Preview of KDE 3.5

tr_x_data writes "There is a quite interesting KDE 3.5 preview with screenshots on JLP's Blog. I thought there wouldn't be so much improvement to KDE 3.4 since everyone is working on porting KDE4 to QT4, but obviously there are quite a few changes. Look forward to "Storage Media Notification", "Adblock" for Konqueror, new Tooltips, better Workspace-Pager, and so on. Read for yourself."

Comments

It looks good...

[daviq]

The new KDE looks good. Except for the one pet peeve of mine-->the taskbar is way too huge. It would be much better at half or even a quarter of it's size. The real highlight is storage media reconizing. This is a whyI have loathed KDE-->the lack of such.

Don't Interrupt

[dsginter]

The storage medium notification is not untuitive the way XP (and now KDE 3.5) does it. Basically, the user puts in a disc and then some time later, gets a notification that interrupts whatever is being performed.

A better way to do it would be to stick a little message notification bubble above the system tray. This would also prevent movies from auto-running.

A big problem with XP is that DVD movies often have crap software that auto-installs on the computers of people who don't know any better. If OSS wants to become a widely used desktop, then it needs to be better than the status quo, rather than a copy. This means that it has to protect users rather than facilitate spyware and junk.

Re:Don't Interrupt

[ssj_195]

Yeah, I prefer the old way (currently using 3.4) - add the Storage Media applet to your kicker, and when you insert a DVD/ USB Pen etc it will appear as a small icon in the kicker, which is nice and unobtrusive. Unfortunately, all USB Mass Storage (include cameras, card-readers etc) devices have the "USB Pen" icon shown. I filed a bug report about this (http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=109260); if anyone else feels this would be a good idea, please chime in :)

Re:Bubblegum?

[ssj_195]

I personally don't think it's too wise to ignore one DE based on its (easily and permanently, even across installs!) modifiable default setup; it's best to try both, preferably with someone who knows the good/ bad points of both to take you through it.

Personally, I've always found the resemblance to Windows to be entirely superficial, and KDE's excellent integration across a wide-range of apps and its nifty kio_slaves (along with a whole bunch of other reasons) made me fall in love with it. I'll let a GNOME fan argue the other side :)

Desktop icons aligning properly yet?

[pestie]

Have the KDE people figured out how to make the desktop icons line up properly yet? I'm sorry if this sounds like another "Why can't KDE be like Windoze?" whine, but when I turn on icon auto-arrangement in Windoze, I get nice, neat vertical columns of icons. Do the same in KDE and I get some quasi-random scattering of icons. I have no idea why that is. If I right-click the desktop and select Icons > Sort Icons > By Type, it works fine. But the auto-arrange seems to use some completely different arrangement algorithm that creates multiple columns, some of which aren't even full, and some of which only have one icon. WTF?

Re:Bloat

[mrchaotica]

Both DEs are designed around a functional, reusable framework.

Bloat is the fact that each is designed around a different framework, so they don't get reused as much as they should be because you have to install both to get all your applications to work.

Re:It looks nice

[snorklewacker]

Long as it's configurable, unlike gnome, I'm fine with it. I'll keep the buttons in the order I'm accustomed to.

When was the last time someone asked you a "no or yes" question? Dialogs should support natural idiom, including those of English, and not the whims of some developers, regardless of how many single-sourced HCI studies they can cite.