KDE-Forum.org

Quoted

Originally posted by eet
" a simple desktop"

Yeah; I, too, think that the time has come to hide the configurability a bit behind a sleek and seemingly clear-structured desktop.

The best mock-ups I've seen so far, are GNOME-mockups, to be honest:
http://tinyurl.com/qjerb
But I find it somehow reassuring that KDE-mockups seem to point in the same direction:
http://img460.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tab0az8zc.png

(Notice how similar the mock-ups look? I think we are seeing some 'Zeitgeist' here... )

If you look at a screenshot of Amarok vs. a screenshot of WMP, I could argue that WMP looks prettier. Which one would I rather use? Amarok of course.

A mockup that looks clean to the eye doesn't necessarily equate to something that functions well. Having some kicker shortcuts, or a dock, or whatever provides me quick access to the apps I use the most. If you remove those shortcuts, it looks cleaner, but it takes me extra time to navigate a series of menus to get where I need to go.

A good desktop design lacks "clutter" but provides strong functionality. Luckily KDE is extremely flexible and allows me to add or remove things to achieve the level I'm looking for. You can remove all the applets from Kicker, and be left with a clean desktop and only a menu such as in those mockups. Try using it. It may be what you're looking for, or you may realize that sometimes having those little shortcuts saves time.

My major 3 complaints about KDE. 1. Poor documentation. 2. Poor documentation. 3. Poor documentation.

Lack of a useful contextual help system. Lack of how to fix XXX problems. Lack of a list of COMPLETE config files, all of them. And what they control in a systematic, heirachial system I can quickly underrstand and use.

I loathe and despise when what should be a minor problem becomes a major headache to fix because of utter lack of useful docunentation beyond the superficial newbie user level which is often all KDE bothers to give you.

CC

About languages. - BUG and RFE

Currently - KDE 3.5.7

A long time this lasts - we can assign alt-shift for switching groups, but we cannot assign this combination for switching layout.
What the @#!@!

Ok, now let's walk in my shoes.
I'm russian, so I need work with english language and with russian.
I need somehow to switch. Alt-Shift is wonderful, none other combo can be used.

My solution:
I added single russian language, with "enable english layout" - one layout, two groups.
Checked "show indicator even if only one layout", assign alt-shift to switch group, set per-application-policy, clicked save...
ALL CHANGES was ignored, and dissapeared.
Thus, I must add another layout (english) simply for saving my settings! this is crap.
When I use russian language with two groups (rus + eng), I can switch between them with alt-shift succesfully, Howewer! I see in tray a flag for layout, not for group.

So, I beg you, Or add ability to hack language switcher and assign a per-group flags (or pictures, or wthatever), even if this would be very hard-to use some deep conf file
Or add ability to switch between LAYOUTS with Alt-shift

Or both

Beforehand thanks

As I know if I install any network provider in Windows, I can work with files very simlpe and transparent way.
E.g. I can with any program open network file, is this network SMB, or DAV, or whatever.

What we see in Unixes: None of Operating System nor Desktop Environment do not responsible for file handling, except plain file systems.

So, any program which want to work with smb share - must be builded with libsmbclient, etc.

Could it be, in KDE 4 made a wrapper for accessing network files, via file:// protocol?

My idea is simple - CD-DVD, we put it in cdrom, and it mounts to somewhere /mnt/tra-la-la
We go to network, SMB, and somewhere here, we smbmount dir

What pluses I see:
I can listen to music with Kaffeine via SMB-network, I can open - save files in any program;

1) More speed. Everyone wants more speed.
2) Better features in Konqueror. Tabs and bookmarks need the most attention in my opinion, and is there any particular reason why there aren't many (or any?) extensions?
3) Qt-WebKit. KHTML is a bit lacking.
4) Make all colours changeable. I have a dark grey theme, and certain bits of KDE ("All Application" and "Actions" text on the K Menu, some bits of KTorrent) appear to be hard-coded to certain colours. This is not attractive.
5) Get rid of the toolbar on images in Gwenview. I don't like, never use it, and would like to have more space for my images. It also crashes more than I'd like.
6) Make Krita a serious contender to the GIMP. Last time I tried it, the image resizing capabilities were worse than an eight year-old copy of Paint Shop Pro 7. It also holds the dubious distinction of being the most unstable application I've ever used, though that seems to be have been fixed now.
7) Dolphin. I never liked using a single application as web browser and file manager ever since I dumped Internet Explorer for the Mozilla Application Suite (old-school!).
Various improvements to Kaffeine. It choked on some videos and I soon dumped it for MPlayer, which played the same videos just fine.

That's my shortlist.

