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KDE GUI

KDE 2.2.2 234

Posted by michael from the suddenly-everything-clicks dept.
loopkin writes: "Seems that the last KDE 2 is out. KDE 2.2.2 is faster and more stable and secure than 2.2.1, as stated in the Changelog. You will appreciate the trick that makes the icons load 5% faster in particular. Announcement is here. Please use mirrors for download, but original FTP is here. Note as well that maybe for the first time, there are _official_ RH packages for a _stable_ release (7.2)."
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KDE 2.2.2 More

KDE 2.2.2

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  • I do have Xwindows installed on my box, but I only run it on occasion. When I do, I usually run it with WindowMaker to avoid the overhead of larger things like KDE/Gnome. This is just an old p90 w/ 40 megs of RAM, would it be able to hack KDE? I keep hearing all these great things about it, what are it's limits? Anyone running it on a similar setup?
    • No, it won't hack KDE.

      My PII 266 with 64MB RAM (laptop) cannot hack KDE. It could if I had more memory in it though - 128MB is the minimum for KDE in my experience. I just need to find a cheap source of proprietary laptop memory...

      Honestly, WindowMaker is great - keep using it.

      • Well it runs perfectly on my PII 266 laptop, with 64M. I guess that "snappiness" is a higly subjective experience.
        • It might be the speed of the hard drive, and dealing with swap. If your swap drive is fast enough, then it will feel faster. However, i am using the original 4GB drive that came with the laptop (HP Omnibook 4100) so I expect that it isn't the best drive for performance...

          However, I cannot deal with the 10 seconds it takes to change applications on the laptop. It might be a Mandrake 8.1 thing though, or maybe a kernel upgrade might help (better VM), or maybe I shouldn't run KDE (although I like Konqueror, Kate, and KMail, so I may as well run it all as all the libraries will be in memory anyway!).

          It isn't the speed of the processor that is the problem though - it is snappy when you are using a single app that is in memory. I suspect that if the guy's PC was upgraded to 128MB of memory from 40MB, then it would be reasonably usable with a bare theme...

        • 64MB with KDE-2? So I take it that you're dead. Because that's the only way anybody could consider KDE-2 running on 64MB of RAM to be snappy. And I bet you thing the lines at the DMV run at lightning speed too?
          • I've done it before, more than a year ago, and it felt snappy. And it was a 48mb machine (PowerComputing PowerTower Pro 200, which was a PowerPC 603e Macintosh clone). Note that it was KDE 1.9.x, which was KDE 2.0-alpha and beta. Not only that, but the computer had slow ram, and a pretty slow hd. Also, X wasn't accelerated. Even so, KDE felt more snappy than GNOME with Enlightenment.

            It took forever to compile (about 2 days), but it worked. Unfortunatly, it broke within a few days :/, and so I used Blackbox for about a year, until I got a new box.

    • Re:Question (Score:2, Interesting)

      by mirko ( 198274 )
      Though I am running Linux on a PentiumIII laptop, I also avoid KDE for the following reasons:
      • Some cryptic error messages boxes which remind me of Windows'GPF...
      • My laptop boot Linux in 30 seconds, then it needs 45 seconds to load KDE2.

      I am now using WindowMaker too and seeing it up and running in 3 seconds (including the numerous applets I use) is really damn satisfying.

      There are many good ideas behind KDE, for example it has been the best one when it came to deal accurately with furious trackpad moves while scratching [terminatorx.cx] over MP*s.

      But I reckon it doesn't fit on a laptop which is supposed to be switched on and off quite often, hence losing some precious productive time waiting for a GUI to be up and ready.

      I know I may not have understodd with question but just consider that KDE may also be problematic on "recent" hardware.
    • It would be very slow. KDE on a Pentium-233 with 64Mb of RAM is sluggish but usable. Move up to a Celeron-333 and 128Mb of RAM and it's perfectly usable. But moving down to a P-90 and 40Mb.... I don't know. You might find it pretty painful to use.

