KDE 4.0.1 is There For You

Wednesday, 6 February 2008  |  Skuegler

While the world is still recovering from the work on KDE 4.0.0, we are ready to announce the release of KDE 4.0.1, the first bug fix update of the KDE 4.0 desktop. KDE 4.0.1 contains numerous bugfixes such as stability improvements, performance improvements and, as in every point release, updated translations for most components. Lots of work has been put into shared components making the life of most applications easier. Particularly striking is also the high number of bugfixes in KHTML. Have a look at the change log for a more detailed, if maybe not 100% complete list of improvements. KDE 4.0.1 is already translated into 48 languages with more coming soon.

The KDE 4.0 branch receives regular updates, including bugfixes in trunk/ which are backported to the KDE 4.0 branch and more will appear in our monthly bugfix updates. For those following the development more closely, a shift towards the development tree that is to become KDE 4.1 this summer can be noticed. KDE 4.1 will be based on Qt 4.4 with all its performance and functionality improvements. KDE 4.0.2, with even more of the above goodness, will be released in early March. While KDE 4.0 is still rather young, we hope to be able to address even more issues people encounter while getting used to KDE 4, so make sure to keep your KDE up to date.

For those among us that prefer the more stable and proven KDE 3.5 branch, KDE 3.5.9 will be available later this month (planned for February, 19th) with an updated KDE-PIM from the enterprise branch and of course lots of other improvements.

Comments:

faster release cycle - KDE User - 2008-02-05

Can we have a new release faster than March? I think we need a better KDE4 out now or sooner. At least when Miguel released GNOME, he did something like weekly releases until GNOME was less broken?

Re: faster release cycle - Troy Unrau - 2008-02-05

One bugfix release per month isn't enough for you? Two major releases a year isn't enough either? There's just no pleasing you folks.

Re: faster release cycle - Anon - 2008-02-05

Heck, we had *daily* updates of almost all of KDE trunk/ on the run-up to 4.0! http://etotheipiplusone.com/kde4daily/docs/kde4daily.html

Re: faster release cycle - Lee - 2008-02-06

You can have multiple updates per day (if you really want) using the build instructions and svn. It's not rocket science. Might as well, if you're asking for daily builds which would have no testing anyway.

Re: faster release cycle - Jeremy - 2008-02-05

I thought you guys had the perfect roadmap, shouldn't change it. If you want more, then pay the developers/donate or do it yourself.

Re: faster release cycle - Max - 2008-02-06

I love the roadmap as it is. It's just sad that both distro's: Kubuntu, and openSUSE will miss the major KDE 4.X.Y versions. :( Guess we'll have to wait for fall releases then. Hopefully they'll both have packages that will integrate the latest versions neatly.

Re: faster release cycle - Kevin Kofler - 2008-02-06

You're saying "both distros" (no apostrophe, it's a plural!) as if there were only 2... Fedora 9 will ship with KDE 4.0.x (probably 4.0.3). It's quite likely 4.1 will be available in updates.

Re: faster release cycle - Sebastian - 2008-02-06

There is no problem with that. OpenSuse always provided new point-releases in their supplementary repository. I never experiencd any problems with those packages. Other main distros will do so as well. For the average user, it doesn't mind - enterprise customers will stick with 3.5 till 4.1.1 will be out and interested users will find the respective online mirrors.

Re: faster release cycle - whatever noticed - 2008-02-07

Yup, and opensuse comes with new updates every week, sometimes even several times a week.

Re: faster release cycle - winter - 2008-02-06

So what does this mean? http://kubuntu.org/announcements/kde-4.0.1.php

Re: faster release cycle - jimB - 2008-02-05

Moreover, everybody has the option to build from source. The developers made all needed information available how to achieve this.

Re: faster release cycle - Chaoswind - 2008-02-06

As long as kde4 is such a mess, nothing is enough.

Re: faster release cycle - Sylvester - 2008-02-08

I prefer fewer releases and quicker a stable release. Releases require time that can be spent better by fixing some more bugs. It is a pity KDE 4.0 is not stable but releasing every week won't make KDE4 stable faster, so I really do not see the point in it...

Re: faster release cycle - sebas - 2008-02-05

If you want it faster than that, why not run trunk/ directly from SVN? That way, you can update your copy whenever you want, and feedback can quickly be given for new stuff. It's actually a lot of fun, running KDE currently. :-)

Re: faster release cycle - Jonathan Thomas - 2008-02-05

If you're that dissatisfied, you could build from source yourself. That being said, I wouldn't call the state of KDE 4 *broken*... A release every month is fine.

Re: faster release cycle - T. J. Brumfield - 2008-02-05

If I recall, the plan right now is releases every three weeks or so at this point. KDE 4.x will be stable when it is stable. Releasing more often doesn't bring that date sooner. Upgrading takes time, and it takes its toll on the servers to constantly download packages. Three weeks seems quite reasonable to me.

Re: faster release cycle - Spike - 2008-02-06

Release early, release often?

Re: faster release cycle - Koko - 2008-02-07

every day? every second?

Re: faster release cycle - Ian Monroe - 2008-02-06

If you use something like Kubuntu they have been backporting the more important bug fixes, with new packages every week or so it seems like.

Re: faster release cycle - Anand Vaidya - 2008-02-06

The communication from KDE team is very good. I am not sure why you are asking for a weekly summary. I usually keep an eye on the Dot, developer blogs/planet (using RSS feeds), and occasionally bugs.kde.org, That gives me a very good picture of the progress. We have the option of contacting the dev directly too... There is no point adding more "corporate" style weekly reports. It is a waste of time for the devs.

Re: faster release cycle - Uwe Thiem - 2008-02-06

Weekly releases couldn't be tested thouroughly. No, monthly updates are plenty. I want to *use* my computer and not have it compiling KDE constantly. Thanks for providing a bugfix update so shortly after the big release! Uwe

Re: faster release cycle - winter - 2008-02-06

Next time please post using the following name: whiner

Re: faster release cycle - woogs - 2008-02-06

And a pony! Could we get a pony, too? Ponies for everyone!

Re: faster release cycle - Max - 2008-02-06

lol

Re: faster release cycle - Release cycle is fine - John S - 2008-02-07

Release cycle is fine. Just try to match it with major Distro's Fedora, opensuse, (K)ubuntu.

nice! - weintor - 2008-02-05

Nice to see a quickly development on KDE4. I'll hope to use it as my diary desktop very soon!!! I see a lot of bugfixes in this realeased. Good work!!!

wonderful - pete - 2008-02-05

i am now on the suse live cd with the new and shiny 4.01. and i am impressed . i need to have a deeper second look , but so far i like what i see . the only crash i had was with gwenview . congratz to all the kde developers for the hard work , and good luck with the further releases ;-) this is a new milestone on the unixdesktop !

