KDE Rebrands, Introduces KDE Plasma Desktop 364
Jiilik Oiolosse writes "The KDE community has killed the term K Desktop Environment (previously the Kool Desktop Environment). 'KDE' had previously ambiguously referred to both the community, and the complete set of programs and tools produced by the KDE community which together formed a desktop user interface. This set of tools, including the window manager, panels and configuration utilities, which KDE terms a 'workspace,' will now be shipped under the term 'KDE Plasma Desktop.' This allows KDE to ship a separate workspace called 'Plasma Netbook,' and independently market the various KDE applications as usable in any workspace, whether it be the Plasma Desktop, Windows, or XFCE."
Wow (Score:4, Insightful)
I say that as a KDE user.
Clarity? (Score:3, Insightful)
Great! Now Linux will still have two major competing desktops. But now one of them could be one of several separate versions, or some applications on a different desktop, or a version of Windows running Koffice. Thanks, clarity committee!
Re:K? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Clarity? (Score:5, Insightful)
I've said it before: You talk like Windows(TM) and Mac OS (TM) are these wonderful things because they're monoliths. But we've learned from monoliths and their creators that there is no "clarity" in that direction, only broken promises. One size doesn't fit all. The new landscape of devices and interfaces will give you clarity and specificity in exchange for your old monolith. If you won't trade it in, prepare to be left in the dust.
We'll look back at monolithic desktop computing and wonder what on earth kind of idiots we were to sit in front of this thing all day, all using the same basic type of chair, same keyboard with carpal tunnel syndrome included, and interfaces that worked like something only a masochist would use.
Anyway, back to writing another Nautilus script.
Re:Gibberish (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Clarity? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Clarity? (Score:5, Insightful)
I have no idea why "a low end non power user" would know or care what their display resolution is.
"Is there a way I can make my screen bigger?"
"The power went out, and when I turned my computer on, everything was really big and now I have to scroll to see anything."
...
I don't know what end users you know, but the ones I know definitely care :)
Re:So if they've changed the name... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:the triumph of buzzwords! (Score:2, Insightful)
Now to be fair, "plasma" is the name of KDE4's new widgets engine (and widgets include everything from panels to "applets" to the desktop, in line with KDE's extensible/customisable SOP). It's not as if the term "plasma" has nothing to do with their product (arguably picking "plasma" as a name for their widget engine was a marketdroid-ish thing to do in the first place - but still preferable to "KDE Kwidgets Kengine").
Stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, the KDE guys just don't get it.
They almost remind me of Commodore, during the Amiga days. They have this really cool technology, but it doesn't work as well as you want it to and has some glaring deficiencies, and their marketing department is absolutely clueless.
Re:Wrods for mare mortals (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Clarity? (Score:5, Insightful)
One size does fit all from a support point of view. If I want to walk a windows user through changing the desktop resolution, it's easy. If I want to find out which printer is their default printer, again easy. Good luck doing those in linux. Everything is all over the place. Linux will not gain mainstream acceptance until it is easy to support.
What follows is my personal opinion. Ideally, Linux can be the one (or one of the few) environment that caters to users who are technically inclined, know what they're doing, and either already know how to handle desktop resolutions and printers or are willing to combine basic literacy with Google in order to inform themselves. Users who don't want to learn how the machine works already have two major systems designed specifically for them: Windows and OSX. To me it makes perfect sense that Linux would be Open Source because Microsoft and Apple both recognize that the real money is gained by appealing to the general public and the general public is nearly technophobic.
I say that because I strongly believe that anyone who is literate and has access to Google can inform themselves. There is no conspiracy or secret cabal trying to hide any of the information one would need in order to understand any system I have named. It's out there, it's available, and it's accessible; it's purely a case of the average person not wanting to utilize it or otherwise to educate themselves. These are the folks who find "easy to use" and "supported by a vendor"** worth paying for. Therefore, the beauty of Open Source allows Linux to exist independently of the financial success of any particular company or organization so there is no reason to appease a crowd that major vendors already cater to. I also don't believe Linux could hope to displace Windows on the desktop without sacrificing many of the things I really enjoy about it. For these reasons, I am not concerned with whether Linux will ever bankrupt Microsoft and I don't view that as its purpose.
** I am far less familiar with OSX so I'll limit my comment here to Windows and Linux. I'll add that I don't really think Windows is very easy to use. I personally find it cumbersome, sometimes tedious, and sometimes difficult to automate. I would describe Windows as "easy to learn" but learning all about it doesn't make it much more convenient to use. I would describe Linux as having a much steeper learning curve by comparison, particularly if you are thorough and intend to master the command line. However, once the investment of overcoming that learning curve is made, you then find yourself with a system that doesn't get in your way or second-guess your actions. The more you master Linux, the more you can automate and the more you can get it to do with less and less effort on your part. The more you learn about it, the easier it is to perform complex tasks with an economy of expression that is difficult to find in a non-Unix system.
Also, the times I have needed support for Linux, what I found was a community of volunteers who welcomed me with open arms and provided a level of support that rivals or exceeds anything you would get with a commercial support contract. All of this was from volunteers who do what they do because they care. I believe that part of what made this possible is that the questions they were answering concerned real bugs and real problems. They were not drowning in a sea of trivial issues of the sort that are well-familiar to anyone who has ever worked a front-line technical support role. This allowed them to focus their efforts on issues that really did require the attention of experts which, in my opinion, makes a big difference.
