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KDE 3.5 Released
WhiteFoxBR writes ""The KDE Project is happy to announce a new major release of the award-winning K Desktop Environment. Many features have been added or refined, making KDE the most complete, stable and integrated free desktop environment available." Here a Visual Guide to new features, including build-in ad-block for Konqueror and support for MSN and Yahoo! webcams in Kopete. "
Way to go KDE folks and supporters. Even though I'm a Gnome user (actually, I'm a closet FVWM user), KDE never ceases to impress me and I do try it for periods of time. The last 8 years I've been using Open Source Software and Linux have been amazing. The amount of progress that all of us have made. There is still more to go, but its not hard to see that the gap is really closing in now. All the hard work and patience has paid off. Everyone give yourself a pat on the back.
That sound you heard was the developer's Gears grinding away for this release.
The link to Kopete actually links to Konqy. You want this.
It is about frickin time that open source IM clients integrated voice and video. Congratulations to Kopete and KDE for implementing this LONG OVERDUE feature. Welcome to the 2000 chat world.
The missing ability to use a webcam easily under KDE, is actually an argument for some people I know to stick with Windows. So this is great news - now I might convince them into actually trying this "Linux-thing", so I can stop supporting their infected Windows XP Home machines (yes, then I would have to support them with Linux, but with a little help from CrossOver they can keep using most of the software they are dependant upon).
I haven't got a webcam myself at the moment, so I have no idea how it works in Kopete. If you have tested it, and can recommend a webcam that is working nicely under Linux, I would like to hear about it. Are there webcams out for Linux that actually support face-tracking?
The features seem to be pretty impressive. Now, not only do we have a two good browsers for Linux desktop, the healthy competition between FF and Konqueror will only make them richer. The ACL GUI feature is certainly a good enhancement.
Way to go KDE!!
Sicne it seems like Kde.org has taken somewhat of a hit, here is a mirror for it: http://kde.mirror.fr/
You speak as though Linux developers want to make it easy. Some do. Some don't. Some don't care. You can't really talk as though Linux is a cohesive business, for it is neither.
Anyone here using KOffice in a "real world" environment? The last time I attempted using it, I found it had tonnes of bugs!
Yeah, umm, X does come with a standard window manager, it is called TWM...
I'm a big KDE fan, and KDE has really improved since 3.4 when the new series just gelled. 3.5 promises to be more awesome. I especially look forward to konqueror improvements, as it's my browser of choice. I really appreciate its speed, especially on lower-end systems. Plus, it uses the KDE file picker that I find easier to use than the gnome one with firefox.
What I didn't see was much change in KDE's horrible default settings. The desktop is very configurable. Why does it have to look like some terrible pudgy windows clone? And what's with two toolbars on every app? Why not save some screen real estate for the body of the application? That toolbar for konqueror could easily be paired down to one row of icons with the location bar along side. I'm sick of a print icon on every application. I print things rarely enough off the web. That should be left to a menu, or just alt-p.
Still, if you're willing to configure KDE a little bit, it's awesome. The good news is that much of the configuration is easy, right-click kind of stuff.
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
Congratulations KDE team!
;)
Now, knowing Gentoo this will be in the tree in the next 5 minutes. Woo, emerge is gonna be hot tonight, and tomorrow, and the day after, and probably some time after that too....
(Disclaimer: I use Gentoo, it doesn't actually take that long with kdeenablefinal flag on!)
QT has been released under the GPL for years.
Courtesy of Mirrordot
The problem is that Qt is proprietary and this upsets some people. Also, we should have some sort of Open Source widget toolkit that we can fall back to when trolltech goes by the wayside, though they will probably just release Qt as Open Source
Qt was released under the GPL a long while ago. You can license it for non-GPL applications, but then you have to pay TrollTech money. The "Qt is not free" myth is covered in the KDE Myths section: here
--NgThere is one KDE desktop.
And one Gnome desktop.
And one FVWM desktop. and so on.
Linux is just the kernel. X11 just a window manager. There are just several interfaces that run on top of these, and that is what the user or corporation selects, depending on their likes and dislikes.
