KDE Plasma 5.11 Released (kde.org) 62
jrepin writes: KDE publishes this autumn's Plasma feature release, KDE Plasma 5.11. Plasma 5.11 desktop environment brings a redesigned settings app, improved notifications, a more powerful task manager. Plasma 5.11 is the first release to contain the new "Vault," a system to allow the user to encrypt and open sets of documents in a secure and user-friendly way, making Plasma an excellent choice for people dealing with private and confidential information.
Don't often use a GUI, but when I do, it's KDE (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Don't often use a GUI, but when I do, it's KDE (Score:5, Interesting)
KDE is my favorite as well -- but that's despite Plasma, not because of it.
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Well, I often use a GUI, but I don't see much need for a fullblown desktop anymore, so I use i3.
These things want to be the digital switchboard for your life, which was pretty neat ten years ago, but it's obsolete now that everyone carries a smartphone. What I need is something to manage GUI output to the physical screen on my laptop and desktop, and a tiling window managers does the trick.
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I use quite a lot KDE/Qt apps,
Stop right there. That means you should probably use KDE.
As for i3, it doesn't do sessions at all. In return, the startup is literally instantaneous, even on an older machine. It is a tiling window manager so typically the most sensible way to use it is to have each app control the entire screen, although you can split the screen various ways -- useful if you have a large monitor.
You can easily configure i3 to automatically launch certain apps to certain workspaces. This isn't quite the same as sessions
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One of the really nice things about Linux is that there is a wide variety of user interfaces available for it.
KDE is intended to be something that isn't completely alien to Windows users. If that's not to your liking, there are others that aren't like that at all. Odds are that at least one of them would be your cup of tea.
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Re:Design Inconsistency (Score:5, Insightful)
Stop trying to copy Apple and Microsoft designs!
Why? They've done all the hard work figuring out how to make things people will use and people are accustomed to and productive with it.
Do something different, something innovative, something that will make people want to use it over Apple and Microsoft
Being fast, stable and not being proprietary or invasive is all the innovation I require.
KDE seems to have gotten the message. Don't indulge iconoclasts and convolute the basic functionality of a traditional desktop. There was never anything actually wrong with the design of traditional desktops except when they fail to fully exploit the capabilities of hardware. Today that problem is apparent when dealing with scaling on high resolution displays. Users just want that issue solved; scale, do it without glitches and disruptions and leave the rest alone. Do that and we're good for another ten years until we're all wearing VR headsets or something.
You're free to go make whatever innovate thing pleases you; nothing is stopping you. But the fact that KDE is no longer among the DEs trying to force feed "innovation" on its users is a minor miracle as far as I'm concerned. Thank you KDE.
Re:Design Inconsistency (Score:5, Insightful)
KDE seems to have gotten the message. Don't indulge iconoclasts and convolute the basic functionality of a traditional desktop. There was never anything actually wrong with the design of traditional desktops except when they fail to fully exploit the capabilities of hardware. Today that problem is apparent when dealing with scaling on high resolution displays. Users just want that issue solved; scale, do it without glitches and disruptions and leave the rest alone.
In a nutshell, this. I get flamed every time I call Gnome for being the shitty system it is. I'm typing this on Fedora 27 Beta using KDE with 3 x 1920x1080 screens - and it just works. It doesn't take 1/4 of a window with big ass thumb/touchscreen friendly bars. It stays out of my way and lets me get the rest of the stuff I want to do done.
If KDE got the manpower behind it that gets wasted with Gnome, it wouldn't just be superior, it'd be fantastic.
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I get flamed every time I call Gnome for being the shitty system it is.
Perhaps the problem is that you're using such absolute terms as "shitty".
I find Gnome incredibly irritating and problematic, but I also recognize that there are people who find it useful and enjoyable -- so I can't, in all honesty, call it "shitty".
It's just not for me.
Dear gods, I hope you're wrong.... (Score:2)
Stop trying to copy Apple and Microsoft designs!
Why? They've done all the hard work figuring out how to make things people will use and people are accustomed to and productive with it.