I like it! - Jonathan Thomas - 2008-02-05

Plasmoids are now way better at noticing when my mouse is no longer over it. Separating the resize button from the rotate button was also a good idea. Some other really annoying bugs were also fixed. (It was especially annoying when I missed new IMs because the taskbar entry for the app didn't flash... It's nice to see some Kwin lovin' in there too. Heck, it's good to see bug fixes all over the place, but the two areas I mentioned are where the fixes are most visible. :P

Already in Rawhide - Kevin Kofler - 2008-02-05

KDE 4.0.1 is already in Fedora Rawhide. Rex Dieter will have builds for Fedora 7 and 8 available in the unstable section of the kde-redhat repository in the next few days.

Very nice work, thanks a lot! - David - 2008-02-05

Very nice work indeed. I built KDE4 from svn yesterday and compared to what It was 2-3 weeks ago, it has improved a LOT in many areas! You can really feel the polish. It is indeed nice looking (oxygen improved a lot imho, especially in contrast issues) and functional. Cheers to all involved devs. You really laid the groundstone of something with a bright future here. (at least in my living room, that's for sure. We all love screens, right?: http://www.vidsolbach.de/tmp/kde4.png/ David

Re: Very nice work, thanks a lot! - Max - 2008-02-05

Yep we do!!! Screens are awesome, thankx. :-)

anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - Gerry - 2008-02-05

I've just 1-clicked it, all seemed to install over 4.0, but now get a perfectly white blank desktop. :(

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - Anonymous - 2008-02-05

Try to refresh all packages "if never version is available" in the package manager.

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - Poborskiii - 2008-02-06

openSUSE has new repositories for KDE 4, try http://news.opensuse.org/2008/02/05/kde-quickies-kde-401-opensuse-live-cd-new-kde-repository-layout/

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - apokryphos - 2008-02-06

As was mentioned above, the repository format changed, so make sure you are using the new 1-click-install which will always be available on http://opensuse.org/KDE4

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - Gerry - 2008-02-06

Thank you everyone, I refreshed as suggested and using the result now. :)

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - NabLa - 2008-02-06

Are you running compiz?

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - Hyperactive Plumber - 2008-02-06

Does it come with a Plasma Microsoft SUSE lizard logo, too? No thanks, I'll stick with Kubuntu, guilt-free Linux!

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - Birger - 2008-02-06

Please. Grow up. Do a little homework, how much work is Canonical doing for KDE/Linux and how much is Novell doing? Birger

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - walter - 2008-02-06

Agreed. Personally, i think there will be a day in the future when ms seriously regrets the Novell-deal. They hoped to get a legal hammer, but will soon discover how they underestimated the power of spreading technology in an OSS world.

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - Bobby - 2008-02-06

Ditto. I am using SuSe for years and I will never change. I have tried Kubuntu (not as polished as openSuse), Mandriva, and PCLinuxOS but I always come back to Suse baby. Just love her :)

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - Sebastian - 2008-02-06

The problem with Suse is that applications are not at default UNIX places (eg. /opt vs. /usr/bin). There are systems executables where you may follow a loooong chain of symlinks in order to find the right file. And sax2 is broken in 10.3 - please, never use it. However, OpenSuse and Fedora are the currently best polished Linux systems, I agree. I tried Kubunto once - never again. I'll stick with Suse

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - Bobby - 2008-02-06

"The problem with Suse is that applications are not at default UNIX places (eg. /opt vs. /usr/bin). There are systems executables where you may follow a loooong chain of symlinks in order to find the right file." That might interest the technies but for a normal user all that counts is that the distro looks good and works fine and there is where Suse seems to get better every time.

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - Sebastian - 2008-02-06

Well, we implement software for cross platform applications in our company. Imagine how people cry sometimes... It is not just about KDE, it's the rest as well...

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - rik - 2008-02-06

I was surprised there was no tool to chase down symlinks. I just googled and found an answer and proposed solution. http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=594821 (also as Billie noted, KDE4 is under /usr in openSUSE)

KDE4 app locations - Bille - 2008-02-06

If you try openSUSE KDE 4 packages, you'll notice that KDE4 is in /usr for FHS compliance.

Re: KDE4 app locations - blacky - 2008-02-06

Same for Gnome. They have completely eliminated /opt AFAIK.

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - whatever noticed - 2008-02-07

"The problem with Suse is that applications are not at default UNIX places (eg. /opt vs. /usr/bin)." this has been changed in suse 10.3: gnome and kde4 are now in /usr, while kde3 will remain in /opt for now.

Novell's policies - The Badger - 2008-02-06

Well, Novell once displayed a "not too specific, but not immediately evil" policy with respect to software patents: http://www.novell.com/company/policies/patent/ http://www.novell.com/company/policies/patent/european.html Although they didn't seem to be that bothered to really oppose moves towards patentability of software at that point. Really, Novell haven't done enough to shake off the bad reputation they've acquired. On the one hand you have stuff like this: http://www.eff.org/press/releases/2007/05 http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/about_members.php On the other, you have stuff like this: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/nov06/11-02MSNovellPR.mspx Perhaps the latter was just an easy money transaction, but like the situation involving recent events with a certain company and their acquisition, being seen with the wrong kind of people can really damage credibility. At least, depending on various difficult-to-predict factors like the weather and Novell's bottom line, Novell can be credited with a certain amount of goodwill from the community - a lot more that can be said for a certain Finnish organisation... http://eupat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/nokia0404/index.en.html

Re: Novell's policies - T. J. Brumfield - 2008-02-06

The Novell MS deal was announced as a means to work cross-platform between the two companies, and yet they aren't doing that in the least. Novell got a pay day, and a reprieve from possible litigation. MS got a bargaining chip to hang over everyone else's heads. Look Novell paid to license patents, and anyone else who hasn't might be sued! This deal was classic FUD.

Re: Novell's policies - blacky - 2008-02-06

«The Novell MS deal was announced as a means to work cross-platform between the two companies, and yet they aren't doing that in the least.» From some talking with a few OpenOffice Novell developers, it does seem like there is cooperation. Both in the support of Office Open XML, and in the Windows OO.o builds.

Re: Novell's policies - JRT - 2008-02-07

The missing piece of the Novell puzzle is the WordPerfect suit. Prior to the deal with MS, Novell was still persuing legal action regarding the illegal restraint of trade by MS in connection with WordPerfect (as documented in the US vs. MS). I have not been able to find any information regarding the current status of this lawsuit.

Re: Novell's policies - elsewhere - 2008-02-07

>>I have not been able to find any information regarding the current status of this lawsuit. Then you haven't really looked hard enough, google is your friend. A couple of weeks ago MS filed a petition with the Supreme Court to have the lawsuit quashed, the story was carried in much of the tech media. A response from the court is due Feb 11. Novell specifically stated at the time of the MS/Novell deal that the Wordperfect lawsuit would continue and was specifically excluded from the agreement.

