KDE Announces 4.9 Releases

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Posted by Unknown on Wednesday August 1, 2012 @05:12AM from the shinier-than-ever-before dept.

jrepin writes "KDE announces 4.9 releases of Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform. Version 4.9 provides many new features, along with improved stability and performance. Some of the highlights include, but are not limited to: more thorough integration of Activities throughout the Workspaces, ability to display metadata (ratings, tags, image and file sizes...) next to file names in Dolphin file manager, Mercurial versioning system support in Dolphin, detachable tabs in Konsole terminal emulator, support for MPRIS2 protocol in various places, ability to store and print PDF annotations from Okular document viewer, Okular can also play videos embedded in PDFs, Lokalize translation tool supports Qt's TS translation files, Kontact PIM suite gains ability to import data from Thunderbird and Evolution, Pairs is a new memory training game added to KDE Education package, and Marble desktop globe includes Open Source Routing Machine and support for bicycle and pedestrian routing. This release is dedicated to the memory of recently deceased KDE contributor Claire Lotion."

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Nice by lennier1 · 2012-08-01 05:18 · Score: 4, Insightful

Just make sure the tablet UI mode stays optional. We don't need another Gnome3/Unity.
1. Re:Nice by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-01 05:49 · Score: 1
  
  I've been shouting that at the Microsoft Win 8 development blogs, but I don't think they were paying attention.
  I suppose I could've been more tactful, insisting that the VP who came up with the design is romantically attracted to bivalves might've been a bit excessive.
2. Re:Nice by suy · 2012-08-01 07:19 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Just make sure the tablet UI mode stays optional. We don't need another Gnome3/Unity.
  KDE/Plasma doesn't have a "tablet mode". For the main interface (sometimes I've seen it mentioned as "primary user interface"), with the 4.x series a new approach was attempted. Instead of having somewhat monolithic blocks rigidly coupled (kicker, kdesktop, etc.), a general framework for creating this kind of interfaces was created: what today we know as Plasma. Plasma has shared libraries and frameworks, but the desktop experience is a program named plasma-desktop. A similar UI is plasma-netbook, and of course there are versions for tablet and even phone incarnations. Many things are shared, which is the cool thing about KDE.
  This approach was probably very ambitious at the beginning, and hence the initial bad impressions, but in my experience it was worth it, since now I can have a kick-ass desktop that is configurable way beyond I could imagine in the KDE 3.x days.
3. Re:Nice by diegocg · 2012-08-01 08:42 · Score: 1
  
  Unlike Gnome and Unity, the KDE desktop shell is flexible. You can make KDE look like Windows XP/7, OS X, Unity or even Gnome Shell, if someone implemented it. My KDE desktop looks like Unity.
4. Re:Nice by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-01 09:10 · Score: 1
  
  KDE/Plasma doesn't have a "tablet mode"
  Semantically no, I guess, but Plasma Active is close enough to fool anyone.
  http://plasma-active.org
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_Active#Plasma_Active
5. Re:Nice by blackpaw · 2012-08-01 13:50 · Score: 1
  
  Ditto, except I have the Task bar/launcher on the right, scaled to the size I want - love those SVG icons and Icon-Only Taskbar. And a autohide bottom panel with a activities tab bar.
6. Re:Nice by lengau · 2012-08-06 04:41 · Score: 1
  
  I'm sort of excited to get Plasma Active working on my Nexus 7.
  
  --
  I really wanted to change my sig to something witty, but all I could come up with is this.
Congrats! by danbuter · 2012-08-01 05:21 · Score: 3, Insightful

I'm glad the KDE crew is still pushing stuff out the door. While I'm not a huge fan of KDE4, it is improving.
1. Re:Congrats! by G3ckoG33k · 2012-08-01 07:52 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  "While I'm not a huge fan of KDE4, it is improving."
  I am a huge fan of KDE4, and, it is still improving.
  Go KDE!
2. Re:Congrats! by dokebi · 2012-08-01 09:02 · Score: 1
  
  I was never a KDE fan, until Gnome3/Unity was forced down my throat. I stuck with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS as long as I could. KDE maked ubuntu (12.04 LTS) usable for me again.
  
  --
  In Soviet Russia, articles before post read *you*!
Seems like too few by nani+popoki · 2012-08-01 05:21 · Score: 1

Why don't they just round up and make it 5.0 releases?
1. Re:Seems like too few by Desler · 2012-08-01 05:23 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Because they are saving 5.0 for when they throw away all the code and start from scratch again.
  *ducks*
2. Re:Seems like too few by MyFirstNameIsPaul · 2012-08-01 05:44 · Score: 1
  
  What I don't understand is how one can release .9 of something.
  
  --
  I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
3. Re:Seems like too few by Carewolf · 2012-08-01 05:45 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  KDE 5.0 is being worked on, but it is not called KDE 5.0, it is called KDE frameworks. One of the main points of KDE frameworks is get rid of the distinctions betwen Qt and KDE applications, so many KDE features are being ported into Qt now that it is under open governance, and the rest will be made to work well at Qt components that anyone can add to their application.
4. Re:Seems like too few by icebike · 2012-08-01 06:09 · Score: 1
  
  This will be a welcome change.
  There is still a maddening separation of some visual elements that have to be adjusted in QT rather than KDE, and some applications that seemingly never made it to the KDE bandwagon.
  
  --
  Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
5. Re:Seems like too few by Desler · 2012-08-01 06:14 · Score: 1
  
  As long as they are only optional modules, sure. But tying cross-platform apps to KDE-specific features seems stupid.
6. Re:Seems like too few by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-01 06:27 · Score: 1
  
  It is the 9th supplemental release of the 4.0 code base. Normally major number bumps, such as going to 5.0, indicate a break with backwards compatibility.
  The next release in the 4.x series -- assuming there is one -- will be 4.10.
7. Re:Seems like too few by icebike · 2012-08-01 06:34 · Score: 1
  
  As long as they are only optional modules, sure. But tying cross-platform apps to KDE-specific features seems stupid.
  I have no problem with better integration of cross platform apps. When you work all day in KDE, and have some apps pop up with a look and feel that is so jarringly different and non-standard (kde standard) you feel like you stepped into a time warm to the past each time you launch them.
  I wonder what percentage of Linux users even work cross platform? I suspect a large percentage of them only know an app is cross platform because it says so, not because they have an Apple computer sitting next to KDE.
  
