KDE 3.2 'Rudi' Beta Released 468
An anonymous reader writes "The beta of the next version of KDE, billed as 'the premiere Open Source desktop', has been released. Read the announcement at KDE.org. Notable features include a big clean up of the interface and menus, Improvements to KHTML from Apple, better accessibility and hardware support. There are also new applications such as JuK (a music player similar to iTunes), KDevelop (a graphical IDE), Kontact (an integrated communications package like Outlook) and more. Download it here and since this is a beta, report any problems or bugs you have." Also, nukem996 points out "The counter-terrorism unit on TV series '24' went KDE this season, too."
Premiere Glue! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Premiere Glue! (Score:5, Funny)
(Sorry... sorry... honest... I'm sorry...)
Re:Premiere Glue! (Score:5, Funny)
You mean "gmediocre", right?
Re:Premiere Glue! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Premiere Glue! (Score:3, Funny)
Yup, nothing since Windows 98. (It's follow-on didn't quite meet the minimum requirements for mediocre...)
Absolutly true (Score:2)
If by "amazing advancements" you mean "more buzzwords" and by "every field" you mean "marketing".
KDevelop has been around for a while. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:You know what? (Score:2)
Re:You know what? (Score:2)
Where I'd like to see KDE improve (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Where I'd like to see KDE improve (Score:5, Insightful)
Did you mean to compare KDE to the Explorer shell + various native win32 widget APIs?
Re:Where I'd like to see KDE improve (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Where I'd like to see KDE improve (Score:2)
What makes you think so? Because no hacker want to spend days to design a virus for a browser used by 1% of the people on the internet?
Re:Where I'd like to see KDE improve (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Where I'd like to see KDE improve (Score:3, Funny)
Saying KDE is more secure than Windows is like saying a Goodyear Eagle GT (tire) is faster than a Ford Mustang....
So you're saying I can run KDE on Windows and get improved security? Or are you saying that Mustangs are slow regardless of what tires you put on them?
I'm confused...
Re:Where I'd like to see KDE improve (Score:5, Interesting)
http://kde-cygwin.sourceforge.net/
Re:Where I'd like to see KDE improve (Score:2)
-j
Re:Where I'd like to see KDE improve (Score:3, Insightful)
> worthwhile to improve the included applications
if you read the release announcement and/or actually try out 3.2, you'll rapidly discover that there is actually very little new eye candy over 3.1 compared to previous releases and that the vast bulk of effort for 3.2 did go into improving the included applications.
Re:Where I'd like to see KDE improve (Score:3, Insightful)
Still, if you have feature requests, why not post them to KDE's bugzilla [kde.org]? I've got several features included in KDE 3.2 this way. If your feature is stupid, or not something the developers of that particular app think should be implemented, you'll be left wanting; otherwise, given time, developers will usually get around to implementing it.
It's actually really quite important that users do this, otherwise KDE will on
KDevelop (Score:5, Informative)
KDE on ./?? (Score:3, Funny)
Now that we've been politically correct for a little bit, let's go back to Gnome reporting.
Counterterrorists use kde (Score:5, Funny)
gnome, the new axis of evil.
In the 24 universe,... (Score:2)
From the first season on, bad guys/gals on 24 have used Windows as their OS (this was how we were tipped off that Nina was evil. She suddenly switched computers). The specific hardware (Intel, AMD, etc.) is never noted (for obvious reasons)
That isn't Jack's machine (Score:3, Informative)
Jack (and the good guys at CTU) have Macs.
Take a look at the colours... (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously, how did they build a good looking iTunes clone with THAT colour sense?
AHHH!! (Score:3, Funny)
DAMN YOU VISUAL PERSISTENCE!
RPMS (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.n9nu.net/linux/kde.php
I have been using them since Friday and they work great!
Re:RPMS (Score:2)
Re:RPMS (Score:2)
mirror of KDE on 24 link (Score:5, Informative)
This [19inch.net] is another site that talks about 24 using KDE, since the link in the article seems to be /.'ed, or just dead to begin with. I didn't notice this on 24... how cool is that?
Re:mirror of KDE on 24 link (Score:5, Interesting)
I had a teacher by the name of "Michael Loceff". That's the same name of the guy who's the producer/writer of the show.