Re: Novell's policies - JRT - 2008-02-08

Thanks. I'v been busy being ill. I get CW & ET email news letters, but I must have missed it. Yes, I read that it would continue at the time of the deal, and then it dropped off the radar.

Re: Novell's policies - S - 2008-02-08

Agreed. They didn't even make NTFS file support. The open source world did. Also is it just me, or did they quietly kill XEN - virtualization off. (doesn't Microsoft have a similar product?? *I wonder*) I haven't really seen any obvious benefit from the deal. To either parties really. Life support for Novell? That's all I can think about.

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - S - 2008-02-08

+1 agreed. Novell has been doing much more for KDE than Canonical has been doing. Look at the joke that Kubuntu turned into. SuSE has much more features.

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - Matt - 2008-02-06

openSUSE is different from SUSE: openSUSE is community-developed (much like Debian, Fedora, and Ubuntu for example) whiel SUSE is the corporate version that has all the Microsoft-related drama. I don't use openSUSE on my own computers, but I have used it many times, and it is also a very good distribution (especially for KDE).

Re: anybody tried the opensuse 10.3 version? - Joseph - 2008-02-08

yeah same happened to me I just removed my ~/.kde4 and done :D it worked all again but beware your kde4 settings will go to hell

QT 4.4 and Domino - T. J. Brumfield - 2008-02-05

How much will QT 4.4 and Alien improve performance? And will some kind soul port over Domino to KDE 4? Maybe even somewhat of a cross breed between Oxygen and Domino? And these two improvements to Domino? http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Domino+menu+hack+for+Beryl+shadows?content=72631 http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Domino+Mockup?content=72412 The day I can configure KDE 4 to look and operate the way I want is the day I use it for my desktop.

Re: QT 4.4 and Domino - alsuren - 2008-02-06

It strikes me that alien sub-windows will eat ksnapshot's babies, as ksnapshot relies on X11's native windows for some of its features. It will also destroy performance over remote X11. Hopefully, Solid will be able to help with this. Also, alien windows only help with resizing internally. If you resize the outermost window of a Qt app, it will still flicker horribly, as all X11 and win32 programs traditionally do. If we want this stuff to be fixed properly, it needs to be done within the X server. Someone needs to look at how they do it in OSX. [/negative]

Re: QT 4.4 and Domino - Troy Unrau - 2008-02-06

Solid will not have anything to do with this situation, as it's a hardware detection and presence library. X is still X.

Re: QT 4.4 and Domino - Aaron Seigo - 2008-02-06

> It will also destroy performance over remote X11. the obvious solution is to fall back to non-aliens. on request, the widgets can become non-aliens so this should be possible. just .. need to do it =) > it will still flicker horribly, compositing and aliens actually help quite a bit here. but you're right, it's still not perfect. i discussed with some x devs while in the airporate in melbourne last week about possible solutions. nothing on the near horizon yet, though.

Re: QT 4.4 and Domino - Anon - 2008-02-06

"he obvious solution is to fall back to non-aliens. on request, the widgets can become non-aliens so this should be possible. just .. need to do it =)" Would it be possible in principle to toggle this (with full-fledged KDE apps only, if need be) on-the-fly using a DBUS call? What about double-buffering of widgets which is hugely wasteful if a compositing window manager is running? Being able to easily turn either of these features on or off in all running KDE4 apps would be great :)

Re: QT 4.4 and Domino - jos poortvliet - 2008-02-06

Turning of doublebuffering for widgets is NOT what you want, everything will look horrible even with compositing. That one needs TT to work on it...

Re: QT 4.4 and Domino - Nick Shaforostoff - 2008-02-06

btw, what's about xcb adoption by Qt?

Re: QT 4.4 and Domino - David Johnson - 2008-02-06

Top level windows will still be true X11 windows, so this shouldn't affect knapshot. Alien targets all those widgets that aren't top level windows. At least this is my understanding of it.

Re: QT 4.4 and Domino - Henning - 2008-02-06

With KSnapshot you can also select sub-windows which is very handy. This works much better than manually selecting a rectangle on the screen. I use it to make screenshots of certain dockwidgets when doing documentation. But as far as I know alien windows can be disabled with an environment variable.

Re: QT 4.4 and Domino - Aaron Seigo - 2008-02-06

> manually selecting a rectangle on the screen. speaking of which, have you tried ksnapshot's new rectangle selector? you get to resize it before you take a shot! i need to improve the obviousness of the "take it now" though. maybe add a push button in the middle of the shot. right now it's too easy to miss the instruction label at the top of the screen. but other than that, it's pretty neat.

Re: QT 4.4 and Domino - markc - 2008-02-06

> you get to resize it before you take a shot! Wonderful! Any chance it could provide a Width/Height (even Xoffest/Yoffset could be handy) coords popup while resizing so one could get a consistant set of same-sized snapshots without post editing?

Re: QT 4.4 and Domino - Richard Moore - 2008-02-06

You have width/height displayed already.

Re: QT 4.4 and Domino - Matt - 2008-02-06

Did ksnapshot in 4.x fix the artefact bug? Link: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdegraphics/+bug/108673

When will Kubuntu have ports? - Richaard - 2008-02-05

When will the Kubuntu versions be available? Will KDE 4.0.2, or 4.0.3 make it into Kubuntu 8.04? Will they finally have some custom touches to it, the way openSuSE brands their flavor of KDE? Somebody please point me to answers.

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - Max - 2008-02-05

I second the question. +1 Ubuntu treats Kde+Kubuntu as their red-headed stepchild. Hopefully they will embrace the 4.x branch and actively develop/customize the desktop. https://wiki.kubuntu.org/HardyHeron/Alpha4/Kubuntu https://wiki.kubuntu.org/HardyHeron/Alpha4/Kubuntu/Feedback

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - Jonathan Thomas - 2008-02-05

Kubuntu already has KDE 4.0.1 packages. They have a repository set up at ppa.launchpad.net.

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - Max - 2008-02-06

Cool.. I'll try it out. Hopefully it won't feel as disjointed as Kubuntu's 4.0 release. (That was a headache to install. I tried 4.0 on my SuSE box with 1 click and it was easy!!!) Wish me luck!

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - Richard - 2008-02-06

Where exactly is it? I went to ppa.launchpad.net and couldn't find it. Adding it to apt package manager didn't seem to do the trick either. Maybe Kubuntu should just post it on their announcement page. (or include it in a new alpha. Like Alpha 4a or something. =) ) Well I guess I can always just give up on Kubuntu once again and try it with the next alpha of openSuSE. 2 more days until the release!!!

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - Jonathan Thomas - 2008-02-06

The repo link is given in the 4.0 release announcement.