  --
  Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
8. Re:Seems like too few by Bill_the_Engineer · 2012-08-01 06:57 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Why don't they just round up and make it 5.0 releases?
  The number isn't decimal. It is major-version.minor-version. We can have 4.10 and 4.11.
  A change in the major-version number usually means that changes in the API have taken place and things marked deprecated are removed completely.
  
  --
  These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
9. Re:Seems like too few by slack_justyb · 2012-08-01 07:13 · Score: 1
  
  We have multiple Qt applications at our company that are compiled across all the platforms that we use. Apple, Microsoft, and Linux boxen. We have two camps in our company. One is of the Java school and the other is of the Qt school. I can tell you that the Qt applications feel quicker, but the Java applications tend to be more flexible and have better selection of libraries that can be used on every platform.
  
  Writing an interface for our AS/400 system in Qt wasn't especially pain-free, but it was a whole hell of a lot better than the RPG from whence it came.
10. Re:Seems like too few by bbecker23 · 2012-08-01 07:16 · Score: 2
  
  The integration is going the other direction. KDE apps transitioning to Qt.
  
  --
  cat /dev/random > sig.txt
11. Re:Seems like too few by Desler · 2012-08-01 07:22 · Score: 1
  
  but the Java applications tend to be more flexible and have better selection of libraries that can be used on every platform.
  Exactly what types of cross platform libraries in C or C++ are you lacking? I ask sincerely since I've heard this asserted all the time, but it is rarely true.
12. Re:Seems like too few by fnj · 2012-08-01 07:28 · Score: 1
  
  They'll probably have to if Nokia dumps Qt into the trashcan like they're posturing to do.
  
  What the heck are we talking about? Qt has been GPL since 2000. Who the heck cares what Nokia does or does not do with it? It's free to maintain and develop.
13. Re:Seems like too few by fnj · 2012-08-01 07:30 · Score: 2
  
  is it doable to convert KDE to be any other toolkit?
  
  Why? Qt is GPL, widely ported, and the best toolkit there is.
14. Re:Seems like too few by slack_justyb · 2012-08-01 07:48 · Score: 1
  
  It's not a lack. It's libraries that can be used on every platform. As in, I can select one library and it have the same interface on every platform. Usually when going between Windows and anybody else, the API changes on you with a given library. However, that's really not a fault of Qt or C++, but more along the lines that Window's libraries wanting to do things their way.
  
  I've not run into a problem where I needed to do something and a library simply not exist for a given platform. It's just having to do IFDEFs to work around platforms that I speak about. That doesn't really exist in the Java world, but then again, I believe it to be more of a function of the person who controls the platform as opposed to the platform itself.
15. Re:Seems like too few by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-01 08:17 · Score: 1
  
  Oh, yes, of course, I stand corrected. I'm getting paranoid after that Java thing. Good guys at Trolltech made it GPL precisely to avoid such horror scenarios. DUH!
  I find Qt better than gtk (and probably also fltk), too, but gtk-based DEs surely look more polished (though IMHO no DE equals KDE regarding usability).
  Funny fact: today at lunch I went into a big furniture chain seller with terminals (for price consultation) running something with KDE (though probably version 3) and Mozilla on top -- made me smile from ear-to-ear, since I'm forced to endure Vi$ta at work. It seems these people go from mainframe-based terminal emulators to Linux machines, completely bypassing Windblows.
16. Re:Seems like too few by shutdown+-p+now · 2012-08-01 10:09 · Score: 1
  
  It's not a lack. It's libraries that can be used on every platform. As in, I can select one library and it have the same interface on every platform. Usually when going between Windows and anybody else, the API changes on you with a given library.
  
  So your complaint then is that you can't find a cross-platform library for something? Can you elaborate what that your requirement is?
17. Re:Seems like too few by A12m0v · 2012-08-01 13:16 · Score: 1
  
  It would be funny if it weren't most probably true.
  
  --
  GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
18. Re:Seems like too few by ChunderDownunder · 2012-08-01 15:57 · Score: 1
  
  I wonder what percentage of Linux users even work cross platform?
  The corporate desktop is still dominated by Windows XP Professional. So it's often a case of Windows by day, Linux at home.
  
  None of these are Qt-based but at work I've regularly used the following in preference to win32 only alternatives due to the fact I can run them on my home machine:
  
  Eclipse/Netbeans, Firefox, Gimp (simple image editing), Geany (no vi/emacs wars please). Thunderbird and Libreoffice not so much because most businesses depend on MS Office. I even gave Monodevelop a try once or twice after cursing at VS2010.
19. Re:Seems like too few by donaldm · 2012-08-02 00:37 · Score: 1
  
  The corporate desktop is still dominated by Windows XP Professional. So it's often a case of Windows by day, Linux at home.
  Maybe in the places you have worked but for me and I have worked for some very large companies MS Windows 7 is standard. I have even seen the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death" on MS Widows 7 OS's on quite a few occasions. I have been using Fedora for well over four years in a professional capacity and at home and have never really had any issues working with colleagues who are using MS Windows and MS Office. Actually most of the time I use KDE although when KDE 4.0 came out I had to jump ship to Gnome for about 3 months until KDE became more stable.
  
  Eclipse/Netbeans, Firefox, Gimp (simple image editing), Geany (no vi/emacs wars please). Thunderbird and Libreoffice not so much because most businesses depend on MS Office.
  Eclipse/Netbeans - I don't do Java programming so I cannot comment. Firefox is Firefox no-matter if you are running Linux or MS Windows. As for the Gimp you could use it for simple image editing however I have found that the Gimp is just as professional for image processing as Photoshop (OK to be fair Photoshop may just have the edge) and you can even install it on MS Windows, the only differences are the Gimp is free and Photoshop is not. Thunderbird is fine if you want a reasonably good mail front end although I prefer Kmail and both will work with MS Exchange contrary to what some misinformed admins say. Libreoffice which I use keeps getting better and integrates well with MS Office.
  