Please, tell me they have NOT copied MS or Apple! Windows 10 is a horrible desktop, I fight it daily at work. As var as Macs go, I have never understood them. They just don't make sense with the way my brain works... and I know there are distros out there that try to mimic that UI, but I will never use them.
I ditched KDE a good ten years ago when stability went to hell. I have since been on XFCE and love it. Unless they do something to lose me, I have no reason to go back to KDE. (I do still use kdenl
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No, KDE is not like Windows 10.
Re: Design Inconsistency (Score:3, Insightful)
what underlies "vault"? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is vault a GUI around ecryptfs? I could not find the underpinning technology in TFA.
I like KDE. It has flaws sure and it is easy to pick on those. However it still offers great and easy configurability: you can have focus follow mouse or click to focus. Auto-raise on hover or not, with configurable time. Different policies for remembering window pos/size on open, on a per-window or per-app basis if you like. Almost anything can be configured.
When all other desktops are chasing the "no configuration for YOU" model, it is nice to have a single one left which still believes I am able to decide for myself how I want it to work, even if that single one still has troubles here and there.
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/nitpick on
It still sticks in my craw that the one thing I can't configure is getting rid of that damned cashew. /nitpick off
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You've been able to turn it off "the cashew" for the last 2 or 3 releases. Of course if it still looks like a cashew on your desktop, you are using a old version and wouldn't be able to turn if off. On the newer releases the cashew looks like a hamburger icon like everything seems to be going to.
To get rid of it on the newer Plasma releases:
Right click on the desktop and select "Configure Desktop" Then select "Tweaks" from the Desktop Settings window and then uncheck "Show the desktop toolbox"
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if it still looks like a cashew on your desktop, you are using a old version
No, it doesn't look like a cashew. I just never stopped calling it that.
To get rid of it on the newer Plasma releases:
Thanks for this! I had no idea that they changed that. When people were complaining about it after it was introduced, they were so adamant that it was critical and will never be removed that I just resigned myself to its existence. Although I do something close to removing it -- I position it behind the taskbar so it's mostly out of the way.
Anyway, I withdraw my nitpick.
Re: what underlies "vault"? (Score:1)
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Is vault a GUI around ecryptfs?
I've been doing some minor research on this. Not comprehensive, so I could be wrong here, but it looks to me like this is not a wrapper around ecryptfs, since they say you can run it on top of an encrypted filesystem.
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Interesting, thanks.
They also had some encrypted password store for a while (kwallet).
KDE is useless now (Score:1, Informative)
They keep releasing new shiny versions of their desktop instead of spending time to polish existing features.
The result is outdated and dead applications that are no longer updated, bugs and glitches that are never fixed. And generally a worse experience than we had with kde 3.
Have they finally fixed the whole desktop crashing when you turn off a monitor?
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I generally preferred KDE3 too, but I don't recognize most of the deficiencies you're citing here. When Plasma was first introduced, it was a borderline unusable mess, but it looks to me like they've pretty much got that worked out (yes, there are still rough spots here and there, but that's true of literally every desktop interface on every OS I've ever used).
As to the desktop crashing when you turn off the monitor -- this is something I'd never heard of before, and certainly have never experienced. The on
KDE is not useless now (Score:2)
This is as good place as any to post some current problems with KDE/Plasma under (K)ubuntu. I know, it works better under eg. OpenSUSE, which I'm using on a laptop. I might go for it on my desktop machine as well...
Overall, I keep returning to KDE. I ha
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"Have they finally fixed the whole desktop crashing when you turn off a monitor?" - never ever heard of this before - got a bug report number for us to look at?
One really good fix for me: (Score:2)
Kimpanel: another try to workaround kimpanel window not getting updated issue.
This was really the most annoying and persisiten bug that I can recall - panel would not get updated if using nvidia binaries and there was a full-screen app (i.e. game) in the background. I hope it is fixed!
Not just use the same recent file method as firefox and gnome and I will donate 100 EUR to the developer who does it, that is the last thing that really annoys me.