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - Poborskiii - 2008-02-06

http://kubuntu.org/announcements/kde-4.0.1.php

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - Max - 2008-02-06

Yea. Found it now. kthanx :) I think I jumped the gun before the ppa was complete. The announcement wasn't posted at that time either.. All worx now.. I'm happy. :)

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - Vide - 2008-02-06

Maybe they DID and you weren't able to read? Please make us a favor and go RTFM, kubuntu.org in this case. Thanks.

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - ramses - 2008-02-06

I tried them, it's not good there are worst than the 4.0 version. At least they correct the bug for the icons but nepomuk is not there so no possibility to use all the feature in it (like the comments). In konqueror the protocoles remote:// and applications:// were not working. You can't use anymore the kde application outside kde4. I did a purge and i'm waiting for hardy to try it a little bit more.

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - ramses - 2008-02-06

just in case, I tested another time and I discover another problem konqueror is useless at least as browser and with kubuntu package. As it is now, if you are clicking on a link in a webpage it ask you if you want to save the html file or open with konqueror. If you choose konqueror it open a new window... Not exactly something expected for a browser! I tried to use konqueror to send this message but when I clicked on the preview button it send me on my /tmp/kde-ramses directory... Something is weird with this packages I think.

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - Sutoka - 2008-02-06

Sounds like a configuration issue to me (had you run the alphas/betas/RCs with that account?), you could try moving your ~/.kde4 directory and then restarting KDE4 (or if you're just running apps in kde3, start up the kde4 app after should work fine) and see if it works then. If it doesn't, you can just delete the new ~/.kde4 directory and restore the old one.

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - ramses - 2008-02-06

to test kde4 I always deleting the .kde4 directory. Just to be sure I even create a new user just for the test and same result. I suspected a problem with some old package so I did a clean de-installation and re-installation (ie I purge all the file when deleting the kde4 package and even delete the /usr/lib/kde4 directory to be sure.

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - Anonymous - 2008-02-06

Questions - - Why is it being hosted @ the launchpad site vs. the Kubuntu site? - Is it signed with the same Kubuntu gpg key? - Is it packaged by the same people @ Kubuntu? - When will KDE 4.x be included in the official Ubuntu repo? - Do I need to remove my current install of KDE 3.x beforehand? - Should I feel "lucky"?

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - SAABeilin - 2008-02-06

-- there's a service named "personal package archive" at Launchpad, many Kubuntu developers use it. -- that in PPA are not. -- yes, that's the Kubuntu/KDE team. apachalogger, stdin, jriddell -- you know them. -- it is there alread: in Hardy it is in Universe section. -- no, it install alongside; You con run KDE4 apps from KDE3.x or start a full KDE4 session from kdm. -- hhmmm... You should try ;)

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - ramses - 2008-02-06

<i>no, it install alongside; You con run KDE4 apps from KDE3.x</i> Not anymore...

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - Patcito - 2008-02-07

Yes you can.

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - anonymous - 2008-02-07

Please tell me how to do this. After updating, my shortcuts to KDE4 apps no longer work, and if I try in konsole to write oku and press tab to complete it to okular-kde4, it doesn't complete it to anything. Same goes for kate, kat and two tabs only suggests katapult and kate(the kde3 version). This is also mentioned in some posts in the ubuntuforums and no-one has responsed to those posts.

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - ramses - 2008-02-07

I honestly think that the ubuntu package are "not completely finish" but it's only my opinion. Nothing is working fine, neither the interaction between kde3 and kde4, nor the icons (at least the ones for konqueror, systemsettings are correct but still missing the ones in the application menu for the differents categories and there are plenty of application with icons missing (okular + f6 for exemple) but this one is kde4 problem and not packaging, konqueror is not working as a browser and since dolphin this is is only purpose in kde.... By the way in the extra toolbar you cannot remove the text under the icons but agin this is kde4 problem (same problem with ubuntu or suse). Next round kde4 4.0.2 will see :)

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - Max - 2008-02-06

I hope this mess will get sorted out and streamlined by the next Kubuntu alpha 5. It's still disjointed and harder to use than necessary. If the Kubuntu team will keep treating the KDE 4.X branch as perpetual beta, they will be the last ones to adopt it in their final product, and probably loose users in the process.

Re: When will Kubuntu have ports? - John S - 2008-02-07

The (K)ubuntu port sucks! There is no customization, and next to no features. (K)ubuntu, please work on 4.0 some more. We're trying Fedora and opensuse this week. Maybe they're better.

fast! - mxttie - 2008-02-05

you are really keeping pace, guys! congratulations!

Plasma backports - cedric - 2008-02-06

I'm a little bit disappointed that the panel resize and positioning thingies didn't make it into 4.0.1. But hey, at least the white Background on every login disappeared :) Keep on the great work, Konquies.

Re: Plasma backports - Max - 2008-02-06

I'm still downloading. Is the panel still huge? :( I would like a way to make the panel as thin as possible, as on my laptop screen real estate is precious. There is no need to have a huge panel in my case, as long as I can recognize the icons. Under 3.5.8 I always had the panel size as "tiny", aka. the smallest pix setting possible. Please incorporate that somehow in future releases. side note: There goes my surprise to myself.

Re: Plasma backports - Max - 2008-02-06

Any new compositioning effects? I don't think the 3.X branch ever had me so exited about new releases as the 4.X.Y branch. The exitement and anticipation about new features is literally tearing my co-workers and I apart. :) Never before has a desktop environment been so exiting... I think when the Windows branch will be finalized we'll probably mutiny and install KDE on top of all Windows computers at work. :)

Re: Plasma backports - cedric - 2008-02-06

panel is still huge. and, still just one line of taskbar entries. didn't test kwin effects. I'm stuck with a Radeon 300 something and no composite.

Re: Plasma backports - jos poortvliet - 2008-02-06

resize will come in 4.0.2 (unless distro's backport it, suse does, Kubuntu might). The taskbar switches to two lines of taskbar entries when there are many apps running (so that DID get it). KWin got a new effect, not sure if it made it into 4.0.1.

Re: Plasma backports - Jake - 2008-02-06

resize comes with update today

Re: Plasma backports - Marc - 2008-02-06

Ha? You speaking about kubuntu?

Re: Plasma backports - Troy Unrau - 2008-02-06

Panel is still 'huge' :) 4.0.x is for bugfixes... 4.1.0 will be new features, which already has the resizable panel. The ui is still ugly for resizing though, but at least it exists. The problem with adding features to 4.0.x is mostly a translation problem. I expect that some distros will backport that from 4.1.x though. Ditto for kwin effects - they are new features, and so will be in 4.1.0 Build it from trunk if you want to play :)

Re: Plasma backports - Paradox - 2008-02-06

Hang on, your saying we have to wait 6 MONTHS for a resizable panel !! Thats crazy. Frankly the ability to resize and move the panel is something that should have been in there since day 1. I seem to recall that early on in the RC's when people were starting to get nervous about these things one of the KDE devs posted to their blog saying that adding in such feature would be 'trivial' in the new plasma framework. If it is trivial why hasn't it been done already, since obviously causing a large number of users, a lot of grief.