  --
  There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
20. Re:Seems like too few by KugelKurt · 2012-08-02 02:19 · Score: 1
  
  KDE 5.0 is being worked on, but it is not called KDE 5.0, it is called KDE frameworks. One of the main points of KDE frameworks is get rid of the distinctions betwen Qt and KDE applications, so many KDE features are being ported into Qt now that it is under open governance, and the rest will be made to work well at Qt components that anyone can add to their application.
  How can this completely wrong comment get "Score:5, Interesting"?
  "KDE 5" is not being worked of and "KDE frameworks" is not its new name and no distinction between KDE and Qt applications will be gotten rid of.
  Here's the correction:
  Every 6 months a community whose name is "KDE" release 3 software bundles: KDE Plasma Workspaces, KDE Applications, and KDE Development Platform which consists of the libraries that make up the foundation of the former two.
  Plasma Workspaces will stay at 4.x for the foreseeable future.
  KDE Development Platform currently in the process of being ported to Qt5 and due to more modularization it'll be renamed to KDE Frameworks 5. Sometime next year or so Plasma and Applications will be ported to KF5 (a mere recompilation and maybe a handful of tweaks required) but that does not mean that Plasma or anything else will bump its version number to 5.0.
21. Re:Seems like too few by KugelKurt · 2012-08-02 02:21 · Score: 1
  
  Why should a Qt app running on Windows or OS X need to to have a forced dependency on some KDE feature?
  KDE just wants to upstream (some of) its portfolio of convenience classes and improved class methods, that's all.
  http://community.kde.org/KDE_Core/QtMerge
  And even that was just a proposal. I don't see many KDE developers be very keen to sign Nokia's required CLA.
22. Re:Seems like too few by KugelKurt · 2012-08-02 02:23 · Score: 1
  
  Shouldn't they then have numbered it 4.01, 4.02,...4.09, 4.10, 4.11? And go to 5.01 whenever kde frameworks is ready?
  Why? It's not the Unix convention of version numbering. GNOME went up to 2.32 or so and even KDE 3's last release was 3.5.10.
Re:No thanks by Barsteward · 2012-08-01 05:23 · Score: 1

Sounds like a troll alert to me

--
"The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
Another Win by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-01 05:28 · Score: 1

Thanks KDE, your releases just keep getting better. The Metadata info will be great to have.
The haters, they just keep hating. When was the last time you used these apps?
1. Re:Another Win by not+already+in+use · 2012-08-01 05:48 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Any service with a commenting section is full of people projecting their anger and insecurities on others. Given the nature of slashdot, it's particularly bad here.
  
  --
  Similes are like metaphors
2. Re:Another Win by icebike · 2012-08-01 06:06 · Score: 1
  
  Thanks KDE, your releases just keep getting better. The Metadata info will be great to have.
  True, but many of these features have been there for several releases.
  Metadata has been available in the Information sidebar for well over a year.
  Detachable Konsole tabs have been there since KDE 3.5 days (what, almost 5 years now?).
  PDF annotations in ocular have been there for many prior releases, only the option to print them is new.
  And Kontact PIM is still a mess.
  So most of these are minor improvements to an already excellent desktop that far surpasses anything else in this market segment.
  
  --
  Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
3. Re:Another Win by prehistoricman5 · 2012-08-01 06:07 · Score: 1
  
  I remember 4.2; I wouldn't consider it as ready for prime time.
  
  --
  Fuck Beta
4. Re:Another Win by icebike · 2012-08-01 06:13 · Score: 1
  
  Any service with a commenting section is full of people projecting their anger and insecurities on others. Given the nature of slashdot, it's particularly bad here.
  And anyone using the word "haters" is right up there among the most insecure.
  What ever happened to a difference of opinion?
  I personally dislike Gnome, but I certainly don't "hate" it.
  I much prefer KDE, but I understand people who want things much simpler.
  
  --
  Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
5. Re:Another Win by Desler · 2012-08-01 06:20 · Score: 1
  
  But even if you did hate it, so what? The fucking DE fanbois need to get over themselves.
6. Re:Another Win by metalgamer84 · 2012-08-01 06:48 · Score: 1
  
  That's what everyone said about 4.0 when it launched. People said 4.2 was far superior and far more stable than 4.0. I tried 4.2 and just could not get a usable desktop out of it. I switched to Gnome2 and have been using that for years happily. Now that Gnome has gone to hell, ive switched to Xfce and life is good again.
  
  I want to like KDE again, I just cant get over the bells and whistles getting in my way and cluttering up my work spaces.
7. Re:Another Win by Maltheus · 2012-08-01 08:54 · Score: 2
  
  I'm a long time user who finally threw in the towel a few months ago. I like KDE as a window manager, but the "desktop" internals drive me crazy. Especially knotify4. That app has locked up more of my linux systems than any other piece of software out there. Finally got tired of flipping the power switch and now (after an adjustment period) I'm much happier with openbox/tint2. Not missing that semantic/nepomuk garbage either.
8. Re:Another Win by richlv · 2012-08-01 09:03 · Score: 1
  
  i was surprised about 'detachable konsole tabs' being new, as that's something i've been using s lot since kde 3 indeed.
  could somebody clarify what was actually meant there ?
  
  --
  Rich
9. Re:Another Win by blackpaw · 2012-08-01 13:55 · Score: 1
  
  And Kontact PIM is still a mess.
  Beg to disagree, have been using it as my main client with GMail/IMAP since 4.7.x, working well for that. With 4.9 (have been using the beta) Contacts/Task/Calendar sync with google is working very well too.
  Search is still very flaky though, if I have a serious email search to do I drop back to Gmail.
10. Re:Another Win by KugelKurt · 2012-08-02 02:25 · Score: 1
  
  I want to like KDE again, I just cant get over the bells and whistles getting in my way and cluttering up my work spaces.
  Most retarded comment ever, considering that all "bells and whistles" are optional and always have been.
11. Re:Another Win by KugelKurt · 2012-08-02 02:28 · Score: 1
  
  I remember 4.2; I wouldn't consider it as ready for prime time.
  4.2.0 had some unpleasant KWin bug. 4.2.1 fixed that. Overall 4.2 was great and widely praised by critics.
12. Re:Another Win by icebike · 2012-08-02 08:17 · Score: 1
  
  I tend to agree, it is kludge at best.
  The only part I like about it is the ability to select and copy text out of PDFs even when the PDF author explicitly turned that ability off. Some would view that as a bug, but people should be able to quote a portion of a PDF without having to retype the whole paragraph.
  