When I took an online class from him years ago, he said he did screen-writing on his spare time. He even let his class know when a show aired on "Le Femme Nikita" that he wrote. Kudos to him for bringing real tech to the screen.
KMidi is Dropped (Score:3, Interesting)
It's good to notice that KMidi is dropped from KMultimedia. It's a pain because of the old Timidity engine (which is KMidi's back-end) still uses the old ALSA 0.5. It causes compilation problems if you compile KMultimedia with ALSA yourself. And KDE people decided to get rid of it at the moment and cited that it's not an easy fix.
It's too bad because AFAIK that's the simplest program for MIDI playing using synthesizers (albeit not that good). Other programs are geared toward compositions... Any suggestions?
Re:KMidi is Dropped (Score:2)
No, I mean, when you put --with-alsa flag when you compile KDE-Multimedia, it would throw a compilation error. Not using it with ALSA per se. Of course, you can use OSS-compatibility layer of ALSA and compile KMidi with OSS instead... BUT, that causes the other packages of KDE-Multimedia not ALSA-enabled too. Of course if you munge the configuration file, you can get around this, but what a pain!
See this bug report [kde.org] for details. It's been an outstanding bug like more than 1 year! Yet virtually nobody appre
Kontact: how much like Outlook ...? (Score:5, Funny)
Just exactly how much "like Outlook"
God help us all if it's very much like Outlook!
Re:Kontact: how much like Outlook ...? (Score:2, Informative)
The main improvement with Kontact have been to make the application behave somewhat consistently. The groupware functionality with exchange and kolab plugins will not be completed until after KDE 3.2.
iTunes clone? (Score:4, Interesting)
Now, I will fully admit to never actually using JuK, but just from its appearance, I don't want to. I do use iTunes extensively (on a Mac, I only use UNIX-based OSs). So, on iTunes, I have 3 control buttons, a pretty status meter, and a search field. That is it. Now look at JuK. There is a crapload of buttons making the interface completely suck. Why is there a save button? I never save in iTunes, when changes get made, they automatically are propagated through the library. Easy. Why are there cut and paste butttons? Do they need to take up screen space. Leave them buried in a menu. How often are they used in the main interface screen? In iTunes, I rarely go to the menu's. About the only time is when I want to create a new smart playlist. The three buttons and the search field take care of 98% of what I want to do on the interface. This is what makes Apple user friendly and pretty to look at.
If open source wants to be the peoples' desktop, they have to start considering the interfaces they design. There is a reason why people like to use Macs and proclaim the interface as the superior solution: it is. There are things to be learned here, but time and time again, with each new release of a new program, the user interfaces continue to suck.
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:2, Informative)
Just hold option (alt) and click the 'New Playlist' button. You'll notice the icon change to a gear and all is well and good.
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:2)
Rhythmbox, OTOH, is an iTunes clone, and it works very much like iTunes does. Unfortuneately, Rhythmbox development has been extremely slow, but it is starting to pick up now, probably because gstreamer is finally starting to become usable.
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:2)
The only real reason I'm still using xmms instead of rhthymbox, though, is that their "shuffle" mode is crappy. In XMMS, I randomize the playlist, then turn shuffle off, so that I only hear each song once per iteration through the playlist (which works out to once every 4 days, assuming I listened to the playlist continuously, without stopping for food or sleep
In rhythmbox, there is no "randomize playlist", only "shuffle", which is a 'pur
Um..Xmms.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Xmms is a shining example of OSS quality software and like I'd imagine iTunes is, its a real pleasure to use.
Re:Um..Xmms.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Because its a nice convenience... (Score:2)
Re:Um..Xmms.. (Score:2)
Re:Um..Xmms.. BARF! (Score:2)
Oh, lord, you must be kidding. XMMS is one of the projects that I always point to as an example of how badly an open source development project can go.
There's probably not a mistake they haven't made. And they revel in it. It's almost a juvenile, masturbatory event.
Re:Um..Xmms.. (Score:4, Insightful)
For a music player with a good GUI and lots of functionality XMMS...
Good GUI? What do you mean? You can't be serious...
1. Very small controls, some which are hardly possible to see or click. Take the small "O A I D V":s for instance. And don't say that the "DoubleSize" option is anything but a hack...
2. How about keyboard navigation?
3. Where are the darned settings? There is no menu bar and it is hard to guess which of the "O A I D V" does what. (Yeah, the window title is clickable, but how are you supposed to know that?)