    • Re:Question (Score:3, Troll)

      by zulux ( 112259 )
      You'r a smart guy - run down to a local Goodwill/Salvation Army and get a newer computer. Even if it's just a Pentium 200, the savings in your time would justify it's $50 cost in a few months. Quite frankly, KDE on a p90 would suck, I'd stick to emacs myslef.
      • He just wants to try KDE...He does NOT want to change his OS!!!
      • A Followup to explain myself:

        A lot of older technology is just fune - a car form the 1970's can keep up with trafic, and an kitchen stove from 1960's may even be better than a modern one. But a refrigerator from the 1970's is almost twice as inefficent as a moden one, and the price a new one will be quickly recuouped through electrical bill savings. Computers are a technology that isn't stagnating, and an increase of speed saves you time. Time, truly, is one of the most important tings to save; it's you life.
        • But a refrigerator from the 1970's is almost twice as inefficent as a moden one, and the price a new one will be quickly recuouped through electrical bill savings

          In many cases, the local eletric company will give you a steep discount with leading brand name if you tell them you have an old refrigerator. Same goes for low flow toliets. If you have the old 9 gallon toliets, the local water company will almost pay for new low-flows.

          Just a small side note.

    • Re:Question (Score:5, Informative)

      by grytpype ( 53367 ) on Thursday November 22, 2001 @09:59AM (#2600345) Homepage
      You have the right idea for sure... just run WindowMaker, and if you want to run an occasional KDE or Gnome app, just run it. Forget about that "desktop" idiom B.S., that's just an over-the-hill paradigm that isn't worth the extra overhead to run.

      I mean, I just got a 1.2 GHz Athlon box, and I have no intention of giving up my nice, barebones WM desktop. It's perfect.

      • Re:Question (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Adam Wiggins ( 349 ) on Thursday November 22, 2001 @07:00PM (#2601969) Homepage
        If you think that, then you haven't really used KDE. As a person who didn't even start using X until a few years ago (console mode gave me everything I wanted), I know exactly where you are coming from.

        Let me tell you a few of the features in KDE that make me vastly more productive, and which I feel crippled without.
        • Alt-F2 to run programs.
        • Alt-F2, then type in a URL (eg, slashdot.org) to launch Konquerer, instead of the slow process of clicking on the icon, then clicking in the URL bar, then typing the URL and pressing enter.
        • Alt-F2, then type "gg:linux" to do a Google search, "dict:pedantic" to look something up in the dictionary, or "fm:tclink" to look up an entry on Freshmeat.
        • Klipper, for cut-n-paste history. I mean really, how does anyone live without this?
        • KPrint/KUPS, which makes printer setup a SNAP - something UNIX has needed for a very long time. I just _love_ the ability to print from any application directly to a PDF.
        • The ability to drag URLs to my desktop, for "quick access" bookmarks.
        • A dock panel that I can configure by dragging icons around instead of editing configuration files or using some sort of external GUI config tool.
        • Easy to configure keyboard shortcuts for everything. X Windows (much like the Macintosh) has always been over-reliant on the mouse. KDE can be driven 100% from the keyboard, like Windows - but even better, because you can make hotkeys for actions like Windows minimize. (I use Alt-F1.)
        • File browser - not something I really use, but many people love it. I like to use it for browsing pictures on my digital camera because of the image preview.
        • KMix, which makes it really easy to adjust sound volume at any time.
        • Konsole, which has the ability to open multiple terminals inside one window. Switch between them with Alt-LeftArrow and Alt-RightArrow.
        • The KDE control panel. Just look at it, it's great. What other control panel lets you configure your kernel compilation parameters?
        • Apps, apps, apps! KOffice is very cool all around (though KPresenter is the only thing that is yet equivilent in features to other office suites). Konquerer for web browsing, KYahoo for chatting, Kreate for burning CDs, KMail for reading mail, Node for reading news, KScheduler for tracking appointments and sending automated reminders, Personal Time Tracker for keeping track of those consulting hours, the list goes on...apps are what the desktop is all about, and KDE has them in spades.

        I spent many years using WMs such as CDE, Afterstep (1.0 is the only good version, IMO), WindowMaker, BlackBox, and so forth. I have also used GNOME quite a bit, as well as MacOS, various flavors of Windows, and so on. None of them made me want to give up my console (though in some cases I had to because I was doing web design or something). But with KDE, I don't miss the console at all.