  --
  Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
13. Re:Another Win by Daniel+Phillips · 2012-08-07 11:46 · Score: 1
  
  That's what everyone said about 4.0 when it launched. People said 4.2 was far superior and far more stable than 4.0. I tried 4.2 and just could not get a usable desktop out of it.
  4.3/4.4 was when KDE because usable again for me and I switched back from Gnome 2. Which I found really annoying for all the usual reasons Gnome is annoying, but it was stable at the time. Was happy to get to the end of that period, a kind of desktop dark ages.
  
  --
  Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
Activities? by colin_faber · 2012-08-01 05:33 · Score: 5, Interesting

I love KDE but I don't understand activities. Am I "doing it wrong" ? I can't seem to find a use for this feature.
1. Re:Activities? by Barsteward · 2012-08-01 05:47 · Score: 1
  
  I'm with you there. As a home user the only use i could have for activities is for each activity be a session in the sense i could have an instance of kmail/opera/whatever in each instance. It would save me having separate logins to separate the uses.
  
  --
  "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
2. Re:Activities? by Carewolf · 2012-08-01 05:48 · Score: 1
  
  Neither can I yet. It doesn't fit very well with how I use a desktop, but it seems to make a lot more sense when used together with the Netbook, Mobile or Tablet Plasma interfaces, where you can make specialized home- or notification-screens. Once I get KDE on one of those devices, I will try again, the idea sounds promising there.
3. Re:Activities? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-01 05:52 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Don't worry, nobody can, except perhaps Siego. Activities are a solution looking for a problem.
4. Re:Activities? by SomeKDEUser · 2012-08-01 06:08 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Think of it a groups of applications and desktop widgets between which you can switch.
  For example, I find it convenient to have, say, an IDE, a web browser a couple consoles and relevant apps in an activity, and in another activity the word processor, another browser, perhaps a drawing programme.
  I could do that on virtual desktops, but I like each group of apps spread over 3-4 virtual desktops. This is like a way of organising (in my case) 18 virtual desktops in 6 more manageable groups. Also, I don't want the twitter feed on all of them, and I want different directories on my desktop for each group.
  Does it make sense?
5. Re:Activities? by at_slashdot · 2012-08-01 06:08 · Score: 1
  
  I don't use it but I see a potential use, for example if you have a laptop that you use at work and at home you can have a work activity with all the documents and shortcuts to programs that you use at work on desktop and then have another home activity with games, photos and other crap on the desktop. Or you could have a boss activity where you switch when your boss is around and a slashdot activity with live feeds from slashdot on desktop and other such productive things :)
  
  --
  "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
6. Re:Activities? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-01 06:10 · Score: 1
  
  I had the same problem until just recently where I started working on several programs at once. Now I never close my IDE, profilers, file manager..., I just go to the next activity when I am done working on one project. I usually manage to fill up pretty much every virtual desktop in each activity. When I log in I hit super+tab until I am at the right activity that has everything open that I need to continue my work.
  So right now I have an activity for my regular stuff like emails and browsing, several for my projects and one to watch movies where I disabled screen-savers and powering down the screen etc.
  Even though I haven't really changed much widget wise on each activity, I quite like that feature now.
7. Re:Activities? by icebike · 2012-08-01 06:25 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Activities have always been something of a niche feature, with most people being perfectly content to use multiple desktops
  which have been available since the Pleistocene. Having tools on the desktop in the form of widgets or switching the entire look and feel based on when you stop work and start relaxing were just about the whole selling point of activities, but none of these were problems to begin with.
  Unfortunately, the KDE team let one small group of designers (two people, as best as I can figure out) run away with the desktop for several releases trying to foist Activities on the userbase. In later releases, the bitch level got so high that the rest of the KDE team have pretty much got those individuals under control, and sanity has returned. You can pretty much avoid activities now entirely, or at least make them sit silently in the background managing nothing but wallpaper.
  
  --
  Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
8. Re:Activities? by zlamma · 2012-08-01 06:30 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  If you don't understand them, it means you don't have the problem they are solving - a lot of UI components open all at once.
  
  But whenever you're overloaded with multitude of items, grouping may help you. And sometimes you can distinguish some non-overlapping groups of GUI components. These are activities.
  Like: For staying up to date with life (my eMail client, my facebook page), for the project I am currently working on (my IDE, some folders of the project I am currently editing, GIThub page, various googling sessions I am doing in research), for the entertainment (my favorite offtopic sites, etc.).
9. Re:Activities? by Tetch · 2012-08-01 06:30 · Score: 1
  
  I love KDE but I don't understand activities
  I feel exactly the same - I have no idea what an activity is, what it's for, or how to use it. But I have figured out (I think) that you have to edit activity settings in order to change the wallpaper or screensaver ..... wait a minute, was that KDE 4.4, or KDE 4.8 ? Confused I am, quite a bit.
  Still, at least in 4.8 you can now edit the window decoration theme for the KDM login dialog without having to know the arcane binary name of the 'System Settings' utility to run via KDESU.
  One of the key missing components in current KDE is some good documentation about many of the features. Maybe I need to get off my ass, learn, and then contribute docs back ...
  
  --
  If you don't pray in my school, I won't think in your church.
10. Re:Activities? by SomeKDEUser · 2012-08-01 06:41 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  This is not how activities work: applications are attached to a desktop and an activity. Thus activities can be used group apps together, in a way which is orthogonal to desktops.
  Changing activities is like changing virtual desktops, except you are changing groups of VDs (and also the widgets on them, but this is nice but to me secondary)
11. Re:Activities? by spike+hay · 2012-08-01 07:14 · Score: 1
  
  If you use a tiling WM like DWM or Awesome, you have a similar concept (as far as I can tell) with tags. Each window is assigned a tag, and you can have one or more tags in your current view.
  
  --
  If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
12. Re:Activities? by SomeKDEUser · 2012-08-01 07:22 · Score: 1
  
  Not the same: I have sets of widows, spread over VDs. I can switch independently between VDs and activities. For example:
  activity Mail:
  desktop 1 : mailer
  desktop 2 : IM and image viewer
  on all desktops, a folder view of important documents
  activity Waste Of Time:
  desktop 1 : slashdot and patience
  desktop 2 : amarok
  on all desktops folder view of cat pictures and twitter feed
  Activity Writing Stuff
  desktop 1 : wikipedia
  desktop 2 : word processor and reference manager
  on all desktops, sticky notes.
  I could add to that tiling, but I never was convinced by tiling: I actually like overlaps ;)
13. Re:Activities? by G3ckoG33k · 2012-08-01 07:57 · Score: 1
  
  "a solution looking for a problem"
  Brilliant. I can think of that as well put in a large number of totally different scenarios.
14. Re:Activities? by icebike · 2012-08-01 07:59 · Score: 1
  
  Right click your desktop some time.
  I run XFCE on Arch, so I can't speak with authority, but I suspect Arch chose the option that hides activities all along.
  
