Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 16th Jun 2008 07:09 UTC
Probably the most often misunderstood element of KDE4 is Plasma, the extensive widget engine that replaces the normal desktop and the Kicker panel from KDE 3.x. The entire KDE4 desktop is built up out of Plasmoids (yet another term for desk accessory), including the panel and the desktop itself - and it is the latter that has been causing quite some confusion. Where are my desktop icons? Update: Aaron Seigo has published a screencast showing how the FolderView Plasmoid behaves as a normal desktop, and how to make it so.
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Member since:2005-07-06
so much criticism from users
Criticism is good, even if comes from "fear". Most people are afraid of change, especially when there have been so many examples of changes for the worse, and so few of changes for the better. From my part, the only thing I don't want to see going missing is the broad configurability (which many people, especially Gnome users have historically been detesting so much), which I'm still ok with in the latest versions, and that only from a user's pov, since from the dev side it's pretty shiny.
Member since:2008-02-26
I was skeptic when KDE4 was launched and I had never had any good experience with KDE before, but the demo last week convinced me to try a KDE4 distribution in my new shiny mainframey laptop.
The main problem I will probably still have with KDE is that the best irreplaceable apps except Skype are GTK+ only.
Member since:2005-11-21
"so much criticism from users
Criticism is good, even if comes from "fear". Most people are afraid of change, especially when there have been so many examples of changes for the worse, and so few of changes for the better. From my part, the only thing I don't want to see going missing is the broad configurability (which many people, especially Gnome users have historically been detesting so much), which I'm still ok with in the latest versions, and that only from a user's pov, since from the dev side it's pretty shiny. "
Give it a rest. We aren't solving World Peace. Criticism in the Real World is called Engineering Judgement after Brainstorming sessions.
If you don't like it, join the Peace Corps.
Member since:2005-07-06
I just wanted that Aaron and friends wouldn't have to deal with so much criticism from users who are afraid it's different from KDE 3.
If you want to avoid criticism from users then heading a large FOSS project is probably one of the worst tasks you can take on. I personally wish Aaron and friends had handled the criticism with a bit more grace and professionalism.
Just try it out yourself.
I did, and try updates regularly.
And it's likely that just like me, you will be amazed by KDE 4.
Well I wouldn't say amazed, but certainly impressed and cautiously optimistic that KDE4 could turn into something really cool and genuinely useful.
And if you're willing, you can imagine where it will go in the near future.
I'm trying. And the is where the user 'criticism' comes in. I, like many others, had concerns and questions about certain aspects of KDE4. I, like many others, also had suggestions on how improvements could be made. Upon voicing my suggestions and concerns, I like many others, got told to stop criticizing, simply trust that the KDE team knows best and stop bothering them with our silly concerns. That attitude, more than anything technical, is what's worrying me most about KDE4 at the moment.
Member since:2006-01-04
If you want to avoid criticism from users then heading a large FOSS project is probably one of the worst tasks you can take on. I personally wish Aaron and friends had handled the criticism with a bit more grace and professionalism.
Problem is Aaron & friends are very nice people and they often respond to thick trolls or spoiled KDE3 users.
I think they should handle it more like Mark S. et al. and just ignore "I want KDE3 tweak/feature X exactly the way it was and I want it NOW!" posts and let happy KDE4 users deal with the poisonous people.
That would give them more time to deal with constructive criticism ..
Edited 2008-06-16 11:14 UTC
Member since:2007-02-17
I'm trying. And the is where the user 'criticism' comes in. I, like many others, had concerns and questions about certain aspects of KDE4. I, like many others, also had suggestions on how improvements could be made. Upon voicing my suggestions and concerns, I like many others, got told to stop criticizing, simply trust that the KDE team knows best and stop bothering them with our silly concerns. That attitude, more than anything technical, is what's worrying me most about KDE4 at the moment.
I think it is probably likely that quite a lot of the "criticism" of KDE that is posted on public forums actually comes from Windows astroturfers.
KDE 4.1 went through a lengthy pre-design process of soliciting user input. When people show up ages after the consensus design has been established, often without a real point (eg. "you can't resize the panel" ... sorry, but you can ... or "its ugly" ... without any reason to say so) ... especially when a lot of these "critics" have never actually run the code ... perhaps you can see the reason for sensitivity on the part of developers.
Personally, I think Microsoft is very afraid that in KDE 4.1 the FOSS crowd have come up with an innovative, useful, functional, cross-platform and aesthetic new desktop that Windows cannot hope to match ... and hence you are seeing a lot of vitriolic and quite artificial criticism.
If anyone who did not have any comment or suggestion during the original design stages and who has an actual valid criticism to make now ... perhaps to the KDE developers this is indistinguishable from the astroturfing, and that is why it is getting short shrift.
Member since:2008-03-17
Whilst criticism is good, too much of it has been uninformed, whiny, or simply useless.
too many people said thing along the lines "this sucks" , "I don't like it", "kde devs are being stupid, screw this I'm going to gnome".
Very few of these people actually said something about the specific features they didn't like or even tried learn more after being corrected of their FUD.
Also it would be kind of nice if everyone didn't expect kde4.1 to be designed PERSONALLY for them.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/25/13 0:45 UTC
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 23:59 UTC
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 22:33 UTC
Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Linked by Howard Fosdick on 05/24/13 21:41 UTC
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 14:44 UTC
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 23:22 UTC
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:04 UTC
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:01 UTC
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.More News »
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Member since:
2006-01-31
Again this is a showcase of strength of the KDE 4 design. I just wanted that Aaron and friends wouldn't have to deal with so much criticism from users who are afraid it's different from KDE 3.
Just try it out yourself. And it's likely that just like me, you will be amazed by KDE 4. And if you're willing, you can imagine where it will go in the near future. KDE 4.1 looks very promising, and I can't imagine where KDE 4.2 will bring us...