KDE: Breaking the Network Barrier

comforteagle writes "In this month's KDE: From the Source, entitled Breaking the Network Barrier George Staikos takes us on a walk-through of KDE's desktop networking protocol handlers in the vein of sftp:// webdav:// and a few really nifty ones I wasn't aware of like info:/ perldoc:/ and tar:/. The entire KDE desktop environment is decked out like this, and as George puts it, 'Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X have a long way to go to catch up with the robust, transparent functionality that KDE has provided since version 2.0.'"

Comments

Marketspeak

[goldspider]

"...robust, transparent functionality..."

I'm sorry, but to me that bit just reduced a potentially informative article to yet another trivial Slashvertisement.

Re:Marketspeak

[PitaBred]

Says the person with the situational ethics sig.
Perhaps you should just read the article and not pay attention to the slashblurb? Whether it's Slashvertising or not, it's still interesting.

Errr.... security?

[Not_Wiggins]

Not to be a nervous-nellie, but isn't adding more networking/protocols to the desktop just asking for more hacking problems?

Re:Errr.... security?

[Chundra]

Maybe I don't know exactly what you mean, but all these protocols are already supported by various other clients. How is integrating it into the desktop asking for more hacking problems?

User friendliness is still the issue

[FortKnox]

The entire KDE desktop environment is decked out like this, and as George puts it, 'Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X have a long way to go to catch up with the robust, transparent functionality that KDE has provided since version 2.0.'

And the entire Windows OS is decked out with enough user friendliness for most people to use, and, as I put it, 'KDE has a long way to go to catchup with the userfriendliness of Mac OSX and Windows.

Windows, as much as everyone hates it, is still more user friendly than KDE. If they'd spend more time on user friendliness and less on robust (aka confusing, complex) features, they'd find more people willing to try it out.

Re:User friendliness is still the issue

[cozziewozzie]

I've used every version of Windows since 3.0. Actually, I've used Win far longer than KDE, including developing for it in a large company. It doesn't let me the use virtual desktops with magic borders. It doesn't let me do focus follows mouse. It doesn't let me split the panel into several parts so I can separate the taskbar from the application launch buttons. It doesn't have focus stealing prevention so some stupid dialog always interrupts my typing. It doesn't (to my knowledge) let me push current window to the background so I can type in it while it's covered by something else. I could go on. KDE lets me do all these things, making me much more productive. And it's not some hardcore TWM-like setup, it's full of pretty icons still, and features such as kioslaves which make my life much more easy.

Let's not even get into the illogical nonsense which Windows fans still defend as user-friendly. For example, if I minimise a program, there are THREE different places it can go. It can go to the taskbar (the only LOGICAL place), it can go to the system tray, or it can be minimised to one of the application launch buttons on the panels. Now how the hell is this friendly and useful, when I have to thing three times before finding my minimised program? Windows usability is SERIOUSLY overrated, get over it. Use KDE for a while and when you get used to it, you will see that it's a much more usable environment.

Wow, you're fast!

[cbreaker]

That didn't take long. I was thinking that I would have to scroll down more then one page to see that garbage.

KDE is pretty damned easy to use and consistent too, it's just that not all applications are written in QT, just as not all Gnome apps are written in GTK. So, you get some apps that don't fall in line with the look and feel of the rest of the OS.

So is the way of the Linux desktop right now, and you can't single out KDE for that.

Re:Wow, you're fast!

[wankledot]

OK, you can't single out KDE, but it's still a problem.

I don't see how this commentary is "garbage" There is a real problem with consistency and polish on the linux desktop, it's ugly and clunky compared to OS X or even windows.

" it's just that not all applications are written in QT, just as not all Gnome apps are written in GTK. So, you get some apps that don't fall in line with the look and feel of the rest of the OS. "

So you're agreeing with me, but not with where I am placing the blame? Fair enough, maybe blaming KDE isn't fair, but it's still a huge problem.

Pretty slick

[Boarder2]

I thought this was pretty boring until I read this part:

Being able to do all of these things from a web browser is definitely a nice parlor trick, but in reality it's not a very easy way to use a computer. The real power of these protocol handlers is unleashed when they're used within various KDE applications. Any of these protocols can be used from the KDE file dialog, allowing files to be opened from or saved to any protocol!

I must say, as much as I don't really like KDE, that's really slick, and potentially very useful. Nice job guys.

(I'll even withold bashing and pro-gnome comments for the sake of sanity)

Microsoft Doesn't Need to Catch Up

[Dante Shamest]

...yet.

Microsoft won't see any need to add new features as long as it's users don't find out, and it's market share remains 90%-ish.

Once it DOES feel threatened though, it'll pour resources and add all the features to it's OS that it thinks will maintain it's dominance. (think Mac/Windows, Netscape/IE, Java/C#).

But it'll probably ultimately fail this time. I'm a Windows fan, but I'm realistic: Linux will win in the long run.