OSNews > Thread > "RE: meh :-/" by _txf

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 1st Jun 2008 21:46 UTC

KDE 4.1, which is supposed to become the KDE4 version usable by 'normal' people, is coming at the end of July. When Ars reviewed the beta release, they were positive in that it was moving forward at an "extraordinary pace". Despite the positive notions in the news, many seem to have problems actually seeing all the new stuff being done in KDE4 - just like how people fail to see the massive amount of work put into Vista. KDE developer Rafael Fernandez Lopez (I'm sorry for the lack of diacritical marks, an OSNews bug we're working on) decided to put together a screencast showing off all the new stuff coming in KDE 4.1.

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RE: meh :-/

by _txf_ on Mon 2nd Jun 2008 02:43 UTC in reply to "meh :-/"

Member since:
2008-03-17

I would like you to enlighten us what you mean by half-finished.

Bastard child of how many systems...I would think that borrowing ideas from various systems is a plus if they are good ideas.

I somewhat agree that oxygen does not make the best use of space... but it is a lot better than the gigantic widgets you usually get in default gnome installations.

sexy as aqua (good goal) but then you completely ruin your point by mentioning the gaudy aero.

You are aware that you're not required to have widgets on your desktop? You can have nothing if you so desire.

The folderview metaphor is an evolution on the use of the desktop for file management where you can have any folder(s) as a dumping ground for all your crap (I honestly don't believe you have never used your desktop as a file manager i.e. dumping files and folders). Again...you are not required to have them there.

enlightenment and xp are completely opposite to in terms of philosophy to each other one is kitchen sink and the other is lightweight (what the hell are you doing comparing them)

OSS soil laying barren until Compiz/Kwin? can I ask what you're smoking?

I wish you'd tell us what you consider positive attributes in an app launcher...especially seeing as though you seem to worship the xp start menu.

I see you mention that your post was drivel...yes I would agree with that, no need for me to mention it.

edit: I hate it when I succumb to feeding trolls

Edited 2008-06-02 02:46 UTC

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 8

RE[2]: meh :-/

by Nossie on Mon 2nd Jun 2008 06:42 in reply to "RE: meh :-/"

please see my comment further up regarding Aero

look at this image:
http://cache.lifehacker.com/assets/resources/2008/01/screen2.jpg

then look at this one
http://files.opensuse.org/opensuse/en/thumb/d/dd/GNOME_VMware_Launc...

I'm not saying the 2nd one is a good example, Gnome is not exactly renowned for its aesthetics either, but comparing the two, the only useful addition (JIMHO( to the other is the recently used applications - which is where I'm referring to XP since nobody can deny that XP was the first modern OS with recently launched applications. Better looking? is subjective but it still packs more into the same space.

Looking at the image below, and comparing it to the first one I've given here, I really cant see why everyone wants to believe KDE 4.1 is soooo much better... WTF is the 'whitespace' for between the sections and the '>' ???? no auto-sizing? not even a border or drop shadow between the 'sections' and the 'options' at the bottom?

http://www.wellesley.edu/Computing/WinXP/images/startmenu.jpg

I dont care about the widgets, of course you can add as many or few as you like... I also think it's great that KDE is borrowing the best used features of other OS's, nothing worse than reinventing the wheel and building on existing innovation imho is the best thing anyone can do...

The reason I feel KDE is a bastard is that yes, it does borrow things from other places... but apart from the pillowed out 'space' look, it has nothing really to identify itself. In fact KDE almost tries too hard not to look like another OS that it just becomes 'not another' OS.

The widgets I've seen so far in KDE actually look pretty good imho - almost as good if not better than the ones in OSX... but that has never been my point.

Look at the video again.. take away Kwin, take away the 'widgets' (btw, noticing the AmigaOS ref, I dont think you really know what 'widget' means)

The effects in Kwin/Compiz are fine... but nobody is seriously going to use falling snow in their working environment ala dreamscene ala activedesktop.

So, take away the effects, gnome and kde can do that equally as well with either Compiz or Kwin..

Take away the 'widgets' KDE at the very least has a nice amount of applets that developers will build on that in the future.

I guess this doesn't look so bad:
http://mimo.netsons.org/index.php/2008/02/24/kde-41-changelog-visua...

but what's with all the transparency? (4th image down) can anyone point me in the direction of a kde theme similar to this that actually has a non transparent border?

Please dont get me wrong here, sure its a hell of a lot better looking than gnome.. but I dont think Gnome has changed from its default win98 look since the beginning. I use gnome, I hate gnome, I WANT KDE to look good so I can actually see the point of using it. I just find it infuriating that the same people that moaned XP looked like something sold by Fischer Price suddenly have such high esteem over the current default KDE 4.1 look, take away the kinky effects and the applets... and you have nothing?

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: -3

RE[3]: meh :-/

by Narishma on Mon 2nd Jun 2008 10:08 in reply to "RE[2]: meh :-/"

Member since:
2005-07-06

If you take away all the visual effects, you still have a desktop environment that works, unlike Windows XP. Windows XP doesn't have multiple desktops, you can't shade a window, you can't move it or resize it without using the title bar, it doesn't come with any applications worth mentionning, doesn't have a spellchecker and so on...

Most of the things you complain about are subjective anyway.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 3