kde.org/~nolden/kde stable main
      deb-src http://ktown.kde.org/~nolden/kde stable main

      Sid:
      deb http://ktown.kde.org/~nolden/kde unstable main

      These will be going into unstable soon but if you're impatient then use these. If you're using sid (unstable) include both the woody and sid lines as there is stuff in woody that's not in sid but they co-exist quite happily.

  13. OS X looks boring compared to new open source UIs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Has anybody else come to the same conclusion that OS X's Aqua or Jaguar are starting to feel boring and lame while open source UIs offer more innovative and fresh themes all the time and ever more often? I honestly think so. I don't see anything cool in Jaguar anymore. No pun intented.

  14. But what I am rellay looking forward to... by greppling · · Score: 4, Interesting
    ...is 3.2, when the safari improvements will be fully merged into khtml.

    VNC is nice to have (but would I ever use it), some might like tabbed browsing, etc. etc., but that's nothing like finally having good javascript support, better and faster rendering in konqueror.

    I'll wait for 3.2 with upgrading.

    1. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by nitehorse · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, if you know how, CVS has most of the Safari patches merged in, and the Safari guys are also integrating stuff from our branch into theirs. We're gradually moving towards a unified source tree for both projects (originally, they took a snapshot from the KDE 3.0.2 version of KHTML) but we're not quite there yet.

      (I'm using CVS HEAD and let me tell you, Konq is faster than ever. It's actually faster than Mozilla on my machine.)

      I wonder if the 'save this process' trick is in 3.1. I've been using CVS for so long that I sort of forget which features make it into release and which don't. :)

      (The 'save this process' trick is a way to have a set number of Konqueror processes stay alive after you quit the last Konqueror window. This way, the next time you click on the Konqueror icon, it re-uses the last process that was open, which is a nice little hack that makes Konq appear to launch faster when it's not actually launching at all.)

    2. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      konqueror might be faster than mozilla, but will it render all my pages correctly? not according to all the browser comparisons that have been posted on /. lately.

    3. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by nitehorse · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Any web page that has valid HTML and doesn't render properly in Konqueror should be reported as a bug.

      If the web page has invalid HTML, we really shouldn't have to care about whether or not it renders "properly" since it wasn't written "properly" - but even a very large majority of those pages are displayed properly, because Konq has an IE-compatible mode that renders most pages the same way that IE does. (IE renders a lot of broken HTML when it shouldn't.)

      The Apple guys working on Safari have made huge progress with the IE-compatible mode, as well as making KHTML even faster. Konq uses KHTML, and the code in CVS is both faster and more correct with rendering than any released version of Konqueror or Safari. It's rapidly approaching Mozilla's Gecko engine for correctness, and it's got it beat for speed.

      Plus our JavaScript engine is also constantly improving, to the point where it's also ridiculously fast (thanks to the Apple guys, in great part) but it's also very correct. Code that works in IE's JavaScript interpreter almost always works without fail in Konq's, and the cases where that isn't true are being targeted and eliminated. All in all, it's a really great time to be a KDE user. :)

    4. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 2, Interesting
      (The 'save this process' trick is a way to have a set number of Konqueror processes stay alive after you quit the last Konqueror window. This way, the next time you click on the Konqueror icon, it re-uses the last process that was open, which is a nice little hack that makes Konq appear to launch faster when it's not actually launching at all.)

      So.. just like Internet Explorer then? :) [duck]

      Well, it seems like a good idea, but why not just shove it into kdeinit and be done with it?

    5. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by nitehorse · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, it is rather IE-like. :)

      However, this is slightly different from kdeinit because kdeinit preloads the libraries into RAM so that process initialization takes less time, while this actually keeps the last Konq process open and the next time a 'start Konqueror' request is interpreted, it sends a message to the sleeping process saying "HEY! Open a new window!"

      Since opening a new window takes exponentially less time than linking and loading a new Konqueror process (and since prelinking isn't quite finished yet) this makes Konqueror appear to launch much faster, but again, it's not really "launching" anymore.

      Also, it's configurable so that you can say "Ok, instead of just one, I want you to keep at most 2 [3,4,x] of these processes alive." Of course, this means that the processes stay alive and continue to eat RAM while they are, but if you don't use Konq for a while they'll get swapped out to VM. It's still faster than launching a process cold, though.

    6. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by Seli · · Score: 1

      > > (The 'save this process' trick is a way to have a set number of Konqueror processes stay alive after you quit the last Konqueror window. This way, the next time you click on the Konqueror icon, it re-uses the last process that was open, which is a nice little hack that makes Konq appear to launch faster when it's not actually launching at all.)

      > So.. just like Internet Explorer then? :) [duck]
      > Well, it seems like a good idea, but why not just shove it into kdeinit and be done with it?

      Because it's actually not like Internet Explorer (even though being called 'preloading', it's rather 'reusing' - but reusing is already something else, and I couldn't come up with a better name ;) ).

      Glueing it in kdeinit would make Konqueror load during KDE startup, making it (=KDE startup) slower. The way it's done now first Konqueror startup takes longer, because it's not loaded yet, but after quiting, it's kept for reusing later. Or, simply said, it's not part of kdeinit because that would be a horrible hack, the current implementation, despite having a good amount of voodo magic in it, can be considered a quite clean solution.

      As to having it in 3.1, it's not in 3.1.0, but it's possible it will be backported to some later 3.1.x version.

    7. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by blackcat++ · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Speaking of Safari and a unified source tree for both projects, is there a public mailing list or newsgroup where one can monitor the progress (and the communication) between the two teams? Or is most of this happening in private mail between the developers?

    8. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by greppling · · Score: 2, Insightful
      If the web page has invalid HTML, we really shouldn't have to care about whether or not it renders "properly" since it wasn't written "properly" - but even a very large majority of those pages are displayed properly, because Konq has an IE-compatible mode that renders most pages the same way that IE does. (IE renders a lot of broken HTML when it shouldn't.)

      Well, I guess this is one of the most frequently debated topics on slashdot. Yes, I know konqueror is perfectly standards conformant (well, at least I haven't met a bug there yet). And the web pages I maintain validate at w3c.org. (Great to have the W3-button in the extended toolbar, btw!)

      But sorry, there do exist a lot of web pages that have horrible code but still interesting (to me) content. I don't mind if such a page is layouted a bit strangely, but if some of the content gets hidden such that I can't read it anymore, then that's annoying. (And if I know the maintainers of those pages are doing this in their freetime without much computer expertise, no then I don't send them "Your web page doesn't validate"-complaint e-mail either.)

      But hey, I wasn't complaining, KDE is great and 3.2 will be even greater.

    9. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      The 'save this process' trick is a way to have a set number of Konqueror processes stay alive after you quit the last Konqueror window.

      This is kind of annoying. Sometimes konqueror gets into an unusable state (eg, it won't load java applets, or it gets into a loop eating all available memory and bringing system to a halt), so you have to restart it. It's already kind of annoying when there's a low-level problem in one of the libs: sometimes I have to manually kill off all kdeinit processes because it starts saying "http: unknown URL format" and "file: unknown URL format", etc.

    10. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by nitehorse · · Score: 2, Informative

      Since I'm not Dave Hyatt or Dirk Mueller, I really don't know how much of the communication going on is private mail and how much is on the mailing lists. However, I do keep tabs on what Dave says about Safari over at his blog.

      As far as the KHTML side, I just keep watching CVS and I've lost count of how many messages I've seen marked with "merge from safari". It's amazing. Within two weeks of Apple's announcement, half of the code had already been imported back into the main tree and the Safari guys had picked up the new table rendering code on their end.

      So subscribe to kde-cvs@kde.org and check Dave's blog, or check the kde-cvs digests (dot.kde.org links to them every time they come out) since kde-cvs is extremely heavy traffic-wise. That's the best way I know of to keep up to date on this info.

    11. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by nutshell42 · · Score: 1
      ...some might like tabbed browsing,...

      Question, is the bug fixed that if you click a link in tab a then switch to tab b but konqueror only gets a connection to the server after you switched, the new page opens up in tab b? Makes the whole tab-thing pretty useless somehow...
      I also hope that they got everything more stable again, somehow stability especially of Konqueror declined sharply between beta2 and rc5 =(

      Well, nothing like a night compiling to find out :)

      --
      Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
    12. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by fault0 · · Score: 1

      Have you tried the "kdekillall" program?

    13. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      ....'save this process' trick ...

      Blech, just like IE, leaving unknown processes running in the background to grant the appearance of speed. Please, turn away from the dark side, for the sake of the children.

    14. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by blackcat++ · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the response, I've been doing this myself. I just hoped there was a place where the developers discussed how the goal of a unified source tree could be achieved, what should be done next with KHTML etc. It seems to me right now that both teams are each taking code from the other one and merging it back into their tree without really communicating about future development work.

    15. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Excellent! I look forward to a new era of memory leaks, runaway processes, confusing "ps" listings (which one is the web browser that just locked up? konquerer? kio_http? kdeinit: kio_http? what is all that?)

      Hopefully when that background process locks up or crashes, the konquerer button will actually do something when I click on it.

      KDE -> the power of open source!

    16. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by loginx · · Score: 1

      1) It's Konqueror not Konquerer
      2) If you do not wish to use this feature, then don't.
      3) It is an option available to users, hence, not an automated process that will eat memory regardless of whether you asked for it or not so if you want to use it, click on the menu entry, if you don't, don't... it's as simple as that.
      Why would you complain about a feature that you don't have to use ?
      4) If a background process locks up or crash, kill it.

    17. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by FuzzyBad-Mofo · · Score: 1

      What about form elements appearing on top of a position:absolute div, no matter what it's z-index is set to? I ran into this problem in Konq version 3.0.5, and would seriously like to know if it's been fixed yet.

      BTW: Same problem also appears in IE (but only for select elements), but not in Mozilla.

    18. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by faaaz · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but I think here you can actually choose which behaviour you want, instead of having it forced upon you.

      --
      we come in peace / shoot to kill
    19. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by Thing+1 · · Score: 1
      (I'm using CVS HEAD and let me tell you, Konq is faster than ever. It's actually faster than Mozilla on my machine.)
      This is not a troll. Are there any plans to use the recently-discovered Microsoft feature to speed load times up even further (at least, from IIS servers)?

      The "save this process" trick sounds like something Mozilla has had for some time, the "Quick Launch" feature. Speeding up load times is a great thing.

      --
      I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
    20. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by roca · · Score: 2, Informative

      That can't be fixed in Konqueror (or Safari) because they've made an architectural decision to use native widgets (Qt in Konqueror, Cocoa in Safari). Mozilla and IE use their own widgets and this problem is one reason why.

      There are a lot of advantages to using native widgets, of course. It's a tradeoff.

    21. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by FuzzyBad-Mofo · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the explanation.

    22. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      Look here:

      http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=49813&cid=50 22 491

      The trick is T/TCP - it's more of a networking level thing. You can turn on this feature in FreeBSD so try out the new "Apple Improved" browser with the "MS Improved" network stack and report back how fast it is ....

      See also:
      http://www.kohala.com/start/ttcp.html

    23. Re:But what I am rellay looking forward to... by p3d0 · · Score: 1
      Of course, this means that the processes stay alive and continue to eat RAM while they are, but if you don't use Konq for a while they'll get swapped out to VM. It's still faster than launching a process cold, though.
      I wonder if you could take a memory snapshot of a running process, and save that to disk. Make it part of the distro. Then to start Konqueror, load that image. It's basically the same as the VM swapping thing, but without any initial slow startup.

      Seems to me that this could be a generally useful mechanism.

      --
      Patrick Doyle
      I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
  15. Re:superb desktop, always top notch from the KDE t by nitehorse · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's the thing (about Ctrl+T).

    See, KDE 2.0 had support for embedding a Konsole frame into the Konqueror window. As I'm sure you noticed, if you hit Ctrl+T, 3.1 still embeds a Konsole frame in the Konqueror window.

    Fact of the matter is that we had a binding for Ctrl+T first... and changing around things that our users are used to as far as keybindings go is obviously a no-no. (Believe it or not there are people who use the embedded Konsole stuff. And it is pretty nifty.)

    However, if you go to Settings->Configure Keybindings, you can alter it to change it from Ctrl+Shift+N to Ctrl+T or add Ctrl+T so you can use both. KDE has really good keybinding support, and it's very configurable.

    Hope this helps.

  16. KDE Rules the Desktop by HereAllNight · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Every time I read about how "Linux is not ready for the desktop", I just laugh. It's KDE that's the real desktop star, and yes it is ready! I've been using KDE at home since KDE2 came out, and find myself using Windows at work less and less.

    When Windows XP came out, I gave it a fair shot. I didn't boot Linux/X/KDE for 3 months. Outlook was a giant pain, compared with KMail. IE was a nightmare, and I had to install Phoenix to escape unwanted programs and scripts. Easy CD Creator had me longing for X-CD-Roast. And XP crashed way too often.

    Now KDE is getting even better. The SSH stuff is exactly what I need! Life is good.

    1. Re:KDE Rules the Desktop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *yawn* MS Office.

      The ability to install one program, as opposed to 30, just to view fscking images.

      An e-mail client that doesn't suck ass.

      K thx, I'll stick with MS Windows for now.

      At least until I get around to writing *the* WM for X. ;)

    2. Re:KDE Rules the Desktop by LazyBoy · · Score: 1
      When Windows XP came out, I gave it a fair shot. I didn't boot Linux/X/KDE for 3 months. Outlook was a giant pain, compared with KMail. IE was a nightmare, and I had to install Phoenix to escape unwanted programs and scripts. Easy CD Creator had me longing for X-CD-Roast. And XP crashed way too often.
      You're judging MS's apps, not XP.

      XP + mozilla works pretty well, plus I can play my games and use other MS-only apps.

      --

      If Chaos Theory has taught us anything, it's that we must kill all the butterflies.

    3. Re:KDE Rules the Desktop by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      ahh but ... evolution is plain awesome and give me the ability to use work's legacy exchange server (anyone who WANTS to use exchange is a looney!) and I dream of the day that nero burning rom shows up for linux. or someone in the linux CD burning app world get's a clue and makes something like nero... using any other burning program under windows is plain stupidity... nero burning rom is the only choice, everything else is a joke... in the windows world at least.

      Linux is almost there, barring the stupid mistakes that redhat seem to be making lately, mandrake ordering the tombstone and SCO just trying to leech money out of what they can.

      Linux on the desktop... as far as the OS goes, it is there...

      all linux is lacking is a universal (it works) installer/ uninstaller for apps.... and loki gave it to us...

      too bad that developers are not interested in making their programs installable, or have some kind of personal problem against the loki installer.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    4. Re:KDE Rules the Desktop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, the poster did state he installed Phoenix on XP which is equivalent to Mozilla. It's the apps that make an OS, though. If you don't have your favorite apps, the OS is useless. There's no Evolution for win32. There's no Konquerer for win32. A lot of the software that has been ported to win32 simply doesn't work as nicely (example: Gaim). There are all those little apps that haven't been ported to win32, or just isn't as nice when used under win32.

      On the other hand, I still use Win2k for multimedia purposes (video, audio, cd-writing, etc.), until I figure out a better Linux-based solution to these things (which may take me a while).

    5. Re:KDE Rules the Desktop by ljaguar · · Score: 1

      cough bullshit cough

      You are just talkign out of your ass. I bet you never used Xcdroast really. Plus you haven't used nero burner either.

    6. Re:KDE Rules the Desktop by illogical_simby · · Score: 0

      And XP crashed way too often

      I'm amazed at how many people are writing this. I've been using XP since Nov 2001, and it's still running on that same install, perfectly. The only time it crashed was when my CPU overheaded due to a falty fan. What is it! Am I doing something wrong that I can't get it to crash that often?

      BTW - KDE looks amazing. Guess I'll d/l gentoo and try it out.

      --
      Apparently my appendage goes here
    7. Re:KDE Rules the Desktop by WNight · · Score: 1

      Can you point me to this? It sounds interesting.

    8. Re:KDE Rules the Desktop by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      the loki installer is still available from www.lokigames.com in the downloads (who is still paying for that website?? loki's been gone for almost 2 years now.)

      and I also found a ton of info here

      enjoy.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    9. Re:KDE Rules the Desktop by WNight · · Score: 1

      Heh, I searched for something almost exactly like that (don't remember the specifics) and found a lot of talk about using it to install a game they made, or such, but no actual talk about it.

      Thanks.

    10. Re:KDE Rules the Desktop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      funny the first link off of the google link had a download.

      Look again.

      I agree with lumpy. the #1 problem with Linux is the laziness of app writers in making static binaries and an installer.

      (dont give me any crap about wasting Hard drive space your extra 1 meg dont mean crap.)

  17. Is KDE trying to be Windows? by Vapor8 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is another terrific release by the KDE team and I commend them on yet another release of some pretty sweet code.

    I have one concern though, that I have seen others raise in the past and which makes me wonder if we're heading in the right direction. A quick scan through the new features is almost like reading about the new features introduced in a previous version of Windows. Is KDE simply trying to be 'more like Windows', which in turn would make KDE a much more familiar 'interface' for newbies to use? If so, then that's great and I'm sure that it will help increase its use amongst the masses.

    What bothers me is that I'm beginning to see less and less 'innovation' and more and more 'feature copying'. Now, I understand that it's difficult to add a killer new feature without first having a base that an average user would expect to have, but when will we be able to reach the point where we can begin to 'differentiate' KDE from Windows in a unique way in order to furthur 'entice' potential users who simply see KDE as a 'Windows wanna-be'?

    I for one love KDE and have used it as my primary desktop environment for at least a couple years now, and I always look forward to updates such as this one. They're always full of neat goodies. But I always get that feeling in the back of my mind that maybe we should try to 'think out of the box' a little more...

    1. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 1
      A quick scan through the new features is almost like reading about the new features introduced in a previous version of Windows. Is KDE simply trying to be 'more like Windows', which in turn would make KDE a much more familiar 'interface' for newbies to use? If so, then that's great and I'm sure that it will help increase its use amongst the masses.

      I think partly that's due to the style in which the new features guide was written. It sounded very much like promotional material to me.

      KDE is pretty close to Windows (except better) yeah, there are other desktops if you'd rather avoid that. The default GNOME2 desktop is less like Windows for instance. Bear in mind for all its faults the Windows UI isn't actually a bad one, so it makes sense for KDE to use this as the basis for their work. I think from reading the lists though it's often a case of "How shall we do this? We could do it this way, that way or this other way? Which is best?" and it turns out the best is the way windows does it too.

    2. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by rutger21 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The developers of KDE have been discussing the subject of UI enhancements lately. This discussion was caused by the jumpstart of a project (slicker)) which tries to radically change the UI, which so many people are used to.

      In time, I guess you will see less and less feature copying and more and more innovation. And if something innovative is good enough for mainstream, will it be accepted?

    3. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, it just boils down to adding features are desired by the people using it and developing it.

      You want to see innovation: try here

    4. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by sultanoslack · · Score: 5, Insightful
      First a few things to consider: most of us KDE developer folks don't use Windows -- at all. I used Windows XP for the very first time when I was home for Christmas.

      Second, Windows has some very useful and well thought out features. I prefer to substitue copy with learned from. Windows has certainly borrowed many things from Unix land; we shouldn't be too arragant to learn from the things that they've done right.

      The last, is a resounding, yes, we do aim to innovate and produce and authentic Unix desktop with all that is entailed by that. I think one of the most innovative examples of this is something like the KDE IO Slaves, which extend the Unix metaphor of everything is a file to exverything is a URL. Being able to use your file browser to copy things directly from an audio cd to a remove machine via scp -- all transparently -- is *really* cool, and I think very Unix like. Or how about regular expression support in many find type of places, or rather nice console, IRC, GPG apps; the list goes on.