Re: Plasma backports - Aaron Seigo - 2008-02-06

it's there in trunk. i don't, however, want to do a long series of major merges. we've got a couple more taskbar related things coming that i'd like to then roll back all at *once* if the translators and release team won't kill me for doing so ;) essentially i want to give it enough testing now that we're this far along and get one or two more things in. 4.0.2 is realistic, if we get permission. note that some, such as suse, have already grabbed plasma from trunk since it still works with kdelibs 4.0.x just fine.

Re: Plasma backports - T. J. Brumfield - 2008-02-06

That being said, KDE 4 isn't ready for everyday use on the desktop for everyone anyone today. There seems to be a bunch of goodies and necessities that just missed the cut. Do all of these need to be held back for 4.1? If the code is in trunk now, please release some of these things with 4.0.2, I implore you. It goes against the typical nature of minor releases, but the primary goal should be improving usability, and testing the code that it is written so it can be stabilized. If you merge this code, it can be tested and stabilized before 4.1. My two cents.

Re: Plasma backports - Marc - 2008-02-06

I strongly agree... the guys of the linux action show actually said in episode 70 that they might switch to KDE 4.0 (!) but that the " freaking huge" panel 'd be a real pain in the ass.

Re: Plasma backports - Bobby - 2008-02-07

Personally I don't change the size of the panel even though it's now possible. I like it the way it is. I have a 19" monitor so it doesn't "rob" me any space. Apart from that I don't like the tiny taskbars.

Re: Plasma backports - Kevin Kofler - 2008-02-07

Indeed, those changes are not only important for usability, but most of them are also fixing regressions from 3.5.x, so IMHO they should be considered high-priority bugfixes, not feature additions.

Re: Plasma backports - Iuri Fiedoruk - 2008-02-07

+1 Removing features and then adding them back isn't the same as adding new features :-P

Re: Plasma backports - Dan - 2008-02-07

The problem is that its not just "adding a feature back" Plasma is a whole new beast, code has to be written from the ground up. This adds huge possibilities for bugs and cannot just be thrown into any release. In addition, it requires new strings in the code, and because kde4.0 is in a string freeze, it requires some unpleasantness to either a) find strings elsewhere in the code and reuse them or b) ask the translators nicely if you can add new strings.

Re: Plasma backports - Paradox - 2008-02-06

Having the plasma backports in 4.0.2 sounds great and would go a long way towards fixing some of the pain points that people are feeling. I hope very much that it makes it in!

Re: Plasma backports - reihal - 2008-02-06

Can the panel auto-hide?

Re: Plasma backports - Anon - 2008-02-06

Not yet.

Re: Plasma backports - JRT - 2008-02-07

While I would also like to see the panel re-sizable. What you really need is auto-hide like KDE-3. I was presuming that since these would be new features that they would not be appearing on 4.0.x -- that we would have to wait for 4.1.0 for new features.

Re: Plasma backports - JackieBrown - 2008-02-06

The svn version lets you resize or reposition the panel

Re: Plasma backports - Anonymous - 2008-02-06

The openSUSE KDE 4.0.1 packages too.

Panel can be resized - Bobby - 2008-02-06

I can't understand why you can't resize the panel. I just updated my openSuse packages and now I can make the panel as thin or huge as I want. Just right click on the panel and then configure it :)

Re: Panel can be resized - Jonathan Thomas - 2008-02-06

Not all distros backedported the new Plasma features from trunk. OpenSuse did, though.

Re: Panel can be resized - Bobby - 2008-02-06

I tell you, I just love this girl ;)

Google plasmoids? / Google 3rd party apps? - Max - 2008-02-06

Does anybody have an idea how we could get google to write plasmoids that would integrate the google tools with KDE 4.0? I'd love to (automatically) synchronize google calendar with KDE calendaring applications/display them on the desktop, etc. Same for google maps, Gmail, etc. Rather than using precious development time of the KDE development team, I would love for google themselves to do it. (since they're most likely will benefit the most from it, and might make some extra money with ad revenue *hint, hint*) I looked all over google, but couldn't find an email address anywhere, or some sort of "suggestion box". Could readers please point me in the right direction? If interested, also vote for google to write these 3rd party apps?

Re: Google plasmoids? / Google 3rd party apps? - Aaron Seigo - 2008-02-06

we'll probably have to show a large user base first. it's early days, though maybe some eager beaver googler could be convinced to dive in. *that* said, however, one of the reasons for taking the approach we have is that it is easier to suck in other's widgets. macos x widget support is there waiting for the switch to qt 4.4; yahoo, opera, google and even vista widgets tend to just be either a URL you load into a web canvas or gloms of web cruft stuck in a package file. i would not be surprised to see us supporting all of the above within the year once we have webkit rendering to play with. from what i recall, google widgets in particular are just a web url with a size. iow, trivial. the trick will be to integrate listings of them nicely into the Add Widgets dialog so that they are searchable / browseable and don't look overly different from a usage POV to the user.

Re: Google plasmoids? / Google 3rd party apps? - Max - 2008-02-06

Cool.. Sounds really complicated though. Hopefully the final version will be easier to use, than it is to explain. I can see too many novices giving up in the future just after reading complicated instructions on various web forums. I know it's hard - but we need to include more point-n-click settings, widgets, etc. KDE has the hard task ahead of themselves of having to be: * Functional, customizeable * good for power users * easier to use than OS-X (let's face it. We've passed Windows in functionality with the 4.0 release. =) Now we need to aim higher.) Do you think that porting Plasma to Windows/OS-X would open it up to more developers = more and easier widgets? Couldn't that also make "cross-platform" widgets possible?

Re: Google plasmoids? / Google 3rd party apps? - Nms - 2008-02-07

I actually had a look at the google gadgets and it's a tiny more complicated than that... The .gg files are a zip files which contain a manifest xml, a javascript files and other needed resources. There seems to be a couple dozens JS functions that are probably provided by the google gadget application. I guess we'll have to either write them for plasma or, if possible/legal, use the google source.

Re: Google plasmoids? HAVE GOOGLE DO IT - S - 2008-02-08

That's why I think it would be easier if google did it themselves. They know their code, and then there won't be any legal questionmarks.

Re: Google plasmoids? / Google 3rd party apps? - Chani - 2008-02-06

this sounds like a job for... akonadi! :)

Re: Google plasmoids? / Google 3rd party apps? - Kevin Krammer - 2008-02-06

Exactly! Jobs for Akonadi resources to be precise

Re: Google plasmoids? / Google 3rd party apps? - John S - 2008-02-07

Anakondi, whatever it takes. Somebody please do it. Google plamsmids would be great. We use Google Desktop and Google sidebar on almost all our machines (Windows, Mac included) Where do I go to tell Google about it? A "Firstclass" integration would be great too. We use that program on EVERY MACHINE. Not likely though. We'd be happy with a Google Calendar and Gmail integration.

