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KDE 3.3 Beta "Klassroom" Released
twener writes "The KDE team has announced the Beta 1 development version of the upcoming KDE 3.3 release. This release is named 'Klassroom' following the 'Kindergarten' Alpha; the goal is to make this child visit the "aKademy" KDE World Summit in August. Most planned features are there, next week starts the feature freeze. Source and provided binary packages are listed on the KDE 3.3 Beta 1 Info Page next to the KDE 3.3 Requirements List."
An interesting release name. Are we going to have HighsKool next?
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I'm not sure, I'm kinda of weary of the way that KDE goes around and does things. I was always under the impression that Linux was built up of smaller tools to make a useable operation system, yet KDE seems intent on combining many programs into larger ones to manage the system. I'm not saying that this approach is wrong, it's just something that I don't really think is beneficial. Something that really pops out at me is the fact that the browser and filesystem viewer are combined into one. Sounds a little familiar, and we all know what happened with the other one..
KDE announced they were acquiring the rights to the Knoppix distribution. A source at KDE who wished to remain anonymous said, "For some reason, we just liked the name."
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
I don't know, but I'm sure hungry for some Krispy Kreme now.
They'd be perfect as thin clients for a K12LTSP server. For that you need one decent machine to use as a server. It's a LOT easier than administering 20 stand-alone boxes.
In theory, practice and theory are the same. In practice, they're not.
Major Kontact improvements all-around
Amarok, a new audio player that will hopefulyl replace the awful Noatun/Kaboodle
KolourPaint - which was needed
My wish: integrate Konversation, and get rid of Keramik :)
We've always been at war with Eurasia.
kde is a "pretty" and well functional desktop, while Gnome is a beast for developers to use, for end user usability (ok/cancel buttons on the wrong side?), and over all eyesore. i don't understand why gnome has won in the korporate world (sun/eclipse, etc) perhaps it is due to less restrictive licenscing (lgpl .vs. gpl)? i dunno. personally, i wish at least the SWT would be kde based.
it just depends where you live.. in many languages things like ceramics, class, academy and other words are written with a 'k'.
besides, it's a handy way to differentiate..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
HAHAHA MOD Parent UP!! ! ! He used a lot of K's! ! HAHAHAH!!!
I couldn't agree more. It sounds as though they're marketing this towards children! I'm sorry, but I just don't want my desktop to be fulled with very bad puns -- get enough of those right here at /.
That and various other reasons keep me with Gnome. At least it's a bit harder to make a Good pun with g's. Or is it? Maybe it's time for fluxbox...
"An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
It was, however, the wish with most votes on bugs.kde.org. So I guess implementing this wish was a case of dev listening to users.
I believe it finally got implemented because of the work on Kafka (Quanta WYSIWYG component) made it not-so-hard.
In any case, it will be OFF by default, obviously.
We've always been at war with Eurasia.
So, is there any chance we could discuss KDE in this thread? As opposed to just an endless stream of unfunny "K" jokes, GNOME vs KDE flamewars, and Windows vs Linux flamewars?
Ohh sorry, I forgot for a sec... this is slashdot.
The default system menu that ships with Fedora Core 2 is a more ideal way to set up a menu, where the name of each program explains WHAT IT DOES, rather than trying to shoehorn some cute name into something that starts with K (or G for you Gnome fans). For example:
Instead of saying GAIM it says "Internet Messenger"
That's exactly what KDE's menu does. My multimedia menu is:
CD & DVD Burning (K3b)
Media Player (Kaboodle)
Music Player (JuK)
Sound Mixer (KMix)
I dont know why this rant still gets modded insightful...
First off, have you checked the KDE menu recently? Applications are groupped ("Editors", "Internet" etc) and then also have verbose names ("Web-Browser (Konqueror)", "Mail-Program (KMaiL)" etc...). So that issue is totally moot.
Otherwise, to me the "k" indicates it's a program written for KDE using KDE API's. As such, it wont use GTK, Gnome etc. and will integrate well into my desktop. As opposite to "gaim" or "gdesklets" etc. which are written for Gnome.
So to me the k/g/x/other naming conventions are very helpful in determening whether I want the program or not. And for less experienced users, they got the verbose names to go by and dont have to worry about it.
