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| KDE 4.9 released |
| By Thom Holwerda, submitted by poundsmack on 2012-08-02 01:48:12 |
| "KDE is delighted to announce its latest set of releases, providing major updates to KDE Plasma Workspaces, KDE Applications, and the KDE Platform. Version 4.9 provides many new features, along with improved stability and performance." |
|
| Comment by orestes |
| By orestes on 2012-08-02 02:15:15 |
| Really nice release, the performance improvements are very welcome. Well done KDE folks |
 - Score: 5 |
| RE: ... |
| By Bill Shooter of Bul on 2012-08-02 03:30:56 |
| I think its more of a case of KDE 4 being rather polished. A point release at this point brings more refinement, but its not a complete rebuild. |
| - Score: 8 |
| Oh, my... |
| By ndrw on 2012-08-02 04:08:01 |
|
They could definitely make use of a better theme and a help of a graphics designer. In the video, KDE 4.9 looks "flashy", perhaps even "impressive", but I would never called it "pretty", "elegant" or "clear". Last time I tried KDE 4.8 it took me about an hour to switch off most annoyances (overload of animations, transparencies, features I would never use anyway) and install more sensible Plasma and Qt themes (it is hard, if possible at all, to find good ones, especially for Plasma). The sad result was that the "core" I've got wasn't particularly good because all the development steam apparently went into parts I've just switched off. |
| - Score: 4 |
| What is the best KDE distro nowadays? |
| By dsmogor on 2012-08-02 06:25:38 |
|
I'm now trying out Open Suse, but hugely disappointed how unpolished it is. Where are the KDE strengths best exposed? |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: What is the best KDE distro nowadays? |
| By lemur2 on 2012-08-02 06:53:19 |
|
> I'm now trying out Open Suse, but hugely disappointed how unpolished it is. Where are the KDE strengths best exposed? A company called Blue Systems has begun to sponsor KDE distribution based on Ubuntu (and hence Debian) repositories, which provide a very comprehensive range of packages. The latest set of these "sibling" distros are based on Kubuntu 12.04 LTS. http://www.kubuntu.org/news/12.0... Blue System's own distribution is called Netrunner. http://www.netrunner-os.com/dryl... Blue Systems also sponsor Linux Mint KDE. http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=208... These three distributions all work pretty well, they are based on the same codebase and they use essentially the same repositories, with minor variations. They do each provide different features, themes and look and feel. Netrunner, for example, doesn't use the kickoff menu by default: http://www.netrunner-os.com/wp-c... Netrunner also has fairly seamless visual integration of GTK applications: http://www.netrunner-os.com/wp-c... Mint has different artwork: http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_may... "KDE is a vibrant, innovative, advanced, modern looking and full-featured desktop environment." Maybe so, but the Linux Mint project is first and foremost a GNOME project (even though GNOME is starting to fracture nowadays), and it doesn't do KDE all that well. For myself, I run Kubuntu 12.04 LTS, but Netrunner is very interesting IMO, and I may switch to it. http://www.netrunner-os.com/abou... Netrunner is a GNU/Linux Distribution sponsored by Blue-Systems.com Netrunner is built on Kubuntu with default integration of Gnome and Wine. Our focus is on new users as well as “power-users”, making KDE an ideal choice. It allows Netrunner to feel comfortable for a new user, while still offering powerful customization options (with inclusion of additional add-ons) to any user wanting to explore the possibilities of FLOSS. We go by the principles - Power-up, not dumb-down - Include add-ons, codecs, customizations - Avoid lock-ins, favor free(libre) alternatives if possible Sounds a pretty good deal for individual users. Edited 2012-08-02 07:13 UTC |
| - Score: 6 |
| RE[2]: ... |
| By cdude on 2012-08-02 06:55:26 |
| Found lots of KDE4 clips on youtube. Not sure what major UI changes the dude expects that he looks for 4.9 clips a day after release. Just have a watch at the KDE4 clips and be fine. They are not (so) different from 4.9 especially since its all customisable and most seem to tweak the default settings anyways before recording making it hard to guess what KDE 4.x they where actually using (bugfixes and performance-improvements are not direct visible in videos anyways if you not direct compare cases). |
| - Score: 8 |
| RE: ... |
| By Loreia on 2012-08-02 06:57:01 |
| I think of it (the lack of videos) as a good thing. Visually there is nothing new in 4.9, any videos out there that were recorded during previous release cycle will look identical to 4.9. It means that KDE is not focused on adding new features but on polishing existing ones and making internal optimizations. |
| - Score: 5 |
| RE: Oh, my... |
| By cdude on 2012-08-02 06:59:23 |
|
and I am sure that if KDE takes YOUR custom settings and makes them the default another user would write exactly the same "review" you did complaining that the defaults are not what he prefers. At least its all highly customizable and so everybody can tweak it to whatever they prefer. Personally I love to have the freedom to do so. Edited 2012-08-02 07:01 UTC |
| - Score: 4 |
| RE[2]: Oh, my... |
| By Loreia on 2012-08-02 07:18:15 |
|
> and I am sure that if KDE takes YOUR custom settings and makes them the default another user would write exactly the same "review" you did complaining that the defaults are not what he prefers. At least its all highly customizable and so everybody can tweak it to whatever they prefer. Personally I love to have the freedom to do so. Yes, but KDE is making it needlessly complicated to change a "theme". You need to set every single detail manually. I find that unproductive. I tried to express my thought about it on official KDE forum, but I get a feeling than only few people visit official forum. So talking there feels like "talking to the wind". http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.p... |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: Oh, my... |
| By Loreia on 2012-08-02 07:55:53 |
|
You are hardly the only person that has a problem with this. I am just reading Ars technica article about 4.9, and about one half of comments on first page are about "how ugly KDE is". Some are really harsh: > Oh my god, can we get HALF A DESIGNER here? > It's amazing how, release after release after release, KDE continues to look like it was slapped together in about five minutes. > Good grief, that's ugly. Even by open source standards, that's ugly. > The defaults need to be sane and not look like complete ass. Customization is great and all, but users shouldn't need to spend time changing themes, rearranging window decorations, removing useless buttons, etc just to get to something that doesn't make one's eyes bleed. And so on ... It is strange that KDE puts so much effort in creating great technology, but for the most part ignores visual appeal. And distributions mostly just ship default build. Open Suse is the most obvious exception, but sadly Open Suse doesn't work well on my laptop. |
| - Score: 8 |
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