Physical mail... - Anon - 2008-02-08

Given that Konqueror uses user agent cloaking to work with Google, I suspect our logged numbers on their site have gone down. So they have no way of knowing what actual market share we are right now. Presumably, a physical mail letter campaign would have the greatest effect. It is much too easy to send an email form letter, but takes more time and effort to write a physical letter. If Google suddenly got an entire slew of these, I suspect somebody would pay attention.

Re: Physical mail... - Let's do it!! - S - 2008-02-08

Let's do it. What's the address of the right party there? I can send a letter, will take less than 5 minutes. Have tons of stamps too I never use otherwise. Why is Konqueror cloaked? What's the reasoning behind that? Isn't anybody here working at google, or with google and can tell them directly?

Re: Physical mail... - Max - 2008-02-11

I'm in. What's the address?

Great! - Whoever - 2008-02-06

Congratulations to the developers and keep up! Cheers!

So much khtml goodness. - Hairy Groundhog - 2008-02-06

So much khtml goodness. Are you preparing for the khtml vs. webkit deathmatch? Is it actually decided yet that webkit will be implemented for kde 4.1?

Re: So much khtml goodness. - jos poortvliet - 2008-02-06

'implemented'? It will be in Qt 4.4, and Plasma will use it. It might have a KPart, so Konqi might be able to use it. Anything else you want to know?

Re: So much khtml goodness. - Hairy Groundhog - 2008-02-06

So khtml is not going to be abandoned!

Re: So much khtml goodness. - Anon - 2008-02-06

It's part of kdelibs, and so must remain and receive security updates until at least KDE5.0, which is at least 5 years away (if there is even a KDE5.0 at all).

Re: So much khtml goodness. - Nick Shaforostoff - 2008-02-06

of course, there will be one, but maybe not so revolutionary, though

Re: So much khtml goodness. - reihal - 2008-02-06

"It might have a KPart, so Konqi might be able to use it." And Dolphin too, I suspect?

Re: So much khtml goodness. - logixoul - 2008-02-06

No, Dolphin doesn't embed arbitrary KParts and never will.

Impressive - LB - 2008-02-06

Wow, the number of changes are very impressive, especially pim3.5.9 and khtml4.0.1. Cool!!! BTW; does anybody knows what rendering engine KDE4Live is using by default. It's extremely fast! I like it so much that I prefer browsing in a KDE4Live virtual machine, instead of my physical box.

Re: Impressive - binner - 2008-02-06

KDE Four Live 1.0.1 does only include khtml 4.0.1

Re: Impressive - Kevin Kofler - 2008-02-07

Note that if you're using Fedora, OpenSUSE or one of the other distributions shipping kdepim-enterprise (Kubuntu has been shipping some packages from the enterprise branch and some vanilla ones), you're already using most of the kdepim 3.5.9 features, as that's where they come from.

Kopete - RJ - 2008-02-06

Does anyone have a problem with msn not connecting on kopete. I've had this problem since the 4 came out. aim, icq, yahoo connect, but msn wont

Re: Kopete - NabLa - 2008-02-06

I had, but after updating to 4.0.1 on Kubuntu, no more.

Re: Kopete - RJ - 2008-02-06

yeah I've been running the latest Kopete for a few days now, since it appeared on the new opensuse repository and it still wont connect to msn

backport khtml fixes to 3.5 - Michael Daum - 2008-02-06

First of all let me join congratulating KDE for the great work and your vital development. One question I have wrt 3.5: is it possible to backport some oft the most annoying khtml bugs from 4.0.x to 3.5, please, i.e. those related to textareas. There are some bad regression errors which almost made me switch from konqueror to firefox as my daily browser. Thx anyway.

Re: backport khtml fixes to 3.5 - jos poortvliet - 2008-02-06

Maybe KDE 3.5.9 will fix some of those, but I'm not sure if the KHTML devs have time to backport much more...

still ... - adrian - 2008-02-06

i'm disappointed by the course kde4 has taken. by now it's the first bugfix release and kde4 is - for me at last - still horribly broken. i need a proxy to get into the shiny world of interwebs but that one core feature is still broken (unknown error, known in bugs.kde.org). which makes kde4 pretty much useless for me - webwise. plasma still has that don't-touch-i-might-fall-apart feel to it, global shortcuts (alt-f2 or win-r for krunner) don't work - what's that zoom feature and why the heck do i get that instead of a slim but stable desktop.

Re: still ... - Peter - 2008-02-06

i dont see the point of the zoom function (upper-right corner) either..

Re: still ... - Luca Beltrame - 2008-02-06

Have a look at the Plasma FAQ: http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Plasma/FAQ and look under the ZUI related questions. This will give you an insight on why such a feature is present (although it's still incomplete).

Re: still ... - Peter - 2008-02-06

didnt make it clear to me. i first thought it was like the magnifier but then for the entire desktop... good to see its not that (how many % of people need a magnifieR)

Re: still ... - Luca Beltrame - 2008-02-06

I have struggled to find a good definition of the ZUI but I guess seeing it in action would make much more sense. I may make a video of that as soon as a finished ZUI hits a stable release (I guess 4.1?)

Re: still ... - TheUnabeefer - 2008-03-04

Does anyone know how to simply remove the zoom thingy up in the corner? It's REALLY useless when you are using Compiz-Fusion with KDE4, so it's more or less just annoying now. I don't know what config file to butcher to get it off my screen.

Youtube / google video / etc. - Max - 2008-02-06

I think we need to get the most creative people on here to make some USER GENERATED VIDEOS showing off the functionality of Plasma/Plasmoids, etc. Like not just the basics, some off the wall cutting edge stuff. Make it fun to watch too. People learn visually, and by doing. I think this is the success of Apple's products. Rather than include a boring instruction manual, all the features are showed off at the keynote and through various Youtube and similar videos. I think this would help create more buzz about KDE 4.0 too. Too many people think KDE 4.0 is a static big (screen real-estate wasting) task-bar at the bottom and a few "icons." We need to change that perception. Eye-candy (visual wow factor!!) is what sells people to Linux/KDE. Compiz fusion was the reason I switched to Linux, I'll admit it. What do you guys think? Maybe some contest?* This could increase awareness and have some modders join the KDE ranks. To all the developers: Great job so far on the features. You really did great work!! We still have a long road ahead of us. Don't give up/slow down yet. ________ * the prize could be bragging rights for the most customized desktop.