      For all of the talk about KDE being Windows like -- remember that it's developed by old-school Linux/Unix guys. We're all very comfortable at the CLI; the debate between XEmacs and Vim is a vigorous here as anywhere. KDE is and will remain an Open Source *nix desktop; ideally making such an environment so usable as to bring this environment we know and love to folks that traditionally wouldn't be able to use it.

    5. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by infiniti99 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I say, "catch up before moving ahead." Users expect X to be in a good desktop, and KDE would be best implementing X before moving onto Y and Z. In some ways, KDE is up to Windows XP (video previews in the file manager), but in others it is not even at Windows 95 yet (easy folder sharing). Of course, sometimes it is beyond everything (kio_fish).

      As far as copying goes, KDE (and most open source software) make no qualms about copying. They just take what they feel is best in all cases. Often, Windows does things a nice way so they copy. You don't reach the top by avoiding good ideas.

      However, I do sometimes feel the way you do, in that there is not enough innovation (but I can justify it, by saying KDE is still in the "catch up" phase). Even so, what kinds of things would you prefer added to KDE? What kinds of innovations do you speak of?

    6. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by YE · · Score: 1

      What bothers me is that I'm beginning to see less and less 'innovation' and more and more 'feature copying'.

      Tell me, have you ever taken a look at OpenOffice? Or, even better, an OpenOffice app and the corresponding MS Office app side by side?

    7. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by realnowhereman · · Score: 1

      Fair enough - a lot of the features are also available under windows; however we should not accept the idea that because it is a feature that the competition has we should not have it. A good idea is a good idea. In fact, personally, the problem I have with windows is not particularly its features it is their implementation of those features.

      Looking through the list of features there are many innovations as well as feature copy. As an example: I particularly like the secure access to remote file systems using nothing other than ssh. That's certainly not in windows but could easily get lost in the noise of the other eye candy features.

      It is unfair to expect 100% innovation; only by leaveraging the work of others do we truly ever move forward.

      I don't use KDE myself, but it doesn't stop me from recognising that the beauty of KDE is in the underlying libraries. They have been designed with great care and thought; it demonstrates the benefit of getting API design right from an early stage and reaping the benefits in the future - no other open source project seems to advance as quickly as KDE does.

      --
      Carpe Daemon
    8. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by JimDabell · · Score: 5, Informative
      A quick scan through the new features is almost like reading about the new features introduced in a previous version of Windows.

      I don't see that at all.

      • Internet Explorer doesn't have a download manager.
      • Windows doesn't have anything even close to quanta.
      • Windows doesn't come with a large selection of games or educational tools.
      • Windows doesn't come with an advanced editor like kate.
      • Internet Explorer doesn't have tabbed browsing.
      • Explorer doesn't transparently browse remote filesystems over ssh.
      • Explorer doesn't let you edit meta-data in things like jpeg files.
      • Windows still doesn't have support for multiple desktops
      • Windows still doesn't have a taskbar as functional as KDE's
      • Windows still doesn't have decent scripting of gui applications.

      It seems to me that I use virtually all of these features on a regular basis. Yes, some of them have been done before. Yes, a lot of the features are available via third party software in Windows. But this doesn't mean that KDE is copying Windows. It means that people using KDE and people using Windows need a lot of the same features.

      There have been a number of interoperability improvements, for instance palm and exchange compatibility, but this isn't the same as copying windows. It simply means that KDE is trying to be as compatible with your other systems as possible.

      There is a feature guide that details a lot of this.

    9. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by tzanger · · Score: 3, Informative

      In some ways, KDE is up to Windows XP (video previews in the file manager), but in others it is not even at Windows 95 yet (easy folder sharing).

      "Rightclick, select Share" isn't easy enough for you ?!!

    10. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, how about "Windows has certainly learned from Unix"?

      Or does your hypocrisy run too deep?

    11. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by Repugnant_Shit · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Windows still doesn't have support for multiple desktops

      Actually it does. Its included with the XP powertoys (I know, not the same as being built-in). Having said that exists, it is also the *worst* multiple desktop implementation I've seen. Alternative shells like LiteStep do it much better.

    12. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by PsychoKiller · · Score: 1

      Windows still doesn't have support for multiple desktops

      Wrong. It does have support for this built in, Microsoft just doesn't provide any programs that manage them.

      Third party tools can do this very easily since the calls are built into the OS.

    13. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by orpheus2000 · · Score: 1

      I think he means over smb, not some KDE-only HTTP based servlet. Integrating an smb-based share on the fly is very difficult, as is dynamic mounting of SMB shares from other computers, as you'd probably need to be root, and even then, setting smbmount suid is bad security practice... See the difficulty?

      Cheers

    14. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by Thoguth · · Score: 4, Funny

      I didn't notice it until reading your post, but it's all clear now! KDE isn't copying features from Windows, it's copying features from Emacs!

      --
      The requested URL /iframe/sig.html was not found on this server.
    15. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      KDE 3.1 DOES have both samba file sharing and samba mounting support.

      For samba sharing, kde calls a setuid script named fileshareset to add and remove shares. Currently it only exports shares as read-only with no password.

      Adding Win98 style password protection is harder because you have to add new entries to /etc/passwd for each share you want to password protect.

    16. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by spitzak · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Although I see nothing wrong with copying good ideas from Windows, I do wish KDE would differentiate itself a little bit by copying some abandoned ideas from older Unix Window Managers.

      I have worked with this a great deal and I believe the changes are simple and user-friendly, and would very much like to see a main-stream desktop make these changes:

      1. STOP RAISING WINDOWS ON CLICK! The only way a window should be raised is if the user clicks (not drags) on the TITLEBAR! This is absoultely 100% necessary for overlapping windows to be useful. Without it we are going to keep making stupid tiled and MDI interfaces (which if they really were a good idea they would not have been abandoned with Andrew and Windows 3.0) And anybody who thinks this is wrong should think again: a program can raise *itself* and thus it can easily do this on any mouse click and thus emulate exactly the current behavior. All I want is the ability for a program to decide if the click should cause a raise.

      2. STOP RAISING "PARENT" WINDOWS when a "child" window is raised. This also makes overlapping windows impossible to use. This one is worse in that no possible arrangment of options for the KWM makes it work correctly. Because of this it is impossible to make a program with child windows and two overlapping main windows, again forcing kludges like tiled windows.

      3. If point-to-type is on and you feel compelled to change what window has focus, warp the pointer to the nearest edge, so that the system is always consistent. This mostly has to do with new windows popping up, it does seem useful to have them get the focus, but the current KDE behavior causes me to always type to the wrong window. It appears the mouse cursor is a much stronger indication of where focus is going than the titlebar highlight so when it is wrong errors happen.

      I've asked for this sort of stuff about 100 times but there is never any response. I think small changes like this would go a long way to making KDE *better* than Windows. It would allow very useful GUI's that could not be emulated on Windows (because it has the #1 and #2 bugs above).

    17. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by Roberto · · Score: 1

      Oh, yeah. Give the program the ability to raise itself instead of having the WM do it.

      And then, when you click on some windows they rise, and others don't. Welcome to inconsistent city!

      Rising "child windows" raises parent windows? In that case, I must have all sibling windows, because they all seem to raise or lower individually.

      Warping pointers without the user requesting it is usually considered bad practice. The problem with focus-follow-mouse (we may as well use the common name for things) is that it goes along with popups about as well as vodka and matches.

      BTW: KWM has not been part of KDE since version 2.0.

    18. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by spitzak · · Score: 1
      And then, when you click on some windows they rise, and others don't. Welcome to inconsistent city!

      This is absolute bullshit. Using Qt and KDE right now it is easy to be "inconsistent" in a million different ways yet somehow the programs manage to not be. "consistency" is not an excuse for bad GUI design. The fact is, as long as a program is allowed to make a decision, "inconsistency" is possible. And if programs cannot make decisions then the machine cannot be programmed! So don't ever bring up "consistency" as an excuse for doing stupid things in the system design. Also Qt will certainly enforce some consistency, I think that clicks on "dead" areas should always raise the window, but this decision should be left to the toolkit.

      Rising "child windows" raises parent windows? In that case, I must have all sibling windows, because they all seem to raise or lower individually.

      I just tried this now. I'm sure there are many other examples though. In Konquerer, pick "print" off the menu. That dialog box that appears is a "child" window, and the main browser window is the "parent". Now click another window (like a Terminal) atop so you can still see both of these windows but it overlaps them both some. Now click on the "print" dialog. Notice that the "parent" window *also* raises and hides the Terminal window. This is the foul behavior that I would like to see them fix.

      Warping pointers without the user requesting it is usually considered bad practice.

      First, KDE does the wrong thing, because the window focus and pointer position do not match. So no matter whether warping is good/bad, KDE is WRONG and MUST be fixed.

      Anyway what you are suggesting is the old CDE behavior but I don't recommend KDE go to this. It is pretty clear that people want the focus to go to new windows. I have tried warping the pointers and it works (not just for me but for several dozen somewhat-novice computer users). The fact is if the focus is changing then by definition the user is not caring where the cursor is, so it can move.

      BTW: KWM has not been part of KDE since version 2.0.

      By KWM I meant whatever KDE uses as a window manager. I thought it was called KWM. Just checked my ps output and it looks like it is called kwin.

    19. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by downwa · · Score: 1

      I noticed that many of these features are simply being integrated into KDE (e.g. integrating mail and PIM, integrating VNC desktop sharing). In this case, Linux had the features first, Windows made them integrated first, and now Linux is getting them integrated.

      It appears that the community is good at innovating, but we just need to think in a more "integrated" manner ;-)

      --
      Life's a lot like money-- you spend it, then it's gone. Spend wisely.
    20. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you new here?

    21. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by orcrist · · Score: 1

      Without going to the trouble of addressing your individual points I'd like to point out that almost everything you've mentioned (If I understood you correctly) is configurable in the control center under Look & Feel->Window Behaviour (at least in 3.0.x). There you can set, among other things:
      Focus Policy:Click to Focus, Focus follows mouse, Focus under mouse, Focus strictly under mouse.
      For the last 3 additionally: Auto Raise and/or click raise.

      Window Actions: For each of 3 mouse buttons you can configure actions for Inactive and Active Titlebars, as well as inactive inner windows, including actions like: raise, lower, activate and raise, activate and lower, activate, shade, and whether or not to pass the click to inactive inner windows.

      etc.....

      -Chris

      --
      San Francisco values: compassion, tolerance, respect, intelligence
    22. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by Roberto · · Score: 1

      Listen, just because there are ways to make things inconsistent now, that doesn't mean things should intentionally be made less consistent still. And yes, consistence is an important value in interface design, and if you don't like it, too bad. As for the toolkit deciding whether clicking on a "dead area" raises the window, that is even worse.

      Predictable behaviour is important. Either all windows rise on click, or none does. And, surprisingly, Kwin has options about just what happens when you click on a window. Go the control panel, it is in the kwin config. module, in the actions tab. What you want is probably to set the "click on inactive window" action to something that doesn't have "raise" on it. How come you didn't notice that?

      Mind you, I am not saying that this behaviour may not seem desirable to some, as it obviously does to you. It is just that you are likely to be a minority. So you will have to live with changing the default setting to what you like.

      About the child windows: Yup, you are right. That only happens with modal dialogs. Have you reported it as a bug?

      About focus and pointer warping: if it did what you want, a dozen people would whine about how pressing alt-tab makes the pointer walk all over the screen.

      Kwin is not doing somethign wrong. Perhaps you want it not to give focus to popups? That can be done, and then it would be consistent, without weird behaviour.

      As for your test with novices, what were they doing using focus-follows-mouse???? Usually people get extremely confused by it, so either:

      a) They weren't novices
      b) They were using something they wouldn't normally use, so the point about warping doesn't mean much.

    23. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by spitzak · · Score: 1
      Predictable behaviour is important. Either all windows rise on click, or none does.

      I do not see how "click on a dead area raises" is any less predictable. I think the majority of users can tell whether they are clicking on a button or not. Much more my complaint is that the current behavior makes it physically impossible to try alternatives, while if it was the application's responsibility to raise they can easily alter the behavior.

      I know you can turn off the raising behavior in Kwin. Unfortunately we cannot make software that assummes this, so for a software writer it might as well not do it at all. We are forced instead to make serious compromises in the GUI design (basically enforcing a child/parent order on some displays that the user really thinks are the same level) because of this bug.

      Also Kwin still raises windows when you attempt to resize them. Attemptint to turn this off makes it impossible to raise the windows at all! This was very cleverly fixed in all the CDE window managers but somehow everybody seems to have forgotten this.

      On the pointer warping, yes I fully expect the pointer to move whan Alt+tab is pushed. That is exactly the behavior that is wanted. The only alternative is to not have Alt+Tab do anything. The current behavior of KDE is wrong in either case because the pointer ends up not matching the window highlight.

      Novice users can learn point-to-type in about 5 minutes and I have never seen anybody go back. We set most of our NT machines to point-to-type as well because it is way easier to use. I have been suprised to find that even people using pen tablets use point-to-type. And I believe that if Windows used point-to-type then click-to-type would be considered "hard" and somebody would say "if your user is a novice you should only use point-to-type".

    24. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by be-fan · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As a long time KDE user, I have to say it really isn't. KDE seems much more Mac (classic Mac, not OS X) to me than anything else. The KDE-bundled applications are very non-Windows like. They tend to be simple and streamlined, rather than bloated and complex. KWord, for example, is very elegant, like WordPerfect, rather than like MS Word.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    25. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by Roberto · · Score: 1

      You don't see how "click on a dead area to rise" is less consistent? Well, let me show you: unless you personally are going to convince every app and toolkit writer to do it that way, some apps will rise, and some apps will not rise, because EVERY APP would have to implement that.

      So, it seems the problem is not that kwin rises windows on click, but that kwin CAN raise windows on click?

      If you know rising can be disabled, then what do you propose? That rising be impossible? Oh, yeah, we all should use YOUR preference.

      If you want the cursor to match the focus, then use "focus strictly under mouse". I expect you to find it incredibly uncomfortable, though. I suppose that is another option you knew about but somehow forgot to mention. It is consistent, at least.

      Did you report the thing about resizing as a bug?

      As for your argument about click-to-focus being popular only because it was in windows, I could point you that no HCI study ever has shown that. Of course, I don't recall any showing the opposite either, but hey, you have your opinion, I have mine, just stating them is not going to change the other one's.

      Also, it helps if you make claims that are at least plausible. You seem to be saying that you know no person who has tried focus-follows-mouse and preferred click-to-focus. I find that claim to be about as believable as stealth technology being donated by UFOs.

    26. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by spitzak · · Score: 1
      If you know rising can be disabled, then what do you propose? That rising be impossible? Oh, yeah, we all should use YOUR preference.

      The problem is that rising is by default on. We cannot design a user interface that is unusable when this is true. This basically means we cannot have two useful displays that overlap where clicking in both of them does something.

      I guess I should be more specific about exactly why this is needed:
      In special effects we are often working with images that are 1024x600 (actually twice that but that is the largest integer scale that fits on the screen). You cannot scale these images down by huge amounts, and you *definately* cannot scale them by non-integer amounts, because even the best filtering will introduce artifacts that will throw off the artist's work.

      Along with these images are huge graphical controls that usually need to be 1024x1024 to show a sufficent subset of their information at readable resolution. But the odd thing about these graphics controls is that 95% if the time the user is working on an edge of them and can easily cover a large portion with the viewer.

      A typical user will put the image atop the graphic, and manipulate the graphic in the L-shaped region that is visible, and occasionally click the graphic to the top to get the big picture, drag it to move the part the want to the visible area, and then put it back under the image. They will also click in the image a lot to indicate x/y positions or colors or to manipulate controls in it. Often they overlap the opposite way and work in the L-shaped region that is still visible of the image.

      Or at least that is what they would do if the window manager was not broken. Instead we are forced to make the image viewer be a child of the graphic window, so it is impossible to see the graphic without closing or iconizing the image viewer. Compared to our old Irix system this is a HUGE disadvantage to speed and efficiency of work. If we did not make the image viewer a child then any attempt to move the graphic would raise it and hide the image, which is useless as the user is typically interested in the result in the image.

      Now most commercial systems resort to ugly "tiled" windows to try to get around this. This has huge disadvantages for serious work, first the image is typically very tiny and non-integer scaled. Second there is lots of wasted screen space as the graphic is usually restricted to a rectangular area. Third you are limited to a single image and graphic viewer, while our program has no problem creating any number of viewers.

      Please think about this very carefully. It is difficult to state exactly how bad the click-raises behavior is. Part of the problem is that most people are used to tiles or "mdi" which are kludges to get around this bad behavior, and have no concept of using two overlapping windows at once. I am suggesting this as a way to easily differentiate Linux from Windows in a way that will allow vastly superior user interfaces to be designed. Because Windows suffers from this exact same bug we could make software that is MUCH easier to use on Linux than Windows. But mindless copying of Windows is not going to give Linux any advantage. Careful experimentation and examination instead of knee-jerk reactions that tiny changes are "inconsistent" are needed.

      You seem to be saying that you know no person who has tried focus-follows-mouse and preferred click-to-focus. I find that claim to be about as believable as stealth technology being donated by UFOs.

      Okay, here is an experiment: get somebody to learn point-to-type. Have them use it for ONE week (they are not allowed to use anything else). Then see if they prefer click-to-type. I predict you will not find anybody who prefers. I have myself been very suprised at this result but it is true. Now my test audience is somewhat computer savvy (ie photoshop-level artists). But even people using pen tablets (where putting the pen down would move the focus and thus would seem to the "HCI experts" to be absolutlely terrible) prefer point-to-type.

      Incidentally by point-to-type I mean "sloppy focus" or whatever they call it. Besides setting KDE to "strict" still does not make it consistent as it neither warps the pointer or disables Alt+tab.

    27. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by haloscan · · Score: 1

      What's the point of having it built in if you can't use it? And also, note he was talking about ready to go and mot having to download third party addons.

    28. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by Roberto · · Score: 1

      Ok. You have very special requirements for a very specific purpose, used by a tiny part of the userbase. Sorry, you don't get to call defaults.

      You can suggest the users how they can get the behaviour you prefer, you can even make your installer change the behaviour. But you can not make everyone else get a default you prefer.

      As for the focus-follow-mouse: Usually, if I try to force someone to do something he hates at first sight for a week, I must have a very good reason. Making an experiment is not one. And anyway, I don't need to. I used to use focus-follow-mouse in the fvwm times, and switched to click-to-focus around 1997. So, I am a clear example of such a person being possible to find.

    29. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by spitzak · · Score: 1
      First of all, I am recommending a system where both A and B are possible, and a non-zero set of people want function A (ie that set may be just me). You are recommending a system where A is impossible but B is possible. I think by definition my idea is better because more things wanted by more people are possible. Claiming "inconsistency" is a ridiculous defense. I can, using Qt, inverse video color all my widgets and put all the labels in French, and that would be inconsistent, too, but nobody is saying the system should force that to not work because of fears that it would be "inconsistent". You have to rely on the software developers to do some things right.

      I also suspect you have not tried non-raising windows. If you would you would not go back. You can set KDE to a reasonable approximation (unfortunately most software does not raise ever, and resizing windows raises them, so it is not a really good approximation). Just try it. Try editing two documents that are too big to both fit on the screen without overlapping.