I just posted in another thread at Customizing Kaddressbook printing layouts about this, but the short version is that I think the most significant missing functionality in Kaddressbook (which I use and like) is the ability to print mailing lists in a simple format with only the fields (like just name and telephone number) you choose.

I want Konqueror, Konqueror and Konqueror again.
As file manager and as browser. And complete.

And I would like to know how can I deactivate the Desktop Toolbox.

Please save Konqueror. Sign the petition on:
http://www.petitiononline.com/konqKDE4/petition.html

I can tell you that I don't want to be force fed dolphin as my file manager. I tried it and I fail to understand the benefit it beings to the desktop, that makes me ask the question "What was the motivation behind the creation of Dolphin"?

At any rate, the text "... - Dolphin" shouldn't appear in the title bar of every dolphin window open. Windows doesn't have "-- Windows Explorer" appended to the title bar of every folder you have open.
Just have the folder names in the title bars (or at most, ".... - File Browser" like Gnome's Nautilus)

N00bs don't care what the file browser is called, and sticking "Dolphin" in the title bar of every dolphin window is just gonna confuse them.

Quoted

Originally posted by skyfire
Many people are switching to gnome instead of KDE.Some of the reasons i've collected over some of the forums,mailing lists that are listed below.
1. KDE's Window decorations and visual styles are poor,sometimes they are too flashy while sometimes they are too old like win 3.1 systems.
2. Task seperator line on taskbar panel is old style,it looks very poor even if you have cool visual style,on panel entire beauty goes flat.
3. Icon click-n-execute feature is also too flashy as gnome and others offer it more easy.
4. It's good from usability point of view but as far looks are concenrened it is totally hands down,peoples at KDE should research Visual style/theme of mac osx.

KDE currently has a reputation as being slower and less streamlined than Gnome. starting KDE also takes longer than starting gnome. Slowing users down with a "tip of the day" everytime they open a konsole window, etc. doesn't help matters.

Personally I like the interface (apart from the distracting tips of the day) -- the extra functionality makes me feel like I'm using a real powerful system -- whereas gnome is useless for doing anything except looking at it!

...But faster code wouldn't go astray.

Don't think making the interface more flashy will increase the user base!!! Didn't work for MS with Vista, now, did it?
Also don't just try to blatantly copy Mac OSX -- gnome already does, and users deserve an alternative. How many mainstream computer users actually use OSX anyway?

Quoted

Originally posted by xTermOSThe Source of Evil is Trolltech with it's Qt. It is (or was) slow, eats lots of memory, and wasn't handy. It's license _is_ awful and commercial companies prefer to use GTK because they don't want to pay Trolltech.

I just took a look at the Trolltech licensing fees. OK, I'm sold. Gnome is better than KDE after all.

My wish for some future version of KDE is that when I resize a window and move it somewhere, the window will remember where it was and the size that I gave it, and perhaps even the desktop it was on. I grow tired of doing this over and over again. Consoles seem to have this ability but something like, say, Hardinfo, System Information, does not. It doesn't seem like too much of a thing to ask of an application to remember this information and to apply it.

I'd like to see bookmarks treated as resources, shared in the way contacts and calendars can be shared. Including local files, NFS files, DAV files, IMAP cache via Kmail, possibly stored in a database, and any other common resource formats.

It would also be useful if multiple bookmark files could be merged during use (again, as contacts are), and check or uncheck the resources you want displayed, during use.

The goal would be to let more than one person use various sets of bookmarks, and equally important, would let one person access the same bookmarks from more than one workstation.

Dan

Like DSCherry above, I like the idea of bookmarks accessible from different apps.

Similarly, I also think the list of podcast subscriptions should be shared between Amarok and Akregator. The next Akregator should also have an embedded media player for video and audio RSS subscriptions, much like it can integrate Konqueror tabs for reading blogs. I tried Kitty for this, but it was too buggy for daily use.

Well, i don't want this main panel, really hate it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rorolfo/2049100582/

Configuration section is too big and should be searchable like the start menu in newer distros. A searchword should be "doubleclick" or "window" or "title" or whatever in each language. As a result you should see the categories with each items. After a click the affected configuration tool should start and areas should be highlighted.

Metaconfiguration should have the option to configure several tools. If i set the fullscreen hotkeys it would be nice to have the option to define for which kde-tools and others (firefox ...) this applies.

During resize of a window if i hold "ctrl" the windows behave like the are docked. they stick together and resize both at the same time. If i resize a side of a window which touches two other windows the are both resized, too. If i resize a window at the corner this window resizes all other windows which touch it at one of these two sides.