  • Thanks (Score:2, Funny)

    by miracle69 ( 34841 )
    A hearty Thank-You to the programmers of KDE for their time and effort.
  • How is Objprelink doing?
    I heard building with objprelink enabled can cause khtml and kjs to crash more often. So it trades speed for stability.
    Is it still the case?

    • Re:Objprelink? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You do mean of course:

      "So it trades stability for speed."

      Don't you? Otherwise you are saying that objprelink makes KDE slower but more stable.

    • I compiled it all with objprelink a few months ago, and it all worked nicely, and seemed to improve in speed (but that's always subjective and hard to tell).

      However I tried compiling again a week ago, and everything segfaulted. Reason being that I had apt-get updated to more recent g++ libc etc from woody.

      However someone did mention that recent binutils includes something which attempts to do similar, but in a more "proper" way, so supposedly there isn't really a need for objprelink...

      Anyone who knows more than me want to comment about it?

    • Re:Objprelink? (Score:5, Informative)

      by bero-rh ( 98815 ) <bero@reCOMMAdhat.com minus punct> on Thursday November 22, 2001 @09:42AM (#2600286) Homepage
      prelink [redhat.com] works better (if your ld.so and binutils support it), and fixes the whole problem rather than just adding a workaround for the specific case of KDE.

      • Re:Objprelink? (Score:2, Interesting)

        by swright ( 202401 )
        Hi bero, I'm having a play with prelink, but having a few troubles - is there a web site or FAQ for it anywhere, I'm sure others will be having similar troubles

        (it cant prelink some stuff.../usr/sbin/prelink: /lib/i686/libc.so.6: Could not parse `lookup 0x40000000 0x00007114 -> 0x40000000 0x00132b14 /0 _nl_current_LC_CTYPE')

        Thanks
  • I've just started using KDE, I think it's 2.1 (default with RH 7.1). If I build and install the latest, are all KDE tools and toys rebuilt at the same time? What, if any, dependencies are there? If all tools are not replaced, will the older ones be compatible?

    I guess I could answer all this on the release notes/install docs, but if it's really easy, maybe more of us amatuers would try the upgrade.

    • Re:Upgrade requirements? (Score:2, Informative)

      by PhoboS ( 21600 )
      Just get the latest kde rpms from the rawhide dir on the RedHat ftp. When attempting to install those you will be told which other packages to upgrade, and you can get those as well from there.
  • My general rule of thumb ist that a speedup below 30% for GUI applications isn't noticed by the user.

    Did anyone try KDE 2.2.2, yet ?
    • " My general rule of thumb ist that a speedup below 30% for GUI applications isn't noticed by the user. "

      Are you sure? What about a 200% speedup that happens 5% of the time ... on average it's much less than 30% speedup ...
    • i did... the 5% speedup is only for the icons. as a whole, the 2.2.2 is much faster than 2.2.1, and it is noticeable (using RH 7.2 packages - i don't know if they were objprelink-build - Bero, if you read me, how did u build those packages ?)

      • Re:Are 5% speedup noticable ? (Score:4, Informative)

        by bero-rh ( 98815 ) <bero@reCOMMAdhat.com minus punct> on Thursday November 22, 2001 @09:51AM (#2600318) Homepage
        (using RH 7.2 packages - i don't know if they were objprelink-build - Bero, if you read me, how did u build those packages ?)

        They aren't built with objprelink because I consider objprelink a crude hack.

        prelink [redhat.com] is a much nicer solution (it does prelinking for the whole system, not just the KDE libraries), and you can't use both at the same time.

        No unusual tweaks applied to the packages... But they were built with a newer compiler (gcc 2.96-100), maybe Jakub added some optimizations on the compiler side, as well.
    • I'd agree - any years ago when people were just starting to build 2d graphics accelerators I was architecting them for one of the Mac companies ... one of the things that became obvious pretty soon was that subjective and objective performance is very different - objective stuff like mega-pixels/sec is great for marketing people to argue about but subjective stuff is in many ways more important.



      I became convinced that subjective speed sort of lived on an S-shaped curve - on the left the curve is flat, things are terrilbly slow and making stuff faster doesn't much reduce the user's frustration level, at some point you hit the middle of the curve, this seems to be a log-based region - you need to make the accelerator roughly 10x faster for the user to experience a perceptualy better increase in performance (this is the area where you can compete for accelerator performance in the marketplace), eventually you hit another flat region where the user experience is 'fast enough' and they don't much care or notice if they are faster (this is the region where marketting people argue about pixel-rates or triangles/sec etc).