Re: Youtube / google video / etc. - S - 2008-02-07

I like the idea... We should have feature presentation videos. :)

Re: Youtube / google video / etc. - Luca Beltrame - 2008-02-07

I actually proposed this on the kde-promo ML a few weeks ago (like a month ago, to be precise), but I haven't found the time to make those Plasma video tutorials. Worse than that, recordmydesktop segfaults every time so at the moment I'm rather unable to record anything. My idea was to show: - Adding applets - Adding applets to panel - Applet operations

Re: Youtube / google video - love the idea! - John S - 2008-02-07

Yes, please make vids. Love to see what features are possible. Then please make a thread, or link them from kde.org somehow.

KDE 4.0.1 - Michael - 2008-02-06

Tried out the Kubuntu packages. Getting slowly better but still not really usable. By far the worst thing for me are those stupid semi-transparent boxes behinf every icon. And without any ability to create (labeled) containments for multiple icons there isnt that much advantage for me in contrast to KDE 3.5. Though I must admit it's quite cool to be able to put a Dilbert comic on your desktop and even rotate it freely.

Re: KDE 4.0.1 - S - 2008-02-07

you can make those disappear, I think Locking the widgets makes it disappear.

Re: KDE 4.0.1 - Wheely - 2008-02-07

Indeed it does but then you can't change desktop wallpaper, move things and stuff like that.

Re: KDE 4.0.1 - S - 2008-02-07

I'm really starting to think that the Ubuntu people gave up on Kubuntu, and KDE. Which is very sad. I'm comparing the alphas of Fedora, openSUSE, and others, then KDE under Kubuntu looks halfa$$ed. Like there is no passion behind it. Everything is default, then not even well put together. Get your act together Kubuntu, or stop carrying KDE altogether. At the current state you're embarrassing us KDE fans and the whole KDE development team.

Whose act? - The Badger - 2008-02-07

"Get your act together Kubuntu, or stop carrying KDE altogether. At the current state you're embarrassing us KDE fans and the whole KDE development team." What a ridiculous remark! Currently, only KDE 3 is actually ready for "prime time" in that you could sit a non-technical user down in front of it, have them expect it to more or less work, and have a bunch of people willing to support it (in the end-user support sense, not "how do I compile this?" sense). As for the embarrassment, the "KDE fans" do this all by themselves. I've used KDE now for around eight years or so, and it's a great environment for end-users (contrary to what various usability "experts" say), but I certainly wouldn't want the job of packaging it all up and supporting it, and that's KDE 3.x in a fairly mature form, let alone the fruits of the latest development effort with all its chopping and changing. The embarrassment has already been on the KDE developers for hyping up KDE 4.0 and then delivering something that people report to be less usable than KDE 3.0. Perhaps the Kubuntu people don't feel like switching their default desktop to KDE 4 and sharing in the embarrassment: an understandable choice, and in stark contrast to your "stop carrying KDE altogether" outburst which betrays the bizarre belief that it is now "verboten" to ship KDE 3, now that KDE 4 has burst forth in all its glory.

Re: KDE 4.0.1 - jst4fun - 2008-02-07

If you are a KDE fan I think it would be better to use opensuse rather than any other distros.

Re: KDE 4.0.1 - Bobby - 2008-02-07

I agree with you totally. I also agree with what S said, the KDE version of Ubuntu (Kubuntu a.k.a Ubuntu's unwanted child) is a shame for the KDE world. It's put together half-heartedly and that's why I decided to stick to openSuse after trying Kubuntu so many times. Ubuntu is without the shadow of a doubt the best Gnome distro that I have tried until now but I don't like Gnome. On the other hand Kubuntu is the worst KDE distro around and it doesn't matter which version of KDE they use. It's really a pitty that they treat the best Unix/Linux DE like that :(

KDE 4.0.1 - Kubuntu port indeed is bad, and has be - Max - 2008-02-08

+1 I agree too. I used SuSE since version 9.0. It always seemed "finished". Clear cut, thought out, everything. (drivers and mounting of hardware seemed to be an issue back then, as well as the headache that are RPM dependencies. - it's better now.) I tried Kubuntu when 7.10 came out because it's the most hyped up distro at the time. Suse has all the flak because of the Microsoft deal, so I figured out, why not try out the competion. Since I "grew up" on KDE, I decided to use Kubuntu, instead of the extremely popular Ubuntu. Right from the start it felt like Kubuntu was put together as an afterthought. The desktop was all the default install. The OS selector screen looks like it came from the MS-Dos days. All the icons are KDE default, same as the taskbars. On the online forums it felt that Kubuntu was a red headed stepchild indeed. Every useful information came from Ubuntu. I keep having to "translate" the tricks in my head to work in a KDE environment. It's like Canonical isn't even trying to use KDE and they have been forced to carry it. Needless to say, I'm back at openSUSE. Oh, how I missed thee Lizard.. :-) What I miss from Kubuntu is the Debian based-ness. I love Apt-get. So much easier to use than RPM's (No dependency problems either.) Just no "one-click" under Kubuntu :( Either way, I'm glad there is multiple distros, and I'm glad there is choice. There is only one Windows Vista, and that os has a "take it, or leave it" attitude. I can't wait to use KDE desktop manager on the Windows environment.

Re: KDE 4.0.1 - Kubuntu port indeed is bad, and has be - Anonymous - 2008-02-09

> What I miss from Kubuntu is the Debian based-ness. I love Apt-get. So much easier to use than RPM's Orange and apples? Either you compare dpkg with rpm or apt-get with zypper.

Re: KDE 4.0.1 - (K)ubuntu port sucks!!! - John S - 2008-02-07

We use Ubuntu a lot here, and decided to try out 4.0.1 The (K)ubuntu version sucks. No customization at all, almost no features. No progress. What is wrong with the (K)ubuntu people? Are they asleep at the wheel? All their development seems to be gnome, 4.0 seems to be completely ignored. (3.5 doesn't seem much better.) We're going to try Fedora alpha and opensuse alpha this week. Hopefully they're better.

Re: KDE 4.0.1 - (K)ubuntu port sucks!!! - joe - 2008-02-07

Testing the alphas doesn't seem like a good/fair way to evaluate distro's to me. For example, opensuse 11.0 is at alpha2 today there are 3 more alphas and probably 4 more beta versions after that before release mid-year. It's likely to be so cutting-edge it'll bleed all over your PC! :) I would try the stable live-cd of opensuse 10.3 which includes KDE4.01 backported. http://home.kde.org/~binner/kde-four-live/ I imagine there are Fedora spins too (which to be fair I should try out to check that suse is still best).

Re: KDE 4.0.1 - (K)ubuntu port sucks!!! - Kevin Kofler - 2008-02-08

We have KDE 4 packages for Fedora 8 in the kde-redhat unstable repository (currently 4.0.0, 4.0.1 coming soon), but we don't have a live CD of that. We do have a KDE live CD spin of the Fedora 9 alpha (but that was frozen a couple weeks ago, so it's still 4.0.0 and still has some bugs which are now fixed in Rawhide), and occasional Rawhide snapshots (I don't know when we'll have a new one available though, currently the alpha is the latest). Sorry, probably not what you wanted to hear, but we're focusing most of our energies on developing the next release, not on shiny discs for the impatient. ;-)

Re: KDE 4.0.1 - (K)ubuntu port sucks!!! - John S - 2008-02-08

Yea, we use the alpha's just for testing purposes, not for production environments. Since in our company everything seems to move so slow and takes forever, we have to start pitching the next distro to use now, in hopes to get it approved by June. We Test the alphas, to get an idea of what distro to start pitching now, so we can switch to it in time the final release arrives.