The same principle should occur if i move a window with "ctrl". the window which would be overlayed must get resized instead. Maybe with "alt" instead it moves out of the screen?! :-)

Applications (especially for systray) should support dbus. This enables comfortable scripting from e.g. bash. The dbus commands should be good documented (help from the program itself should report the possibilities).

Well, answering the original question...
Personally, I don't really appreciate any attempts to copy Mac OS X/Vista visual style. They look really boring to me at the moment. All that metallic/transparent/shiny stuff makes me want to throw up - it's EVERYWHERE. In this terms, some Openbox/Fluxbox screen can look more nice and original than GNOME/KDE with all those Compiz, awn, etc. So I really expect KDE to make a first step: a mainstream Linux DE that tries to be original. At the moment I consider KDE to be far more independent than GNOME: I mean, AFAIK, GNOME is deep in Novel-Mono stuff, which makes me away from it. KDE also have things from Novel (remember KickOff), but it also has something to offer: remember Apple adopting khtml. And, if I'm not mistaken, even some proprietary software even for windows use QT (for example, Last.FM client). This is what makes KDE strong - it has its own way.
What I've seen from latest screenshots almost satisfies me: only the kicker is awful and has a Vista-like design with those transparent borders. Windows decorations, icons, etc look great. And all features shown promise a great field for customizations, although from now on all customizations should be really nice to compete the default look. I never tried KDE4 myself, but screens look good.
Many users report numerous bugs, but that is probably a matter of time and anyway, 4.1 should be already nice. Probably, a marketing point would be to polish all errors before April: all mainstream userfriendly distros (ubuntu 8.04, mandriva 2008.1, OpenSuSE 11.0, Fedora 9) should come out then and they should have something to offer to the unexperienced user.
Returning to the "KDE's way" topic, I am really concerned about simplifying KDE. I mean, Konqueror's rich functionality is among those things that made me switch from GNOME. All those kget, amarok, kmail, akregator, kopete and other stuff integration is what makes KDE a complete environment which has its own concept and all 3rd party apps have to obey this concept. GNOME has a HIG ideology, but I don't like it - users don't have a choice and tweaking is a pain.
So, as a summary, I simply want KDE to keep moving their way. The way that shows that Linux and the other *nix can show another way to do things and not just allow users to have a free substitute of Vista/OS X.

is it possible to make kmail more of a collaborative application? i'm trying opengroupware, but i'd rather use kcontact than a web app. I've been looking for collaborative software, like Microsoft groove, but haven't found anything as easy to use. I'd rather not use groove if there's a better open source solution.

Walter

Quoted

Originally posted by Fri13
I dont like to see any of those "KDE must be more like a windows" or "KDE must be more like a MacOSX"... if users dont like default look of KDE, then customize it, you have the power and if users are whining about those, they have willing to customize desktop.....

It gives me an idea. Since KDE can be configured in order to look & feel like Windoze, OSX, or even GNOME (which is a sibling project), all that lacks is an easier way for do that.
I think that in the control panel should exist a tool for changing the entire look & feel of KDE in a very embracing way. It shoul include keybindings, panels positioning and even configuration options and Kcontrol items.

Quoted

Originally posted by yerenkow

E.g. I can with any program open network file, is this network SMB, or DAV, or whatever.

What we see in Unixes: None of Operating System nor Desktop Environment do not responsible for file handling, except plain file systems.

Have you looked at FUSE? It has some very cool features (including mounting resources using SMB, FTP or DAV, use of several different crypto file systems, targets like a subversion repository). Still waiting for a good OSS Amazon s3fs...

I use it to mount server directories which are connected via SSH (sshfs). It is pretty flexible. I have also used it to try and connect to my laptop to sync documents and my &*()%5#$*^!@ing KMail. This seems to get screwed up and it is a pain (ps + grep is handy) to kill it off and start over. From workstation to server solid as a rock (and the server is, gasp XP w/ cygwin's sshd).

As far as eye candy, I would love to have the UI shown on CSI Miami. However, I believe it is only available on HollywoodOS . . . a nice steam punk UI would be OK, but I favor function over form. A nice clean UI which gives you good context information and doesn't fill the upper part of the screen with blank space is very helpful from a usability standpoint.

Coming to Linux in the last year from a lifetime of Windows I welcomed the efficiency, although cryptic, of the shell. I keep a tabbed konsole open with htop running in one (works better than ksysguard), my user shell in another, the inevitable man page in yet a third. Works pretty good.

Whatever happened to color blind safe themes??? It is bad enough to be doomed to go around wearing purple shirts with blue jeans without having to try and figure out how to fix the color schemes. Mercy!

I would also like to be able to add some right-click context menu items. Could be tweaked somehow I am sure.