KDE 4.2.4 Released

An anonymous reader writes "KDE 4.2.4 has been released. See the release announcement for details." Barring a "security issue or another grave bug," this is the end of the KDE 4.2 line, which means for distros based on long-term support, it might be the thing to get used to for a while.

Re:BSD?

[dacut]

And gcc is widely used as the compiler for BSD, but I doubt it'll be filed there. :-)

Re:BSD?

[harryandthehenderson]

Probably not. It really doesn't make any sense that it was marked the way it is, but I figured I'd try to guess why it might have.

Re:BSD?

[chill]

This is Slashdot. Always go with the default reason. The editors fucked up. It explains almost everything.

Dupes. The editors fucked up.
Miscategorized. The editors fucked up.
Everything that says "iPhone" promoted to front page. The editors fucked up.
Cowboy Neal. The editors fucked up.

See?

The Fundamental Fatal Flaw Of Desktop Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Disparate people/teams all working in isolation with no single controlling authority to enforce a consistent UI over the entire system.

So you have Idea/Concept 1 and 2 that are both great in isolation but when thrown together they make no sense. Everyone dumps their own pet favorite UI ideas into the mix and you get one big mess.

And anyone who dares to question the fatal flaw gets modded as a -1 Troll and a heretic and unbeliever to the 'wonder that is Linux on the desktop'

And that is why Android is exploding onto Cellphones and Netbooks while standard Linux has gotten whipped right out of the market by Microsoft.

I'll switch to KDE 4.x when Debian stable has it.

[pecosdave]

Yes, I know I can use the backport [debian.net], but forget it, last time I messed with KDE 4 (on Kubuntu) I found it was still lacking in a lot of really cool utilities KDE 3.x had and I'm just to lazy to recompile all the 3.x versions onto 4 myself. I guess I really have lost some drive as I've gotten older, I'll let someone else do it for me, and when they do I'll use it, and until the 3.5x is good enough.

BTW - kaudiocreator was near the top of that list, that was a stupid easy and useful program. Yes, I can do it other ways, and did for a while, but I kind of liked that one. Oddly, the change in interface was fine, I liked it, KDE4.x and I can get along fine, as soon as the utilities catch up.

Re:Is it just me...

[piojo]

AmaroK (a KDE audio player) made some questionable UI design decisions in the recent versions. I sometimes worry that with the goal of making Linux "easy for my grandmother to use", the actual users are left behind.

There will always be good software available. If Ubuntu swallows the Linux world, people that want something different can install BSD or opensolaris.

Re:BSD?

[JackieBrown]

I assume that he pissed someone off that has mod points.

Any statement he makes is being marked as troll

Re:KDE 4 looks promising

[gigabites2]

That's because of the immense contrast between the two versions. Say you had had to use 4.0 for months and then suddenly switched to 4.1. Big contrast. Say you've used 3.5 for more than a year and suddenly switch to 4.1. Features and stability are still not up to par with the rock-solid 3.5 builds. It's all about perspective I suppose. It is worth mentioning that cbhacking is correct, though. In terms of features and usability, 4.2 is a huge step forward with 4.3 hopefully surpassing it and coming closer to 3.5.

Re:The Fundamental Fatal Flaw Of Desktop Linux

[Kjella]

But seriously he is somewhat correct BUT I don't want to see every Desktop app to turn into some MS Windows copy. I want my "advanced computer user OS" and not grandma's OS and this is why I use Linux. Linux is advanced software, it allows me to do things Windows users don't even understand or don't know it can be done. I choose my Linux distribution because it is not the "I'll hold your hand all the way" software and the less computer savvy individual can use something like *buntu.

This statement is just fucked up on so many levels, why on earth do you need a different distro to run different software? On Windows everything from MS Paint to Adobe Photoshop CS4 runs fine on the same machine, both individually and in parallel. Is that not true on Linux? Ok, so you can have some special needs for some special app, that's what /usr/local is for. But like "I'm so special on everything that my computer isn't usable withoue USE flags" attitude is just bullshit. I bet there's people on *buntu that run circles around your self-claimed geek skillz. Nobody's killed if wifi and wep/wpa, bluetooth, sleep/resume and whatever else is bothering users these days "Just work(tm)" without fiddling with arcane incantations, and *buntu tends to suck less than the others if not by a large margin. Even if people managed to agree on what should be in a dumbed down interface, you can bet they'll leave the full one in there or be flamed for all eternity. Well, except maybe the Gnome developers that seem to enjoy the gconf flames. I've been with *buntu now for a while, been testing it even longer and I can assure you there's no reason to believe it'll ever be reduced to a playtoy.

Re:The Fundamental Fatal Flaw Of Desktop Linux

[SanityInAnarchy]

Disparate people/teams all working in isolation with no single controlling authority to enforce a consistent UI over the entire system.

No such single controlling entity exists which enforces a consistent UI over any desktop system.

Play with Windows for a bit. There's the standard way you're supposed to do things, and then there's the IE7/8 way, and then there's the Office "Ribbon" way (which is implemented several ways in several different apps), and then there's the iTunes "let's make it look OSX-y" way...

Or OS X. Mac users seem to be under some really weird illusion that X programs make the system inconsistent, when even among recent apps, you have one aqua-ish look, and one chrome/steel-ish look.

I could go on...

So you have Idea/Concept 1 and 2 that are both great in isolation but when thrown together they make no sense. Everyone dumps their own pet favorite UI ideas into the mix and you get one big mess.

A mess which somehow works everywhere else, but when it comes to Desktop Linux, this is the reason people ditch it.

Not lack of drivers. Not lack of application support. Not lack of vendor support, or of preinstalled options. Not sheer FUD about new things.

No, it's the lack of a consistent UI that's the problem.

And anyone who dares to question the fatal flaw gets modded as a -1 Troll and a heretic and unbeliever

Or as someone who brings up a tired old troll which has been discounted time and time again.

And that is why Android is exploding onto Cellphones and Netbooks

"Exploding"? Really?

How's it doing compared to the iPhone?

No, Android has exactly the same "controlling authority" as everything else. That is, it doesn't -- as soon as you install a third-party app, you get whatever you get.

while standard Linux has gotten whipped right out of the market by Microsoft.

Desktop Linux was ever in a position to be "whipped out of the market" by Microsoft? News to me.

No, Microsoft has always dominated the desktop market. Linux and OS X both seem to be growing lately, but not fast enough to make a real dent.

But at the moment, Microsoft dominates the market mostly because Microsoft dominates the market.

KDE GOT IT RIGHT

[cyclomedia]

I think KDE nailed it with their 4.0 release, but let's explore the other options:

1. have 3.9,3.99, 3.999,3.9999,3.9999b,3.9999c,4.0, then 4.1 anyway because the avalanche of new users inevitably found new bugs
2. have 4.0 alpha1 to alpha 12, beta 1 to beta 18, rc1 to rc 9, then 4.0. Then 4.1 anyway (see above)
3. keep it at 4.0 but have a zillion internal minor mini version numbers for 2 years until they though it was finished before releasing it to the public. Then have 4.1 anyway (see above again)

Chaning the major version number at the same time as the major change in architecture was absolutely the sensible and mature thing to do, it was never going to stay 4.0 long anyway (see above again again). So it was buggy as hell but you still had the choice of using 3.x stable, it still had "new development architecture it's buggy as hell" plastered all over it, it's not like civilization started to crumble because some "point zero" piece of software somewhere wasnt perfect. People need to chill out, man.