      Things are a little different for the 3d world - the top-end flat region exists for any particular game - for example it doesn't do quake much good to do 100fps if the display hardware can only do 85 or 75. On the other hand you can trade off frame rate for quality (but remember there's a relatively fixed number of pixels on the screen you only have to get them right to do a 'perfect' rendering.

    • For what it's worth, after a couple of hours with 2.2.2 it seems snappier than 2.2.1.

      I don't know whether it's down to improvements in the code or because I cranked up the optimizations on this build, but it definitely feels smoother and quicker to me. A pleasure to use on a 450MHz PIII laptop, which isn't really the state of the art nowadays.

      While I was building KDE yesterday (took all afternoon!) I switched back to GNOME, and I have to say that I think GNOME really has a lot of catching up to do. Galeon is cool, but it and Nautilus together can't compete with Konqueror for flexibility and ease of use.

      I'm also yet to find a GNOME mail client as simple and stable as KMail.

      Looking forward to GNOME 2.0 though. If they can jump back ahead of KDE then it will be a mighty cool desktop.

  • Good grief! (Score:2, Funny)

    by ebcdic ( 39948 )
    "You will appreciate the trick that makes the icons load 5% faster in particular" - how can it possibly be so slow that you can notice a 5% improvement in icon loading speed??? What's it doing, hiring graphic designers to draw them?

    • Re:Good grief! (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I haven't found a description of the trick to appreciate yet - I was expecting some cunning algorithm or something that would be interesting to read about...

      • Re:Good grief! (Score:2, Informative)

        by DGolden ( 17848 )
        It's not particularly interesting - they've just centralised the icon database into a server, so that all the applications don't perform the same searches of (possibly very long and crowded on the system of someone who likes eye-candy) icon directories - now the server only has to walk the search path once, and applications ask it for the icons.

        • Reiserfs (Score:4, Interesting)

          by BlueUnderwear ( 73957 ) on Thursday November 22, 2001 @11:29AM (#2600651)
          so that all the applications don't perform the same searches of (possibly very long and crowded on the system of someone who likes eye-candy) icon directories

          ... which would be a non-issue anyways if you use reiserfs...

        • Re:Good grief! (Score:2, Informative)

          by Seli ( 51600 )
          No. Actually the 5% speedup is caused by explicitly telling the Qt load routine the image type (i.e. png or xpm), so it doesn't have to find out itself. The icon server is under development.

      • Re:Good grief! (Score:2, Informative)

        by dfaure ( 115987 )
        Simply skipping the "guessing the image format" code of QImage::QImage(), passing the name of the image format, since we know it from the icon's filename extension.
        Nothing spectacular, sorry.

        The rest of the fixes are much more important IMHO, dunno why everyone's picking on that one.
  • I will be honest, perhaps up until this release, KDE was simply too slow for me to use. My computer is a Pentium 200 MMX laptop with 144 MB of RAM. I recently installed serveral different types of Linux (including Red Hat, Debian and others) and unfortunately I discovered that the Window managers I wished to use were all too slow.

    In fact, I am currently running Windows 2000 on this laptop, not because of desire but because I have not yet found a Linux GUI that will run fast enough and offer the features that I desire.

    Can anyone tell me of a distribution that will quickly incorporate this new version of KDE? I want to try it in the very near future, but to tell you the truth, I am not skilled enough to install it myself yet. However, I wish to learn. Thank you for your recommendation.

    R. Suzuka

    • Re:This is excellent news (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Install RedHat 7.2, then download the RPMs for KDE2.2.2, and then do "rpm -U filename.rpm" to upgrade to KDE 2.2.2.

      Or install Debian, and do an apt-get.

      Or install FreeBSD and install it from the ports, where it should appear within the next 3 or 4 days.

    • Consider a distribution optimized for a modern processor, such as Mandrake. Or consider using a BSD ports collection to compile it optimized for your machine (The LinuxFromScratch.org page has some good tips on optimized compiling).

