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KDE 4.2.4 Released
An anonymous reader writes "KDE 4.2.4 has been released. See the release announcement for details." Barring a "security issue or another grave bug," this is the end of the KDE 4.2 line, which means for distros based on long-term support, it might be the thing to get used to for a while.
I didn't know KDE was a BSD project now.
My Kubuntu 8.04 is getting kinda long in the tooth, but the newer ones don't work at all, unless someone knows of a KDE 3.59 or 3.60 backport -- that'd be sweet.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
Disparate people/teams all working in isolation with no single controlling authority to enforce a consistent UI over the entire system.
So you have Idea/Concept 1 and 2 that are both great in isolation but when thrown together they make no sense. Everyone dumps their own pet favorite UI ideas into the mix and you get one big mess.
And anyone who dares to question the fatal flaw gets modded as a -1 Troll and a heretic and unbeliever to the 'wonder that is Linux on the desktop'
And that is why Android is exploding onto Cellphones and Netbooks while standard Linux has gotten whipped right out of the market by Microsoft.
" ... this is the end of the KDE 4.2 line, which means for distros based on long-term support, it might be the thing to get used to for a while. "
Are you expecting KDE 4.3 to be so buggy that it is going to be uninteresting for long term support projects? In the past, there were huge leaps of progress from KDE 4.0 to KDE 4.1 to KDE 4.2!
I had HUGE issues with KDE 4.1 myself. It might be worth trying to switch off desktop effects. In my case, however, even that did not solve all the performance issues.
The big change came with KDE 4.2. Things really became very smooth and fast and rock solid. If you are planning to upgrade to jaunty, I would definitely recommend trying it. (If I remember correctly, there is also a way to run 4.2 on kubuntu 8.10 -- I think I did this for a while.)
Yes, I know I can use the backport, but forget it, last time I messed with KDE 4 (on Kubuntu) I found it was still lacking in a lot of really cool utilities KDE 3.x had and I'm just to lazy to recompile all the 3.x versions onto 4 myself. I guess I really have lost some drive as I've gotten older, I'll let someone else do it for me, and when they do I'll use it, and until the 3.5x is good enough.
BTW - kaudiocreator was near the top of that list, that was a stupid easy and useful program. Yes, I can do it other ways, and did for a while, but I kind of liked that one. Oddly, the change in interface was fine, I liked it, KDE4.x and I can get along fine, as soon as the utilities catch up.
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4.1 isn't even close to 4.2. You might as well compare a beta to a release version (think of it this way - 4.0 was the tech preview, incomplete and buggy but with APIs in place. 4.1 is the beta - many of the features but not all, and still buggy. 4.2 is release, with bugs fixed and features in place).
You'd think that talking about 4.1 in an article about 4.2.4 would be obviously absurd, but apparently not...
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
AmaroK (a KDE audio player) made some questionable UI design decisions in the recent versions. I sometimes worry that with the goal of making Linux "easy for my grandmother to use", the actual users are left behind.
There will always be good software available. If Ubuntu swallows the Linux world, people that want something different can install BSD or opensolaris.
A cat can't teach a dog to bark.
As a long term KDE user (since the very first version) I have found 3.5 to be a great release. It's still what I'm running on my work desktop. I have to say, installing 4.0 at home was a mistake. It definitly put me off upgrading my work machine. The 4.0 release basically rendered my home environment as almost unusable. On top of that the semi-upgrade made the 3.5 install messed up, so I was pretty pissed.
When 4.1 came out I was fairly happy with the stability, a lot of little issues (things like the taskbar resizing) had been worked out but it still felt somewhat unfinished. Now, having upgraded to 4.2 I have to say I'm really impressed. I wasn't expecting the change to be as full as it was, 4.2 feels much more complete and definitely is the upgrade path you want to follow from 3.5 if your a KDE user. Things like the windowing effects work much better, the plasma desktop has reached a level that is usable all the time and the level of integration has improved a lot (checkboxes finally render properly when clicked in firefox for one, dolphin is getting pretty damn good and okular is great). KDE is at the point where I'm now planning on an upgrade at work.
I have to agree a bit with some of the UI criticism of amarok, I found the jump to version 2 pretty dramatic. It's almost like a whole new app but I'm giving it a good go for a while. The last media player I really used before amarok was xmms. But yeah, bottom line, two thumbs up for 4.2
jaymz
... as versions go by ...
How does this version compares to v3.5.10 as far as features and stability?
I'm still waiting to replace my ol' KDE v3 without harming my everyday work!
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
By 4.2, nearly all KDE utilities and applications have been ported, and as of 4.2.3 nearly all the noticeable bugs were worked out (it worked better than 3.5.9, the last 3.x I used). Don't assume anything about 4.2 based on 4.1 or 4.0; both of those were released before they should have been,a dn should have been considered more like a tech/API preview (4.0) and early beta of a finished version (4.1). Frankly, they both sucked, and it has cost KDE a lot of reputation, but 4.2 is solid. It's what 4.x should have been from the beginning.
In other words, give 4.2 (or later) a try; they finally lived up to the promise of the earlier versions, plus the apps you're used to have all been ported now.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
KDE 4.2 is perfectly usable.
You seem to have a different definition of usable than I do.
Except for number 3, this all works fine in KDE 3.5. It all works fine in Gnome (same machine).
I like KDE4.2, it has a lot of really promising concepts. I am a big fan of the plasma widget desktop. I use it whenever possible, which is why I can actually tell you some of the bugs. But interesting concepts are not enough. For a lot of my work, I simply have to log out and log into KDE 3.5 or Gnome. I am using KDE on two machines, one is debian and the other is kubuntu, so the problem might be in debian's packages.
weirdest thing I ever saw: scientology advertising on slashdot.
Sorry KDE Guys.
After 3 try (4.0. 4.1 4.2) I still not be able to work with dual monitors.
How is that KDE's fault? Try getting a better supported (ie intel, sadly) graphics card. Then multi monitor setups work beautifully.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
I think KDE nailed it with their 4.0 release, but let's explore the other options:
Chaning the major version number at the same time as the major change in architecture was absolutely the sensible and mature thing to do, it was never going to stay 4.0 long anyway (see above again again). So it was buggy as hell but you still had the choice of using 3.x stable, it still had "new development architecture it's buggy as hell" plastered all over it, it's not like civilization started to crumble because some "point zero" piece of software somewhere wasnt perfect. People need to chill out, man.
If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.