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GUI KDE Open Source Software

New Release of the Trinity Desktop Environment 197

mescobal writes: A new release of the Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE) is out. TDE is "a computer desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems with a primary goal of retaining the function and form of traditional desktop computers" which translates into a fully functional KDE 3 style Desktop. Something is missing in the new generation of desktop environments, since some people (perhaps more than "some") feel at home with Gnome 2 or KDE i3. They have repositories for Debian and Ubuntu-based distros. I'm now using it on Ubuntu 15.04, amazed about how well-planned things were in the previous generation of DE. We may have gained some things with Gnome 3 and Plasma 5, but we lost a lot of good features too. TDE brings them back.
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New Release of the Trinity Desktop Environment

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  • Choice is good.

    I think Gnome 3 sucks, but having figured how to get Mate to pretty much work how I like, am I going to start from scratch with something else? That'll be the same for the poor benighted fools who use Cinnamon, LXDE, KDE etc.

    It'd have to be really awesome to be worth the time investment.

  • by countach ( 534280 ) on Sunday September 06, 2015 @02:13AM (#50465947)

    There was a time when people thought Linux would become a contender on the desktop. That basically hasn't happened, and it's not going to happen in a big way. Thus linux users are starved for good native apps (kinda a chicken and egg thing going on too).

    Now if you ditched KDE and Gnome and simply went with a full on clone of OS X, suddenly a whole ton of apps would come to Linux, whether it be running OS X apps as-is or whether you convince developers to do a simple recompile for Linux. Whether you like OS X or don't like it, the reality is this would boost Linux, bring apps, and give a shoe in for a possible desktop future for Linux.

    And the reality is, OS X is actually quite good. Apple developers have always quite liked developing for the platform, users apparently like it, so nobody would be terribly upset.

    Or you can keep running with the failed KDE/Gnome wars.

    • I'm seriously starting to look at Macs as well. Linux needs constant tweaking to keep it running properly, and Windows 10 is ugly and filled with spying features.
      • Linux needs constant tweaking to keep it running properly

        Really? Could have fooled me. It works out of the box to do everything most people need.

      • That has not been my experience with Linux.
      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        Constant tweaking like what?

        I find it (along with every other OS) needs a bunch of tweaking on installation: bringing over .bashrc, setting up preferences, getting favourite/necessary programs installed etc etc.

        But once that's done, keeping ubuntu running is just a question of occasionally typing "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade" and perhaps once every two years, bumping from one LTS release to the next. I gather if you're a WIMPy sort of person, that happens with a few mouse clicks inst

        • I'm finding support is going backwards for my old nvidia graphics with the newer kernels and Xorg. Also I disabled the desktop long ago and can't get it back (it can display a wallpaper though), not a real problem but the workaround would be to delete the DE's user files.
          I removed a dead hard drive and the system hanged on boot. The "graphical" boot prevented the message "Press S) to skip, M) for maintenance" from appearing. Fortunately I somehow knew that I had to press "S" (and to edit the fstab to commen

        • I suspect those LTS bumps are way more painful than on OSX.

          • In what way is a reinstall/upgrade every 2 or even 4 years cnstant tweaking? Which as you may remember was the original point.

            I've had successes and failures for every major line of operating systems upgrading to a new version. You can search for "OSX upgrade failed" if you like to find a bunch of examples where OSX doesn't upgrade cleanly.

            Of course you can find the same for ubuntu too. But in the case when it works, it's a question of running:

            do-release-upgrade

            (or clicking on the right thing if you're WIMP

          • Double reply:

            Ubuntu also has another nice option. You can simply re-install from scratch without blowing away /home even if you only set up one partition, so recovering from a failed upgrade is also trivial.

            • by _merlin ( 160982 )

              OSX supports doing that too, since at least 10.3, possibly from 10.2: it's the "Archive and Install" option.

    • There was a time when people thought Linux would become a contender on the desktop. That basically hasn't happened, and it's not going to happen in a big way. Thus linux users are starved for good native apps

      We are? I have everything I need to do actual work. Maybe I don't have the latest 3D first person shooter or what have you, or a word processor with a ribbon interface that packs in 1,000 superfluous features, but I can easily get done what I need to get done to be productive.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      There are people working on this as we speak: http://gnustep.org/

      It is not very popular because people who run Linux generally don't want a clone of the Mac desktop. The point of free software is freedom. People can do what they want. It's not about picking one thing and ramming down the throats of everybody who uses a computer. It's definitely not about taking market share and making sure everybody is doing the same thing.