      I recommend getting and installing OpenBSD or NetBSD for the educational experience, but as for a desktop it's fairly obtuse. But for a learning experience, it's a fabulous way to find out what exactly your OS is doing, particularly if you are uncomfortable with it. FreeBSD is a larger target and frankly is just plain faster than most of the BSD's, but a more cluttered install (but still generally simpler/cleaner than the SystemV systems' design).

      For KDE, if you do get a BSD (or Gentoo Linux) you can download and compile everything pretty much transparently, plus you can optimize quite a bit by appealing to a modern processor's optimizations. You, if so inclined, can even get the Intel compiler (which optimizes quite well for Athlon's too, I might add), which has numerous significant gains over GCC, but it does break hefty things like glibc and the kernel. (but so does optimizing glibc and the kernel with gcc).

    • No speed difference (Score:5, Informative)

      by srichman ( 231122 ) on Thursday November 22, 2001 @10:56AM (#2600545)
      I just installed 2.2.2, and there is no real noticeable speed difference in my opinion. Icons 5% faster? Maybe, but if KDE 2.2.1 was too slow to be usable on your system, KDE 2.2.2 will be as well.
    • I'd recommend installing the KDE RPMs, if you are using distro that supports RPMs. Basically, as root, RPMs can be installed by using

      rpm -ivh [filename]

      Then download and compile the kdelibs source, using ./configure with the --disable-debug option. Read the README file that come with the source for a better description of how to compile.

      Among other things, this recompiles the aRts sounds server library, which was terribly slow and made sounds skip a lot (for me) in the RPM version of 2.2.1. Now I can play mp3s without skipping! Konqueror now also seems to run as fast as IE5.5 does on my Windows partition.

      Be prepared, though, for the compile - on my 233MMX, it took roughly 6 hours.

    • Re:This is excellent news (Score:5, Insightful)

      by be-fan ( 61476 ) on Thursday November 22, 2001 @11:22AM (#2600634)
      I doubt KDE 2.2.2 will be *that* much better than 2.2.1. Certainly not enough to bridge the gap between KDE and Win2K in terms of performance. Linux, however, does have faster things to offer than KDE. Right now, I'm running IceWM with mostly GTK+ (and the occasional GNOME) applications. GTK+/GNOME seems to be a whole lot faster (on my machine anyway, 300MHz 256MB GeForce2 MX) and more responsive (especially in load time and resizing) than Qt/KDE-2. For example, starting a new Galeon window takes much less time than starting a new Konqueror window. Also, I can resize Sylpheed and AbiWord and Gnumeric without excessive rubber-banding, while KMail, KWord, and KSpread are significantly "springier." None of it is quite Win2K yet, but its almost there. Maybe it's even better on a faster machine.

      If you chose to go the Linux/GNOME route, here are several hints:

      1) Stay away from GNOME like the plague. Apps that use gnome-libs (like Galeon or Eye of GNOME) are for the most part fine, but actually running gnome-session (with the toolbar and control panel and whatnot) and Sawfish slows everything down enormously. Instead, use a fast window manager (IceWM, Blackbox, Window Maker, or even XFce) and GNOME apps.

      2) Choose the GTK+ apps over the gtk+gnome apps. GTK+ apps tend to be more mature and snappier than their gnome counterparts. Specifically, Sylpheed is (IMO) a better mail client than Balsa, and GQView works better than Eye of GNOME. Also, ROX-Filer is the fastest Linux GUI application I have ever seen and you should try it out instead of going with the usual gmc.

      3) You really have to tweek your system. Linux doesn't come nearly as well optimized as Windows out of box. Mainly, it boils down to making fonts look nice, making sure that X runs at a priority of -10, and setting up the Linux kernel to use preemption and low-latency patches. I've decided to write a HOWTO for this, it should be up here [slashdot.org] in a few days.

      4) Use a good distro. I like Mandrake 8.x because it lets you install the XFS filesystem from the beginning, its i586 optimized, and its good about keeping packages up to date. Also, its urpmi tool mitigates many (but not all!) of the advantages Debian/APT has over the RPM-based distros. No matter what the distro, go minimalist. Install only the software you need and don't choose the bloated default installs. Also make sure you trim your startup so stuff that you don't need (like sendmail) doesn't get run when you start the computer.