      I think the non-raising is similar to insertion-mode text editing was about 1980. If you remember back then, word processors were all "overtype" and had "insert mode". I worked on word processors then. Everybody was scared to death of how "hard" and "inconsistent" insertion-mode was, and we spent FOUR pages of the manual trying to explain to the users how insertion mode worked because we were all paralyzed with fear and doubt that we would "confuse" them. I am seeing the exact thing now. Someday Windows is going to stop raising windows on clicks and Linux is going to be F**ked royally because it will instantly become obvious how much easier it is to use Windows, and I am very very scared that this will happen soon.

      I'd also like your reasons for switching to click-to-type. I suspect it was because you were using other machines that could not be made point-to-type and could not handle the inconsistency between the machines. Please explain if you had any other reason.

    30. Re:Is KDE trying to be Windows? by Roberto · · Score: 1

      Ok, this is a stupid post because noone will read it, but I must say you have a weird way of thinking.

      KDE currently can raise or not raise on click. YOU said that is not enough. Obviously, if we are to apply any logic to this, you want either only raise or only not-raise. Since what you want is not-raise, YOU are the one who wants something to be impossible.

      As for the raise-on-resize, I asked you if you reported as a bug, and had no answer. Short: if you want it, report it. You will either get it, or be told you aint gonna get it. In either case, end of argument.

      As for my reasons for switching to click-to-type: personal preference, and I wont say further, because all I gave you was a counterexample to your improbable claim.

  18. Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by philovivero · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've been a long-time GNOME user, and I'm just about ready to try something else.

    I recently made some new themes for my GNOME2 desktop and was stymied by my GTK1 applications that... well... just wouldn't cooperate.

    I'd previously made some GTK1 themes that more-or-less matched the GTK2 ones, but I cannot figure out how to convince GTK1 apps to use certain themes under my GNOME2 desktop environment. It's completely opaque.

    There are so many apps I use that are still GTK1 (Galeon, Evolution, GAIM, etc etc etc) that my desktop is just plain ugly right now.

    I'm getting fed up, and am trying to find something that will give me a nice even look & feel across applications. My main fear is that KMail and Konquerer won't be good Evolution/Galeon replacements.

    In the end, I'll probably go OS/X, but I really hope it doesn't happen.

    1. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by nitehorse · · Score: 4, Interesting

      KMail is not a replacement for Evolution proper.

      Kontact will be, but Kontact won't be released until 3.2 (at the earliest.) KMail is, on the other hand, a damned good email client, but it's not a full PIM suite.

      Konqueror is really starting to come into its own now, and 3.1 even includes a slew of bugfixes from the Safari team for the HTML renderer. It's getting faster, and it's only going to get better. The Apple guys have brought KHTML up to speed and they keep on making improvements. In 3.2, I'm quite sure that Konqueror will be an even better browser than Mozilla (let alone Galeon) for anyone interested in Linux web browsing.

      But you have to take my opinion with a grain of salt; I'm a KDE developer. :)

    2. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by GauteL · · Score: 2, Informative

      You include both themes in the same tarball, so that in the directory "MyTheme", you should have the directories "gtk" and "gtk-2.0".

      The latest versions of the gnome theme-selector is supposed to change both gtk and gtk-2.0 themes based on this. If it does not, then it is a bug, and should be filed at http://bugzilla.gnome.org.

      I know it works like this in Red Hat 8.0. Now, Red Hat did patch some things in 8.0 that was not in GNOME 2.0.x, but if so, then it should most definitely be in GNOME 2.2 scheduled to be out next week.

    3. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by ultrabot · · Score: 5, Informative

      My main fear is that KMail and Konquerer won't be good Evolution/Galeon replacements.

      Why do you have to replace Evolution/Galeon? They work normally in KDE. There is nothing that forces you to choose KDE version of each and every application.

      --
      Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
    4. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they're good enough.
      main things missing :-
      a PSM in konq.
      javascript popup control broken
      tabs only a pale imitation right now (right click then click close - eugh)
      plugins harder to setup.

      main plusses :-
      soooooo much faster. konq 3.1 is smoothly fast
      konsole. dammit's a good excuse to start using this.
      don't wait hours for a organizer (in evo) to load that you never use anyway.

    5. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by JohnFluxx · · Score: 1

      Do you know if kmail will have support for the vcard things?
      The release note said that the addressbook prog did, but it wasn't clear if kmail would call it automatically..

    6. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by nitehorse · · Score: 1

      KMail will be more fully integrated into the addressbook, but I have no idea exactly what you mean by 'support for the vcard things' so I can't really answer that.

      However, if the addressbook has support for it, KMail should inherit that support simply by virtue of code-sharing and reuse. KDE is a really nice example of not only a great and successful Open Source project, but a really well-architected and very impressive Object Oriented framework with a very nice design (well, in most areas).

      If you can be more specific, I can try to give you a better answer.

    7. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by liquidsin · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wow. You sure have posted a lot in this thread, and they all seem to be modded way up. You come across as knowledgeable, polite, friendly, and sincere. All the qualities one could ever want in a geek. So, um...are you up for adoption?

      --
      do not read this line twice.
    8. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by nitehorse · · Score: 1

      Well, maybe not every single one of the posts was polite (Black Parrot really got to me with his little "Fucking KDE crybabies" comment, and my response wasn't exactly nice) but you have no idea how long I've been waiting for this release. I'm actually really really proud of all of the stuff we've got in 3.1 (and I'll be the first to admit that my contributions thus far are quite small, but I'm a part of it).

      I should probably send an email to Scott about that (the adopt-a-geek thing). I don't really need new hardware, but it'd be nice to be able to have a cluster of KDE-building machines. The idea of being able to use distcc and build KDE in less than 8 hours is quite tantalizing...

    9. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by vosque · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Being his (landlord || roommate || boss), in a way, I've already adopted him. Even so, he could use the hardware, that's for sure.

      I've considered writing an article basically entitled "Living with a KDE Developer", documenting things like what it's like to come home and hear about What Distro I'm Trying This Week. Also, what it's like to have a project shown to you, saying "uh, no, that's ass" and then having it changed to something so entirely lacking in assyness that it looks like a different application.

      KDE is neat that way.

    10. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by JohnFluxx · · Score: 1

      vcards are where you put all your information (name, address, phone number, etc) into an xml or rdf file. I think you might zip it as well. You then call it something like 'vcard' and mime attach it to every email you send. Then the receiving email client can add the persons details to its addressbook.

    11. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by manyoso · · Score: 1

      Because Evolution/Galeon are not native KDE applications. This means they differ in subtle (but important to some) ways from other integrated KDE applications. One of the great strengths of KDE is the uniform set of application UI's. Even GNOME is trying to make a consistent set of application UI's by adopting clear standards. One way KDE implements uniform UI standards is with the actual API interfaces. This makes for a consistent look and feel across KDE applications with minimal effort on the part of the programmer.

    12. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by nitehorse · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sounds useful. I can't make any promises, but that sounds like something we'll want in KMail. (KMail is currently a developer no-man's-land, or at least it was last time I checked... that place is like a war zone).

      But if nothing else, I'll bring your idea up with a few of the KMail devs and see what they think. That is, if the feature isn't already planned (seems sort of obvious, now that I think about it.)

    13. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by JohnFluxx · · Score: 1

      cool - I suspect it wouldn't be anything more than recognising the filename and adding a menu option to pass it to kaddressbook (or whatever it is called).

      I found out about the war zone status last year when I searched the mailing lists looking for clues about if anyone was developing pgp mime support :)

    14. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by ananke · · Score: 2, Interesting

      So when can we expect IMAP filtering in Kmail? :) [that's the only thing I really could use on a daily basis]. Overall I have to admit, great work folks. In fact, Kmail in kde 3.1 fixed some problems with IMAP that I had in 3.0.x [such as topics of e-mail messages still showing up in my main Inbox, after moving them to another imap folder].

      --
      --- d'oh
    15. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What? You don't want a desktop with two different mutually incompatible windowing toolkits? Have fun uninstalling the other 1.59348434x10^23 gnome libraries from your system, including all the other multiple mutually incompatible versions of things. Gnome sux.

    16. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by friedmud · · Score: 1

      >javascript popup control broken

      Really? it works for me....

      Settings->Configure Konquerer->Java & JavaScript->Java Script->JavaScript Web Popups Policy->Smart or Deny

      >right click then click close

      Try right clicking on your toolbar and clicking "Configure Toolbars" - add yourself a "Close Tab" and "Open Tab" button - then it is just like moz.

      Derek

    17. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by Redline · · Score: 1

      My main fear is that KMail and Konquerer won't be good Evolution/Galeon replacements.

      No worries. Just keep Evolution and Galeon. I switched from GNOME2 around KDE 3.1RC2 and haven't looked back. If you're worried about consistent look (feel is another story) then you have a couple of options.
      You could get the Geramik theme for gtk 1.x and 2.x this will match the default Keramik theme in KDE, and even inherit any color changes made in the kde control center! This is what I did, and now the GIMP, GAIM, and Pan (and mozilla/phoenix) all match my KDE desktop perfectly.
      You could also try the Wonderland theme (called BlueCurve in RedHat) from the RedHat Artwork package. It will theme gtk 1.x/2.x and kde consistently.
      Another more difficult option would be to use the Liquid theme for kde, and dig up some Aqua[Graphite] themes for gtk. Since Aqua-ish themes exist for everything that is skinnable, you get a reasonably homogenous desktop.

      With a little effort, you can have a beautiful and consistent Unix desktop, regardless of which apps you need to run or which desktop you choose.

    18. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by Wolfier · · Score: 1

      Also, I don't like the idea of keeping GDK, GTK, GLIB in memory at the same time as QT. Gross replication, waste of resources.

      That's why when I run QT I try not to start GTK apps (it's hard to do because of Mozilla). And vice-versa.

    19. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by Woko · · Score: 1

      The best place for IMAP filtering is on the server itself. That way it doesn't matter what mail client your using, kmail, evolution, mozilla or webmail, your email still gets filtered through one set of rules.

      --
      ---
      Silence is consent.
    20. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by kervel · · Score: 1

      vcard viewing support is in the release, vcard importing support in head i think. and kmail situation got a lot better last days.

    21. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good grief, this isn't 1980. All of the shared objects in GTK and GLIB combined are under 20MB.

    22. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by Wolfier · · Score: 1

      The waste is not practically big, it just violates my rules.

      Waste is waste, 1 byte or 1 gigabyte.
      I guess you just won't understand.

    23. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by Anonymous+DWord · · Score: 1

      I've considered writing an article basically entitled "Living with a KDE Developer",

      I'd read it.

      --
      "If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden
    24. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try by philovivero · · Score: 1

      Why do you have to replace Evolution/Galeon?

      Because the whole point is to get a consistent-looking desktop. It's been a while since I ran KDE, so I may be speaking of ignorance, but KDE apps and GNOME apps look different. Galeon and Evolution are both GTK1 (ie: GNOME) apps.

      I know it's a minor thing, but seeing three different widget sets (Mozilla, GTK1, GTK2 this year, GTK1, Mozilla, and Motif a few years back... etc etc etc) gets annoying after a few years.
  19. Simplified by Ixe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You can have more than one user on the same desktop. Like say you've got a friend who's a linux n00b across the world and you wanna help him/her. He/she can just activate shared desktop, you connect to it, and boom there's another cursor in there. Or ideally at least.

    VNC allows like you to run GUI remotely, just as ssh allows you to shell remotely, but the difference is, more than one person can be controlling the same display. It'd be like having two people typing on the same shell line, cept it's a lot more useful in the GUI world than in the console world.

    --
    Sigs pose an operational security risk and help the baddies aggregate data. I guess commenting does too, oops.
  20. Building on gentoo as we speak... by CoolVibe · · Score: 4, Funny
    And I just finished building 3.1rc6 yesterday. Grmbl...

    Also, a pretty release guide is available here Can't wait to try the new S/MIME support in Kmail. I'm so stoked!

    1. Re:Building on gentoo as we speak... by TheTomcat · · Score: 4, Funny

      Building on gentoo as we speak...

      Post back on Thursday (when it's finished); I want to see how it went.

      </sarcasm>
      (-;

      S

    2. Re:Building on gentoo as we speak... by BgJonson79 · · Score: 1

      I did the same thing, but (since it's only a desktop system [sometimes]) I was doing an update world. Then, when I got up this morning and it still wasn't done, I checked to see if KDE 3.1 was synced up, and it was. I stopped, re-synced, and now I can continue to heat my house (American cars do in fact start when it's below zero) and compile great apps at the same time.

      --

      There are four boxes used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order.

    3. Re:Building on gentoo as we speak... by JohnFluxx · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Don't get tooo excited by the mime support.
      It isn't supported by default - you need to use Aegypton(wrong spelling - close enough).
      It doesn't integrate particulary well, and for me was a pita :) Also, for me and few others, the kde interface doesn't work, so you end up having to use the gtk message box to enter the password.. Plus the cancel button doesn't work, the error handling is bad, and sometimes both kde and aegypton want your password.
      Oh, and I keep getting bad signatures on mailing lists. Other people do as well - I'm not sure why - I think it is to do with the =20 being done incorrectly, or the language encoding or something.

      But otherwise it is really cool - I can't wait till it is polished. I grumble a lot, but I love it really :)

    4. Re:Building on gentoo as we speak... by JohnFluxx · · Score: 1

      er, appologies - I was talking about pgp mime support in kmail.

    5. Re:Building on gentoo as we speak... by Kashif+Shaikh · · Score: 1

      Building on gentoo as we speak...

      kde 3.0.2 took approx. 5 hours to build on my dual p3-500 rig(though I don't know if the ebuild ran with make -j2). So I assume 3.1 will take roughly the same time frame...I just hope a 3.1 ebuild is ready...can't wait to emerge my portage tree tonite!

      Mozilla takes about 2-3 hours.

      if any compile takes a while, it's OpenOffice. That fucker(excuse me language), takes 24+ hours to compile on me rig!!

      I wonder how long it takes Microsoft to compile Windows XP with its 65 kajillion lines of code...

    6. Re:Building on gentoo as we speak... by TheTomcat · · Score: 1

      My setup: P3-700, 64MBRam (yeah, low RAM).

      KDE 3.0 took 26+ hours.
      )-:

      S

  21. Is KDE everything? by cerenyx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A quick scan through most of the comments on this page reflect the sentiment that KDE represents one of the pinnacles for why any windows user would want to switch to linux, and why linux "is ready".

    My two cents on this matter is that what I feel should be Linux's selling point, what should be the reason why people start using Linux, is not so much a single desktop GUI, a smattering of 'features' that windows lacks, or anything. It should be the notion that Linux is an aggregate whole of multiple works, and that under Linux there is always more than one answer to something.

    *sniff*
    Now wasn't that sentimental and goo-gahish.

    Congrats to the Kdevelopers for Kde 3.1

    1. Re:Is KDE everything? by melonman · · Score: 1

      My two euro-cents on the matter say that the fact that there is always more than one answer to everything is actually a barrier to more widespread acceptance of Linux. I'm with RH8 on this one :-)

      --
      Virtually serving coffee
    2. Re:Is KDE everything? by cerenyx · · Score: 1

      Perhaps in isolation, having too many answers and options may overwhelm the new user. But this, coupled with a community that one can turn to for recommendations and suggestions, as well as helpful documentation on the nature of various alternatives, as well as the ability to switch between alternatives more painlessly than Windows, for example, does allow the multitude of alternatives to be a benefit, not a harm, for Linux.

    3. Re:Is KDE everything? by gmuslera · · Score: 1

      remember when someone says that some girl is "just a pretty face"?

      Well... KDE 3.1 is more than just a pretty face, and what runs behind have lot more brains (and you can trust more on it) than whats behind the WinXP interface...

    4. Re:Is KDE everything? by rseuhs · · Score: 2, Informative
      Well, KDE really stands out. KDE has gone from nothing in 1997 to KDE1, then a complete rewrite for KDE2 and now the refined, optimized and beautified KDE3.1 with a whole bunch of applications.

      No other project has accomplished so much in such a short time span. Most server-centric products are mostly finished, the big developments happen on the desktop in the Linux-world. And that's KDE.

    5. Re:Is KDE everything? by m1chael · · Score: 0

      you stupid clods. flamebait... you make me sick. linux is much cheaper than buying licenses to expensive proprietary software. when it comes down to it if two things can do the same things (im not saying which does what and does what better than the other) then usually it comes down to the bottom line. boomcha.

      my karma has hit rock bottom...

      --
      I know you are psychotic, but please make an effort.
  22. Re:OS X looks boring compared to new open source U by ciryon · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Dear Mr. Troll,

    Mac OS X has a unique look while both KDE and Windows uses a very similar interface.

    The new thing with this KDE release is that it now really drags away from Windows with excellent icons and windowstyles.

    I, and many people, have used this themes for a long time.

    It's really interesting to see how much the german government has spent on KDE development. Wish more government would do that.

    Ciryon

  23. Re:OS X looks boring compared to new open source U by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mac OS X has a unique look

    So fucking what? Unique or not, if it looks boring, IT REALLY LOOKS BORING! What part of my message you don't understand? People are bored. Aqua and Jaguar look very boring now.

  24. at last by stormrage · · Score: 1

    the long awaited kde 3.1 has come off to the ftp servers to download

    1. Re:at last by Biomechanoid · · Score: 1

      thanks, we needed this information

  25. Support for SSH? by barnaclebarnes · · Score: 1

    Does it also support VNC over SSH? That would be sweet. I also read that they are removing the Interface from the VNC backend so we can plug more protocols in. VNC is OK but I hear there are better ones out there. Also support for Wndows Terminal services would be good.

    Not that I am complaining...This release looks great. When Gentoo finallly releases their new version I'm gonna be upgrading.

    Glen

    --
    [Please type your sig here.]
    1. Re:Support for SSH? by tjansen · · Score: 4, Interesting

      No, no vnc over ssh ATM. (I think that ssh tunnels are pretty hackish btw, ssl should result in a smoother user experience).

      RDP support is currently in CVS - but there is no RDP server for X11, and it would be a lot of work to write one... rather expect the ability to use X11 as protocol with a UI like VNC.

    2. Re:Support for SSH? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I noticed a RDP client for FreeBSD the other day before the install hung. It suggests that there is a RDP client under Linux, even if it's not integrated with KDE or IceWM.

  26. Thanks KDE team by trtmrt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The speedup in 3.1 is very noticeable. It looks great but also everything is much more responsive then before.
    I don't quite understand the complaints people have about KDE looking like windoze. Yes, it has windows :) but it feels so much different (i.e. better). The only issue I had before was that KDE was always slower compared to windoze running on the same machine but that difference seems to be almost completely gone.

    1. Re:Thanks KDE team by Arandir · · Score: 1

      People who say KDE is too much like Windows...

      1) ...have never used KDE

      2) ...have never used Windows

      3) ...deliberately trolling nonsense

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
  27. Truly Special by rookkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Once again, I am absolutely amazed at what this little thing called Open Source can do.

    Just six years ago, an ambitious proposal was made to the world by a German university student named Matthias Ettrich. The goal of the project was to create a user-friendly, open source desktop environment similar to CDE, the Common Desktop Environment. CDE, at the time, was popular on Solaris and many proprietary Unix platforms. However, CDE's code base was closed and the Linux community was searching for a suitable replacement. Enough support built up that dozens of developers came together to create an entire desktop environment out of nothing. Over 20 months later, KDE 1.0 was released to the public. And there was much rejoicing.

    Taking on Sun was an ambitious enough goal. But who would have imagined that Microsoft (Word document) (Google cache) would ever specifically name KDE as a viable competitor to Windows?

    Microsoft may even start to get a little hotter under the collar if recent events are to show anything: Wal-Mart's on-line shopping site quickly ran out of their PC's built with a Linux distribution using KDE for its interface; most of the government computers in Largo, FL run KDE; and Apple implements a new Web browser based on KDE's KHTML library.