      KDE and Gnome are hardly failures. There are many, many people who use each and

    • Now if you ditched KDE and Gnome and simply went with a full on clone of OS X

      Yuck no!

      We've already been through this once when people were trying to clone Windows and it sucked then. The OSX envy sucks just as much. Seriously, I know where I can buy a mac and I choose not to. I use Linux because I like it and think it's *better* than the competition.

      All the windows or OSX envy does is make Linux into a second rate knock off of OSX or Windows. It'll never be a one-for-one replacement and it stops it from bei

    • by Zobeid ( 314469 ) on Sunday September 06, 2015 @06:24AM (#50466369)

      It's called GNUstep, and it has languished for many years because it's not as smexy like the KDE/Gnome wars.

      Also. . . If your goal was source compatibility -- or even semi-compatibility -- with Mac OS X, you'd be forever chasing after a rapidly-moving target.

    • by fisted ( 2295862 )

      the reality is this would boost Linux, bring apps, and give a shoe in for a possible desktop future for Linux.

      And why exactly would existing users care about "a possible desktop future" or running OS X "apps"?
      Good grief.

    • There was a time when people thought Linux would become a contender on the desktop.

      There was a time?
      I still meet people who think it's just around the corner, not to mention every new Windows release brings those expectations.

    • Yeah but then Apple fights you every step of the way. Remember what happened with the clones? They'd throw roadblock after roadblock after a team trying to make an open source OSX.

  • Trinity is the KDE 3 Desptop Environment. That was the time when Linux was still better than Windows. Better then Windows XP even. KDE 3 has a fast and sleak 2D desktop, not this sluggish 3D compositing. It even runs fast on top of VNC. All the applications are well thought out, in place, and working. Not this premature rubbish of Gnome 3 and KDE 4 or 5. It is stable and mature and has everything that a productive desktop needs.
  • We may have gained some things with Gnome 3 and Plasma 5, but we lost a lot of good features too. TDE brings them back

    I was a big fan of KDE 3, but it's been years since I used it and if you asked me now I couldn't tell you which were the features that have been lost. So which are they?

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Key missing feature: simplicity.

      For better or worse, "activities" is a confusing concept. It takes an abstract concept (the desktop) and another level of abstract concept ("workplaces") and adds YET ANOTHER level of abstract concept (an "activity") which fully requires the first two levels. The main session is itself an activity, which starts to become really mind-twisting unless you already know what an activity is.

      KDE also has two different concepts for application: that of a traditional application and t

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by fnj ( 64210 )

        Key missing feature: simplicity.

        For better or worse, "activities" is a confusing concept. It takes an abstract concept (the desktop) and another level of abstract concept ("workplaces") and adds YET ANOTHER level of abstract concept (an "activity") which fully requires the first two levels. The main session is itself an activity, which starts to become really mind-twisting unless you already know what an activity is.

        KDE also has two different concepts for application: that of a traditional application and t

      • I don't use activities, and KDE 4 has never tried to make me use them. There's no need to use widgets either. What's the problem? KDE has always been about having options, Gnome was the place to go for simplified lack of choice.

        • I don't use activities, and KDE 4 has never tried to make me use them.

          Actually, at least some variants of KDE 4.x had the workspace pager replaced by the blue/red/green activity balls in the taskbar by default. I remember this especially because I had to go read up on what an activity was!

          It was simple enough to change that, but I definitely count that episode as trying to "make me use them".

  • google cached version of the site: http://webcache.googleusercont... [googleusercontent.com]
  • I used to DE hop. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by wjcofkc ( 964165 )
    I remember that once upon a time I used Gnome 2 for a very long time. It was my definitive go to DE. Now this is my opinion, but in the years that followed, the usefulness of DEs took a nose dive into (not always but still crap) bloated garbage with "enhancements" over previous versions of you name it. I spent years hopping from one DE to another, version after version hoping to find something lightweight and that I could actually be productive in. Pantheon and XFCE come close, but aren't my cup of tea for
    • by Anonymous Coward

      I've said for a while now: Computer UI's, Web Design, Audio, Useability and reliability all peaked in 2007-2008. Since then we have all been treated to a increasingly farcial "beta" of the Tablet/iDink industries attempt to turn computers into Fischer Price toys. Future genertions will look back on the last ten years as a stagnation point of software on all fronts.

  • CentOS PcLinuxOS Fedora Debian etc etc I released an updated ISO yesterday, things are really stable at the moment. and there is still things KDE3 can do that 4 can't and it's fast to boot* * the inverse is also true, some things kde4 can do that 3 can't, horses for courses.

If all else fails, lower your standards.

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