  • SuSE RPM's (Score:5, Informative)

    by pwagland ( 472537 ) on Thursday November 22, 2001 @09:34AM (#2600271) Journal

    SuSE has already had these RPMs [www.suse.de] out for a couple of days. This has KDE 2.2.2 for SuSE the various SuSE versions on the various platforms.


    Please note that these are not officially

    They also have a similar service for Gnome.


    As always, use the mirrors [www.suse.de] Luke...

    • Re:SuSE RPM's (Score:3, Informative)

      by bero-rh ( 98815 )
      If this is true, it means they either broke the kde-packager agreement or packaged a CVS version and called it 2.2.2. They weren't supposed to release 2.2.2 binary packages before the official release, neither was anyone else.

      • Re:SuSE RPM's (Score:3, Informative)

        by pwagland ( 472537 )

        Appologies for the confusion, it turns out that while it has been two sleeps, it has only been one day since I installed them.

        I do not know exactly when the packages turned up, but I installed them Wed Nov 21 00:59:53 CET 2001.

        My best guess on the SuSE packages is that they arrived on the 21st, i.e. the same day that KDE announced it, but, one day before slashdot announced it.

        Mind you, on a related note. Know how I discovered that XFree4.2.0 has been frozen? Because 4.2.0 drivers [linuxvideo.org] for my ATI card have been released. Now, I just need to wait for 4.2.0... :-)

  • 6 months ago I was telling people that linux desktop was about equivilent to win95, now I'd say win98. (as far as the applications available). I was using Mandrake 7.8 and upgraded through the web to 8.0 then 8.1. I bought Mandrake 8.1 last night, and it's so much better then the downloaded version. (I can use my network printer on mandrake, but can't on win98!)

    If I didn't program for windows everyday, I'd take the linux challenge (use only linux for a month), and it would be no problem at all.
  • 5% quicker. Ooh. The image preview mode must now be up to about one tenth of the speed of xv's visual schnauzer... Slim, well designed and 10 years old. Konqueror can't touch it for speed.
    • Uhh, the new Icon server has nothing to do with Konqueror's thumbnail slave, which, as of 2.2.x IS as fast as Xv's, and handles many more graphics file types, as well as other file formats such as text.
      • which, as of 2.2.x IS as fast as Xv's

        Really? Cool. Thats a really excellent reason to upgrade.
        handles many more graphics file types
        pr0n is JPG.
        • Well, gowen, if you're just interested in going though pictures for sexual pleasure, might I suggest you keep an eye out for the next version of Pixie, titled Pixie Plus [mosfet.org]. Mosfet claims it to be faster than anything else out there... and he's made such claims before in other areas and delivered on them. YMMV, but I'm planning on keeping a close eye on it. From the webpage: "Pixie is designed to allow you to efficently browse, manage, and view large numbers of images as well as do basic editing such as adjust contrast/brightness, scale, and apply effects. For Windows users, you can think of it as a combination of ACDSee(TM) and Paint Shop Pro(TM)."

          Having a large collection of cast photos and such from various theater groups and reenactment groups, running through large directories of images looking for the select few to use for PR or web pages is a pain. A super responsive image viewer turns it into a minor pain.

          --
          Evan

  • Are there any plans for an official RedHat 7.1 KDE RPM set? I'm currently running with the Red Hat Inc. KDE 2.2 set, and I'd rather not completely upgrade to 7.2 (I've done spot-updates of some of the system).

    If not, what dependencies would have to be fulfilled to run the 7.2 RPMS on a 7.1 system?

    • Re:RedHat 7.1? (Score:3, Informative)

      by bero-rh ( 98815 )
      Spontaneously, I don't see any extra requirements you'd need to update on 7.1, aside from those provided on ftp.kde.org (libxml2, libxslt, qt).

      But 7.1 was LOOONG ago, so don't expect me to remember everything about it. ;)
  • kfind: several bugfixes, including "don't crash the system anymore".

  • Fantastic! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by deepstephen ( 149398 ) on Thursday November 22, 2001 @10:48AM (#2600518)
    kio-smb: don't leave smbclients using 100% cpu hanging around.

    This has been really annoying me. I'm the sole Linux user in an office full of Windows 2000 boxes, and it's been pretty tough to evangelise Linux's interoperability with Windows while I have to keep killing zombie smbclient processes any time I use SMB.