  --
  Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
15. Re:Activities? by mister_playboy · 2012-08-01 08:46 · Score: 1
  
  Arch is all about vanilla packages. I installed Arch/KDE in February and Activities were in the default panel, whereas the Virtual Desktop Pager was not...
  That was just about the first thing I "fixed". :)
  
  --
  Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
16. Re:Activities? by mister_playboy · 2012-08-01 08:50 · Score: 1
  
  My issue with this approach is that all this stuff needs to be loaded into RAM, and isn't that exactly the sort of thing portables are lacking compared to a dev workstation?
  
  --
  Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
17. Re:Activities? by icebike · 2012-08-01 10:06 · Score: 2
  
  Well, after that devastating /lib to /usr/lib cutover last month which bricked so many Arch machines I'm more than a little suspicious of some of Arch's commitment to either vanilla or integrity.
  
  --
  Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
18. Re:Activities? by shutdown+-p+now · 2012-08-01 10:14 · Score: 1
  
  Arch is about vanilla packages. As in, compiled from the source as it is upstream. Why would that have anything to do with /lib vs /usr/lib?
19. Re:Activities? by Rhapsody+Scarlet · 2012-08-01 11:03 · Score: 1
  
  I've generally found myself getting used to them with two main problems left:
  #1: No official way to bind activities to key combinations. I see an unofficial way of hacking this into Plasma, which seems to indicate high demand for this feature, but the developers have proven supremely uninterested in official support for it.
  #2: No way to bind applications to activities. If I'm supposed to use activities to group applications, then why the fucking hell can't Plasma remember which activitiy an application was grouped in last session? Why do I need to tell it all over again every time I log in? I still do not understand why this wasn't fixed at 4.1/4.2, nevermind being left this way until now. Again, the developers seem completely uninterested in this, instead taking time to implement mandlebrot wallpaper generation...
  I was hoping 4.9 would have progress on at least one of these points, but instead we get some bullshit about Folder View.
20. Re:Activities? by socceroos · 2012-08-01 11:49 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Activities haven't been picked up nearly as much as was first desired. It was (and still is in many respects) a great idea.
  
  The idea was that you could be using your IM, email, and a host of other applications and services all set up for your work environment (or any environment you desire, for that matter) - your IM contacts were your workmates, your email was work email, your browser had your work bookmarks and started up with your work webapps open, etc - THEN, with the click of a button, you could switch to 'home' or 'personal' or whatever and suddenly you'd be seeing your setup for that environment - your personal email, your personal IM contacts, your personal browser setup, your personal folders being displayed on the desktop with a pic of your dog, etc.
  
  The power was with the user to set this up as they wished, you could have as many (or as few) activities as you desired. Perhaps a Music Creation activity that had all your perferred apps open for music creation + any other stuff you so desired to be configured, or perhaps an activity set up for your Development environment with folders on the desktop pointing directly to your files, etc. The list goes on.
  
  The power of the idea streched even further to 'networked Activities'. The idea was that you could walk into a hotel for instance and KDE would inform you that there was an 'Activity' that the hotel was offering you to use. This could include things like links to common items in the browser, Icons on the desktop for the menu in the hotel's restaurant, IM contacts that were the hotel's helpdesk, a document explaining the local area and local attractions, etc.
  
  When it comes down to it, the idea was actually very cool - your desktop environment could mould itself to suit your 'Activity' making access to the things you needed far, far easier and quicker. A great idea. But, the takeup has been bad, misinformation has been rampant and there has been no clear explination of the concept for user's benefit.
  
  Personally, I'd still like to see it get a run - I love the idea.
21. Re:Activities? by spike+hay · 2012-08-01 12:49 · Score: 1
  
  Ok, fair enough, although tags can still do *most* of that. I never really figured activities out. Tiling WMs are difficult to get used to, but you really can work more efficiently if you aren't having to move windows around. Getting windows in/out of view is just so easy in comparison, at least after you've been using it for a week or so.
  I actually like KDE4, at least its more recent versions. It just takes too much memory. Also, I still have some persistent bugs, including one time where akonadi or whatever decided to fill up my entire home partition with .Xsession-errors. Oh, yeah, and it's incredibly difficult to actually disable it. That was fun.
  After being a long time GNOME user, I bounced around DEs and WMs for quite a while before finally settling on DWM. I tried ratpoison a long time ago, and didn't like it, but I guess I just didn't give it enough of a chance.
  
  --
  If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
22. Re:Activities? by DeadS0ul · 2012-08-01 14:19 · Score: 1
  
  with two large monitors, I have enough screen real estate to avoid using virtual desktops and activities.
23. Re:Activities? by celle · 2012-08-01 14:54 · Score: 1
  
  "The idea was that you could be using your IM, email, and a host of other applications and services all set up for your work environment (or any environment you desire, for that matter) - your IM contacts were your workmates, your email was work email, your browser had your work bookmarks and started up with your work webapps open, etc - THEN, with the click of a button, you could switch to 'home' or 'personal' or whatever and suddenly you'd be seeing your setup for that environment - your personal email, your personal IM contacts, your personal browser setup, your personal folders being displayed on the desktop with a pic of your dog, etc.
  The power was with the user to set this up as they wished, you could have as many (or as few) activities as you desired. Perhaps a Music Creation activity that had all your perferred apps open for music creation + any other stuff you so desired to be configured, or perhaps an activity set up for your Development environment with folders on the desktop pointing directly to your files, etc. The list goes on.
  The power of the idea streched even further to 'networked Activities'. The idea was that you could walk into a hotel for instance and KDE would inform you that there was an 'Activity' that the hotel was offering you to use. This could include things like links to common items in the browser, Icons on the desktop for the menu in the hotel's restaurant, IM contacts that were the hotel's helpdesk, a document explaining the local area and local attractions, etc.
  When it comes down to it, the idea was actually very cool - your desktop environment could mould itself to suit your 'Activity' making access to the things you needed far, far easier and quicker. A great idea. But, the takeup has been bad, misinformation has been rampant and there has been no clear explination of the concept for user's benefit."
  Now if they only could explain it in the documentation as well as you just did. You might want to send your comment in to them.
24. Re:Activities? by socceroos · 2012-08-01 15:38 · Score: 1
  
  The problem with having this in the documentation is the same as the problem KDE 4.0 had. 'Activities' is not quite there yet - the idea is great, the developers are keen, but noone has quite picked it up yet. Not many user facing applications have yet integrated themselves with 'Activities' which makes the whole point of them less clear. Which, as I said, is partly why KDE 4.0 got off to such a bad start too.
  