4. No tool-tips when hoovering with the mouse.
5. Everything is clickable, although nothing appears to be. A mistake of a millimeter cause whatever undesired effect. (And how do you figure out how to undo that?)
6. Window decorations are not consistent with the rest of the world. Same thing with all other widgets.
Etc, etc. I could go on and on about such things. Yes, you can learn it and live with it, but should you have to? Some people might just want to listen their mp3:s or ogg:s and be done with it. I just don't understand why apps such as XMMS, WinAmp, xine, mplayer, etc can't provide a sensible default UI (skin or whatever) that looks and works like other applications.
And please, tell me again what skins are good for...
Re:Um..Xmms.. (Score:3)
I use both every day.. (Score:2)
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:2)
Does this mean it has to be ugly, with a million useless buttons, as your example pointed out? Well, not necessarily, but that seems to be more common.
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:2, Insightful)
and the empty space to the right of the column headings (.., Year, Length,
What does "normal matching" mean??? what does "collection list" mean, is that my whole music collection
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, AAC has tags, and no, it is not a proprietary format. It's open MPEG4. And it's not by default copy-protected - only the AAC files downloaded from Apple's store are. Standard AAC is an open, unencumbered format.
You would want all your playlists loaded all the time, all at once? You don't want to be able to pick and choose amongst your playlists?
Sure, you want to be able to pick an
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:2)
I have never understood this argument. Why would a user expect their MP3 player to look and behave like a word processor or web browser? To put it in more abstract terms, where is the expectation that a program designed for audio playback look and work like an app designed for text manipulation and display?
The extra buttons on the juk toolbar are there in the interest of consistency with other KDE apps.
Why would I want or need a
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:2)
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:4, Informative)
How the hell can you determine "user experience" based on screenshots!?! I've never used iTunes, but I can guarantee you that it's outward visual appearance is completely irrelevant to its usability. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's very usable. But usability is not related to appearance. My Dodge Neon is every bit as usable as my neighbor's Plymouth PT Cruiser. Which should come as no surprise since the everything's the same between those vehicles except for the styling.
JuK is very usable, despite its lackluster appearance. It's probably the most usable multimedia application I've every used. It's just not pretty.
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:2)
Why do you think that good GUI development consists of doing screen mockups before actual code is written?
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:2)
Good GUI development starts with a GUI mockup. This is not the same thing as a screen mockup. It's far different. And this mockup is just the *start*, not the middle or the end. Good usability designers do NOT use photoshop.
In the same way that a photo of a sports car tells me nothing about the way it handles, a mere screenshot tells me little about the usability of an application. It might reveal so
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:2)
I've never used iTunes, but I can guarantee you...
JuK is... probably the most usable multimedia application I've every used.
~jeff
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:2)
Re:iTunes clone? (Score:2)
How does the developer know what you use all the time? The obvious answer is to run some usability studies. The the unobvious results are that different people will use different things. What you use all the time is not going to be what I use all the time, or what Joe down the street uses all the time.
One quick example from GNOME. I just changed my wallpaper. Now the theme's color scheme doesn't match my wallpaper. How to change the color scheme without cha
mirror (Score:2, Informative)
Site response is already slow here...
Mirror [nmt.edu] from 13:15 GMT -7
Huh? (Score:2)
KBinaryClock (Score:2)
Screenshots and photos here: http://www.csh.rit.edu/~benjamin/programs/program. php?program=KBinaryClock [rit.edu]
Make things short... (Score:2, Funny)
Linux fan: (Score: -1, Flaimbait, Troll, Anger in the ass)
Juk (Score:5, Insightful)
- The ability to be controlled from an LIRC remote control
- The ability to interface to an LCD screen for song info (haven't set this up yet, but it was a consideration)
- Large, easy to read playlist
- Large buttons that are easy to manipulate by the somewhat awkward mouse on my wireless keyboard
I tried xine (along with derivatives like the gtk version), and found the playlists difficult to manipulate easily. xmms works decently, but I had to double size the top screen and those unfamiliar with it's interface (or winamp) would have a more difficult time adding songs because the "add" and "remove" buttons are practically unreadable on the TV. Though I found a decent theme, xmms is not designed for full screen usage with large buttons. Because of this, screen real estate is not devoted to things like easy-to-find switching of playlists along with other features I'm sure could be incorporated.
