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KDE GUI Operating Systems Software BSD Linux

KDE 4.2.4 Released 153

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.
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KDE 4.2.4 Released

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  • BSD? (Score:3, Funny)

    by hackel ( 10452 ) on Wednesday June 03, 2009 @03:46PM (#28200921) Journal

    I didn't know KDE was a BSD project now.

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      KDE is a powerful Open Source graphical desktop environment for Unix and Unix-like workstations.

      http://freebsd.kde.org/ [kde.org]

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by hackel ( 10452 )

        lol, I wasn't questioning whether KDE could *run* on *BSD! I was referring to putting this story in the BSD category on Slashdot.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          Because it's widely used on BSDs as the DE?
          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by dacut ( 243842 )
            And gcc is widely used as the compiler for BSD, but I doubt it'll be filed there. :-)
            • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

              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? (Score:5, Insightful)

                by chill ( 34294 ) on Wednesday June 03, 2009 @04:08PM (#28201301) Journal

                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?

              • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

                by dacut ( 243842 )
                Understood. I was just amused at the thought of a GNU project being filed under BSD. Not quite like bringing antimatter and matter together (or emacs/vi), but the fallout would be amusing nonetheless.
                • Well, it isn't really a "GNU" project, it is GPLed, but I think Gnome would be better called a GNU project. Afterall, Gnome exists because of KDE's non-GNU-friendly license.

                  So if any of the DEs were to be labeled as BSD, I'd say it's KDE.

                  Just sayin', there's a fun history here, and thinking of KDE as a GNU project is a funny thought.
          • by hackel ( 10452 )

            Well that really makes no sense. Countless other software is also widely used on BSDs... I don't see any reason to tie the two together.

            • The way I see it:

              1) There's no intrinsic tie between KDE and linux either, so if you want to tag the story with a penguin then you may as well add a daemon as well.

              2) KDE is the desktop of choice for both Desktop BSD and PC BSD, as far as I know these are the only 2 desktop oriented BSD distributions out there, so actually BSD is linked in more to KDE than GNOME.

              3) KDE in theory (and practice) ports to other platforms as well: WIndows/OS X/Other unix, but in practice, I don't think you see anything like the
              • Point 2 could be considered debatable, as Darwin (the Unix core of Mac OS X) is considered a BSD-derivative. The mascot for Darwin even reflects this as a platypus wearing a devil hat and wielding a trident. So Darwin is technically the third desktop-oriented BSD distro.

                This doesn't lessen your argument, though. It's just a footnote you should be aware of, since Darwin is rarely seen without the Aqua desktop environment and is well hidden from the average user.

                Oh, and yes, I personally have tried out KDE on

          • Why is this marked as troll, its a true statement with no malice intended as I can see it. His statement is 100% factually correct, even though I believe he is incorrect in that being the reason why its filed under BSD. Its just what happens when timmy blindly clicks the promote to front page button IMO, but this guy isn't exactly trolling or even trying in the least.

            Remember kiddies, Troll is not an alias to 'disagree' or 'wrong' no matter how much you think it is.

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by timothy ( 36799 ) Works for Slashdot

          a) You might not agree with the reasoning in b), but I'm probably not going to spend any more time responding ;)

          b) Slashdot has sectional stories for stories we'd like to post but (as with this, a point-release of software other than, say, the Linux kernel), and there's a slightly messy overlap between sections, topics and tags, in that a given story can be assigned to multiple sections, tagged with various terms including ones that are covered by topics or section names, and labeled with any of the 100+ to

          • What's that symbol next to your name? I can recall seeing that before.

            • It seems to indicate Slashdot staff status. I've seen it on other members of the staff as well. It appears to only link to slashdot.org though.
            • It means that he's a Slashdot admin or employee or something of that nature. Note the text at the top of the page:

              Posted by timothy on Wednesday June 03, @01:43PM
              from the smoothing-a-smoothie dept.

              CmdrTaco and all the rest have it too.

    • Regardless of what section it is filed under, it's also worth noting that KDE 4.x runs on Windows too. I'm not quite ready to suggest replacing WIndows Explorer entirely, but the apps and even the desktop work pretty well. That said, I would never have heard of KDE without trying Linux...

  • by overshoot ( 39700 ) on Wednesday June 03, 2009 @04:23PM (#28201541)
    But the wait for it to be sufficiently feature-complete to be usable is a strain.

    My Kubuntu 8.04 is getting kinda long in the tooth, but the newer ones don't work at all, unless someone knows of a KDE 3.59 or 3.60 backport -- that'd be sweet.

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      What exactly do you miss in KDE 4.2? My only problem is the poor Bluetooth support (lack of file browsing on my phone, mainly).

      • What exactly do you miss in KDE 4.2? My only problem is the poor Bluetooth support (lack of file browsing on my phone, mainly).

        A working network manager would be lovely.