    And if there is nothing else that the release of KDE 3.1 proves, it is that the naysayers are wrong again. All too often, there are those who try to suggest that there is some sort of heated conflict between the GNOME and KDE projects. Nothing could be further from reality. For example, on the Xdg mailing list prominent developers from both the GNOME and KDE projects work together in forming a consistent .desktop file standard. The people that actually make GNOME and KDE have nothing but the highest respect for one another's projects. There is none of the hostility that so many trolls would like others to believe.

    It has just been wonderful seeing this release happen. I have been watching the KDE developer's mailing lists since July and I find it fascinating how the whole thing has come together. The graphics designers, the documentation writers, the translators, the event organizers, and, of course, the coders. All of these groups have been equally important in making KDE the enormous success it has become.

    So, I just want to say thank you to everyone who made it happen. I just have to wonder what the next six years will bring!

    1. Re:Truly Special by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Taking on Sun was an ambitious enough goal. But who would have imagined that Microsoft (Word document) [microsoft.com] (Google cache) [216.239.53.100] would ever specifically name KDE as a viable competitor to Windows?"

      Man, that is a scarey document.

      "Microsoft, in contrast to Linux, has an extensive set of device drivers available for their platform and always continues to provide those drivers with new operating system releases. You dont have to incur all those development costs for new device drivers when you purchase a Microsoft operating system. In addition, Microsoft was a key contributor to the OPOS standard that is time tested as the industry standard for language-neutral and operating system-independent POS drivers. The standard itself it based on Microsofts Component Object Model (COM), ActiveX, and OLE technologies and provides a standard programming interface definition for POS hardware devices. The OPOS standard is years ahead of the JavaPOS standard. Unless JavaPOS or another standard succeeds on Linux, device drivers will not run across the wide number of Linux distributions today."

      A standard that is based on Microsoft only technolog? WTF.

    2. Re:Truly Special by jbolden · · Score: 1

      What they mean is that there is no way to release a binary only high performance device driver that will work with a wide range of Linux distributions over a period of years; while there is such a standard for wide range of windows products.

    3. Re:Truly Special by /dev/trash · · Score: 1

      Just think how much further KDE would be now if they had not locked into the propietary Qt stuff and pissed off enough people to start Gnome.

  28. Where to Go; What You Need by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Do not worry about finding a list of mirrors. download.kde.org will automatically forward you to an open mirror.

    For a direct link to the packages, here are:

    Note that you need a version of Qt >= 3.1.0. There are additional requirementsfor 3.1 you may want to know.

    1. Re:Where to Go; What You Need by Micah · · Score: 1

      Do not worry about finding a list of mirrors. download.kde.org will automatically forward you to an open mirror.

      Well, it found me one in Germany. And I'm in Oregon. That's really efficient, folks!

      (No, I'm not downloading from there ... I'm waiting for some kind of Red Hat packages. Maybe I'll even wait till the 8.1 release, though that would kind of suck.)

  29. Do they have an installer yet? by bwalling · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One thing I have never figured out with KDE is the lack of an installer. I like the installer from Ximian for Gnome. It is simple, and it handles dependencies (moderately well).

    With KDE, I have to download a ton of files, and then figure out the aRTS dependencies and whatnot. I also have to figure out how to make Linux use KDE instead of Gnome. I can do it and get it installed, but why not have an installer?

    1. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by fdisk3hs · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Senor, what do you speak of?

      Your distro will handle this, install like you install any other package (or port if you use OpenBSD)...

      BTW, It's not available yet in the Slackware-current tree. Since I just installed 3.0.5a yesterday, I guess I'll dump it and try 3.1r5, WTH...

      Yes, that's right, your favorite mirror for your distro has 3.1-some-prerelease available under current... Leave the poor KDE site alone, you won't be able to get it to compile and install right anyway...

      lr

    2. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by Neil+Watson · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The do have one. It's called Konstuct.

    3. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by Phosphan · · Score: 1
      Strange... I just had to type "emerge kde" :-)

      Gentoo is really nice.

    4. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by swillden · · Score: 1

      With KDE, I have to download a ton of files, and then figure out the aRTS dependencies and whatnot. I also have to figure out how to make Linux use KDE instead of Gnome.

      Umm, "aptitude install kde" works for me (currently running 3.1rc6, looking forward to the next few days when 3.1 packages come out).

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    5. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by bwalling · · Score: 1

      The do have one. It's called Konstuct [kde.org].

      While that looks simpler than downloading and installing packages, why not a nice GUI installer like Ximian has? I really like their combo of installer + Red Carpet. However, I like the KDE environment better.

      I just find it odd that KDE is so easy to use, yet a pain to install.

    6. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by bruthasj · · Score: 1

      It's in alpha stage, if you're behind a firewall that enforces passive ftp, you have to go in and put --passive-ftp inside the parameter to wget. Do this in that gar.lib.mk file under the ftp rule.

    7. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      try freebsd. make and then make install

      Nathan

    8. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by bruthasj · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Personally I use apt-get (RPM version) and point my sources.list to here (Don't tell them I just anounced it on /.)

    9. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah its easy to use but difficult to install.
      Is there a site which explains the basics like qt/kde and how to smoothly upgrade ?
      I have 7.2, kde2.2, qt 2.3
      i need 3.1 and qt too; i need proper docs for it and its too big a risk to fiddle with my work desktop
      thanks

    10. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      haha.
      sooo glad i've got apt and don't know what you're talking about.

    11. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by tarsi210 · · Score: 1
      For you Slackware people out there, if you're already running 3.0 under Slack 8.1, the contributed packages work marvelously.

      Steps:
      1. Shutdown X.
      2. Backup your current KDE install just in case. tar zcvf /kde3old.tar.gz /opt
      3. Download the new tgz files for 3.1.
      4. cd to the directory where you downloaded the files.
      5. su to root.
      6. Start pkgtool
      7. Install from current directory.
      8. Install everything. (except if you only deal with English you'll want to skip the multilanguage pack - kde-i18n-3.1-noarch-1.tgz)
      9. startx as root, make sure things work.
      10. Log in as your favorite user, startx.
      That's it! How much easier could that be? And it's beautiful...I haven't cracked half the features of this yet (didn't test any of the RCs) but it's looking great so far. Excellent job, KDE Team!

      And for all you other suckers out there, how about contributing something to the effort? Dropping some green in the direction of KDE's team ensures a great desktop -- surely something this nice is worth something to ya.
    12. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by fault0 · · Score: 1

      What distro are you running? If you are on a rpm-based distro or debian, try installing apt.

      If you are on a BSD, install KDE from ports.
      If you are on gentoo, just type emerge kde (3.1-final has been in gentoo since yesterday :))

    13. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by fault0 · · Score: 1

      > Is there a site which explains the basics like qt/kde and how to smoothly upgrade ?

      There is a pretty nice KDE requirements page here. It tells you what you need to install for 3.1 and what is recommended. After that, in order, install arts, kdelibs, kdebase, and you should have a functional KDE desktop. Then the other packages can be installed pretty much in any order.

    14. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by Repugnant_Shit · · Score: 1

      You mean like this?

    15. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by ShavenYak · · Score: 1

      On my Cooker (Mandrake dev. version) box, I typed

      urpmi.update -a
      urpmi --auto-select

      this morning... and within 15 minutes, I had KDE 3.1 AND OpenOffice 1.0.2 installed. Oh, and also some updated printer filters and assorted other stuff.

      If it isn't that easy to install KDE for you, complain to the folks that package your distribution. If you're using LFS, well, you ought to enjoy hunting down dependencies by now!

      --

      Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
    16. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Use Gentoo
      # emerge kde
      No problems with dependicies here!
    17. Re:Do they have an installer yet? by SubtleNuance · · Score: 1

      ...there are no sources for rh8 there - do they maintain a apt db for rpms of rh8?

  30. VNC - no java applet? by mgkimsal2 · · Score: 1

    Well, not from VNC in particular, but at least in the rc6, the other person really needs to have KDE to use it. *OR* they need to know how to set up VNC on their end and configure it properly. What would have been much nicer is to have the Java applet built in on the KDE side, such that it'd let someone connect on a port (80? 8080? whatever) to get the Java viewer applet, then use that applet VNC viewer to connect to your desktop. Right now it's still very limited in its usefulness to techies. Being able to *easily* demonstrate to a non KDE user how useful the sharing is would have been nicer than simply saying 'it's really cool'.

    1. Re:VNC - no java applet? by tjansen · · Score: 1

      Yup, no applet. It's not very high on my priority list, and doing it right would be a lot of work...

    2. Re:VNC - no java applet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AFAIK there's a java applet included with the VNC distribution.
      You could use a solution similar to kpfapplet's.
      (A small&simple web server running on a high port, serving nothing but the applet - preconfigured with the hostname/resolution/whatever)

      Just my 0.02$

    3. Re:VNC - no java applet? by FreeLinux · · Score: 1

      I disagree, I don't think it should have the Java applet. First, the Java applet would need a web server to serve to the client(viewer) which would mean embedding a web server into KDE. This would be more code bloat, at best, and a major security risk at worst. Security will already be a concern with everyone running the VNC server.

      Secondly, VNC viewer setup is dead simple. For Linux, download and install the TightVNC .RPM or .DEB. After install, run TightVNC and enter the address. For Windows clients, download VNC and click SETUP.EXE. Then run the viewer and enter the address.

      I don't think that this is at all too difficult for anyone, let alone anyone that would use VNC. By comparison PCAnywhere is far more complicated to setup and yet is still used by millions of people.

    4. Re:VNC - no java applet? by tjansen · · Score: 1
      The applet is not the problem. It's the web server.
      1. krfb has been carefully designed to minimize memory use. Even if you have it enabled all the time it shouldnt take more than a few kb, because the server only starts when you connect (listening on the TCP port is done by a tiny kded module)
      2. Personally I don't like that we have more and more HTTP servers in KDE. kpf is a HTTP server, kxmlrpcd is a HTTP server, and krfb would have HTTP server number 3. There should be a HTTP server infrastructure in kde...
    5. Re:VNC - no java applet? by Roberto · · Score: 1

      You can do it just using kpf.

      You can create, start and stop a kpf instance through DCOP. SO, if the user chooses "share java applet" on the krfb config, you do it. And you close it down when krfb dies.

    6. Re:VNC - no java applet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Java applet? Christ man, that thing is slow and unusable. I suppose on platforms where you can't run VNC, but can run a Java applet, this might be useful. But even in that rare case, just setup a VNC java applet server yourself. Its not hard. No point in polluting KDE with that.

    7. Re:VNC - no java applet? by tjansen · · Score: 1

      krfb only runs while somebody is connected. It never runs the rest of the time. But the web server needs to be available before the user connects. krfb can't start kpf because it is simply not running at the time kpf needs to be started.

      Beside that, starting a panel applet to allow somebody to access krfb using a http server is not very logical for the user. If you want a hackish solution, just create a simple HTML page which contains the applet and publish it using kpf.

    8. Re:VNC - no java applet? by mgkimsal2 · · Score: 1

      PCAnywhere is INSTALL CD - click click click. And it's preinstalled on many machines by an IS department.

      The whole 'invite by email' thing in the KDE system right now is nice, but *mostly* useless as the only people that would be able to 'click' on the link would have to have KDE (3.1?) installed already.

      Embedding a method for the java applet to be distributed from the host machine would ensure that nearly anyone who got the email invite would be able to click and view the shared desktop, without having to know where to go download VNC, learn how to install it, maybe configure it, etc. The VNC apps are not user-friendly.

      Technically cool? Yes.

      Easy for end-users who *just want to see the desktop someone is trying to share with them*? Nope.

    9. Re:VNC - no java applet? by Roberto · · Score: 1


      You have this kded thingie wating for the connection, right? Make it start and configure kpf.
      You don't need to tell the user to do it.

      And I need no solution, hackish or otherwise, I *can* put up a webpage ;-)

      However, other users can not.

    10. Re:VNC - no java applet? by tjansen · · Score: 1

      That's the point. For a newbie it is not obvious if suddenly an obscure panel applet appears (which is a problem for itself, because of the placement of the applet) that is connected to krfb - if you remove the strange thing that suddenly appeared at some unusual place in the panel, a functionality doesnt work anymore...

      (the kded thingy is called kinetd, and does not have any krfb-related code. It is the smaller problem though)

    11. Re:VNC - no java applet? by Roberto · · Score: 1

      Ok, then, third iteration ;-)

      Configure a profile into kpf through dcop, but don't enable it. Then, when a conenction is made to kinetd's open socket *in the web server's defined port*, kinetd starts kpf, perhaps with a popup saying "Someone is downloading the vnc applet from you". Then, after the applet is downloaded, the profile is erased.

      If kpf supported http simple auth, this can be refined somewhat.

  31. I already found one bug... by psoriac · · Score: 1

    Did anyone else notice the typo in the screenshot showing off Kate (text editor)? Where's bugzilla...

    --
    I browse Slashdot at +3, Funny
  32. Is just me or.. by gmuslera · · Score: 1
    .. all the good things will come in 3.2?

    The new features guide seems to be full of references on how better will be in the next release.

    1. Re:Is just me or.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      that's because 3.1 got delayed so long, the differences with HEAD are consequently quite large.

      There are a LOT of improvements in 3.1 over 3.0 though,
      tabbed browsing
      general sweetness in kmail
      khtml SOOOOO much faster (that 3.2 will be faster yet is almost impossible to believe).
      and loads of config stuff, like a laptop monitor and things.

    2. Re:Is just me or.. by Dan+Ost · · Score: 1

      To me that suggests good planning.

      release 3.0 - a rough version of new architecture
      that implements everything the old architecture
      did.

      Get feedback from the users.

      release 3.1 - tweaked and polished until it's
      rock solid and optimized. The goal is to have
      a solid platform to develope the new features
      that your new architecture can support.

      Get feedback from the users.

      Now that you've got a solid, debugged, clean
      code base to start from, add all the new and
      nifty features that were the motivation for
      the new architecture in the first place.

      Release 3.2 - this is where all your design
      efforts bear real fruit.

      I don't see a better way of doing it.

      --

      *sigh* back to work...
  33. VNC + KDE has been broken in the past. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Funny that this news is posted today.

    I had to launch mozilla from a cosole to get it to pop up this morning. This was using KDE 3.0.3 and the latest vnc.

    Session :0 works fine until I start a vncserver with "startkde" in the ~/.vnc/xstartup script instead of the default twm.
    After I get a second KDE running, my first one gives me messages like "KLauncher could not be reached via DCOP" when I try to use the start menu or task bar. Sure things work fine on the vnc kde session, but I do like having both running.

    I'm very happy to hear that things are playing together nicely now.

    1. Re:VNC + KDE has been broken in the past. by tjansen · · Score: 1

      The VNC support in 3.1 is not related to vncserver, but I used vncserver with KDE in the past without any problems.. my xstartup has only two lines:

      #!/bin/sh
      startkde &

    2. Re:VNC + KDE has been broken in the past. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It seems to only work correctly on certain versions.

      I know I had it working on KDE 1.2
      But broken to some degree on 3.0.3

  34. standards? by gimpboy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    would it be prudent for developers who work on applications similar in nature (eg web browsers) to get together and decide on a standard for things like this?

    integration issues such as this are a useability issue that i think will seriously effect the success of linux on the desktop.

    dont take this as a negative slice towards kde, since communication works both ways, its just a suggestion. it's also a problem which occurs in all applications: email clients, editors, etc. it would just make sense for developers to work together on this and come up with a default set of key bindings that is standard across all applications.

    apart from the constructive criticism above, the screenshots 3.1 looks very sharp. i look forward to the tabbed browsing in konqueror among other things. good job to all of you.

    --
    -- john
    1. Re:standards? by nitehorse · · Score: 1

      Personally, I would be all for such an effort. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the FreeDesktop.org guys were already working on something like this (I don't follow their efforts too closely, though, so I don't know if they are or not.)

      I'm not trying to make any digs here, but the big problem with that is that the Mozilla guys will likely ignore any such standards anyway. They don't bother to adhere to any other UI standards (Mac, Windows, KDE, or GNOME anyway) and they can't be bothered to use standard libs on any of the systems that they run on, nor can they use a standard toolkit or a standard component model. The Mozilla guys seem to be quite content ignoring all the existing standards and implementing their own (except when it comes to the W3C standards, in which case the Mozilla guys adhere to them quite admirably.)

      But I doubt that there's any easy way to get the Mozilla guys in on such an effort.

    2. Re:standards? by gimpboy · · Score: 1

      perhaps the mozilla guys could be could be persuaded to make key bindings userconfigurable-ala .rc file in /etc or the users home directory.

      then if standards happened to be established, this could be implemented at the user level. this way mozilla, konqueror, etc could have their own by default, which could be overwritten by the user. then we could encorporate this into the linux standard base and all of the distros could ship with the defaults in /etc and /etc/skel.

      or perhaps i'm just smoking crack :). if we could get it included into the lsb then it might be enough of a shove to push standards compliance.

      --
      -- john
    3. Re:standards? by roca · · Score: 1

      Given that Mozilla runs on Mac, Windows, and X (not to mention BeOS and OS/2), there was no acceptable single set of libraries, toolkit, and component model available to use. Certainly not back in 1998-1999 and not today either.

      We're trying hard to get the look and feel correct on each platform. We now get the native look by rendering using the native themes on Mac, Windows and GTK. We'll do KDE themes if and when the Qt port gets up to speed.

      "don't bother" ... "can't be bothered" ... "quite content" ... please, don't jump to conclusions.

      If you or anyone else proposes some credible freedesktop.org-style standards, we'll take a look. If you need a contact, just email me at roc+moz@cs.cmu.edu (member of Mozilla drivers).

  35. Don't make anything out of it. by arthurs_sidekick · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Lest anyone be accusing Red Hat of animosity towards KDE, note that RH's kernels are also behind the latest releases from Linus, and yet nobody ... well, nobody worth listening to -- claims that RH has it in for Mr. Torvalds' little project. I think it's far more likely that RH just has a rigorous QA process with the aim of releasing no package before its time than that they hate KDE. By the way, when the update for security problems in a recent version of KDE came out, RH came out with them in a timely fashion. This (3.1) release has lots of new neat features, but it's not a security update. Perhaps they believe (rightly, IMO) that users can wait for shiny new objects.

    Besides, have you looked at how many packages it takes to install KDE? Eeep! I suppose up2date can handle that. Of course, the upgradability issue is there with GNOME; and I can't recall off the top of my head when RH has offered a point-release update for GNOME that wasn't security-related [ that's a hedge -- I can't recall when they have release a point-release update for GNOME period ].

    For those of you who absolutely must have the latest, then take a look in the "rawhide" directory of any RH mirror, e.g. this one.

    --
    "Oh, I hope he doesn't give us halyatchkies," said Heinrich.
    1. Re:Don't make anything out of it. by intnsred · · Score: 1

      Lest anyone be accusing Red Hat of animosity towards KDE, note that RH's kernels are also behind the latest releases from Linus, and yet nobody ... well, nobody worth listening to -- claims that RH has it in for Mr. Torvalds' little project.

      Bad example -- there's no alternative kernel in Red Hat. Let me bring it more in line with the KDE/GNOME feud:

      Let's suppose that Red Hat started shipping a BSD kernel. Let's say they modified all the GNU software so that BSD and Linux would be similar. Let's say that Red Hat says to its customers, "Hey, you get the best of both worlds -- you can choose BSD or Linux, we favor neither." And let's say that in the process that broke a few minor things in the Linux kernel. Now remember that Red Hat has a ton of BSD developers on staff, and that the last Linux kernel hacker, Alan Cox, quit Red Hat in a snit griping about incompatabilities and lobotomizing Linux.

