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KDE's UI To Bend Toward Simplicity

Posted by timothy on from the bringing-the-good-stuff-to-the-surface dept.

sfcrazy (1542989) writes "KDE Software is often criticized for being too complicated for an average user to use. Try setting up Kmail and you would know what I mean. The KDE developers are aware of it and now they are working on making KDE UI simpler. KDE usability team lead Thomas Pfeiffer Thomas prefers a layered feature exposure so that users can enjoy certain advanced features at a later stage after they get accustomed to the basic functionality of the application. He quotes the earlier (pre-Plasma era) vision of KDE 4 – "Anything that makes Linux interesting for technical users (shells, compilation, drivers, minute user settings) will be available; not as the default way of doing things, but at the user's discretion."

2 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Repeat history by Flammon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually, Windows 9 is starting to look like GNOME a couple years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --
    ayottesoftware.com
  2. Everyday KDE user; completely agree! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    II always recommend KDE to new users, but it needs be simplified (Baloo/Nepomuk off, Akonadi off, Kwallet off, Activities off) and its ME who has to do it, because I know how to do it, and they don't. See where the problem is?

    If you, KDE UI designers, can make it as simple as possible for the novice users, I will be very pleased that it is *me*, not them, who has to spend some time to fit the environment to his taste (as long as you don't touch *my* KDE!).

    The problem is that in order to show off a new fancy feature that may give KDE an edge (cf. Baloo, etc), the authors seem to think that they have to turn them on by default. That is why KDE is unusable for novices. Maybe just let the people decide whether they are so great, and they will gladly opt in if they are, as I do with some of them, not all.

    Go ahead and simplify the default settings, and put some layers in. It will be great! (Did I say I will cut you if you dare touch *my* KDE?)