People have their own preferences. Give them a choice. Anyway it isn't as if they are programming it for money, it's their own time, so let them do what they want.
So basically, one has to decide: Is it better with several parallel applications, that allow for a lot of people to test many different implementations of features, to find those that work best, or is it better to put one, standardized desktop-application on top of the X-standard?
Sure, it could allow for lesser confusion due to incompatibility, but this isn't a competition. This is about exploring different paths to satisfy the most users. I enjoy having the power of choice in regard to which window-manager I want to use, and I intend to keep this power, more than allowing some sort of monopoly on such an important part of the Linux system.
Arkanoid
gethostbyintuition()... why not?
Kareless konnotation kauses konsiderable konsternation.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Two things.. if you want google maps to work, you have to add a user agent for maps.google.com/local.google.com to Konqueror as Safari.
If you want blogger.com to not post blank blog entries, add a user agent for www.blogger.com to Konqueror as Firefox.
Now email google to fix both of them so we don't have to do these silly workarounds.
Wow, that's a lot of FUD in one post. I'm impressed.
Not true; there are several alternatives.
Not true: QT3-X11 is available under the GNU GPL; QT4 is available under the GNU GPL even for windows. In addition to that, QT is available under proprietary licenses; this has no effect on the GPL release whatsoever.
QT already is open source.You should really do some research before you start spreading FUD. People like you give people like us a bad name.
"Call me a troll"
Consider it done...
Let's have one desktop/widgetset/toolkit be the standard for X on Linux
You don't need a "single widgetset/toolkit" to make a great "user experience".
Windows actually has several widget implementations. Access has its own widget set (don't remember the link, sorry), IE has its own widget set, office has its own widget set (noticed how the scrolling bar in office is like windows 98 instead of looking like in the XP theme? The same happens for messenger BTW)
They don't have a "single" widget implementation - they just have several widget implementations which LOOK THE SAME. In the same way, you don't need gtk OR qt - you want a way to make them look the same (the usability guidelines like menus etc are another matter). Implement the same theme for both desktops and make kde swwitch to a different look when you change the gnome theme and viceversa and you're done.
KDE 3.5 packages have been released for Kubuntu http://kubuntu.org/announcements/kde-35.php
It was a century of answers and all of them have been wrong...
Wake me in a thousand years
I wonder if the adblocker from Konqueror is compatibile with firefox Adblock.
(...As you've certainly noticed...) Adblock by itself is worthless. Its empty filter base makes it inactive and only weeks of careful building it would make the extension normally useful. Only combined with a good killfile like Filterset.G it really kicks ass, at once. Same applies to any other adblocker - what filters are available for Konqueror?
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Really. I love Linux, have been a user since the early 90's, but some of the language conventions just vex me. "Stable" for instance. Yeah, yeah, I know what is meant by it in this context, but it never fails to make me contemplate what an "unstable" desktop would be like, and the vision has nothing to do with BSODs. "Stable" is for relationships and isotopes, and is valid only in the context that most examples in kind are given to falling apart. It's part of the "I was happy to hear you are no longer beating your wife!" phrase family that achieves a "positive" slant only by dragging the listener through scary negative spaces. Linux deserves better than this.
It also deserves better than having its major graphics package called "The Gimp," but that's a discussion for a different day...
Arrggg, I've just finished the compile of KDE 3.4.3 on my gentoo system about an hour ago! And it's not a joke :-(
...what will 4.0 be? A stupendous release? An amazing release? A "Moses came down with KDE 4.0 on some tablets" release?
I'm not knocking them, but I thought there was an accepted custom to releases. If the number to the left of the decimal point changes it's a major release and if it doesn't it's a minor release. Kids today and their releases...I can't keep up.
Yes, it is.
Are we creating Free Software for the users? or the developers of commercial software? Personally, I'd rather have freedom, and a wide array of options than a wide array of commercial (and most probably non-free) software. I don't care if commercial software developers have a hard time fitting in. Some will make the effort, and some won't. Either way, I won't use their products if they restrict my freedom to do as I like with it.