      Would you then say that Red Hat would be biased towards BSD? Or would you take the issue that they're simply trying to bring unity to the two *nix kernels?

    2. Re:Don't make anything out of it. by damiam · · Score: 1
      I would think that if they want to ship two different OSs, they should hire people to work on both. If they're unwilling to do that, they should drop one of them.

      Similarly, Redhat should either work harder on KDE, or drop it altogether. If I were them, I'd drop it, except for the libraries. Having two DEs available destroys the integration of the UI - Joe Sixpack doesn't know or care what a "GNOME" or "KDE" is, and the choice confuses him. The people who do care are generally capable of installing KDE themselves.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  36. kde3.1 packages for for redhat by rdieter · · Score: 4, Informative

    Editorial comments aside, you can expect kde-3.1 packages (currently, for rh73 only) to appear soon at kde-redhat.sourceforge.net.

  37. The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was a long time GNOME follower. Knowing GNOME 1.x and 2.x of it's best but I must admit that KDE 3.1 is the best Desktop Environment that I've seen so far.

    - It's fast,
    - Clean,
    - Consistent,
    - Really integrated,
    - Usable,
    - Beats Windows in certain situations on length.

    I belive that with the 3.1 release of KDE that there is no real future for GNOME and I sometimes wonder why they still work on it and put so much effort into that project. GNOME will never comes out of the 'development' phase. Once an application looks halfway usable (still in development phase) it then starts to get changed once again which then makes it unusable for the next couple of months again.

    There are a lot of nasty issues in GNOME even now in the stabilized gnome-2-2 branch which will get released in 2 days.

    - Log in as user under console (not gdm) and then enter startx to load up X and GNOME then try to immediately log out. Nothing happens for the next 3-5 minutes. Then one time the logout dialog pleases itself to show up and let you log out (even this doesn't work seriously often). This problem has been announced on bugzilla.gnome.org and hasn't been fixed till yet.
    - Gnome-Terminal install the bluecurve theme and fullsize it. The theme disappears.
    - Bonobo and Glade toolbars are looking differently get a look here.
    - Documentation for programmers. There are still no sign for usable GNOME 2 documentations, how should a programmer get into GNOME 2.x development when he knows shit about howto use the functions and what purpose they have. There is the API reference manuals for all libraries (still unfinished and incomplete), there are old documentations for GTK1 and GNOME1 and there is the GTK 2 tutorial which only describes the first 20% of the Toolkit but nothing more. No documentation explaining Gnome-VFS, Bonobo and other complex things. You've been told to 'use the source Luke' all the time but it's hard spending 3 months into buggy code of others to get a clue how things are made and then adapt maybe buggy code to your own project because you don't know it better howto use these things.
    - Still nothing as simple as a Fileselector yet,
    - Still no snap to grid feature.
    - GNOME is mostly a hacking around when I have the mood to it or when I feel that I need to tweak this and that. There is no real roadmap or featureplan such as in KDE even months ago I was able to read and KNOW what will be in KDE 3.1 and even now I know what will be in 3.2

    GNOME are hyping and making shitty things such as 'open recent' features look like its a revolutionary progress in the desktop while on the other hand its a little gift from KDE.

    Sorry to come over with the same shit all the time but people tend to compare KDE and GNOME all the time so do I. I really like KDE and I also like GNOME very much (used to be a GNOME follower) but all this is soo sad. Now seeing KDE 3.1 and compareing it with 3.0 then I ask myself wow. What's wrong with GNOME ? 2.0 and 2.2 is no big step if you compare it with the changes made in KDE.

    Well this can endlessly be expanded. I appreciate and welcome the work of the GNOME developers they are definately trying to do a good job but imo it's not enough for the public. And it makes me sick reading all the shit from GNOME zealots replying to KDE people how much mature GNOME is (which it definately is not). Fancy themes and icons doesn't make a good desktop environment.

    1. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Modded up with positive and realistic intentions by KDE users and modded down to Troll by angry GNOME people that couldn't once again stand the reality. All said above are serious truth and facts. There is no need to construct wrong statements or politics since it's obviously.

    2. Re:The end of GNOME. by Idimmu+Xul · · Score: 1

      I've been using GNOME for 6 years. I think the only reason I haven't switched to KDE yet is because of the length of time I've been using it, and because of Evolution.

      The lack of a decent Fileselector basically speaks volumes about GNOME :/

      Changing to KDE3.1 will probably mean dropping Debian for Gentoo though, as they still have KDE issues don't they?

      --
      The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
    3. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well I can't speak for Gentoo or Debian since I don't use them but KDE is totally simple to deal and install with. The requirements needed to compile KDE is less than for GNOME if we speak about CVS.

      - No docbook shit you deal with,
      - No nightmares with scrollkeeper,
      - No nightmares with XML and SGML,
      - No nightmares with python and missing libglade-config,
      - No nightmares with the soon used MONO stuff wich will increase complexity.

      Simply grab these modules from CVS

      arts, kdebase, kdebindings, kdeedu, kdegames,
      kdegraphics, kdelibs, kdemultimedia, kdenetwork,
      kdenonbeta, kdepim, kdesdk, kdetoys, kdeutils
      kdevelop, koffice, qt-copy


      And then build them in this row.

      qt-copy, arts, kdelibs, kdebase, kdeutils,
      kdenetwork, kdegraphics, kdemultimedia
      kdegames, kdepim, koffice, kdesdk, kdevelop


      No pain, no dependency shit nothing. It compiles and bravely installs all in the directory you specify. Use some buildscripts for it as I'm doing they work fine. Less complexity than GNOME.

      Welcome on the KDE ship my friend. You don't regret this decision.

    4. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not quite....

      a couple of depends that are buggers, even one on a gnome lib in cvs.

      but there are excellent builds for debian. karolinas and ralph nodens new ones. should all be in sid soon AND kde3.2 will be kroupware enabled (bye bye evo)

    5. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah I am playing with the Kroupware stuff in the PIM cvs module of KDE and I must say that it looks so easy connecting other components to KDE.

      You take program a) and embedd it easily into z) application b) will also be put into z) etc. so when I run application z) it acts like a whole app but I know that I can still run app a) or b) as an own little app. KDE is so easy in development and consistency and adaption it's like playing LEGO.

      Thanks a lot!

    6. Re:The end of GNOME. by diamondc · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I've never had the log in as user under console, startx, unable to logout for 3-5 minutes problem before. Maybe you had a program that didn't support session management. Gnome should have (does for me when I run GTM and want to logout) presented a dialog to close that program then logout. And I used to have the window frame disappear when I maximized gnome-terminal, but that's fixed as of the latest version in Debian Unstable.

      and AFAIK there's definetly going to be a new fileselector for gtk 2.4. (it's in the roadplan on the gtk.org page.)

      --
      "I keep looking in the want-ads under 'revolutionary' but there don't seem to be any listings.. "
    7. Re:The end of GNOME. by FooBarWidget · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "And it makes me sick reading all the shit from GNOME zealots replying to KDE people how much mature GNOME is (which it definately is not)."

      HUH????? When was the last time you read Slashdot? 1998? The pro-KDE anti-GNOME trolls overwhelmed Slashdot like... 3 years ago. About one year ago, they seem to have reduced exponentially.

      And now YOU suddenly jumps in, claiming that there are lots of GNOME zealots posting shit, while it's more than obvious that they are almost extinct now? Get a life!
      THERE IS NO GNOME VS KDE WAR!!!!!!!

    8. Re:The end of GNOME. by diamondc · · Score: 1

      KDE 3.1 will go into the Debian unstable soon. Only reason it wasn't included before was the change to using gcc 3.2 and having to rebuild KDE.

      --
      "I keep looking in the want-ads under 'revolutionary' but there don't seem to be any listings.. "
    9. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
      I was a long time GNOME follower.
      Ali, it would be more correct to say you were a long time anti-GNOME Troll.
    10. Re:The end of GNOME. by FooBarWidget · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In other news: the release of KDE 3.2 means the end of Enlightenment, WindowMaker and Blackbox.

      Get real. There is no GNOME vs KDE war. KDE cannot kill GNOME, nor can GNOME kill KDE. They will both continue to exist.

    11. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No pain, no dependency shit nothing.

      Given the specific order you said you had to compile everything in, I would tend to disagree with this statement...

    12. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you do realize there's around 3 diffferent build scripts for GNOME?

      And soon you can just emerge gnome or apt-get install gnome on Gentoo/Debian.

    13. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah there are 3 different buildscripts (no there are more) and I'm the author of CVSGnome build script but I tend to agree to the initial writer. GNOME has to many dependencies that can NOT be handled with a buildscript such as

      - jade,
      - latex,
      - docbook XML
      - docbook XSLT
      - docbook SGML
      - installation of Python and Expat (one of the most common problems)

      And a variation of other stuff. But summarized it up then the Docbook shit is a hell to deal with.

    14. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These named modules are only reflecting this:

      8 modules required to install a full featured KDE desktop.
      80 modules required to install a halfway functional GNOME desktop.

    15. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does it have any reasons for you to write the NO GNOME WAR in bold letters ? Let us know if you need pills for your pump so we can help you just in time.

    16. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, this 'Ali' shit starts again ? Who are you if you allow me to ask ? And who gave you the right to play the judge over other peoples opinion and comments ?

      Yes, I'm that named Ali guy and I'm fucking tired of morons like you staying anonymously and attack people 'specially people'. There is a big difference (as I repeated it all the time) if a person discusses and talks about a Desktop Environment or people like you that permanently attack, libel and slander single persons.

      I would really be thankful if we can drop the personal attacks here and concentrate on the Desktop Environment and the problematic itself. It is not fair, not right and specially not your responisbility to put other peoples name in the dirt just because he/she has a slightly differently opinion than you.

      I think that I did quite some good cobtributions for the GNOME community, that people seem to forget really quickly such as contributing long enough to Balsa, writing CVSGnome for unthankful subjects like you, so you can easily install GNOME or writing Atlantis Webbrowser which I was flamed to death for - because I haven't released the codes immediately (which there was no reasons for because it was my own project and I told people to be a bit more patient) and the various bugreports and patches that I sent in.

      Next time when you come up with "oh it's that Ali" guy again then be a person and use your real name when doing assumptions in the public. Otherwise you can hurt these people pretty much specially when it comes to 'jobsearch' or other things.

      I'm sick going on all kind of places and seeing some dumb assholes are putting my name up on all the places without any proof if it's really me. dumbass!

      My opinion is and stays my opinion regardless if I'm right or wrong. And there is no one that I need to consult or ask for permission to state my opinion in the public. I hope that enough people are going to read this and now STFU.

    17. Re:The end of GNOME. by crush · · Score: 1

      Hmmm, bet you're running a pre-release version of some distro and that your problems are more related to that than anything else. Well? What are you running?

      Sorry to come over with the same shit all the time [...] all this is soo sad.

      You said it buddy! Just drop it. GNOME and KDE are both great desktops and people like them for largely personal reasons. I hope they both continue to be as succesful as they are. Personally I prefer how GNOME works because I'm used to it (and because they tend to emphasize the Free Software part as opposed to Open Source -- the only mention of "free" in the KDE release notes was as free closely adjacent to "Open Source". I feel that is a political misstep and will deflect attention from the most important thing to me, which is Freedom).

      However, technically the KDE3.1 is a beautiful and well-engineered desktop and I congratulate all the hackers that worked on it.

    18. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but those KDE modules are 20x as big.

    19. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Hmmm, bet you're running a pre-release version of some
      > distro and that your problems are more related to that
      > than anything else. Well? What are you running?

      Excuse me, but what has a distro to do with:

      - No programming manuals for GNOME 2 ?
      - No full api reference manual for GNOME 2 ?
      - Half written GTK+ tutorials ?
      - The session manager not loging people out correctly even if it was compiled from the STABLE cvs branch which was tagged 'gnome-2-2' which as assumable is newer and more stable than a RC candidate ?
      - That it has no Fileselector ?
      - That there is no snap to grid feature ?

      Sorry but this is more related to the project itself than anything distro related. I am in the position to reply this to you since I know GNOME perfectly enough to write this. GNOME lacks everything started from good programmer manuals over to anything else.

    20. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is true. But the resulting code is not.

      My GNOME 2.2 installation based on CVSGnome 0.3.9 modules and:

      - Mozilla,
      - AbiWord,
      - Evolution,
      - Gnopernicus,
      - The GIMP

      Consumes more space after compile than KDE completely installed. GNOME eats around 80-100 MB more even with stripped symbols and NON static libraries.

    21. Re:The end of GNOME. by crush · · Score: 1

      I'll take your answer as a "yes, I am running a pre-release of some distro" then shall I? Basically you don't know what you're doing.

    22. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe you should re-read my reply again before replying. It's really obvious that you ignore or haven't read the facts inside.

      To make it simple for you to understand now:

      Having NO programmers manuals and documentations IS NOT a distribution problem. It is a general problem of these things to be NOT existent. Not even on Developer Gnome Org and I tend to know all the manuals and writing inside on it's best now.

      Using the GNOME 2.2 CVS branch (self compiled because I know best what I am doing) by using the "gnome-2-2" tag (if this says something for you I don't know) then it means "This is a STABLE version of GNOME 2.2 and it is MORE stable than the RC candidates (RC == Release Candidate). Obviously that I know more than you assume.

    23. Re:The end of GNOME. by udippel · · Score: 1

      You're so right ! - KDE is technically superior, but I am and will remain with GNOME. Because I don't feel like throwing out when I look at the interface. 3rd grade schoolkiddies' stuff. It makes my headaches, and plus, yes, it is in competition to M$. For the gold medal of who creates the ugliest interface ever. KDE 3.1 gets even closer to that shit. If I wanted Luna, I'd install Luna (or whatever this childish effort in saturated colours is called). What do these f...ers think !!!??? Can they not pay anyone for reasonable icons, colours, layout ? Can they think at all in terms of HCI (except trying to blindly imitate Windoze ??) As long as their GUIs are a clear 'Fail', how can they expect to 'win' ? Writing this from a Gnome 1.4.X, the cleanest and most useable / configurable interface so far. 2 sen, but my 2 sen !

    24. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok you use GNOME 1.4.x for writing this and you say that KDE people are immitating Windows.

      Now install GNOME 2.x if you like so and look at GConf the Windows Registry immitation and the wrong aligned buttons as in MacIntrash.

      Any reasons for you having not yet upgraded to GNOME 2.x ? I assume why.

    25. Re:The end of GNOME. by fault0 · · Score: 1

      > For the gold medal of who creates the ugliest interface ever. KDE 3.1 gets even closer to that shit.

      sigh.. Obviously you talk about GNOME 1.4.x is the"most configurable interface so far", yet you don't know how to change the style in KDE (or chose a simple radio button when kpersonalizer is run at the very first time!)

      braindead.. very braindead.

    26. Re:The end of GNOME. by ElGuapoGolf · · Score: 1

      You're totally right... I use KDE, but there are a few GTK/Gnome applications that I can't do without (Evolution, gaim, xmms). And every single time I see that file selection box, I cringe. I mean, come in, it's hideous in so many ways that usability experts should explode on contact with the thing. How hard would it have been to add a "up a level" button. Is this fixed in GTK2? Evolution still uses those boxes (at least, my version does). Is this fixed in Gnome2? Hell, even the QT 1.x file selection box was nicer than the load of crap that GTK dumps on users. One of the sweetest things about KDE is that file selection dialog. I mean, you can open URLs, FTP sites, SMB shares, pretty much anything with that box. Set bookmarks, get previews. It's fantastic.

    27. Re:The end of GNOME. by fault0 · · Score: 1

      > THERE IS NO GNOME VS KDE WAR!!!!!!!

      Yep.. KDE and GNOME in fact, share both standards and code. For example, KDE uses libart_lgpl from gnomecvs (and more too!)

      It's great that we have choices.. without GNOME, KDE would not be so great today, and without KDE, GNOME would not exist today.

    28. Re:The end of GNOME. by huh_ · · Score: 1

      Maybe they should just rename Gnome 2.2 to Gnome 7 or something and all the problems will go away.

    29. Re:The end of GNOME. by aussersterne · · Score: 1

      http://www.kde-look.org

      Easy to install. Very nice looking, some of them. My personal favorite? Light style v.3. Clean, minimal, no shit, better looking than anything else for Windows or Linux. Combine with the iKons icon set for a very, very professional desktop that makes Windows users ask "Is that Windows 2003?" (seriously.)

      --
      STOP . AMERICA . NOW
    30. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree - the file selector dialog is my
      number one favorite feature of KDE.

      I cringe whenever I have to use the one
      in OpenOffice.

    31. Re:The end of GNOME. by jbolden · · Score: 1

      There is no American vs. Serbia war either but it doesn't mean people aren't dieing from DU because of the remnants of the war.

      1) RedHat just recently striped a tremendous amount out of KDE killing it as a desktop alternative.

      2) Sun's corporate desktop options are Gnome & CDE. Doesn't KDE make a lot more sense as an upgrade to CDE?

      3) Debian's user's guide still lists Gnome as the standard desktop.

      4) The FSF has lost its legitimacy with a great number of people as overall leader for Linux.

      5) QT is not the standard widget set for C++ development in Linux

      The idea that you would have a battle as bloody as that and then everybody just forgets about is out of the question. Gnome was born from a truly hateful campain against KDE. Since then its has created some great software, but everything is not over.

    32. Re:The end of GNOME. by shellbeach · · Score: 1
      there is no real future for GNOME and I sometimes wonder why they still work on it and put so much effort into that project

      I'm guessing it's something along the lines of: they (the GNOME developers) want to?? GNOME is opensource - it's developed by people who want a desktop interface that is not KDE and is not defined by anything else either; they're not getting paid to do it, but rather they're doing it (presumably) because it's what they want. Personally, neither GNOME nor KDE appeal. But everyone works differently, and some people do prefer GNOME. You say po-tay-to, I say po-ta-to, etc, etc.

      It's called choice :)

    33. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are badly mistaken here my friend!

      > ... they're not getting paid to do it ...

      They do!

      Most of the developers hacking on the core GNOME desktop are hired by RedHat, Ximian or SUN. All contracted employees. They are getting paid to work on GNOME now. That's also the reason why the once really open GNOME matured into a real commercial project. Including the total control of these companies and including the total outsourcing of this project. Another topic that scares me and other users. GNOME is fine but it could be much better if people would take a bit more care in their work. People finally want to have a working Desktop Environment and no hackerstoy. That's a big disadvantage of GNOME it is never finished.

    34. Re:The end of GNOME. by FooBarWidget · · Score: 1

      "There is no American vs. Serbia war either but it doesn't mean people aren't dieing from DU because of the remnants of the war"

      More reason to kill off the remnants in order to prevent even more people getting killed.

      "1) RedHat just recently striped a tremendous amount out of KDE killing it as a desktop alternative."

      In other news: RedHat forked GNOME and replaced it's icons and menus, therebefore killing GNOME as a desktop alternative.

      In yet other news: people who were complaining about how Linux will never succeed on the desktop until both desktops look alike are now massively attacking RedHat.

      "2) Sun's corporate desktop options are Gnome & CDE. Doesn't KDE make a lot more sense as an upgrade to CDE?"

      What's your point? One of the reasons they chose GNOME was that they were more familiar with C. They made a choice, period.
      So what if RedHat and Sun chose GNOME as default? Mandrake/SuSE/Caldera/Xandros/Lycoris/InsertOtherD istributionsHere chose KDE as default.