    I haven't had a chance to download it yet (deadline tomorrow, y'see) but this, along with the other speedups and so on, could finally mean it's feasible to start winning people over to KDE.

    Good work KDE fellas. You are all very lovely indeed.
    • Yeah.

      Shame it asks me for userid/password *every* time I try to open a file or directory...
      • Setting your username, password and workgroup in the Windows Share section of KControl seems to help, at least if you only have one username, password and workgroup to use.

        J

  • Redhat 7.2 RPMS (Score:2, Informative)

    by StarHeart ( 27290 )
    You can't directly install the Redhat 7.2 KDE 2.2.2 rpms. Redhat 7.2 comes with libxsl 1.0.1 and KDE 2.2.2 requires libxsl 1.0.7. There has been no offical update of libxsl. But you an go get the libxsl 1.0.7 rpm from rawhide and it also requires a new libxml2 rpm from rawhide.
    • I've also pit libxml2 and libxslt (correct versions)
      on ftp.kde.org along with the kde core packages.
      Not every mirror has picked up the change, though.
  • On a p3 550 system I built at work from the ground up I was suprised that I did not get written up for computer abuse because I had it booting, via LILO, Slackware 7.X, Redhat 7.X, Win98se, Win2K and even BeOs.

    I was curious about the speed of a default Slack and Redhat install and while not scientific, it was very interesting, indeed.

    If there was ever a reason not to use static libs (a la RH) this would be one point to hammer home.

    I had KDE 2.X installed seperatly on both boxes (yes, I know it is "wasteful" of space, humor me) and proceeded to get some benchmark utilities off of freshmeat.net.
    You see, what I had noticed was KDE 2.X was "snappy" on Slack and slightly "dogged" on Redhat... so it set me to wondering if it was just the RPM install vs compile on Slack.

    Turned out that was part of the problem/question.
    Memory performance was about +/- 10% with in each other, but hard drive performace was the "killer" of KDE's performance on RH.

    This is what I found using hdparm (plus switches that escape me at this time) turned on/off between SL/RH:
    MB/s on the same ATA66 drive and even another ATA66 drive just to be sure.
    No hdparm init: RH=3.6Mbs, slack=8.6MB/s
    hdparm init: RH=8.4MB/s, slack=8.9MB/s.

    Hummm...I says. With hdparm init'ed on RH, KDE was quite snappy, despite the rare stumble and thrash of the drive.

    Oh, and a word of warning aboud using hdparm (also in the readme) on older drives: not recommended unless it can do > PIO mode 2, IIRC.

    So, yes, HD speed does affect KDE more than you would think. Something to be aware of.
  • Great to have those binaries for RedHat. I've been whining about them here after every recent KDE release, so perhaps someone at last did something. THANKS!

    Now, if they don't work with RH7.1, I'll whine a bit more... (Naah, I'll just update my RH.)

    I just hope they finally compiled it with that-one-option-which-makes-app-startup-half-time.
  • KDE 2.2.2's Konqueror fixes many well known bugs in Konqueror's Netscape plugin API, which now means that:

    * Quicktime / QuicktimeVR
    * Shockwave
    * Ipix

    And many more of the browser plugins supported by Codeweavers Crossover [codeweavers.com] now work under Konqueror.

  • QObject::connect: No such signal NSPluginInstance::destroyed()
    QObject::connect: (sender name: 'unnamed')
    QObject::connect: (receiver name: '_ptrpriv')
    kio (KProtocolInfo): ERROR: Protocol '' not found
    kio (KProtocolInfo): ERROR: Protocol '' not found
    when visiting www.apple.com... sigh.... help?!

    -adnans

  • Why why why? (Score:2, Flamebait)

    by evilviper ( 135110 )
    1. Why do people use KDE? It uses up more system resources than Windows 2000, uses the QT library which most programs do not (GTK+ is far more popular, even though it needs some work).
    2. Why does Slashdot need to report on software releases? I can understand reports on something that is technologically innovative, but this is just a new .dot release of a desktop... Whoohoo, we can load icons 5% faster, this is much more important than the fact that Stallman is trying to take over the world.
    3. Who gives a damn about what RedHat says is 'official'? The idea behind Open Source is to no longer depend on a central source, be it Microsloth or RedHat.

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