All software doesn't need to be free. But conversely, all software shouldn't be non-free either. Each user should be able to choose from a wide variety of options to best suit their own needs. And in my opinion, Free Software cares more about the user than non-free software. What good would wide "linux" adoption be if all the "linux" users were saddled by hundreds of non-free software package licenses? I care about the adoption of software freedom, not your interpretation of "linux".
It sounds as though you're a software developer who hasn't got a real handle on the Free Software/Open-source development model, and therefore you're finding it hard to become rich and famous... Or perhaps you submitted a patch and have had it rejected, or something. Anyway, your OP seems like ax grinding.
Join in the fun, or use a commercial (non-free) OS. But don't try to reduce the choice that other's enjoy.
Mine passes, but it means nothing. Most people still use Internet Explorer, and they wont change.
Also, we should have some sort of Open Source widget toolkit that we can fall back to when trolltech goes by the wayside, though they will probably just release Qt as Open Source
Also, to top that off the KDE foundation has an additional agreement that if "trolltech goes by the wayside", they get a completely unrestricted (as in BSD-like) license to the code. And Qt4 is now also GPL'd for Windows (always a source of confusion/FUD), previously only the X11/Mac version existed as open source.
The only annoying thing is that the Windows/GPL version does not have compiler support for MS Visual C++, and the patches that are supposed to add that produce libraries that compile, but are flawed. I really wish KDevelop would come as Windows native, it's a brilliant counterpart on the Linux side (and yes, I know you can do Cygwin etc.)
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Free software products work like species. Their environment is the users and developers and they mutate to gain favour of the users. Their "random" mutation is the development cycle, including possibly many branches and forks with cross pollenation of both ideas and code. This is just the same as evolution in real species. Without enough variation and competition, species stagnate. Closed source software is mostly the same except the oppurtunity for random mutation is massively decreased.
Consider the web browser as an example. After Microsoft illegally crushed all the competition with IE, the browser stagnated for years while competition recovered. Once other had caught up, suddenly they start developmemt again. No cross pollenation of code because of incompatible licenses. (the offspring would be a mule) but ideas have spread. (tabbed browsing etc)
We need multiple competing desktops. That we have two that can (to some degree at least) cross pollenate code as well as ideas is part of what puts us at a potential advantage against commercial offerings. If we had only one, no code cross pollenation could occur and in that sense we would be on a more level playing field in terms of future potential.
-- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz
...one of the major distributions to get behind KDE and push it a bit. Debian is about the closest I can think of (yes, I know I'm going to get flamed for that) and that is desktop neutral. There's kubuntu but that could hardn't be called major (although I think it will do pretty well).
It's a real shame because IMVVHO I think KDE is the better Desktop system. I know under the hood Gnome is supposed to be better but quite frankly as long as it works I don't really care. I want different things from my desktop than from my API. I want my desktop to be inviting and fun to use I want the APIs I use to be like my bank manager (boring and predictable). Gnome seems to have the API right but the desktop wrong and KDE has the desktop but not the API. I might be totally wrong here because I have never used the API of either (roll on (a fast) swing) but that's the impression I get from the advocates for each side.
The other main argument against KDE is that it is too much of a Windows clone. Perhaps I'm the only one that thinks this but I think that's a good thing. I can switch quickly between windows and KDE without too much thought. Like it or not, M$ have spent millions designing an easy to use desktop system. Perhaps it's not perfect but I can't help feeling that the Gnome people are being different simply because they don't want look like windows.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
The point is that some desktops or window managers will be annoying to some people because of the way they choose to work (e.g. some prefer to have lots of desktops with lots of overlapping windows, next door some guy prefers not having any overlapping windows at all, these people will typically want totally different focus/click/to-front/to-back behaviour) and often this is best achieved by choosing another desktop type. But any application will work fine all the same!
This is one of the greatest strengths of X11. Forcing everyone to use the same desktop is like forcing everybody to use the same length skis: It works somehow, but don't tell me it's good for everyone.
Go into YaST (Menu->Systen->YaST).