  Having said that, along the lines of what you're suggesting, it would be good if in the documentation (or something closely linked to it) there was a clear 'design goal'/concept write-up that thoroughly explained the future purpose and use of the idea.
  
  That's the problem with a lot of 'future proofed' tech, noone sees it as useful until everything ties together.
25. Re:Activities? by bill_mcgonigle · 2012-08-02 03:36 · Score: 1
  
  Arch is about vanilla packages. As in, compiled from the source as it is upstream. Why would that have anything to do with /lib vs /usr/lib?
  All distributions determine --prefix for packages and provide a '-base' package which specifies system layout.
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
26. Re:Activities? by bill_mcgonigle · 2012-08-02 03:40 · Score: 1
  
  That's the problem with a lot of 'future proofed' tech, noone sees it as useful until everything ties together.
  Agreed with your analysis - just wanted to point out here that the KDE process allowed the activities folks to steal one of the four screen corners (the most valuable screen real estate per Fitt's law) for a feature that's not really ready. Then again, the stupid acorn has another corner, and it's rarely needed, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
27. Re:Activities? by shutdown+-p+now · 2012-08-02 04:26 · Score: 1
  
  Well, that was kinda my point - changing the default prefix does not make a package non vanilla relative to the source. It's only when you start applying source patches and such that it becomes true.
28. Re:Activities? by icebike · 2012-08-02 07:36 · Score: 1
  
  It used to be a reliable rolling release that you could just count on to work if you updated it once in a while (quarterly was fine).
  Lately it can't be trusted to work after any given update. Some updates just fail to do anything, at least leaving you with a running system. But quite a few of the last several break things and leave you with something you have to hand patch at the console.
  I've pretty much taken my data partitions from my Arch servers, and moved them to a LTS release of Ubuntu server edition.
  
  --
  Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
29. Re:Activities? by socceroos · 2012-08-02 11:47 · Score: 1
  
  The cashew? Never heard it get called an acorn. =D
  
  I tend to agree though - its usefulness doesn't extend very far (for example, the same contextual menu can be accessed with a right-click). However, I think one of the main reasons behind the cashew was to allow access to that same contextual menu regardless of your desktop setup. For example, there are some 'desktop layouts' (found in Desktop Settings) that entirely change the behaviour of right-clicking on the desktop: the 'folder view' layout displays a folder, therefore right-clicking won't give you the same menu, the 'search and launch' layout is similar. Having the cashew there allows people 'quick' access to this menu.
  
  Still I think there is a better way to do it than use a screen corner - putting it on the default panel could work well.
30. Re:Activities? by Distinctive+Name · 2012-08-04 06:38 · Score: 1
  
  I think there are several problems I stumble on with Activities:
  1. They are not explained within KDE. The user is left to figure out that they exist, what they are, how to use them and what to use them for.
  2. It's a lot of work to set Activities up in the first place. And, often, by the time you realise that something might be worth having an Activity for, you've already gone and done it without one.
  3. Activities are, by design, a highly "modal" user interface. It's well noted that modality often has an inverse relationship to usability. A certain amount of modality is necessary and desirable, but I think Activities take modality one step too far.
  4. The use cases are quite niche. Even the example of having a "work" and a "home" activity is probably only useful to a small subset of computer users, because company-issued IT equipment is so prevalent.
  5. They are too all-encompassing. If you create a new activity, you have to start from scratch. You have none of the panels, icons, launchers, widgets, or anything that you are used to. It's very disconcerting. Practically the only thing that's consistent between activities is the presence of the tools for manipulating activities, and even those are not completely static. This creates a huge obstacle to anyone wanting to create an activity. They might only want to change a few things, relative to their normal Activity, but to do that they first have to painstakingly recreate their existing activity (which may be quite complex), and then make the relevant changes. Even if it were possible to duplicate an activity easily, you then have the problem that there are two separate activities to make changes to whenever you want to change one of the "common" components. The administrative overhead is too high.
  I think Activities would be more useful if the architecture took a heirarchical, approach, akin to that seen in parametric 3D modelling software. You could have a root activity, which would contain core features that you always want to have; for example always have a certain panel with launchers and a clock, or always have a taskbar in a certain place. Other activities would then build upon that root, either adding to, removing or modifying the root's features. An Activity would be defined in terms of the actions needed to create it by modifying the root, rather than as a whole separate entity. I think this would be much more in-tune with the way people actually use computers.
  A heirarchical approach would also serve to make Plasma more easily themeable. Currently, if you want a new visual appearance for Plasma, even just changing the colour of something, you have to create an entire theme, which is far too much work in most cases where you just want to change just one small thing. It's very Gnome-like and authoritarian. By contrast, a heirarchical approach would allow themes to be defined parametrically, and to be easily modifiable through the user interface, without having to crack open any elaborate editing software. This would allow the root activity to define a theme to use, and a child activity to use the same theme but change the colour to red, or increase the contrast by a certain amount, or change a corner radius somewhere. Then, if you changed the theme on the root activity, the child theme would change as well, but it would still be red, the contrast would still be adjusted, or the corner radius would still be increased. These amendments could all either be defined relative to the parent theme or as absolute values (eg. increase font size by 10%, or by 4 points, or set font size to exactly 26 points). This would also make it easier to create widgets.
Good job by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-01 05:40 · Score: 1

Many times I've tried to switch to linux from windows and many times I moved back because something doesn't work as it should or slow, etc. But recently I've installed Kubuntu 12.04 and I actually like it. It has been 2 weeks now and I'm not planning to get back to Windows. I still have windows to play games though. Anyway, good job KDE, keep up the good work!
Re:KDE Wallet - Fail by ezakimak · 2012-08-01 05:45 · Score: 1