        • It's there. Knetworkmanager was replaced by the network manager plasmoid.

          • Knetworkmanager, in Intrepid, was KDE3-based, and for some reason, KDE3 apps can't talk to a KDE4 kwallet. Ubuntu solved this by having them not even try, meaning it forgot all my saved passwords, and saved any new ones in the clear.

            The network manager plasmoid looks potentially awesome, except:

            - Add two of them, and you get two notifications for network events. WTF?
            - The fonts don't fit. At all. This is a common KDE4 problem for me -- it's always fucking up and chopping off part of a chunk

          1. Remove NetworkManager
          2. Install WICD
          3. Profit!

          (Working great for me on kde 4.2...)

    • Apparently, there is a backport to KDE3:
      https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kubuntu/Kde3/Jaunty [kubuntu.org]
      I haven't tried it, though.
      I was VERY frustrated with KDE 4.0 and KDE 4.1, and I was very much in need for a kubuntu KDE3 backport, especially as my new Dell E6400 needed a kernel > 2.6.26 to have all the hardware supported, so going with kubuntu 8.04 (the last with an official KDE3 support) was not an option for me. However, I am now a very happy KDE4 user. For my needs, it has already surpassed KDE 3 in terms of f
    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kubuntu/Kde3/Jaunty [kubuntu.org]

      This looks like it has what you are looking for. There are even instructions on how to upgrade from 8.04 to 9.04 and keep KDE 3.

    • by Tadu ( 141809 )
      Actually, why not go with the KDE 3 beta 1 port for jaunty?

      Essentially, it shows progress on all itches I had with 4.2 -- the weather applet, kdelirc being ported, the CPU/mem/swap applet being readded. Now only the device notifier needs to be revamped, and konqi should learn that double click means to mark words and not some random part of the line... (Yes, there are some crashes. Sometimes. So? At least it provides the functionality

    • by cbhacking ( 979169 ) <been_out_cruisin ... nospAM.yahoo.com> on Wednesday June 03, 2009 @05:07PM (#28202339) Homepage Journal

      KDE 4.2 is perfectly usable. It's what 4 (in general) should ahve been from the start. Don't even bother looking at 4.1 or 4.0, and if you do, don't expect 4.2 to be the same. It's not. The older ones are broken, yes, but don't assume taht means that 4.x is *ALL* broken.

      • It's what 4 (in general) should ahve been from the start.

        That's what people said about 4.1.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by gigabites2 ( 1484115 )
          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
          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by QCompson ( 675963 )
            No. When people were complaining about what a trainwreck 4.0 was, the KDE team claimed that 4.1 would be the release that is ready for users. Then, when 4.1 was released, the KDE team claimed that 4.2 would be the release that is ready for users.
            • KDE GOT IT RIGHT (Score:4, Insightful)

              by cyclomedia ( 882859 ) on Thursday June 04, 2009 @04:48AM (#28207049) Homepage Journal

              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.

      • KDE 4.2 is perfectly usable.

        You seem to have a different definition of usable than I do.

        1. (s)ftp is broken in kde file browsers (dolphin, konqueror). I can load the root directory listing, but not download any files or change directories. Have to use filezilla or something.
        2. Similarly, the integrated text editors will not save over an ftp connection. Very annoying.
        3. SMB shares: when you refresh on a passwordless windows share in Konqueror or Dolphin, you get an authentication failure that lasts for the session.
        4. The fish plugin fo
        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          1. Works for me. Something broken in your setup. did you report the bug?
          2. same.
          3. Could not try -- but might be linked...
          4. same as 1-2
          5. Yeah, people complain a lot about the NM applet. this thing is obviously not finished.
          6. Really? Always found it to work fine. You are aware there are 2 clipboards?

          I did not know GNOME used kioslaves...

        • Hmm, interesting. I can't say I've tested all of those, but...

          Ftp works fine for me. For sftp I either use the console or use fish:, which also works.

          Didn't try editing over a standard ftp, but fish works.

          Don't use Samba, sorry. Even my Windows boxes have NFS (it's an optional feature built into in the higher Windows editions, believe it or not).

          Fish works for me.

          None of my networks use EAP. WPA-PSK works fantastically, much better than in 3.5.x.

          I just turn off the Klipper applet and use it like copy-paste

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Ruie ( 30480 )
        KDE 4.2 is usable, but not perfectly.

        No kprinter, does not see my shared cups printer (previous version worked ok), dolphin instead of konqueror, middle click is broken in konqueror when browsing files (used to open in a standlane application), no kasbar, start menu does not add newly installed programs without restart.

        This is on a system that I only use occasionally.

        Good work, but it is not 3.5 yet.

        • Also, unlike 3.5.x, there is no sync in PIM. So it's a few features that are missing in 4.2.x. And there is no list of them somewhere, so you'll discover them after you've switched.

        • Hmm... my only printer is local, but it was found easily.