I would love for Juk to become a full featured sound program which could perform a variety of functions seamlessly:
- Ability to manipulate playlists on any other computer given appropriate access (without using remote X or VNC). Sharing of music between clients is not important to me, I have my music mounted from a central location within the network
- creating playlists by the meta data (like "smart" playlists on iTunes).
- Pop in a CD, have it show up as a separate playlist, and preferably be able to rip the tracks into OGG or FLAC on command
- Burn mix CDs based off the playlist (not as important, but shouldn't be too hard if code is shared with koncd)
- Interface doesn't need to be skinnable but should be usable at a variety of resolutions. Keyboard shortcuts should be available for just about everything.
Looks like some of those features already exist in Juk, and I look forward to using it once it's released with 3.2 stable.
Mythmusic.. (Score:4, Informative)
It will play/rip/visualize/navigate your music collection and if your using Debian or Mandrake is just a quick apt/urpmi away (for Mandrake configure urpmi to use Thacs RPM's [nyvalls.se] first, as described on the site).
Re:Mythmusic.. (Score:2)
Good luck. Its a sweet PVR package too and 0.12 includes a news feeds module so you can get your slash/fix in the lazyboy.
Direct Link to FULL Announcement (Score:3, Informative)
Not just 24. Alias does too. (Score:3, Informative)
Darn, it's BIG! (Score:2)
Having said that, it looks sweet. Konqueror is getting better every day, and i am looking forward to kopete (don't use 0.8 beta, it's buggy as hell, i reported around 10 big bugs already)
I love it (Score:3, Insightful)
I miss "view source" in the context menu on a webpage, and I'm still patiently waiting for some mid-mouse AutoScroll, Opera and Firebird seem to be able to deal with this as meaning "paste" when on a textarea, "scroll" when on plaintext, and "open in new tab" when on a link. I would love to see this in Konq. Konqeror is still my primary browser anyway.
Re:I love it (Score:3, Informative)
And I really wish more KDE/Linux applications used the middle mouse button as a scroll wheel without any fancy configuring, such as Konqueror or OpenOffice.
Now that Texstar is gone (Score:2)
we'll have to wait for Mandrake 937.34733e+07283 to get this hot item..
Hmm, should I wait or get off the pot???
Bit Rot (Score:2)
*sigh*.
Be clear about the terms. (Score:4, Insightful)
dot.kde.org's news entry [kde.org] claims
There is no such thing as "a public domain license". Putting a copyrighted work in the public domain means forgoing all copyright power for that work. Licenses, by contrast, tell you what you what the terms are for activities regulated by copyright law. Licensed works are still under copyright.
When I read the KDE art site pointed to by dot.kde.org's article [kde.org], I can't find the phrase "public domain". There is language that suggests the copyright holders tried to do something similar ("The images inside this directory are COMPLETELY FREE for commercial and non-commercial use." emphasis theirs). To be clear, when you mean the work is in the public domain, say the work is in the public domain. The Creative Commons makes doing this easy [creativecommons.org] now (if you're talking about US copyright law).
Konstruct A Beta (Score:3, Informative)
Re:superkaramba (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:KDE (Score:4, Funny)
Okay it's one thing to now know what an SMTP server is. Fine. Plenty of people are in the same boat.
But to use "Sir Haxalot" as your sig and not know? Go back to talking about Britney or the latest UT aimbot on IRC. That is if it's not past your bedtime.
Hey maybe there's a new l33t desktop wallpaper on kde-look? I'm sure that'll bring all the answers. Heck I bet someone like you could hack the Gibson.
Sheesh.
Re:KDE (Score:2)
Re:slicker (Score:2, Informative)
I am smugly waiting for the kicker vs slicker vs
Re:slicker (Score:4, Informative)
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=29746&
(Sorry, the screenshots are long gone.)
I was really excited at first, because what I really wanted to do was to implement MacOS 9 Folder tabs for KDE. Then, everybody and their uncle wanted in on it. I just wanted to write code. So I let them have it, and I continued to develop the core for a while. I suspect 75% of them gave up when they realized XFree just won't do true transparency (yet).
The thing is, 2 things happened. First, I started it in the first place simply because I wanted folder tabs, and a quick break from my real work. Second... I got a mac, and ported my real work over, and haven't looked back since.