Re:Clarity? (Score:5, Insightful)
What version of Windows do you have? "Ewr I don't know".
What desktop environment do you have? "Ewr I don't know".
*At this time you ask user for visual hints so can figure it out yourself.*
*At this time you ask user for visual hints so can figure it out yourself.*
*After figuring it out, you have to know for each Windows version where the option is located*
*After figuring it out, you have to know for each desktop environment where the option is located*
Re:Wrods for mare mortals (Score:5, Insightful)
"Plasma Netbook" is the right approach IMO (Score:5, Insightful)
Plasma isn't just that thing for making desktop widgets of dubious usefulness. What KDE has actually done is, in my opinion, a fairly smart design move regardless of whether you like their implementation.
Desktop widgets aren't applications, they are people extending the functionality of their desktop. What the KDE folks saw was that a well-designed API could be used to write the desktop UI itself (task bar, clock, pager, whatever), the things we used to use taskbar applets for (media player control, etc) and the flashy new desktop widgets. Instead of having a basic desktop and plastering a widget API on top, they've gone and unified the whole thing so you can use the same API to write taskbar applets, widgets or write replacement taskbars or ... whatever. The various desktop elements are separate building blocks (plasmoids) that can be assembled together. They've also produced loads of bindings for this API to give folks the chance to write stuff in their favourite language.
The plasma netbook interface then takes some of the default building plasmoids, adds some new ones and then glues them together in a different way. So you can get a similar family look and similar functionality (and, fundamentally, the same desktop) but in a way that's optimised for a different form factor of device. I think that's actually pretty neat and somewhat reminiscent of the way you can configure and compile the core Linux kernel down for tiny machines or up to big iron whilst still getting the benefits of a common codebase.
There's a load of other cool stuff including a standard set of "data engines" which separate producing data from displaying it, thus making it easy to glue data sources together in interesting ways. Despite the various feature regressions that rewriting the desktop led to, it's a really neat architecture and should hopefully stand them in good stead for the future.
Ubuntu GNOME start menu has no foot (Score:3, Insightful)
Question 1: To get to your applications, there is a button on the top or bottom corner of the screen. Is it a K or a foot print?
"It's a ring with three balls at the corners." Am I running Ubuntu Desktop (with GNOME Desktop) or Kubuntu Desktop (with KDE Plasma Desktop)?
After that ask questions related to KDE or Gnome. It's not that difficult. Much easier in fact than convincing someone to tell you what version of Windows they have.
"Hold the Windows key (that's the one with the flag next to Alt) and press R. Release all keys, type w i n v e r, and press Enter." Easier, but "much easier"?
Re:Clarity? (Score:4, Insightful)
Linux can be the one environment that caters to users who are technically inclined, know what they're doing, and either already know how to handle desktop resolutions and printers or are willing to combine basic literacy with Google in order to inform themselves.
Two words: Pulse Audio.
It shouldn't be necessary to Google for solutions to problems that haven't existed for the OSX and Windows user since the dinosaurs last walked the earth.
Re:Clarity? (Score:3, Insightful)
"If I want to walk a windows user through changing the desktop resolution, it's easy. If I want to find out which printer is their default printer, again easy. Good luck doing those in linux."
Getting a user to type 'xrandr -s 0' or 'lpstat -p -d' is easier than getting them to navigate a GUI you can't see.
Re:Wrods for mare mortals (Score:3, Insightful)
You underestimate the power of the Dark Side.
3.5 (Score:3, Insightful)
KDE folks: revert to 3.5 while you still have a user base.
Re:Clarity? (Score:5, Insightful)
And this thread just sums up the problem - in three posts we have now made mention of four different sound systems, and I'll go ahead and mention JACK, oss, and esd right here to make it 7. Various programs are written for each of these, and while some are more deprecated than others, the fact is that getting sound to work on linux is a LOT harder than it needs to be.
Sound stopped being a pain in windows with the advent of Win95 and PnP. Before that the windows bit of it wasn't actually that bad (midi mapping was a little painful, but generally the defaults weren't bad). Getting the DMAs/IRQs right was the real pain.
My linux system has a pretty nice wavetable audio board, but to be honest if I want to play something I just use timidity since I've given up on trying to get the hardware to actually work right. If I needed more than rudimentary sound I'd be really up the creek.
Re:Clarity? (Score:3, Insightful)
And nobody but a KDE developer really needs to concern themself with Phonon. The real problem here is people who don't know what they are talking about thinking that they have more problems then they actually do.
Re:KDE plasma netbook? Netbook is copyrighted (Score:3, Insightful)
You can't copyright a term. Do you mean "trademarked"?
Re:Hmmm. Suit-speak? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's pretty simple. They're trying to move past "KDE is a Linux desktop environment" into "KDE is a technology platform." And it's true, the KDE desktop and its underlying pillars, and the KDE application suite, are a lot more than just another Linux desktop.
Re:3.5 (Score:3, Insightful)
Why?
I used 3.5 until 4.2.2, and then switched. See no reason to switch back, as KDE4 delivers the required functionality and bling for a standard normal user.
Re:3.5 (Score:4, Insightful)
KDE3 was a very solid house. But the foundation just can't take building anything more on top. Qt3 is dead, arts is dead, so much of the technlogy is dead. Maybe they got a little bit carried away when they designed KDE4 but the foundation had to change. Going back to KDE3 just isn't an option.