This week wasn't marked by any breaking news items, but there were a few tends to be spotted. This may be have been a new week, but netbooks were still all the rage, with several items on our front page. We also had lots of news on Windows 7, and OSNews' very first game review. An uneventful week, but some interesting discussion nonetheless. This week's My Take is about the upcoming KDE 4.2 release.
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Member since:
2006-01-04
Honest words. I like it.
KDE 4.2 is really quite nice, but I think the first Qt 4.5 based KDE will be point where it all will make sense. Konqi will get a webkit engine with flash support and Nepomuk might see more use. Kmail etc. will use Akonadi and most apps will finally be ported to Qt4.
Plus so much more.
So 4.2 is already good and maybe "The Answer" for all those still on 3.5, but the hype is not really stopping .. and Linus will be back 
Member since:2006-01-03
Member since:2006-01-03
Member since:2005-08-18
Member since:2007-02-17
Member since:
2006-01-08
Member since:2005-06-29
Member since:2006-01-08
Member since:2008-08-26
Isn't the Frisian language a sort of bridge between Dutch and English?
@Thom
Maybe you could write your articles in Frisian for the "benefit" of the spelling Nazis?
Member since:2006-08-09
Isn't the Frisian language a sort of bridge between Dutch and English? "
Not really, at least not in every respect.
Afrikaans is the closest thing to English you'll get, as for the syntax.
BTW, Dutch don't use "complement", except in maths and in phony (marketing) speak.
@Thom
Maybe you could write your articles in Frisian for the "benefit" of the spelling Nazis?
I kind of doubt Thom, like the vast majority of Dutch people, knows more than a few words of Frisian. The only person I know personally who speaks Frisian is an Israeli.
I'd love to see some articles in Afrikaans, though. ;-)
Member since:2005-08-11
Member since:
2006-03-02
What's the deal with the default window decorations? They stick out like a sore thumb. They're ugly, look really out of date, and totally do not fit in with the rest of the interface. I like MacOS X because the interface is clean and polished and attractive. KDE4 is looking like it will meet or exceed that aesthetic. (Although there are still way too many UI features, at least by default, that resemble Windows too much.) Except for the window decorations that are totally inconsistent. Yes, I'm sure you can change them, but why put up your screenshots with something so out of place?
The thing that's great about KDE4 is that it's exploring new paradigms. It's not totally revolutionary, but it's no longer just playing catch-up to Windows and the Mac. It's got some creative concepts all its own.
Member since:2008-03-17
Member since:2005-06-29
I've fallen in love with the Skulpture style for KDE 4.0 (there's a theme and a window style). It's got this retro look, without being corny or outdated. It's really pretty.
Now, if only there was a Plasma Skulpture theme...
Member since:2008-03-17
yeah,
Skulpture is nice (using it atm too)... I'm currently using Plateau plasma theme, it's nice, simplistic and modern.
If I have time I might dive into the lava pit that is Qt widget styling and create a nice flat style (the kind that you find on sites like customize.org)
Member since:
2005-11-13
Instead of making users skip over the game reviews (and other topics they're not interested in), why not add the ability to set up filters so that only the topics one is interested in will be displayed?
Then you can get rid of this 'Page 2' thing where, as it stands now, half of the interesting content is off to the side so that people are bound to skip right over it.
Member since:2005-06-29
Because whatever implementation we would choose, it would be too much work. It would be HELL to bugfix it. It would be HELL to find a decent implementation. On top of that, it would lead to people submitting stuff that's already on the frontpage, but they missed it because it got filtered out. Etc. Etc.
You already have a filtering mechanism. It's free, works on all websites, all browsers, all platforms, and can even be used in dead tree media, television. In fact, you can even use it on real world objects and people!
It's called a brain, and your sensory input system. If you think you're not going to like an article based on the headline and teaser, just SKIP IT.
Grmbl.
Member since:
2005-12-18
Member since:
2005-07-06
Another good thing is that KOffice 2.0 beta 5 was released around 10 days ago. I remember using KOffice when I was running KDE on FreeBSD many years ago and it was my favourite office suite from the point of view that it had all the features I need and yet it was also light weight enough in size that it didn't weigh down the system.
KDE 4.x will hopefully be appearing on OpenSolaris (via bionicmutton (which is unfortunately down at the moment)) but with that being said, I hope they integrate things in nicely so that the new wireless widget can make using the wireless devices on OpenSolaris easy for the first timer (or just people like me who know what needs to be done but are just lazy 
)
Maybe this year will be the year of 'significant growth for *NIX on the desktop' - most of the people I've shown KDE to are excited about an awesome desktop like that - and is free. Lets hope that as more people are exposed they'll realise that they don't have the beholden to the duopoly that exists 
Member since:
2006-11-24
Member since:
2005-09-06
Ok, so I decided to see what all the fuss was about. I downloaded the nightly builds. Surprised to find that its 4.3, but a very early build so I doubt much has changed.
Things I like
+Very clean feeling.
This is something that was always bothering me about kde and why I never used it, and feels fixed.
+Desktop effects look and feel polished. This is something compiz needs to do, but I doubt it will happen. One example is how the switching of virtual desktops, it is quick not jerky and what you would expect without effects on.
+Customization is very well done. Cant say more, you will just have to try it.
++Uniqueness, it just feels very unique. I really feel when I am using it that it isnt windows mac or anything done before.
Now for a few negatives
-some apps such as Amarok dont feel polished. For example when trying to play a radio stream it will sometimes crash, and most of the time not do anything. But this could be from the 4.3 download, so I cant say until I download a stable release.
-Takes some time getting used to. But heck I Wouldnt have ever used Linux if this was a big deal to me.
Overall the desktop feels great, and I can see myself using this in place of Gnome. Really a big surprise for me, since I really have never liked kde, and would always go running back to gnome. I really suggest if you want to give it a quick go just download the nightly build, but be mindful that it isnt the rc. Just do a quick google to find it kde-nightly for ubuntu.
Just for reference it was build 4.2.60
Member since:
2007-09-08
It's amazing how much of a difference there is between KDE 4.1 and 4.2. For the first time, it feels like a complete desktop. All the little pieces are starting to come together, and everything's starting to make sense.
I just wish nVidia would fix their drivers.
KDE 4 has always been fast on my laptop (Intel GMA something-or-other), and pretty much everything works. Even KDE 4.0 worked OK.
On my desktop machine (nVidia 9600GT), even though the latest drivers sped things up a lot, I can't use KDE 4.2 for more than a few minutes without X crashing. Since it just dies somewhere inside the driver, there's no way to work out what's caused it or why.
Since I'm running Ubuntu on that machine, that leaves me stranded in Gnome, probably until Ubuntu 9.10.