          Dolphin is not my preferred application. Two recommended options: either change the default file browsing application in the KDE configuration, or just put a link to Konqueror (in Filemanager mode) on your desktop or pinned to the K menu or similar.

          Middle-click opens links in a new tab for me, the way it has done for years. I'm pretty sure this is optional. What I really like is that I can now tell Konqueror to *close* a tab when I middle-click on it

          • by Ruie ( 30480 )

            Hmm... my only printer is local, but it was found easily.
            Cups has the ability to identify remote printers by network broadcasts and make them available automatically when you connect to the network. This is very convenient and is the preferred way to configure remote printers. For some reason this does not work properly.

            Dolphin is not my preferred application. Two recommended options: either change the default file browsing application in the KDE configuration, or just put a link to Konqueror (in Filem

    • My Kubuntu 8.04 is getting kinda long in the tooth, but the newer ones don't work at all, unless someone knows of a KDE 3.59 or 3.60 backport -- that'd be sweet.

      I can't claim that KDE 4.2 actually works, but I do know that Kubuntu is an atrocious implementation of KDE. I've been considering giving another distro a chance to try out KDE4, maybe SUSE or Mandriva.

      • I can't claim that KDE 4.2 actually works, but I do know that Kubuntu is an atrocious implementation of KDE. I've been considering giving another distro a chance to try out KDE4, maybe SUSE or Mandriva. quote. Good point. I understand the Gentoo devs are rumored to be planning release a 4.2 overlay in early 2011.

        • by erayd ( 1131355 ) *
          KDE-4.2 has been in the gentoo tree for ages - if you want it, just make sure you're running ~arch, or unmask it.
      • I would have to say the best KDE experiance I had was with the old kde3 based kdemod on Arch Linux. But the KDE4 based kdemod was pretty nice too.

        Unfortunately, thanks to how much ATI graphics drivers suck, I'm on Kubuntu right now, and 9.04 seems to actually be fairly good.

        I must say, I really like the "screen-profiles" package they shipped (of course this wasn't kde specific), on the other hand, memory usage is through the roof, like 2500 M with firefox (4 tabs) + kmail + Amarok + Whatever aut
        • For XFCE-centric distros, Xubuntu is quite nice and well-integrated. I used to run it on my Eee 701 and it did pretty well with the Eee kernel repository I found through Eeeuser.com.

          But I have to say that compared to the Arch Linux I put on it last week, Xubuntu is really rather slow in comparison. Arch has an Eee kernel repository, too, but even without it most things work pretty much out of the box on Arch.

  • " ... 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. "

    Are you expecting KDE 4.3 to be so buggy that it is going to be uninteresting for long term support projects? In the past, there were huge leaps of progress from KDE 4.0 to KDE 4.1 to KDE 4.2!
    • I think the "get used to it" is referring any LTS releases between now and whenever 4.3 is released, as IIRC, the next release of Ubuntu in October will be an LTS.

  • by pecosdave ( 536896 ) * on Wednesday June 03, 2009 @04:57PM (#28202161) Homepage Journal

    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: (Score:3, Informative)

      by cbhacking ( 979169 )

      By 4.2, nearly all KDE utilities and applications have been ported, and as of 4.2.3 nearly all the noticeable bugs were worked out (it worked better than 3.5.9, the last 3.x I used). Don't assume anything about 4.2 based on 4.1 or 4.0; both of those were released before they should have been,a dn should have been considered more like a tech/API preview (4.0) and early beta of a finished version (4.1). Frankly, they both sucked, and it has cost KDE a lot of reputation, but 4.2 is solid. It's what 4.x should

    • If you're running Deb stable, and want to use your computer rather than mess with it, that's exactly the right thing to do. Kinda why Debian stable was invented really.
  • by VincenzoRomano ( 881055 ) on Thursday June 04, 2009 @12:23AM (#28205967) Homepage Journal
    ... as versions go by ...
    How does this version compares to v3.5.10 as far as features and stability?
    I'm still waiting to replace my ol' KDE v3 without harming my everyday work!
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by cbhacking ( 979169 )

      I would say stability is a step up; KDE itself I've never had crash, but I get fewer application crashes in 4.2.x (4.2.3 on my current system, I'll upgrade shortly) than I did in 3.5.9 (didn't try .10).
      Features are a little harder, but I'd call that an improvement too. The desktop is nicer but... different. Tinker with it a little and I think you'll like it better, but it has changed. Most applicaitons have been ported across pretty straight, with the same features as before, but a few have had significant

      • I got disappointed by things like NetworkManager applet not working at all, KDEBluetooth not working at all and so on.
        As I used to use my Linux PC for everyday usage, I cannot afford a test-and-try approach (with expensive rollacks)!
        Now I run GNOME, with fewer features but more stability as my Ubuntu distribution progresses ...
        Again, my fear is that these KDE v4 releases are more like "interim releases" or betas than actual releases!

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