Who actually uses a file manager??
bash FTW.
Or, for complicated renames, emacs dired.
Re:yay for the remaining desktop GUI by ezakimak · 2012-08-01 05:47 · Score: 1

QT can't die. It's dual-licensed. There will always be the open-sourced version available.
May the fork be with us.
Re:yay for the remaining desktop GUI by ezakimak · 2012-08-01 06:04 · Score: 1

While that may be true for small libs, QT has such a massive usage base I can't imagine a team won't evolve to pick it up and continue it. I've no doubt some of the employees, some devs from KDE, some from other large projects may join in to carry its torch.
The KDE devs can't let it die--because their project depends on it--so they have a vested interest to maintain it even if it turns out no one else cares (which by itself is not likely).
Furthermore, it's for sale--not hovering /dev/null. Some other company may purchase it with just as much or more interest in seeing it move forward.
Ubuntu 12.04? by dmt0 · 2012-08-01 06:19 · Score: 2

Has anyone dared to install it through a backports PPA on Ubuntu?
Is it something worth doing?
1. Re:Ubuntu 12.04? by mister_playboy · 2012-08-01 09:11 · Score: 1
  
  If you intend to use the LTS released for actual long term support, I recommend against doing this.
  If you want something closer to the edge, you should use Debian Unstable, Arch, etc.
  I always laugh at the guys on ubuntu forums asking about how to install the current kernel on their 10.04 box...
  
  --
  Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
2. Re:Ubuntu 12.04? by Z_God · 2012-08-01 11:00 · Score: 1
  
  I always laugh at the guys on ubuntu forums asking about how to install the current kernel on their 10.04 box...
  This makes a lot of sense actually, because the hardware support of the regular kernel often doesn't cut it for newer systems, while the rest works perfectly fine when you have an updated kernel. There are even kernel backports provided in the regular repositories for this reason. The same is planned for the X.org server to keep up with hardware support.
3. Re:Ubuntu 12.04? by blackpaw · 2012-08-01 13:59 · Score: 1
  
  Has anyone dared to install it through a backports PPA on Ubuntu?
  Is it something worth doing?
  Yes, I've done it - works fine. Backports now has the full 4.9 release.
Re:KDE Wallet - Fail by Gavagai80 · 2012-08-01 06:28 · Score: 1

Well, it'd help if konqueror were actually maintained and didn't crash all the time.

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Re:What about Windows 8 by SiChemist · 2012-08-01 07:11 · Score: 2, Funny

Pipe down Ballmer!

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God is imaginary
It's not Ballmer by Wee · 2012-08-01 07:21 · Score: 1

Slashdot is self-trolling itself in order to generate comment activity. Kinda sad, really. I mean, if they were really super clever about it more people would fall for it.

-B

--
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
A few months ago by Wee · 2012-08-01 07:34 · Score: 1

The haters, they just keep hating. When was the last time you used these apps?

Been using KDE for years and years because I detest GNOME (though I say this and also happen to be wearing a Ximian shwag t-shirt, so go figure). Got a new machine at work a few months back, threw Kubuntu 11.10 on it. Woof.

This machine isn't a speed daemon but within 10-14 days all 10GB of RAM were used. Switching to another window resulted in 5-10 seconds of swapping and HDD light activity. And I'm only running a web browser, an IDE, a mail client, and Konsole. I could partially mitigate the issue by closing everything and logging out, but that would only reclaim a bit of memory. Rebooting was the only solution, and only then it just bought another few weeks until I had to shut down again.

Wiped it, installed Xubuntu and there's no reason for me not to use Xfce since I've been up for months now without an issue.

I'm not a "hater", but I don't know that I'll be a KDE user again. All I need is a workstation desktop environment. Not a tablet thing, not a phone thing, no "social media" tie-ins, just a stable, usable, reasonably svelte DE. Xfce has so far fit the bill perfectly.

-B

--
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
1. Re:A few months ago by Metal_Militia · 2012-08-01 08:57 · Score: 1
  
  It's probably a Kubuntu fault. I use extensively KDE from Debian Sid on a crappy Dell laptop (4 gb of ddr2 ram, integrated intel graphic, a pretty basic core 2 duo from the 2008), with Firefox (lots of tabs open, heavy modern javascript crap loaded), a python ide, an awful ica client, messaging clients and a gargantuan number of Konsole tabs open. With kde 4.8 i'm almost always well below 3 GB of ram used. With more than 30 days of uptime. Disclaimer: the first thing i do to a fresh kde install is to disable nepomuk :-)
2. Re:A few months ago by Wee · 2012-08-03 08:41 · Score: 1
  
  It's probably a Kubuntu fault.
  
  I did a little reading and came to that conclusion as well. On the plus side, Xfce's tabbed term app isn't too bad. By default, Terminal wants you to use ctrl + Page Up/Page Down to move between tabs, which I find not intuitive in the least. So I remapped it. But it renders fonts much better than Konsole I thought. Disclaimer: the first thing i do to a fresh kde install is to disable nepomuk
  
  Yeah, that didn't last long. I mean, a mysql install is necessary?! Just to run my DE? No thanks. Take that semantic whatever and just let me use the damn machine without pulling in social media that, or web this.
  
  -B
  
  --
  Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
Question for the devs: nepomuk by fritsd · 2012-08-01 08:56 · Score: 2

What I would like to know is, if I do the following:

ssh -X otheruser@localhost kmail

Does it Just Work(TM)? Or does it still crash because akonadi / nepomuk / strigi / mysql / kitchensink haven't all been woken up at the same time to serve the urgent e-mail indexing needs of otheruser@localhost.