Open Software->'Installation Source'. You want to add a yast repository that contains the KDE 3. rpms. Lucky for us SuSErs, almost every suse mirror has them!
You can find mirrors from google if you search 'suse mirrors', and choose the 2nd result.
The directory that you need to choose depends on the mirror, but it is usually along the lines of pub/suse/i386/supplementary/KDE/update_for_10.0.
Make sure you choose FTP, or HTTP depending on the server. Enable refresh on the server (this makes yast check to see if the repository is updated each time it's accessed).
Then click finish to close the 'installation source' window. Now in YaST, open 'software management'. What you want to do is display all your installed packages, so you want to filter based on the 'package groups', then choose 'zzz all packages', located at the bottom of the left side. This will show you every package that you have installed, and is available to install. Now click 'Package->All in this List->Update if Newer Version is Available'. Now all the installed packages that can be updated have been selected!
Click 'Accept', and try an solve any conflicts that arise, usually solve each conflict one at a time and click 'OK - Try Again' each time, sometimes solving one conflict removes others.
It'll then tell you of any extra packages that will be needed, and away you go!
There's never going to be a single Linux desktop but it's quite likely that a default one will emerge. A fair guess, which could easily turn out to be wrong, is that in a couple of years the majority of folks using Linux will find that their distro sets up Gnome for them before KDE, or at least sets up Gnome better than KDE. It only needs, say, the half dozen most popular distros to do this and the majority figure will get reached. At this point, yes, more and more developers may well decide to plump for GTK over QT-based but if they do it properly then their apps will still be perfectly good under KDE, as are Firefox or Thunderbird now.
A single DE would kill off all sorts of innovation from the Linux platform as well as be a complete bummer for a lot of folks. I make extensive use of Xfce, for example, because it runs fast on an old machine I have and strikes me as all-round darn good anyway.
Perhaps you were making this distinction between a de facto default DE emerging and there being only one DE availabe at all. And maybe the thundering herd has missed it. At any rate, I think you've been modded rather harshly.
Las qué passoun
tournoun pas maï
Because the Acid2 test is totally and completely worthless in pretty much every conceivable way? I can't even begin to imagine how it's managed to obtain so much currency - seriously, passing the Acid2 test doesn't make a browser better in any way shape or form, except that it now passes the Acid2 test!
It is not "The Gimp"... It is "The GIMP" as in: GNU Image Manipulation Program.
Oh, hey, thanks for pointing that out, Bunky. A couple more correspondence courses and I predict an absolutely stellar career in Marketing is yours for the taking.
Placing task bar items along the edge of the screen provides the benefit of "infinite height". With the stacked display of items on the KDE task bar the top row of items do not benefit from this.
Why have many Linux Desktop Environments chosen to implement the dual layer task bar?
Now I understand that by providing more rows the width of the items can be greater than if they were all forced onto a single row. While the size of the target benefits from the greater width does it outweigh the benefits of the infiite height?
Do you have a better idea? They aren't doing what windows is doing because they want to be like windows, they are doing it because it's a good idea. I like the command line, but if I have to switch to the command line, figure out which device is associated with my usb key, sudo mount my usb key, sudo copy and write files, sudo umount, that's simply unacceptable. I should be able to plug my key in and just use it like another mounted drive like my other hard drives or CD/DVDs. Granted, I've automated all this by writing a shell script, but it is unacceptable for any operating system to force the user to write a program that will do something as simple as read data off a device. This isn't the user's job. It's no problem for me but that's because I'm an expert. The next user will not be able to read his or her files and this is a serious flaw.
That is not autorun. K? Got it? Try again.
The problem with Windows autorun is that it automatically ran untrusted code from the CD you just put in. This appears to let you automatically do something using the trusted code on your own computer. That's what OS X does, and it's fine.
There is a BIG difference between opening the CD ripping app on your computer, and opening some random app on the CD itself. If the CD ripping app on your computer is a Trojan, it's on your computer and you're already rooted. This is no more dangerous than a script you write yourself to call applications on your own computer.