Cheers,
André
I've tried just about every WM in the *nix world and I always come back to KDE. GNOME is slow, hell to upgrade and install, and I have yet to see it working perfectly. There's always some odd bug that is painfully noticable and you are completely lost as to how to fix it. WindowMaker is my #2 favorite, but the UI drives me nuts. I have to minimize everything just to restore a program I minimized. XFCE falls short, it's UI just doesn't fit me. Ditto for everything else out there.
:)
KDE works perfectly for me. Everything just comes together and works without a single complaint, and it's nicely polished to boot. I can live with ugly, but I'd prefer not to if it's at all possible, and KDE can be the prettiest WM if you tweak it right. She's fast, stable, and easy to use to the point where I don't even have to think about stuff, I just do. Customizable enough that if I don't like something I can almost totally change it, while not drowning in a clusterfsck of options. Some have mentioned that it's bloated. I'm on a 500Mhz system and it runs just a notch slower than freakin' WindowMaker. It's more than fast enough for me.
Toss in the GPL'ed QT and you have a totally Free Software WM that rocks. It just works.
Stop it with the K Krap.
Then use Konqueror. That's what it is.
If you do a 'ps |grep konq', you can see that it is actually totally different processes and programs running when you're using it as a file manager and as a browser. KDE uses the Unix philosophy of "small applications that can be chained". Konqueror is like the tty - it provides a framework for output. That's why you can run KOffice apps directly inside Konqueror or view images, or edit using kvim, etc.
FTP support ina file manager isn't a bad idea though, as long as you use your file manager for managing files
Konqueror doesn't have FTP support - KDE does. Again, "small applications that are chained". kio slaves such as kio_file, kio_ftp, and others that access digital cameras, printers, audio cds (presenting virtual wav, ogg and mp3 directories named from freedb), and many others allow every application to treat any protocol as a local disk. You can fire up ANY app and open a file on a remote system, hit save and it saves out to that system. There is no need for an 'ftp' program, because every KDE app supports ftp (and sftp and digital cameras and...) natively.
Small applications, easy chaining.
Run KDE, and then, from the commandline, run 'dcop'. You can even bash script KDE apps. Or use perl... or python... or anything else you want.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
[1] no K in "natural death", "euthanasia", "old age"...
Or, it could simply go Kaput.
Download my free songs!
Contrary to your claim, I find Gnome much better with regards to usability.
KDE is 'better', technologically, but each time I've tried to switch I've been put off by the clutter and garish icons and themes. Some Gnome's buttons might be switched around (not that I've ever noticed), but as long as it's consistent, it doesn't really matter.
I reckon Gnome has won the corporate heart through it's simplicity. If you compare a screenshot of KDE against one of Gnome, it's obvious that Gnome is less in-your-face than KDE. Gnome sort of blends into the background. Sort of like the difference between a Ferrari and an Aston Matrin.
Allergy advice: Contains eggs.
The most interesting thing about this article is that, as you stated, the vast majority of posts is in reference to KDE naming. Noticeably absent are posts deriding KDE for technical problems, design issues and or performance issues.
It would suggest, anecdotally anyway, that users have no major issues with KDE which is something that cannot be said about almost any other Linux desktop. Observe other Slashdot articles about Gnome, xFCE or others and you will see lots of comments complaining about bugs, design issues, performance, lack of features and more. There are very few posts of this nature with this article and that alone speaks volumes for KDE.
Could it be that despite the flame wars, KDE is indeed the best/preferred desktop for Linux?
Where to begin...
Unlike Microsoft, you have the option of which parts to install. You also have the option to compile each component for yourself, using optimizations and "--disable-feature" as you see fit.
KDE's patch releases (i.e., 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.2.3) are almost exclusively focused on increasing stability and swatting bugs. There has been major efforts by the KDE team towards speed and stability with every release.
Check out http://valgrind.kde.org/ for a good GPLed debugger & profiler. Also look at KCachegrind while you're at it.
If the bloat of binary packages bothers you, then either Konstruct it yourself or buy a faster machine. Don't blame KDE, blame the distro you're using for choosing everything-but-the-kitchen-sink , compiled for the lowest common denominator, in their packages.
-chill
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.