KDE 4.4 Released Alongside Website Redesign

Cryophallion writes "KDE 4.4.0 has finally been released, along with a redesign of the KDE.org website. New features include tabbed windows, improved desktop search and social desktop features. 'Major new technologies have been introduced, including social networking and online collaboration features, a new netbook-oriented interface and infrastructural innovations such as the KAuth authentication framework. According to KDE's bug-tracking system, 7293 bugs have been fixed and 1433 new feature requests were implemented.' A feature guide is also available."

Re:Is it time to look yet?

[LWATCDR]

I have not used KDE since 3.
The simple reason is that Ubuntu and Gnome feel more finished than KDE did to me.
Gnome really works well for what I need. I use it to launch programs and to manage files.

Where I think both Gnome and KDE are blowing it is complexity.

Take a look at the settings in both of them sometime. Way to complex.
The other place I feel they are falling down is supporting applications.
I love choice but there needs to be some good defaults.
Oh and I wish GTK had a better file dialog.

It still sucks for developers

[pclminion]

The API "documentation" is still completely unorganized and most of it is just Doxygen pages. While the Doxygen tagging is fairly good, this is not a "manual," it's a reference. And what about Plasma? I've wasted hours hacking applets without a real understanding of the APIs. The Plasma API front page [kde.org] is pretty much useless.

Although I suppose somebody will now yell at me for being too lazy to contribute to the docs... I'd be happy to, if I had some kind of handle I could grab to bootstrap myself and start delving into it. But seriously, no, you don't get good docs by people who are unfamiliar with the code just staring at it and trying to document their own misunderstandings. Somebody who actually designed and wrote this crap needs to step in. Please?

Re:Is it time to look yet?

[ipX]

I know it's ironic complaining as a Gnome user about configuration, but that's why I am going to try 4.4. The default KDE configuration to me is riddled with excess and it feels like it's trying to show off instead of let me work. The complaint was not that I broke my dependencies; the entire reason for me trying KDE 4.3 was _because_ I broke my Gnome dependencies and fscked things up from a fault of my own.

Re:Is it time to look yet?

[carlmenezes]

Honestly, give up on Kubuntu if you want to use KDE. In fact, even using Ubuntu + KDE which was more stable than Kubuntu in my experience, I still had to manually customize a heap of stuff and it felt flaky. Then I switched to OpenSuse 11.2. Bliss I tell you. It is KDE how KDE should be done. I didn't have to tweak anything - even Firefox fitted in from the get go. Give OpenSuse a try. Those guys know what KDE should feel like and it shows when you use their distro.

Come a long way

[C_Kode]

The decision to seriously overhaul KDE was a great decisions in the long run though it was completely unusable for several releases after the switch. I must say, it is beautiful now. With this release, I think it's time for me to switch back.

I love the new features shown in the videos.

Maybe, you were too much used to KDE3 to be fair?

[yet-another-lobbyist]

I had used KDE3 for about 1-2 years, when KDE4 appeared. No question, 4.0 was impossible to use, and 4.1 was painful (my experience is with kubuntu). However, the breakeven for me was with KDE 4.2, when I thought this was a product at least as good as KDE3. Yes, there were features in KDE3 that KDE4 was missing, but there were also loads of new features, concepts and functionality in 4.2 that 3.5 couldn't do. I also always found 3.5 quite ugly.
I totally disagree with your notion of "digging the hole deeper". As much as things got better from 4.0 to 4.1 to 4.2 (in my opinion), they just continued on that trajectory to making 4.3 way better than 3.5. Now, I have been using KDE 4.4 betas for at least a month (in a production environment -- call me stupid, but I am just amazed about KDE4), and I am still thrilled how much better and nicer it got! Hell, I am even using the "crappy" kubuntu distro everyone is yelling at. OK, call me a fanboy. But you should know that I also seriously tried GNOME, and LXDE, and Xfce, and even IceWM -- I all didn't like them and went back to KDE4.
Maybe, it is just that you were so used to KDE3 and so good at it and so happy, that there was no way of matching your productivity with something as new and innovative as KDE4? I think KDE4 is going into a new, exciting direction, and that it will pay off that they did everything from scratch at some point. Similarly, Linux sucks for so many people who have been conditioned to using Windows, that they don't get anything accomplished in a different environment. Could that be some of the reason for your disappointment (along with your anger)?

Re:Is it time to look yet?

[CDPS]

I'm afraid that the KDE brand is ruined only in the head of people who haven't bothered to look at how cool KDE4 is...

I agree that KDE4 is "cooler" looking than KDE3. Unfortunately, for many of us that actually use Linux to get work done, KDE4 is much less productive than KDE3. I was a heavy user of many of the more advanced features of Konqueror for example. However the Konqueror in KDE4 is a pale imitation of its KDE3 self. You want a simple example? Just try editing your Konqueror bookmarks in KDE4. Nearly faster to edit the bookmarks.xml file--in fact you appear to have to do that to do an obvious thing like reorder the toplevel folders. Another problem is stability. My main machines still have KDE3 on them. They routinely go 2-3mos. without rebooting *and* without having to restart KDE3. I have yet to make it more than a couple of days without something serious enough happening to KDE4 that it has to be restarted.

I am hopeful things will improve with KDE4 so that I can use it productively, but my experience so far has been very disappointing. Particularly since posts pointing out missing/unworking features are usually met with responses about some kind of unwiedy multi-step partial workaround or posts about all the great new features that the other person loves but are not useful to me. Sorry, but I will take productive and stable over "cool" looking with my desktop.

Re:Is it time to look yet?

[shutdown -p now]

I heard that a lot, so when I went to try KDE 4.3, I've did that with OpenSUSE.

Guess what? I've had a crash within 5 minutes of using it, just by right-clicking something randomly in the file manager. Another crash 10 minutes later in Amarok.

That's called "stable" these days?

Re:Oh that's easy to explain

[plague3106]

And this is why I will never point anyone toward free software. On one hand, OSS people say you're a sucker for paying for a closed source OS (which, btw, most people don't give a fuck if they have the source or not). Then, when someone tries it and has a ligit complain, they're told, STFU, you get what you pay for.

I'd disagree with your premise though, and argue that users DO have every right to bitch and complain about something they got for free. The reason is simple; a project without users is a waste of time, no matter how much better it is in theory. If you don't want people to bitch about your free software, by all means, DON'T RELEASE IT.