It's interesting to me that akonadi has such a nice and detailed self-test, but a pity that it seems to need it :-(

--
To be, or not to be: isn't that quite logical, Slashdot Beta?
1. Re:Question for the devs: nepomuk by Rich0 · 2012-08-02 00:46 · Score: 1
  
  What I'd like to know is if you can use kmail without having neopmuk even installed. Kmail is a great piece of software. Nepomuk is something that I don't need, so I don't have it. KDE works great without it, minus any of the PIM elements. So, I don't use the PIM elements.
Re:KDE Wallet - Fail by Carewolf · 2012-08-01 09:03 · Score: 1

Thunar looks like a dumbed down version of an open file dialog, and probably has less features.
Re:KDE Wallet - Fail by mister_playboy · 2012-08-01 09:07 · Score: 1

I like Dolphin, but it has gone downhill on my current Arch install after 5 months of use.
2 big issues, maybe interrelated:
1. Directory views are frequently not longer "synced" after file operations. I have to use F5 to reload the tab before it displays the actual current contents. Files used to appear as they were copied or vanish as they were deleted, but that only happens sometimes now.
2. Certain directories with file previews turned on get "stuck" attempted to populate all the thumbnails, causing one CPU to be pegged at 100% until I navigate to a different directory in that tab.
Is there a way to delete Dolphin's internal database and start anew? I suppose deleting everything in ~/.config/dolphin would work, but I wanted to know if there is a more elegant solution.

--
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
Re:What about Windows 8 by A12m0v · 2012-08-01 13:11 · Score: 1

/. is news for nerds not news for Microsoft shills. Get your head straight!

--
GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
Re:What about Windows 8 by renegadesx · 2012-08-01 13:38 · Score: 1

Does that mean we can install KDE 4.9 over the top of Windows 8?

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Make SELinux enforcing again!
Re:What about Windows 8 by cbhacking · 2012-08-01 15:13 · Score: 2

Actually, you really can. KDE has been available on Windows for years, basically ever since 4.x was released (yes, including the pre-release-quality "releases" for x < 2).
Additionally, Windows has long had a registry value that specifies which process it should launch as a shell. Traditionally, this was used for creating kiosk systems that ran dedicated software and neither needed nore wanted Explorer running in the background. However, it's possible to do full shell replacement using the same tweak.

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There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Re:KDE Wallet - Fail by JohnnyMindcrime · 2012-08-02 01:22 · Score: 1

Hey, it's the man with the BRG (Big Rage Gun),
According to your post in "Cue The Trolls" on July 30th, you said and I quote:
Don't you wonder why people with the money are working on BSD based Macs instead of Linux? Wake up. How many mechanics get told to build a smelter when their ratchet is defective? None. They find another ratchet. I too have decided to use a different tool that doesn't require me to keep building smelters.
I took that to mean that you'd already left Linux far behind but here you are, once again, telling us how much you don't like it. What are you, some kind of masochist?
Sonny, if you do not like Linux then go ahead and use something else. It clearly stresses you out very much, I can imagine big red bulbous veins standing out in your neck as I type, and the last thing any of us hippie sandal-wearers want is to be responsible for someone with a BRG accidentallly turning it on himself and ending up with a coronary.

--
Windows 10 is great - I used it to download Linux.
Activities by paulkoan · 2012-08-02 02:00 · Score: 1

Every time I look at Activities I cannot figure a way to get them into my workflow in a way that benefits it.
Care to give me an example of how you are using them because I think I am missing something...

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Re:Best version is? by KugelKurt · 2012-08-02 02:35 · Score: 1

Serious question: Is the "best" KDE version still considered to be 3.5? Or have they un-broken the 4 with the newer updates?
Series 4 is totally great since 4.2.1.
Everything that requires the ARTS sound server can't be good. Ever.
Thanks to all involved with KDE by KugelKurt · 2012-08-02 02:39 · Score: 1

Upgrading to 4.9 was painless.
Plasma Desktop is the best DE out there since 4.2.
Improving KWin scripting makes it even better! Dolphin 2.1 rocks hard.
Re:KDE Wallet - Fail by theshowmecanuck · 2012-08-02 02:50 · Score: 1

Hey fucktard, how's it going?
Maybe if people like you addressed the issues instead of beating up the people who make the complaints it really would be the year of the Linux desktop. But no, you would rather slag others who don't feel the same way as you. You need to see a psychiatrist and deal with your own insecurities before you are qualified to advise others.
I said I use Linux on a VM now. I still have to use it. Now go cry somewhere else. So sad you can't take it when someone dents your fanboyism. You should take some antisensitivity training. Maybe instead of crying and curling in a little ball and feeling hurt when someone posts honest criticism you should ask why these criticisms aren't addressed. I think it's because fanboys like you live in a different reality than the rest of us. Just a hint, there has never been a year of the Linux desktop. The potential is there, but attitudes like yours will always prevent it.

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-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Re:KDE Wallet - Fail by GnuAge · 2012-08-02 10:22 · Score: 1

Dolphin has its regressions. My current favorite is that when you open the built-in terminal-emulator on some recent distros it doesn't load your ~/.bashrc unless you do a "source ~/.bashrc"; that bug has existed in Ubuntu since 11.10 and KDE since 4.7 and hasn't been fixed yet, AFAIK.

And in konqueror the terminal has not followed the directory of the GUI file manager since version 3.5. Dolphin has a great file filter feature, but it doesn't seem to exist for konqueror. And you can't split dolphin windows up in to more than 2 horizontal panes, unlike konqueror, which you can subdivide in to as many vertical and horizontal panes as you need. And good luck adding a "Edit File Type" button to your dolphin toolbar (though you can do it with konqueror). If KDE could somehow combine the best elements of dolphin and konqueror they would have a better file manager than any other EXCEPT for konqueror in 3.5. Not only did konqueror used to show meta-data if you highlighted a file (even on a removeable drive that isn't indexed by neposuck), a feature that it seems they are just getting around to adding back in, but you could actually edit mp3 tags from the file manager by choosing Properties from the context menu.

KDE3 really was the greatest DE ever. I just wish there was an easy way to just add KDE3 konqueror with all its kioslaves from Trinity KDE without pulling in all the other buggy crap from that little project.
Re:KDE Wallet - Fail by JohnnyMindcrime · 2012-08-03 11:17 · Score: 1

Sonny, you really are wasting your time with the abuse you are levelling at me - I'm not going to repeat what I said to you in my last response in "Cue The Trolls" because it's all contained in there - read it or don't read it, the choice is yours.
But take the advice of an old man - any high ground you may think you have in any argument will be removed as soon as you resort to abuse and bad language - and when arguing with someone like myself, who is entirely capable of communicating clearly & succinctly in a calm fashion, I will consider that as a victory to me.

--
Windows 10 is great - I used it to download Linux.