      That KDE is better is your opinion. Others may disagree. Why force them to use KDE? If they want KDE they'll install it themselves.
      KDE still has more market share. You have nothing to complain about.

      "The idea that you would have a battle as bloody as that and then everybody just forgets about is out of the question. Gnome was born from a truly hateful campain against KDE. Since then its has created some great software, but everything is not over."

      No, it's just not over in the minds of a small minority like you. You still hold a grudge for whatever reason. Give it up, it's over.
      Guess what? The rest of the world doesn't give a damn about your stupid little holy war! Even the GNOME and KDE developers themselve agree with this.

    35. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry to say this but you are the only one here that talks about a holy war all the time ... No one else does.

    36. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Ali, it's not a case of you simply presenting an honest opinion. Every time there is a new GNOME or KDE release, you anonymously post this fabricated story where you say you're a long time GNOME developer or user, who has just decided to switch to KDE.

      No doubt we can look forward to a similar post when GNOME 2.2 debuts shortly. This is in addition to your constant trolling on the linux websites.

      In the past, your trolling on the GNOME web sites has been so bad, that on a number of occasions, they've had to introduce new posting rules to try and keep it from getting completely out of hand (to everyone else's inconvenience.)

      If you don't like getting a bad reputation, then stop your trolling!

    37. Re:The end of GNOME. by FooBarWidget · · Score: 1

      "8 modules required to install a full featured KDE desktop.
      80 modules required to install a halfway functional GNOME desktop."


      8 big modules required to install a full featured KDE desktop.
      80 small modules required to install a halfway functional GNOME desktop.

      Let's do some simple math here.
      KDE module = 20, GNOME module = 1.
      20 * 8 = 160
      1 * 160 = 160
      End result: the same.

      Use Garnome or apt-get or emerge to install GNOME and it's just as easy as KDE.

    38. Re:The end of GNOME. by FooBarWidget · · Score: 1

      100 MB on today's 60 GB harddisks! Wow, what a bloat!

    39. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I only have 15GB here thats totally enough for me but what I liked to point out was the difference:

      You get less with more space wasted on GNOME, while you get more with less space wasted on KDE.

    40. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I prefer using CVSGnome it's written by me and works perfectly. Not to mention that I trusts it more than anything else.

    41. Re:The end of GNOME. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh jesus. Dude you are the only trolling one right now.

      First of all It's my good right to be anonymous when I like it. Many people do so every day and they don't need to feel ashamed of it. You call me a troll. Fine but you haven't brought up any serious argumentations about it and I never said that I'm a long time GNOME developer. There is a slightly big difference between saying GNOME follower than GNOME developer. The problem is that people like you that obviously don't know me and even after being asked to show up their real name to be at least fair enough before libel and slander me but you disrespected that once again and this fully disqualified you for a normal person and argumentation basis even as respectfull person. My fair question to you is "what did I do to you that gives you the rights to be my judge of my doings ?". It is my good right to criticize GNOME when I think I'm right. Even if I'm not right what does that matter ? It's still not your job to play the freaking judge for all my doings. Following all my steps and slader and bash me as human being on all kind of places. What kind of low creature are you ? Even on GnomeDesktop.org GNOME officials tried to libel and slander me and they horrible failed as you can see. The official NEWS page of GNOME and I had more people behind me because they know that the real situation looks differently than spread by morons like you. I don't even have an account there but as you can see all my replies there where fine, no trolling nothing and respectfully got modded up while the 2 official GNOME trolls got modded down. You can even review a bunch of my comments on OSNews.com and you don't even find anything negative there.

    42. Re:The end of GNOME. by Rob+Kaper · · Score: 1


      8 big modules required to install a full featured KDE desktop.
      80 small modules required to install a halfway functional GNOME desktop.

      Let's do some simple math here.
      KDE module = 20, GNOME module = 1.
      20 * 8 = 160
      1 * 160 = 160
      End result: the same.


      While I agree with you that a good packagement management tool makes the issue irrelevant, but I can do math too:

      Permutations of GNOME dependencies: 80! = 7.1569457046e+118
      Permutations of KDE dependencies: 8! = 40320

      In reality qt/arts/kdelibs/kdebase are the only dependencies for the non-main modules, and kdeaddons sources optionally depend on kdegames/kdemultimedia.. and that's it! Last time I tried GNOME CVS, I couldn't even find out where to start compiling. Perhaps CVSGNOME solves that.

      Of course, if you are using binaries, all our math makes no sense anymore because any distribution can bundle or split modules at will.

  38. Windows user:(( by krishy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Good for you lucky people with Linux boxes!. Here I am stuck up with Windows.
    Hey is someone porting it to Cygwin;)?.
    Is there a KHTML port being planned?.

    Yes, am stuck in windows!

    1. Re:Windows user:(( by lastninja · · Score: 1

      here is a port to Windows, not ready yet though

      --
      John Carmack fan, browsing at +5 since 1999.
    2. Re:Windows user:(( by orv · · Score: 2, Informative

      Guess you just want to be keeping an eye on: kde-cygwin then.

  39. Re:superb desktop, always top notch from the KDE t by twener · · Score: 1

    KDE picks up common keyboard shortcuts if they are not previously used by KDE for something else, e.g. F9 for sidebar or Ctrl-W to close a tab.

  40. Re:OS X looks boring compared to new open source U by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 1

    get a grip.

    It's SUPPOSED to be boring (read consistent and professional), not UGLY like Windows, or HALF-FINISHED like KDE.

    The fact that you can run an OGL screensaver as wallpaper should make up for any degree of boredom you encounter.

    --
    That was classic intercourse!
  41. Tabbed browsing? by timbck2 · · Score: 1

    Cool, then maybe Safari for MacOS X will have it soon! Tabbed browsing is the only reason I still use Mozilla on my iMac at home.

    --
    Absurdity: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion. -- Ambrose Bierce
    1. Re:Tabbed browsing? by dmaxwell · · Score: 2, Informative

      Tabbed browsing is a UI feature. Safari is only using the KHTML rendering engine. The rendering engine shouldn't care whether it is drawing into a tab or window. This means that features added to Konqueror don't necessary become part of Safari or vice versa. Both browers have lots of code apart from the rendering engine. Improvements to the rendering engine will come to both sooner or later. Their interfaces are independent though.

    2. Re:Tabbed browsing? by uigrad_2000 · · Score: 1
      The big mistake they made with tabbed browsing is changing the hotkeys. Now that Mozilla, and Mozilla-based products have become so common, many of us are used to using:
      cntl-T to open a tab.
      cntl-W to close a tab.

      Why does konqueror have to use something different?

      --
      Free unix account: freeshell.org
  42. Brought to you by the letter K by stuntpope · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know this K-naming thing has really gotten to the KDE folks when you read about the new game Atlantik: "Inspired by the famous boardwalk in Atlantik City, New Jersey...".

    1. Re:Brought to you by the letter K by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good point. noticed that myself.

      gee, slash's 20 second limit is annoying

  43. Extremely impressive feature list by Tack · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I usually try KDE every new release, and after some time, I wind up going back to GNOME. I'm just more comfortable with GNOME. I can't explain it.

    But these KDE releases are knocking the socks off those little GNOME feet with features. Some things that caught my eye, in order of coolness: kio_fish, VNC integration, and a file selector dialog that doesn't suck.

    It's very impressive, and it's terribly exciting to see this rate of polish being added to these big projects. Congrats to the KDE team for another (hopefully solid) release.

    Jason.

    1. Re:Extremely impressive feature list by Alan · · Score: 1

      Same here.... KDE has some *very* nifty features. The most impressive is the nice pop-up preview for pretty much every file type under the sun. The only thing that pisses me off is that the file view in konq doesn't seem to cache thumbnails, so every time I go to a directory/reload it I have to wait for the icons to quit jumping around as they have thumbnails created.

      I'll give it another go after it's done compiling on my gentoo system though, cause there are some things in gnome2 that are pissing me right off now....

    2. Re:Extremely impressive feature list by dcuny · · Score: 1
      I love Konq, but waiting for the icons to finish shuffling is a bit problematic - I'll often click one icon, and have something else appear.

      In the Under the Hood section of the KDE 3.1 New Feature Guide, there's a small blurb:

      ... and smarter thumbnail generation.

      So I'm holding out some small hope that this got addressed.

      I'm a bit leery about upgrading to the Mandrake 9.1 beta, but I really want to play with KDE 3.1. Hopefully Knoppix will come out with it Real Soon Now - apparently Klaus is waiting for the internationalization stuff.

    3. Re:Extremely impressive feature list by Alan · · Score: 1

      Well, this is still a problem in rc5, but here's hoping...

    4. Re: Extremely impressive feature list by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1


      > I usually try KDE every new release, and after some time, I wind up going back to GNOME. I'm just more comfortable with GNOME. I can't explain it.

      I think GNOME's idiotic reversal of the conventional placement of the "OK" and "Cancel" buttons in dialogs is going to ruin that "just more comfortable" edge for a lot of us.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  44. Re:superb desktop, always top notch from the KDE t by Rogerborg · · Score: 1

    OTOH, the ten people that use Konsole frames in Konqueror and that update to 3.1 could have changed their keybindings. I'm thinking that you could probably have told all ten of them by word of mouth as well.

    Given that so much of KDE is, ahem, influenced by other GUIs and apps, switching to the de facto standard in new releases might be a sensible strategy.

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  45. Geramik? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You could try Geramik - this'll give your GTK/GNOME apps a similar look to KDE3.1's Keramik style.

  46. Games by AlgUSF · · Score: 1

    I have my parents running linux, and my mother will be thrilled that they have 4 new games. Whenever I come over to their house, she is always playing with those games that come with KDE.

    --


    I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
  47. Any idea when the Mandrake packages will be out? by Twister002 · · Score: 1

    Will they be available via Mandrake Software Update?

    --
    "For a successful technology, honesty must take precedence over public relations for nature cannot be fooled." -Feynman
  48. RPMs for RH8? by Quixote · · Score: 1

    I have RH8 installed (yep, the .0 with the famous "blended" UI from RH). Whats the easiest way to move to KDE3.1 ?

    1. Re:RPMs for RH8? by Des+Herriott · · Score: 2, Informative
      Probably by using Konstruct. I don't think anyone's got any binary RPM's for it yet.

      It'll take quite a while (fetches and builds everything from source), but it is just a single make command to build everything, so you can set it off and walk away.

      Got a build running now, will let you know how well it goes. Halfway through kdebase, been running for a couple of hours on a 1GHz machine.

    2. Re:RPMs for RH8? by LMCBoy · · Score: 1

      There isn't an easy way to do get KDE 3.1 on Redhat. You can either compile the tarballs, wait for redhat packages (official or otherwise), or change to a KDE-firendly distro.

      --
      Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
  49. Not surprising for other reasons... by TheOrquithVagrant · · Score: 1

    ...namely that RedHat generally never releases packages for new packages for _anything_ to current distributions, other than to fix bugs.

    Now, I realize that the parent post in this case is not actually clear on whether the complaint is about packages for Redhat by the KDE project itself, or lack of KDE 3.1 packages from Redhat. Therefore, if the case is the former, I'll apologize for the somewhat angry tone below, and ask that it be considered reserved for the whiners
    elsewhere in this thread.

    I can't help but notice that KDE users seem to be demanding _privilieged_ treatement from Redhat, rather than merely the same treatment as other projects get.

    Redhat have never provided packages for new gnome releases either. Redhat provides the same treatement to KDE as they give to every other app shipped with their distros - bugfixes only. New versions will be shipped with new distro releases.

    And incidentally - If you check the updates for RedHat 8, you'll find they have released more fixes for KDE apps than they have for gnome. Of course you could argue that this might be because they shipped KDE in a buggier state. I can't comment since I don't use KDE. The fact, nevertheless, is worth noting.

    1. Re:Not surprising for other reasons... by manyoso · · Score: 1

      This just illustrates why people who *expect* the latest version of KDE should stay clear of RedHat. Trying to support RedHat inclined users of the latest KDE/Qt software is a nightmare. If RedHat itself cannot do it then how can anyone expect the KDE project too?

    2. Re:Not surprising for other reasons... by fault0 · · Score: 1

      > ...namely that RedHat generally never releases packages for new packages for _anything_ to current distributions, other than to fix bugs.

      Funny.. while Redhat never did, people at Redhat release packages for what many people consider important and hard to install (such as KDE and GNOME).

      For a long time, bero made KDE packages as new versions of KDE rolled out (used to be at http://people.redhat.com/bero/)

      And hp provided GNOME rh(7.x/8) rpms in the form of GNOMEhide.

    3. Re:Not surprising for other reasons... by TheOrquithVagrant · · Score: 1

      Well, bleeding-edge addicts can simply chose RawHide as their redhat release of choice, and keep updating... updating... updating... ;)

      Seriously, though - it's not that redhat _can't_ do it, its that they _won't_ do it - its not in line with their update policy. If you don't like RedHat's policy on updates, you should just stay away from that distro altogether, which is a perfectly valid choice. Just don't try to make it out as a KDE-specific issue.

  50. Any word on the Bitstream Vera fonts? by PRR · · Score: 1

    Ever since the announcment last week of Bitstream making their Vera TTF's available to the Gnome foundation as well as any other Linux-related group who wants to package them... has there been any word on the KDE lists/forums about any plans to incorporate those fonts into future versions of KDE?

    1. Re:Any word on the Bitstream Vera fonts? by gimpimp · · Score: 1

      heh, I hope *every* project that wants to make use of the fonts will package them (there are 10 fonts, and dozens of projects that could use them).

      The only project that needs to carry them is X, of which a new release (4.3) is out any day now. If they don't come with that, then I expect the next point release to have them.

      --
      i wish i was but oh well
  51. Configuration keeps me away from Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The first strike against Linux for me is the difficulty I've experienced simply changing the screen resolution and bit depth after an install, for this inconvenience I stay away.

    Secondly, this problem with "packages", why is there not a standard executable design as in Windows that any one of us tards out here doesn't haven to question if a download is an rpm, a gzip, tar, etc?

    Why the archaic nomenclature? CVS, Konq, RPM, VNC, GPG, CLI, VIM, XEMACS, GTK, Qt, Blended UI. Just what is all this, or better yet, who cares? Maybe it empowers geeks to have "Leet" speak to differentiate themselves, more to the point, to alienate and isolate themselves, but if this operating system is to ever have a chance at reaching the consumers desktop - the elitism and the lack of ease of use will have to disappear.

    My best arguement would be to point to the advent of Windows and how it hurt Apple (elitism at it's worst in the 80's/early 90's) and SGI (extreme difficulty in maintaining and updating an end users machine 80's/early 90's).

    1. Re:Configuration keeps me away from Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have demonstrated quite articulately that in fact Linux does need people like me as complex does not deliver the greatest benefit to society as a whole. We are mobile and connected which allows us to manufacture these products we are working with due to the simplicity of the automobile and the telephone.

      Regarding your comment about needing people with a brain, if in fact I were Anencephalatic I can assure you that I wouldn't be here asking questions or posing thoughts.

      Your use of CAPS demonstrates a maturity that finds it necessary to scream to get a point across, a sign that maybe people don't listen to you, that you are anti-social, otherwise have problems communicating, and the cursing and attempts at insults only further demonstrates your general malaise of intellect control of language and organized thought.

      Finally your grammar is atrocious as is your spelling. Run your diatribe through the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level analysis program and you'll find that you write at slightly less than a fifth grade level. So either you are 10 or 11 years old or you yourself might very well be the dumbass in this equation.

  52. Changelog - 3.1rc6 to 3.1 by Apostata · · Score: 1

    If anyone can find a changelog showing the fixes (if any) between rc6 and the full 3.1 release, I'd appreciate it. KDE doesn't seem to want to share :)

    --

    This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
    1. Re:Changelog - 3.1rc6 to 3.1 by FuzzyFurB · · Score: 1

      Step 1: Burn Slackware CD
      Step 2: Insert CD into machine, boot, format and install slackware-current with KDE 3.1

      --
      Will Stokes Album Shaper http://albumshaper.sf.net
    2. Re:Changelog - 3.1rc6 to 3.1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Look at http://members.shaw.ca/dkite/latest.html

      I track the cvs commits. rc6 came out 2 or 3 weeks ago, so look at the bug fixes in the last 2 or 3 issues.

      Derek
  53. KDE VNC by gimpimp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The vnc desktop sharing idea is a pretty cool one (using it for support is an XP idea, i believe), and is something Gnome could do with. I think it'd be a good project for Red Hat to get involved with. So, if you purchase a high level of support from them, and you *really* can't solve a problem you're getting, you can call tech support and they could remotely do it for you in front of your eyes. Theres money to be made there I think.

    As for KDE, well it's got a load of new features etc....but it's....still....ugly. Sorry.

    --
    i wish i was but oh well
    1. Re:KDE VNC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      .. KDE is ugly maybe ... GNOME is not usable and that's a fact ..

    2. Re:KDE VNC by fault0 · · Score: 1

      I think GNOME2 is actually more usable than KDE (except for things like configuration.. a regedit clone in gnome2.. wtf were they thinking?), but it really is lacking a lot in the features department as a desktop.

    3. Re:KDE VNC by entrigant · · Score: 1

      Then change the theme/style... sheesh do I gotta think of everything?

  54. BSD relase yet? by nurb432 · · Score: 0

    Does anyone know off-hand if they got things cleaned up for a relase for BSD as well?

    I dont see it on the announce pages.. nor in current ports ... as of this moment anyway..

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:BSD relase yet? by GombuMstr · · Score: 1

      goto KDE on FreeBSD. He makes a comment that they are getting it ready for the ports. I've been cvsuping the ports every 5 minutes. :)

    2. Re:BSD relase yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The FreeBSD ports team now builds packages from CVS directly-- no "porting" required, just platform specific details to be worked out. You can get binary packages of CVS builds from http://fruitsalad.org , but they're not supported by the team.

      HTH

    3. Re:BSD relase yet? by swingerman · · Score: 1
      The FreeBSD ports team now builds packages from CVS directly-- no "porting" required, just platform specific details to be worked out.


      Um...am I missing something, or isn't that the definition of "porting"?
    4. Re:BSD relase yet? by flynn_nrg · · Score: 1

      If you are running FreeBSD 4-STABLE you can get prebuilt packages from Fruitsalad.org. It's not in ports yet tho, but it will. FreeBSD has a very active KDE team. No idea about the others, but NetBSD will surely get it soon.

    5. Re:BSD relase yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      Dude, while I appreciate your enthusiasm, and anwering the question, cvsupping that much costs resources that somebody donates.
      If you want to see when it is released immediately there are better ways.
      one is check:
      http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/port s/x11/kd e3/
      that will show whehn it is updated

  55. Vertical maximization? by LaissezFaire · · Score: 1

    Can you finally vertically maximize windows again? It was dissapointing when they removed that for the 2.0 release.

    1. Re:Vertical maximization? by rookkey · · Score: 2, Informative
      Can you finally vertically maximize windows again?

      Click the maximize button with the middle mouse button.

    2. Re:Vertical maximization? by vosque · · Score: 1

      I'm reading this in a vertically maximized window under KDE. You might want to look in the keybindings section. I vertically maximize a lot, and I think I would have noticed this feature being gone at any point.

    3. Re:Vertical maximization? by LaissezFaire · · Score: 1

      Well I'll be darned.

    4. Re:Vertical maximization? by orcrist · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you like to vertically maximize a lot, just go ahead and configure that as your double-click on the titlebar behaviour:
      In KDE 3.0.x: Control Center->Look & Feel->Window Behaviour->Actions->Title bar double-click

      In KDE 3.1: I'm not sure since I haven't finished compiling 3.1 and I wiped the release candidate already ;-)

      -chris

      --
      San Francisco values: compassion, tolerance, respect, intelligence
  56. The best part is... by MrEd · · Score: 4, Informative
    KDE 3.1 was released late last night, ~7:30PST. The Slashdot editors waited overnight for the mirrors to pick up the new release before posting the announcement!