Oh well!
I hope the guys who took the helm are treating my little baby well. I'm sure I wouldn't even recognize 90% of the code at this point.
Re:We dont need another music player goddamnit! (Score:3, Insightful)
Hey, at the risk of replying to flamebait and subjecting myself to a mod down, why don't ya send us all an e-mail when they release a Linux (or a Mac for that matter) version of Winamp?
Re:We dont need another music player goddamnit! (Score:3, Insightful)
why another email app? in this case there isn't since Kontact uses KMail as a component.
Re:So... (Score:3, Insightful)
No.
And that's a feature.
Re:So... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:So... (Score:2)
Re:So... (Score:2)
Isn't that wrong also?
Re:So... (Score:3, Funny)
Can I use the fast, non-scripted close source apps that you build like I can use freeware? Or do I still have to pay some kind of price tag for an end user license?
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Let me get this straight. You're complaining because you want to write closed-source apps (presumably for money, why else would you close the source), and TrollTech won't give you the library for free?
How ridiculous. If you're in business, you're in business. Quit whining for handouts. You won't give away the apps you write, so why complain about others?
One of the things I like about the so-called 'viral' open source licenses is that it creates a clear boundary between Free and non-Free. If you want to write non-Free apps, then get your hands out of the Free cookiejar.
Re:So... (Score:2)
Re:So... (Score:2)
Re:So... (Score:2)
Yes (Score:5, Insightful)
Last I checked, yes you can. The requirement from Qt is non-commercial, not open source (QPL licence, GPL/QPL dual licenced...). If the question was "Can I take Qt, use their work for free in my application to make me money?", then the answer is "No, you need to pay us a licence fee for the way our work has helped you earn money on your work."
Kjella
Re:Yes (Score:2, Informative)
This is wishful thinking at best and outright deceptive at worst. The only versions of Qt that you can legally develop with without paying for are licensed with either the GPL or QPL. Both the GPL and QPL require that your application be Open Source. If your application is closed source, then it cannot use a GPLed or QPLed Qt and thus, you
Re:So... (Score:2)
Re:Apple helping to improve KHTML? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:How long until KDE-SVGUI? (Score:2)
speed improvements can be relied on in hardware later
If you actually think that an SVG will be *quicker* than a bitmapped one then you will be sorely disappointed.
Re:How long until KDE-SVGUI? (Score:2)
Re:How long until KDE-SVGUI? (Score:4, Interesting)
(Well, assuming you've a spare Altix 3000 or two, for a graphics processor.
Seriously, the graphics processing code for the UI is getting silly. If I want raw speed, but with a decent widget set, I invariably turn to Open Look. I use KDE and Gnome when non-geeks are around, so that they can be suitably impressed and indoctrinated in the Ways Of The Penguin.
The best GUI engine developed, IMHO, was InterViews, which used a version of Postscript for everything. Postscript gave you the benefit of totally scalable graphics, so you could enlarge or shrink with zero loss. It was standard. It was also the same language other devices used, so translation from device to device was unnecessary. And it supported more than simple vectors.
The problem, as I see it, is that we've wound up with a bazillion amazingly powerful GUI front-ends, none of which do appreciably more than InterViews, all of which are amazingly heavyweight, and none of which enforce scalability.
If I get twice the resolution, I want to be able to choose four times the clarity or four times the content, or anywhere inbetween, but not have the choice imposed on me by the system. That's not an advance, that's just stupid.
Re:How long until KDE-SVGUI? (Score:2)
Why? What does SVG give you, as a user, that the alternative doesn't? Positing a decent API, I can think of some benefits to the developer, but I can't think of any to the user.
First, it will be slower. Period. Your video display is bitmap based, while SVGs are vector based. It will always be faster to use a png than a svg with the current hardware. A vector based display would be different, but I just don't see an
Excellent question!! (Score:3, Insightful)
> other projects?
Yes, this is an -excellent- question.
My take on it is:
1) They consistently pick the best tool for the job, regardless of ideology (see Qt);
2) They put a considerable amount of engineering work in under-the-hood infrastructure design;
3) While others bicker or troll, they code.
Simple as that, really. I'm very, very happy that they proved and keep proving that good engineering is how you make the damn best software out there. In