If KDE allows the CD maker to point to a random file on the CD and say "Run me!" then they deserve all the scorn one can pour upon them. But if the computer just says, "Hmm, I see a bunch of audio files! I will open my trusted audio application!" then it's a timesaver and not a major risk. (Ok, there might be some exploitable overflows in the code that does this, but that can happen anywhere.)
What I say does not represent the views of my employers, my friends, my cats, or myself.
I don't see how or why you equate 'not showing a big intrusive dialog every time the user inserts a "medium"' with 'having to sudo (u)mount everything by hand'. I much prefer to just have an icon put on the desktop, which I can access at my leisure. (This, incidentally, also happens, and I turn the big intrusive dialog off.)
Work is punishment for failing to procrastinate effectively.
[snip]The problem is that Qt is proprietary...
Its free for opensource, but if you want to sell your application you can buy a commerical license. I think this is awesome and allows Trolltech to have income to hire developers.
QT licenses where an issue but not anymore, pick your license GPL or Commerical.
You are confusing AutoRun and Media Insert Notification (MiN). MiN simply detects that removable media has been inserted and notifies the MiN manager (in this case, the KDE window manager). The individual MiN manager then has a choice about how to react. In general, this is a pretty good idea because it lets the user choose what to do, or do nothing. Advanced users can configure most MiN managers to just ignore notices, so everyone wins. No malicious code is executed unless you choose to instruct your system to do something stupid with the notification (like automatically execute the first EXE it finds or some crap).
AutoRun is MS's addition to MiN. Windows' MiN manager will pop up a choice for certain media types (which is OK), but if AutoRun is on and the removable media contains an AUTORUN.INF file in its toplevel directy, Windows blithely executes the instructions therein. That's how the Sony BMG rootkit propagated.
As to the implication that it's not a particularly novel feature, I have to agree: MiN has been in most modern OSes for some time. It is, however, a commonly-requested feature, and I think KDE has done well to include it in a way that satisfies their customers[1] and is still admin- and security-professional friendly.
[1]: they are customers, even if they aren't paying.
We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
Sigh... The problem with your reasoning is that you see "Linux" as one big project and a single community. That's not true at all. Hell, Linux is not even an operating system, it's just a fucking kernel, and all those projects you mention aren't part of Linux at all, it's just the most popular platform to run them on.
Projects like KDE and Gnome have different communities, and different developers and sponsors with different goals and ideas. You can't just "pick one". That doesn't make any sense.
With the 3.5 release KDE has added "KitchenSync". The original specs for this are highly technical. You may need to watch many hours of HGTV before attempting to use this application. At last, KDE is Komplete!
Rob Enderle's excellent new book: Everything I needed to know about Computer Science I learned in Marketing School
and that's why a lot of stuff renders better in KHTML than in Moz.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
In this house it could well be webcam support for yahoo and msn one of the few things that has been preventing me from moving the remaining windows box over to linux. The Mrs. would kill me if she couldn't use her webcam.
It's called "freedom". You can't coerce everyone into a single desktop without destroying freedom. I realize that this is a politically incorrect idea, but since when has reality been politically correct?
All you people desiring authoritarian conformity should stick with Windows. You'll be happier.
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
Xorg 7 is almost here. With Xorg 7 comes EXA. With EXA comes a way to have stable, accerated eye candy. KDE 3.4 was ahead of its time for putting a compsite manager in Kwin, but it was so buggy that I had to stick to my old Xcompmgr+ Gnome/Metacity combination because I could turn off the composite for times when I need a stable desktop with the click of an icon with my old setup(I need stability for a few things). I plan to switch to whatever DE has a stable composite manager first.
Luminocity seems to be at least a year off, XFCE's composite manager is the most buggy I have dealt with, so all my hope is in KDE.
Does 3.5 have what I want? Or am I yet again left to wait a year for KDE 4 to come out? Will I be liberated from "the toy" Xcompmgr? Can I have a stable and modern Linux desktop before 2005 ends? Or do I wait another year (well.....I won't wait another year....if its like this in mid 2006 an Intel Macmini will sit on my desktop)?
Open Source Sushi