    What a nice thing to do. Konsider it for your new kpolicy!

    --

    Wah!

    1. Re:The best part is... by guhvanoh · · Score: 0

      And I found out about it on Freshmeat last nite. Download was sweet, I'm now compiling...

      --
      Ret. add. is really fake....
    2. Re:The best part is... by saintlupus · · Score: 1

      The Slashdot editors waited overnight for the mirrors to pick up the new release before posting the announcement!


      Nice. Maybe they'll manage to wait a few hours for FreeBSD next time, then, rather than prematurely shooting the old story-wad like the last six releases.

      --saint

    3. Re:The best part is... by MrEd · · Score: 1

      Guess FreeBSD is just too sexy... :)

      --

      Wah!

  57. kmail and imap filters by ananke · · Score: 1

    I just installed kde 3.1, looks great, feels great, yet one feature missing from kmail that I've been waiting for the longest time: filtering with imap mailboxes. It would be so nice to have this feature, without the need to switch to a different imap server, that supports filtering. here's the bug thread: http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40647

    --
    --- d'oh
  58. Yes. by FreeLinux · · Score: 1

    3.0 and 3.1 both have vertical(middle click maximize button) or horizontal maximize(right click maximize button).

    Frankly I wasn't aware that it had ever been removed. But, if it was, it is definitely back in 3.x

    1. Re:Yes. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2003-01-27 20:08:13 KDE 3.1 Released (articles,kde) (rejected)

      Damn it!

  59. Ctrl + C by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The beta (badly compiled by mandrake) had nasty Ctrl+C bindings by default, I normally use that to send a break signal.

  60. Why wait? by PrimeNumber · · Score: 1

    The concept of free/open source software gives you an opportunity to add this feature to the Kmail project yourself.
    To quote ESR, it sounds like to me that you need to 'scratch that itch'.

    1. Re:Why wait? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      blah, blah, blah. everybody knows that. it's just not everybody can code that well, or they try to contribute through different means.

    2. Re:Why wait? by Roberto · · Score: 1

      Well, then contribute through a different mean.

      I have a suggestion: contribute through money.

  61. little 'X' button to close tabs? by Captain+Morgan · · Score: 1

    Where is the little 'X' that lets you close a tab? Or are users expected to right click and select close?

    Chris

    1. Re:little 'X' button to close tabs? by twener · · Score: 1

      You can add "Close Current Tab" with "Configure Toolbars..." to the toolbar of your choice. An "X" within each tab is a planned feature for KDE 3.2.

    2. Re:little 'X' button to close tabs? by trtmrt · · Score: 1

      In the toolbar (top right) you have two new icons. The first one creates a new tab the second one closes the current tab. You can also right click on the tab to get a context menu wich has "close tab" as one of the options.

    3. Re:little 'X' button to close tabs? by fault0 · · Score: 1

      I always used ctrl-w in mozilla, and still do in konq. (and I mapped new tab to ctrl-t... settings menu->configure shortcuts)

  62. Re:Freebsd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On the other hand, kde was updated to 3.1 in OpenBSD
    right before the announcement came out... ;-)

  63. Re:superb desktop, always top notch from the KDE t by friedmud · · Score: 1

    Also - you can right click on konq's toolbar and click "Configure Toolbars..." and add a "New Tab" and "Close Tab" button so that you get basically the same functionality as in moz.

    That said. I don't like the way the tabs close in konq (they have some weird algorithm as to whether to go to the tab to the left or to the righ - I think it depends on how many tabs there are to the left or to the right of the tab you closed - but it is hard to tell). I want to just act like moz and go to the right all the time (makes more sense - newer stuff is to the right).

    Derek

  64. Re:Longtime GNOMEr Ready to Try (OT, but solved) by tit4tat · · Score: 1
    "... but I cannot figure out how to convince GTK1 apps to use certain themes under my GNOME2 desktop environment. It's completely opaque."


    No kidding. But it's quite simple. In your theme directory, you've got a gtk-2 directory containing all of your theme elements, right? Now, at the same level as the gtk-2 directory, create a symlink to the gtk-2 directory named gtk. That's it! The only barrier to this working is compatibility between your theme and gtk1.

  65. Check the cooker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Go to the Mandrake cooker website:

    http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/cookerdevel.php3

    and download the rpm's from the primary mirror. Most of the release candidate.x packages have now been replaced with the release versions.

    These are cooker packages, I have no idea about dependencies on other cooker packages, use at your own risk. :)

  66. Re:Any idea when the Mandrake packages will be out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At the risk of sounding like a troll, I have to admit that I am sick and tired of Mandrake's foot dragging and their constant hacking on the system to tie it closer to their drakconf, while hiding the kde equivelent (kdefontinstaller, etc.).
    is there anybody out here who has switched from Mandrake to something else? How does it compare and how has the distro been in terms of security and speed? Likewise, how good has the distro been on staying up on packages?

  67. one word: by Biomechanoid · · Score: 1

    kool

  68. Re:Freebsd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On the otherhand, some people prefer one OS to the other and rambling about how quick one is quick to update is pointless. There are testing phases that must be insured. Use what you want to use, let others use what they want to use.

  69. KDE 3.1 released by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One day before the reported release date of Gnome 2.2!
    LOL! Should have guessed!

    1. Re:KDE 3.1 released by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      it doesn't change anything because GNOME 2.2 sucks balls.

    2. Re:KDE 3.1 released by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gnome's 2.2rc2 is still not relased, already 6 days too late.

    3. Re:KDE 3.1 released by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...and how late was KDE 3.1?

  70. On the Fence.... by lazyeye · · Score: 1

    I had started with KDE when it was back at version 1 on SuSE Linux 6.0. I thought it was WAY better than anything I had seen from any other distribution I had used (RedHat 4.2 was the version I used before the SuSE). However, with the release of Gnome 1.x, I was quite impressed with it's features, especially with the eye candy (typical of a Linux newbie). I thought I would see the last of KDE after that.

    Since that day, I had been a Gnome user and couldn't stand using KDE for anything. Version 2.2 didn't do anything for me, so I always ended up switching back to Gnome.

    Shoot to the present. Gnome 1.x is VERY long in the tooth, although most GTK programmers have stuck with that for the moment. Gnome 2.0 wasn't what I expected it to be, and I'm desperately hoping 2.2 will change the current state of Gnome. So what am I using in the meantime??? KDE 3.0.3. At first I was very hesitant, but I've grown to like it more and it seems more intuitive than Gnome so far.

    I'm dying to try out KDE 3.1. So far, the screenshots have me sold. However, as I mentioned earlier Gnome 2.2 is almost here. If Gnome can match or best KDE in UI experience and speed (which is also a factor on my system), then I will go back. Otherwise, consider me a KDE user from here on in...

    1. Re:On the Fence.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      GNOME 2.2 is the same as 2.0 from visible points of view. Nothing much changed that may increase your operability.

  71. Re: Random complaints-Fools speak. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    " An excellent post on why people should stay clear of RedHat. If you expect to have the latest Free Software from the coolest software projects you can not get that with RedHat. Thank you very much for your informative post on *why not to use RedHat*."

    Fishing for a point? Your argument could just as easily apply to Debian. Hopefully your not using it.

  72. Re:superb desktop, always top notch from the KDE t by forevermore · · Score: 1

    Konqueror (and presumably KDE) seems to have its own set of standards for control keys. I can't tell you how annoying it is that "reload page" isn't control-R, but is instead mapped to a function key.

    --
    Do you really need reason for beer? Wingman Brewers
  73. I still have to remove the desktop icons by io333 · · Score: 1

    Does anyone know if there's a nice checkbox anywhere to get rid of the desktop icons yet? In KDE3.0 I still have to go through the BS of renaming "home" to ".home" and then changing the path to the trash to somwhere else to get ride of those two rediculous icons on the desktop that I never use.

    (It's also a PITA to do this in XP -- the recycle bin can only be removed from the desktop with TweakUI)

    Having no home and trash desktop icons makes working on the desktop so much more pleasant because when I grab a whole scoop of stuff with a wide swath of my mouse, I know that I'm only grabbing file that I'm currently working on.

    The inability to remove desktop icons *at all* from Gnome2 is the reason I still can't even stand to try it out.

    1. Re:I still have to remove the desktop icons by twener · · Score: 1

      Possible in KDE 3.1: [ ] Enable icons on desktop

    2. Re:I still have to remove the desktop icons by io333 · · Score: 1

      Does that remove only the Trash and Home icons, or does it remove the ability to have any icons at all on the desktop? The checkbox as you described it seems unclear. I just want to be able to easily remove Home and Trash.

    3. Re:I still have to remove the desktop icons by twener · · Score: 1

      The Home icons can be simply deleted with RMB menu->Delete. And you can simply change the Trash path in the control center to be not in your Desktop/ directory too since versions.

  74. KDE Outgrowing X11R6? by 4of12 · · Score: 1

    I am constantly impressed and impressed again with the progress of the KDE desktop. I think the only thing I pine for is more low level interoperability with a few Gnome based apps that I like using: Evolution, Mozilla, OpenOffice.

    But I'm curious if the KDE developers are finding the limits of X11.

    Would KDE motivate X12 or something even more radical that fits under Qt (even win32 fits underneath Qt)?

    --
    "Provided by the management for your protection."
    1. Re:KDE Outgrowing X11R6? by 10Ghz · · Score: 1
      . I think the only thing I pine for is more low level interoperability with a few Gnome based apps that I like using: Evolution, Mozilla, OpenOffice.


      Mozilla or OpenOffice has NOTHING to do with GNOME. They are NOT GNOME-projects. Why on earth people still make that mistake? Where did they get the idea that Mozilla and OpenOffice are somehow connected to GNOME??
      --
      Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
    2. Re:KDE Outgrowing X11R6? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Maybe Linux is growing out of X11, maybe not!

      The alternatives to X11 are not on the horizon at the moment. The Berlin project still has a long way to go, and Suns Openlook system is dead, a great pity! So unfortuneatly, I think we are stuck with X11 for a while.

      Of more interest, it would be nice to remove GTK and replace it with QT on KDE systems. It would be interesting to see QT versions of OpenOffice, Evolution and Mozilla. But hey, KOffice, Kontact and Konqueror are all progressing well.

      Please don't get me wrong, I agree that X11R6 is not appropiate technology for the Linux Desktop. And QT would be a great system to build on, but this is outside of the scope of KDE. KDE is a X11 Window System. It hurts me to say the Apple's OSX is probably the future. The real question is if everyone (KDE, GNOME, GNU) can agree on a new windowing technology for networked and standalone desktops. The what happens to all our legacy code?

    3. Re:KDE Outgrowing X11R6? by twener · · Score: 1

      > Where did they get the idea that Mozilla and OpenOffice are somehow connected to GNOME??

      It's part of Gnome propaganda: http://www.gnome.org/gnome-office/
      "all the applications of OpenOffice will become part of GNOME Office."

    4. Re:KDE Outgrowing X11R6? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Error, I meant the Sun NeWS project, not Openlook. The NeWS project was sacrificed by Sun main years ago in favour of X11. A big mistake in hindsight, but prbably not for Sun at the time.

    5. Re:KDE Outgrowing X11R6? by jbolden · · Score: 1

      But I'm curious if the KDE developers are finding the limits of X11.

      I'm not a KDE developer but I'd imagine the answer is no; for the same reason you can't run into the limits of configuration files. X in and of itself defines standards for window managers, guis, fonts systems... In other words it doesn't do very much without many more layers on top of it. That's why during the last 20 years when the rest of the world has gone from gui to gui to gui Unix has had the same basic toolkit, X. There simply aren't any limits to X.

      For example SGI had to produce a window manager that handled texture (physical as in machine behind it) as well color for a client. X handled it fine.

      When someone creates a useful 3D virtual reality window manager it will work fine under X and be network transparent to boot. To some extent such things exist (they won't run on a PC but..).

    6. Re:KDE Outgrowing X11R6? by damiam · · Score: 1

      Technically, Mozilla uses the GTK/GDK libraries for display, so it sort of is a GNOME app. Also, there's a well-developed GTK embed widget for Gecko (look at Galeon), but no QT embed widget (I think there was at some point, but it sucked and got left behind, because all the QT people were using KHTML).

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    7. Re:KDE Outgrowing X11R6? by tjansen · · Score: 1

      No, not really. There are things that are difficult to do (the desktop sharing stuff in KDE probably suffers most), but the XFree guys are working on extensions that will solve them. There is no need to create a new window system because of that. X11 is very extendable, and that's why it has survived for such a long time.

  75. I said it in OSNews before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    And I will say it again..

    I am a Gnome user I have to admit, this is not a KDE bashing post. Most of the reason I have clinged to Gnome with my YDL install is that, it looked the most polished the images and the whole interface looked fairly professional. Back when I first started using Gnome, KDE look very unpolished I could make it look nice but as soon as I would open the control panel the ugly unpolished icons and images threw me off again, I use OS X as well so you can understand me being a bit picky. Anyways after downloading and Installing this latest release I think I'm gonna be using KDE a lot more, it seems they have finally pulled their socks up and delivered something that looks very well polished and professional, it's not about Icons and themed windows because those have been changed, but the small things like the Splash Screen, the new wizards, the tabbed browser, the open and save dialogs.

    Great job KDE, now I wonder how Gnome will counter such a great release.

    1. Re:I said it in OSNews before by fault0 · · Score: 1

      > the open and save dialogs.

      Uhm, I don't think the open/save dialogs have changed much from 3.0.

      > Great job KDE, now I wonder how Gnome will counter such a great release.

      Perhaps a better open/save dialog?

    2. Re:I said it in OSNews before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      New file selector is coming in 2.4. With this release we will also get Galeon 2. it's 12 months away, but it will be worth the wait.

    3. Re:I said it in OSNews before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      YEs.. i too am sooo glad they finally polished the splash screens. thats the primary reason i boot up in the morning.

  76. Basic desktop functionality by ChrisWong · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Will we ever see a complete desktop environment? I think of a typical PC GUI desktop as one with folders, each one unique. I want each folder to reopen with its own original size, position, view setting and visual fluff. This was what I took for granted on OS/2's WPS. But on KDE, directories that I create on the desktop or elsewhere all open up in Konqueror in the same standard file management window. Sometimes I want a folder with links to apps or music or pictures or video: a single default view profile will not do. To me, files are better displayed in a list, JPGs as preview icons, etc. Sometimes, the full-featured window with sidebar and command line is great. Other times, I just want a simple window of icons. But there is no way to specify this for each directory.

    I'm not sure if I am expressing myself clearly. I just want to express my wonder that for all the eye candy and features built into KDE, its basic file and desktop browsing seems so inflexible. It still seems so far from the original 1984 Mac in some ways.

    1. Re:Basic desktop functionality by fault0 · · Score: 3, Informative

      > But there is no way to specify this for each directory.

      In KDE 3.1, settings menu->view properties saved in directory..

      Anything changed with the view menu will be saved with the directory (such as icon mode, icon size, sorting, background image, background color, file previews, whether hidden files are shown, whether directory icons reflect contents)

      This has been available in KDE for a very long time, and in windows as well (since ~98SE or so).

      The only thing that can't be done through this is showing the sidebar (I think!), and saving window size.. but both of these can be done with KDE's excellent scripting facility, dcop.

    2. Re:Basic desktop functionality by keysor · · Score: 1

      Not only that, but you can easily create new View Profiles (in Konqueror's Window menu) that do remember the window size, sidebar, etc. I've been using that for exactly what you describe-- I have a profile for my music folder and a profile for my home directory.

    3. Re:Basic desktop functionality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, I'd like a car that takes me where I want to go without having to drive it, a woman that reads my mind and a cup of coffee with no bottom to it. While all those magical-muisical-super-cool things appear i'll just sit here and bitch about it. Or better yet, I'll bitch and I'll remeber the good ole' days while I'm at it!

      The fact is that computing will always invlove "work" and "knowledge" from the user and it is absurd to believe that there is a panacea to be achived through GUI design and implementation. The holy grail of desktop enviroments is found when the user learns and becomes the thinking element in the machine-user euqtion, expecting computers and its interfaces to be "smart" is to expect the user to become stupid.

    4. Re:Basic desktop functionality by ChrisWong · · Score: 1

      View profiles? Yes, but there does not seem to be a way to make a folder open up with a specific view profile. It always opens up with the file management profile if I open up a directory, even with "view properties saved in directory". Moreover, view profiles do not save the window location, only the window size. A simple thing like opening a folder to have a specific location and size automatically seems impossible with KDE. DCOP scripting? Good grief.

  77. xlock compatibility by croftj · · Score: 1

    Does it play nice with xloxk or does it still have it's own half baked screensaver?

    Someone please tell me why they decided to roll their own screensaver when they had a perfectly good one already exsisting!

    --
    -- Many men would appreciate a woman's mind more if they could fondle it
    1. Re:xlock compatibility by fault0 · · Score: 1

      i *beleive* in KDE 3.1, you can use xscreensaver screensavers in KDE.

      > Someone please tell me why they decided to roll their own screensaver when they had a perfectly good one already exsisting!

      Because back in KDE 1.x, xscreensaver/xlock did not fit KDE's needs at the time (e.g, it was before architectural changes occured xscreensaver)

  78. But Their Demo Theme Looks Aweful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Subject says it all...

    Couldn't they come up with a reasonably stylish theme for their demos? For some reason, the more the KDE team tries to look better it just ends up looking more cartoonish.

    That being said, it does have a vastly more sophisticated and clean software architecture and I applaud them for it.

    KDE has enough feeping creaturitis. Its time for those guys to hire a decent desktop theme artist and make that the default theme. Why download and use a huge GUI that looks like crap?

    Yes, I know you can change themes. I just think they need to focus on that. Not that I care that much. I'm running Cocoa.

  79. you could wait for kde 3.2 or get it with gnome 2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Although for this release these icons have been pre-rendered as PNG images, this very original and stunning icon set is implemented using the cutting-edge Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) technology. This technology will enable rendering these icons at any arbitrary size and color combinations in future releases."

    or, you could use those SVG icons with gnome, which already supports SVG stock and desktop icons. In fact, gnome already supports SVG *widget themes* ... there's a little fuel for the fire ;)

  80. Re:superb desktop, always top notch from the KDE t by fault0 · · Score: 1

    > Konqueror (and presumably KDE) seems to have its own set of standards for control keys

    Hmm.. F5is reload in IE (ctrl-R has different behavior.. it's refresh from cache). I really wouldn't call that non-standard, as IE is still the most dominant browser.

    Anyways.. it's configureable.. in konq, settings menu->configure shortcuts

  81. in the future... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    in the future everything will be so much better... lets not talk vapour, ok? evolution has such a major lead that it will take quiet a miricle for kontact to even come close. as for galeon/moz vs. konqueror, who is it that consistantly wins the awards? let me give you a hint, it aint konq. kde is a good environment, but the applications just dont match their gnome counterparts.

  82. Re:OS X looks boring compared to new open source U by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, all the "fresh" and "non lame" ideas from the KDE kids. Window decorations, close and minimize buttons, a panel at the bottom of the screen (it can be moved too!), icons to represent files, a web browser. Neato. BUT THEMES! THEY ARE THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE INDUSTRY!

    Themes are where it's at. Nothing like that in OS X to keep a loser like you entertained. You probably do spend a significant amount of your time downloading new themes for your computer. You probably also live in your parent's basement. You are also a fucking dork.

    Apple cries softly, but won't expect you to forgive them.

  83. Re:fucking troll. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My aren't we jealous :)

    I can see you frothing at the mouth in my minds eye. Give it a rest already, GNOME lost because it just isn't any good.

  84. No, windows just happened to be first to do CUA... by Starman9x · · Score: 2, Interesting
    [and before you get the flamethrowers out about the semantics of the word "first", let me downgrade that slightly to "before KDE" ;) ]

    Back when Microsoft and IBM were buddy-buddy pals, they were working on something called "CUA", a TLA that stands for "Common User Access" (do a net search on it for details -- there ARE plenty of books out there on it) This is where things like ctl-c for copy, ctl-v for paste, and the like came into being

    Basically, Microsoft has proven the concept -- make the same keystrokes map to the same (conceptual) action all the time, and users will like/learn/adapt/adopt your software that much faster. Unfortunately, by the time you implement the majority of these "common" features, you're "desktop" environment tends to look pretty homogenous when set next to any other desktop. (of course, that is probably how it should be anyway -- the "desktop" environment is merely a way to get to the data on a system, not the system itself...)

    Microsoft has pretty much always muddied the waters when it comes to the distinction between a "user interface" and the "system interface" [better known as the "operating system"...] By tightly integrating the user interface with the actual OS code, you create the impression that the user interface itself is indeed "the OS" -- IBM kept a tacit distinction between "OS/2" and the "Presentation Manager" [you could, for instance, build a text-based version of the PM and substitute it instead -- you end up with something that looks amazingly similar to Unix on a mainframe box...] Linux just proves that this "distinction" is certainly feasible -- the implementation of the user interface can be completely seperate from the OS (and as interchangeble as a set of tires on the family car...)

    OK, I'm rambling now -- time to let the mod-trolls do their worst to these comments...

  85. kde 3.1 questions by AresTheImpaler · · Score: 1

    I have always used gnome, but every new version of kde makes me think about migrating to kde. I have some questions..

    1.- I feel that both gnome and kde are getting very bloated.. does kde packages allow me an easy selection of what I want to install?

    2.- Does kde have something like the graphical greeter in gnome (2.x only I belive)??

    Rigo

    1. Re:kde 3.1 questions by fault0 · · Score: 2, Informative

      > 1.- I feel that both gnome and kde are getting very bloated.. does kde packages allow me an easy selection of what I want to install?

      The KDE project only releases source tarballs. It's up to the distros to decide how they want to package it. Debian, for example, splits the packages into every app.

      > 2.- Does kde have something like the graphical greeter in gnome (2.x only I belive)??

      You mean gdm? yeah, kde has had kdm for a very long time.

    2. Re:kde 3.1 questions by damiam · · Score: 1

      He means the new completely themable gdm - see this. Very drool-worthy.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    3. Re:kde 3.1 questions by fault0 · · Score: 1

      ooh.. very nice. indeed, very droll-worthy. might give me a reason to start using xdm/gdm/kdm :)

  86. obviously not but here is my deal! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oki I give you a fair valid chance to refute above statements. Show the public that I was wrong and I will appologize for being wrong. Isn't this a deal ?

  87. XFree86 still sucks.. by fault0 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Ok, the name and all the "x"s that every app has in its name.
    xterm, xeyes, xlogo, xmag, xwinfo, xev, xhost, etc...

    1. Re:XFree86 still sucks.. by ubernostrum · · Score: 1
      Ok, the name and all the "x"s that every app has in its name.

      As opposed to something sensible like having "Microsoft" or "MSN" or both appear in the name of every application?

  88. One pet peeve by uigrad_2000 · · Score: 1
    that dumb dialogue box that pops up every time I select a URL.

    Is there a way to turn it off? I use phoenix (not a pre-installed browser), and every time I select the address in the "Location" bar, it opens up a dialogue box asking if I want to start up Opera or Konqueror with the URL. And, since there's no way to disable it, it's just as bad as Clippy was!

    Does anyone know if KDE3.1 allows this to be turned off? If so, I'll struggle through the dependancy hell to install tonight.

    --
    Free unix account: freeshell.org
    1. Re:One pet peeve by Fester213 · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is part of Klipper. Its icon is probably in your system tray as a clipboard with a K on it. Right click on that icon, choose Configure, and uncheck "Popup menu at mouse-cursor position".

      --

      -- Fester
      "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
    2. Re:One pet peeve by uigrad_2000 · · Score: 1
      This is part of Klipper. Its icon is probably in your system tray as a clipboard with a K on it. Right click on that icon, choose Configure, and uncheck "Popup menu at mouse-cursor position".

      Thank you very much. Reading your comment was probably the most productive thing I've done today!

      --
      Free unix account: freeshell.org
    3. Re:One pet peeve by twener · · Score: 1

      KDE 3.1 even offer a "Disable This Popup" entry in the pop up menu. But you better "Configure Klipper..." and add Phoenix under "Advanced..." in the "Action" to be ignored so that you can still use the actions if you select e.g. an URL in a terminal output.

  89. Re:superb desktop, always top notch from the KDE t by Alien+Being · · Score: 1

    "newer stuff is to the right"

    Galeon has an option for drawing the tabs on any of the four sides of the page. Mozilla and Phoenix seem to lack this feature. I hope it's there in the new konq. BTW, I agree with you completely about tabs opening and closing in a consistent manner.

  90. Re:The end of GNOME. - probably not by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    As a KDE developer, I would like to suggest that it is not in KDE's interest to want it gone.
    Just as KDE has propelled GNOME to do better, GNOME helps us with new and interesting ideas. Likewise, they also have a lot of good code that gets borrowed from. Gnome helps KDE and KDE helps Gnome.
    The same can not be said of MS. They constantly take without ever contributing to anybody but themselves.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  91. KDE and Windows Feature Copying by hackus · · Score: 1

    I have listened on this forum with regards to many here, that suggest KDE is just copying windows features and not being innovative enough.

    That, I don't think is a correct perspective, so let me explain.

    Linux, X Windows, KDE are pretyt much works in progress. You have to understand that these three components, only this year, will reach the goals of providing certain kernel enhancements, display driver maturity API's, and with respect to KDE, a baseline feature set.

    Baseline feature set, which means, the developers are just trying to get the basics completed, before any innovation can be done.

    If you take the position, that many of these features are just being copied from Windows XP, such as the control panel for example, then you are assuming that Linux is as a desktop OS, has arrived.

    It HAS NOT arrived, yet, so I think your view of what a baseline feature set which is required to get Linux onto the Desktop, and how those baselines overlap XP, may suggest feature copying.

    For example, with regards to the control panel, I would suspect most users would want to manage thier fonts for example, from a control panel of some sort. If that is a baseline for the developers, for getting Linux ready for the desktop, then it just so happens to overlap with Windows feature set.

    I don't think there is enough features, in the Linux Desktop arena, to warrant a comparison at this time with XP. As far as features go, KDE 3.1, still has a long way to go to catch up with Windows, before we can consider it to be something that can be a result from "copying" XP. Although improving, desktop data sharing between applications, is still a really big problem.

    The standard baseline, for KDE developers are given to the public through roadmap feature set predictions for each release. That is the baseline. So, before you consider, "Hey those KDE guys are copying Windows XP, they use a mouse and they left click on icons!" :-)

    Consider the above, given the fact that the baseline is still very immature for KDE (GNOME is even worse). I suspect as more KDE apps are developed (as well as GNOME) the baseline will improve, along with standards for data sharing, etc.

    IMHO, X, Linux and building a desktop for both, makes it sufficiently improbable we will end up with a XP clone desktop. However, like I said, obviously some of the features of the ultimate Linux desktop (KDE or GNOME) will by definition share many features with Windows, (i.e. you use a mouse, you left click on things, you can change your colors...and theme's..etc).

    But a clone of XP? Lets hope not. In fact, if the KDE developers or GNOME people want a truly different way of looking at the desktop, Apple has made some truly interesting strides with Jaguar.

    Perhaps they should start there and make that part of the baseline for either KDE or GNOME. One they get the basics down, they will have to consider exactly what innovating means.

    Hopefully we agree. :-)

    -Hack

    --
    Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
  92. Edge flipping yet? by xod · · Score: 1

    Unless it has edge flipping back, which I believe K used to support but it was removed (!), I can't be bothered with it.

    1. Re:Edge flipping yet? by twener · · Score: 1

      Where have you been? That was already reintroduced with KDE 3.0!

    2. Re:Edge flipping yet? by xod · · Score: 1

      Great Perhaps you or someone could explain exactly how to turn this on, because I've searched the docs for "active desktop" so forth, and while I see they do have virtual desktops, I have found no clue either in the docs or the control center on how to turn on real edge-flipping. Thanks!

    3. Re:Edge flipping yet? by twener · · Score: 1

      Right click on window title, select "Configure Window Behavior...", click on "Advanced", choose in "Active Desktop Borders" groupbox.

  93. not jealous, pissed off. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i use KDE, you ignorant jackass, what would i have to be jealous about? i also use many gnome apps like evolution, abiword and gnumeric and am highly anticpating the unparalled work of the gstreamer and gnome-db crew... you can have it both ways when you aren't a chump like yourself.

    I'm pissed off that a great free software project like gnome gets such immature libelous treatment around here.

    as for the death of gnome... you, sir, are either blind or stupid... who is SUN throwing their weight behind? How about HP? i'll give you a hint... it ain't kde.

    KDE + Gnome are both gonna be around for a long, and that's great, all you chumps who keep talking about the death of one or the other are just stoking a stupid and tired flamewar, maybe its time to grow up and move out of your moms house. i know its scarey, but its worth it.

  94. you mean, play number games like KDE does. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    not a good idea.

  95. Available via SuSE YaST 2? by Visceral+Monkey · · Score: 1

    Anyone SuSE 8.1 users here? YaST2 almost never seems to work anymore and I was wondering if this new version of KDE is available through it before I attempt to get the crappy thing to work.

    I'd love to install Gentoo and be done with it but it seems like you need on machine to install and complile Gentoo on and another to hit the forums and figure whats going wrong with your attempted install..

    --
    *Fortitudo, aequitas, fidelitas.*
  96. This makes me want to help GNOME by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The fact that KDE is ahead in certain areas kinda makes me want to focus on making gnome better.

    Help out where help is needed...

    1. Re:This makes me want to help GNOME by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What are your intentions fighting a dead battle ?

    2. Re:This makes me want to help GNOME by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      its not "dead" if the battle is still being fought.

      GNOME is a project that appears to need developers more than the KDE project does.

      I just help where i figure the help would be most appreciated / needed.

    3. Re:This makes me want to help GNOME by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well your intentions are honourable and I respect that. I was like you with the same intentions and somehow everything miserabely failed. It was hard to see how GNOME went down with the 2.x release and the upcomming 2.2 release (which I run here). There has been a lot of design decisions made that are in my opinion totally wrong and trying to convince the developers by normal arguing failed miserabely. After a short while other people and I figured out that GNOME these days are to much under control of a bunch of companies who have a totally different understanding of GNOME and the direction it should have to go. At the final end I simply gave up and became not interested into helping and developing GNOME / GNOME-Apps.

      What I also found out is that fixing bugs, helping people and contributing patches to GNOME is a lost battle. Once your bugfix make it into the repository (usually your *FIXING* patches are stored on b.g.o for many months) then some days later the bug comes up again or in other places. Because someone else fucked it up again.

      Another thing is that all these people working on GNOME somehow have their own vision of GNOME and many of them simply can't work together, listen to other people, to user feedback or simply accept some things. GNOME may be an open source project (no doubt) but the community working on it is totally encapsulated and closed.

      So far if you want to help them, feel free I welcome you to do this and I like to encourage you to do so but don't expect coperation with the people and simply don't start argumenting with them you only loose and at the end you mature into a troll faster than you count till 5.

    4. Re:This makes me want to help GNOME by FooBarWidget · · Score: 1

      There is no battle. Why fight in a battle that doesn't even exist? Face it: GNOME and KDE will both continue to exist, just like WindowMaker and Enlightenment and BlackBox will. GNOME isn't heading the same direction as KDE, they are not, and cannot, be fighting.

    5. Re:This makes me want to help GNOME by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well after reading all the replies within this thread then you was told many times that no one of the people except you are talking about 'war' all the time. We didn't even took that word 'war' in our mouths. Please respect this.

  97. Re:Any idea when the Mandrake packages will be out by jbolden · · Score: 1

    At the risk of sounding like a troll, I have to admit that I am sick and tired of Mandrake's foot dragging and their constant hacking on the system to tie it closer to their drakconf, while hiding the kde equivelent (kdefontinstaller, etc.).

    If you don't like the drakes and the mandrake control center then why use mandrake at all? Pretty much those are the big selling points. And the reason they use the drakes is that KDE does not offer configuration tools for everything and their configuration tools don't update configurations for other packages. In other words if you change your KDE news client using the KdE tools it won't necc. change other news clients on the system.

    is there anybody out here who has switched from Mandrake to something else? How does it compare and how has the distro been in terms of security and speed?

    I've used lots of them but Mandrake is still my favorite desktop / workstation distribution. But then again I like the Mandrake control center and the drakes. The real negative for Mandrake is their Q&A. In terms of security Mandrake is kind of weird because of their poor testing. Their security setting often make programs break so to get things to work you have turn down the security a lot. I don't consider that a problem since I just don't pass most ports through my home router. In terms of speed Mandrake compiles Pentium I optomized so for PI,PII,PIII, and PIV (3ghz or better) it should be about as good as you are going get. For other CPUs you'd do better with a source distribution.

    Likewise, how good has the distro been on staying up on packages?

    Mandrake is excellent on this front. Outside of the source distributions they are by far one of the fastest. Of course they have poor Q&A so... You are going to take a hit here.

  98. Re:Nice, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Agreed. My 'desktop environment' is BlackBox + rxvt, because the KDE/GNOME are just terrible compared to OS X.

  99. Re:No, windows just happened to be first to do CUA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow! This was certainly never done before!

  100. Re: Random complaints-As usual. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "> If RedHat would do the same for KDE as any one of the other distros does, that would please me to no end. Instead, they take our source code, they strip out the information about the project that provides it, they ruin our desktop by adding hacks to Qt that make it more unstable, they ship pre-release versions of the base libraries and applications that comprise the entire system, and I'm supposed to be happy with that? Please."

    Speaking of reality. The only information that could even be said to remotely be "ripped" out was the KDE advert "About KDE" box. The credit and other boxes stayed. Also a funny thing about those QT "hacks". Remember were the defining line was for when a Linux distro got "Ohs and Ahs" for it's fonts. That's right, RedHat. Based on Keith Packard's Xft work. Qfont went by the wayside, and the KDE group has been bitching about it ever since. The question the KDE group should be asking themselves. Why didn't we and TT come up with those good looking fonts, instead of waiting for a commercial distro like RedHat to do it? The rest is following the LSB. Mosfet's (they took away my konqueror) certainly didn't help, as well as the "Font Installer" thing. And of course the application decision got plenty in a bunch, even though Lycoris uses Mozilla and Mozilla mail as the browser and E-mail client. Kmail and Konqueror isn't even installed by default.

    There's also something the KDE group should keep in mind. They are being watched. Not just by enemies obviously, but by independent developers who are looking at the broo-ha they've kicked up thrice so far, and asking themselves "Do I want to get involved with that?" to companies who say "That could be us."

    Gnome was changed too, but you, oddly hear very little. Also for businesses their license is more friendly (LGPL). It doesn't take much to sway people over to the other side. Just one more outburst.

  101. Re:Xemacs and vim by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    er... it's surely it's 'xemacs and gvim' or 'emacs and vim'.

    if you're gonna argue... argue right!

  102. Re:superb desktop, always top notch from the KDE t by damiam · · Score: 1

    Are there any plans to implement dynamic keybindings (where you hover over a menu item, press a key, and it changes the binding - no app support necessary) in KDE? That's one of the things I really like about GNOME.

    --
    It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  103. VNC? pfff by Bert64 · · Score: 1

    Why exactly is VNC so popular on X11/Unix systems? All it seems to offer is a cheap hack to implement features X11 has had since the beginning, only its considerably slower...

    --
    http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
  104. Re:superb desktop, always top notch from the KDE t by stilborne · · Score: 1

    this was tried, almost universally despised by users, and then promptly removed. there's a Configure Shortcuts dialog in all apps that have shortcuts for you to define that works well.

  105. They do, it's called APT-GET by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just type "apt-get install kdebase kdm koffice"

  106. Re:superb desktop, always top notch from the KDE t by stilborne · · Score: 1

    unecessary. go to konqueror's web browsing behaviour control panel and select "Open links in new tab instead of new window". this doesn't catch windows opened via javascript, but it does catch those opened with target="whatever"

  107. Gaudy... by dfj225 · · Score: 1

    I looked at the screens and I can't help but notice that the standard icon/widget themes just seem a little gaudy to me. Besides, I enjoy using Gnome too much to switch to KDE.

    --
    SIGFAULT
    1. Re:Gaudy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      .. you enjoy configuring GNOME too much therefore you are busy and not willing to switch :)

  108. Re:superb desktop, always top notch from the KDE t by enos · · Score: 1

    It is a good thing that popup stopper isn't enabled by default. There are some sites (like my online homework) whose necessary popups are blocked by mozilla's popup blocker (haven't tested it on konq). I know how to toggle it, and I do love it, but it would be a bad idea to have people swear at linux (yes, linux, not konq or mozilla or kde, linux) because it doesn't pop a damn window up. It's not hard to turn it on, but joe sevenpack isn't going to debug stuff he's just trying out. "It doesn't work."

    --
    boldly going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse
  109. Re: Random complaints-As usual. by stilborne · · Score: 1

    just to clarify, in case someone misses it, KDE libraries are licensed under the LGPL or BSD-type licenses. Qt is the only bit under the QPL (BSD-friendly) / GPL dual license in KDE.

  110. Re:superb desktop, always top notch from the KDE t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, "pop-ups" are the only use of pop-up windows, eh?

    Keep dreaming buddy. I know some (bad) sites that are JUST pop-up windows, where they "reload".

  111. Re:OS X looks boring compared to new open source U by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OGL screensaver as wallpaper? Been able to do that in X11 for a long time... Glad to see you've caught up.

  112. Better than Bluecurve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So what is RedHat going to do with their next release?

  113. To avoid further abuse, AC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How do you people manage to walk and chew gum at the same time. No wonder we have AC's and dedicated troll accounts. This place is worthless to have any sort of discussion. Instead of modding me as a Troll, you could say well if you do this you can update your FreeBSD system early. Or at least do like one person did and suggest something else like you are 37331, better than modding as troll for the joy of it.

  114. stability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    what about improved stability? Last time I tried kde (wait, last week) I only experienced a very pretty mess of things that crashed.

  115. Problem with Konqueror in KDE 3.1 with Red Hat 7.3 by _ObSeSsIoN_ · · Score: 1

    Hi! I've compiled KDE 3.1 using Konstruct on my Red hat 7.3 box and it all works fine except for a rather weird problem with Konqueror! Take a look at tis image : http://www.navero.co.uk/misc/erro-konqueror.jpg Notice the toolbar in Konqueror.... I've tried removing the ~/.kde directory but it's still the same! KDE 3.1 was intalled to /opt/kde3.1 and not the normal RH KDE folders so it wouldn't mess with the existing KDE.

  116. Re:OS X looks boring compared to new open source U by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yep, it does! The default KDE theme in 3.0 was definetly ugly, but I just installed 3.1 and...WOW!

    It looks absolutely stunning. I think this is the end of
    all those OS X zealots talking about how much better OS X looks than Linux.