Re: KDE 4.0.1 - (K)ubuntu port sucks!!! - Tony O'Bryan - 2008-02-10

"The (K)ubuntu version sucks. No customization at all, almost no features. No progress." I don't see why people are complaining about Kubuntu not butchering KDE like other distributions. It really irks me to not have a consistent KDE look and feel across different distributions, and Kubuntu does a good job at preserving that consistency. To each his own, I suppose. As far as Suse goes: Even if Novell hadn't betrayed the Linux community, I still wouldn't use anything Suse-related simply because it's slower than thick molasses on a cold winter night. I have to wonder if there is some 80286 compile-time switch that the Suse people are fond of enabling on all of their builds, or if maybe Suse's user interface is actually a cleverly themed Java-based system. It is juuuust...sooooo...slooooowwww compared to everything else out there.

Re: KDE 4.0.1 - (K)ubuntu port sucks!!! - jst4fun - 2008-02-16

"Even if Novell hadn't betrayed the Linux community" What betrayal did Novell do to Linux community? What about the financial and developer support they are doing for various Linux based projects? If you feel so and want to stop using Novell related products just because of their pact with Microsoft then I think you may have to quit using Linux because Novell is supporting many of the opensource products used in a Linux distro (including the kernel, KDE, Gnome etc). "I still wouldn't use anything Suse-related simply because it's slower than thick molasses on a cold winter night" I think its been years since you used opensuse. Well try using the current version and let us know if you still feel opensuse is tooooooooooooooo sloooooooowwwwwwww? Seriously there have been lots of improvement in opensuse on each release. Faster boot time, faster desktop, professional look and feel and what not? Well I have tried almost every version of Kubuntu and I don't feel any changes or customization in it on each release. Not only that it is a know fact that canonical is more interested in improving Ubuntu (GNOME version) and not the Kubuntu, so I am not expecting any serious improvement in Kubuntu.

Thank you - KDEuser - 2008-02-06

Thank you for keeping KDE3.5.n alive.

Re: Thank you - Santa Claus - 2008-02-06

It's KDE 3.5.x, not n.

Still the same broken development method. - JRT - 2008-02-07

> The KDE 4.0 branch receives regular updates, including bugfixes in trunk/ > which are backported to the KDE 4.0 branch So, we are back to this. :-( This method is one of the issues with KDE quality problems. Bugs reported against the current release should first be fixed on the release branch and then the fix should be applied to TRUNK. There are many valid reasons to do it this way (most significant to me is that it is easier to properly fix the bug in stable code) and nobody seems to be able to come up with any reason to do it the way we do. "It works in TRUNK" is not a reason to close a bug unless the bug was reported against TRUNK.

Re: Still the same broken development method. - Kevin Kofler - 2008-02-07

Fixing things in trunk first makes sure the bug won't reappear in later releases. While unfixed bugs in the branch are annoying short term, branch-only bugfixes are much worse because long term, they unavoidably result in a regression. Please try thinking more in the longer term! As for: > most significant to me is that it is easier to properly fix the bug in stable code some developers actually work that way when actually writing and testing the patch, they'll just commit the fix to trunk "first" (well, probably within seconds or minutes of each other, but in descending version order to follow the protocol). I do this sometimes, but not always. I guess a sizable portion of the fixes backported almost instantly have actually been developed against the branch in the first place.

Re: Still the same broken development method. - JRT - 2008-02-08

> Fixing things in trunk first makes sure the bug won't reappear in later > releases. Actually, this isn't the case. Bugs "fixed" in unstable code often reappear. It would be best if such fixes were added to a "punch list" somewhere for further (and regression) testing. Regarding: "to follow the protocol". I find it most odd that developers would have to pretend that they were doing things the wrong way, but it is slightly encouraging to see that some are doing it correctly. But, why is the "protocol" based on a poor model? Obviously, bugs need to be fixed in TRUNK as well and a branch bug shouldn't be marked as fixed till it also is fixed in TRUNK.

Re: Still the same broken development method. - Kevin Kofler - 2008-02-08

Well, it depends on the nature of the bug, but for most classes of bugs, the only way they can reappear is if the fix is directly undone (e.g. by merging a work branch to which it was forgotten to apply the fix). Of course, there are also the bugs where nobody really understands what causes them, and the "fix" only makes it latent and ready to hit again later. But that shouldn't be the norm! For bugs where it's clear what causes them, it is also irrelevant how "stable" the surrounding code is, and testing any one branch (trunk or any release branch) is enough to confirm that it's fixed.

Re: Still the same broken development method. - Erunno - 2008-02-08

I usually miss the mentioning of unit tests in such discussions. Does KDE employ them in any significant fashion? I'm coming mostly from the Java world where unit tests are a commonly accepted best practice and project leads usually keep an eye on the block and path coverage. It helps tremendously with detecting regressions and makes refactoring code less error-prone. It could probably help KDE to introduce a policy that no new code can be merged into trunk/ without the accompanying tests but this is probably wishful thinking due amount of already existing code.

Re: Still the same broken development method. - Anon - 2008-02-08

David Faure looooves Unit Tests and uses them (and encourages others to use them) pretty extensively :)

Re: Still the same broken development method. - JRT - 2008-02-08

> Well, it depends on the nature of the bug ... Agree 100% -- probably should have said that. OTOH, you forgot about Murphy's Law. :-) And, you are also telling me that the best practices for software engineering that I was taught are wrong. Please excluse me if I don't believe you and continue to believe that hacking code isn't the best software engineering method available. One thing that we do know for sure is that if the code isn't changed (e.g. to add new features) that changes to the code won't cause a bug to reappear. We know that bugs do reappear and regressions do occur in unstable code (sometimes even is stable code). Working on stable code allows better analysis of the bug and (I hope) a better and more permanent fix. The problem with this is that sometimes the TRUNK code has changed so much that the fix is either irrelevant or won't work. Well at least you understand the problem.

Clear list of requirements? - chepati - 2008-02-07

With the previous KDE generations every release had a "requires or benefits from ..." list of external software/libraries. For example, for 3.5.x this list is at http://www.kde.org/info/requirements/3.5.php. For 4.x, however, we have a wiki: http://techbase.kde.org/Getting_Started/Build/KDE4, which is too distro-specific. I'm running LFS (Linux from Scratch) which does not fit into any of the "recipes" I'd rather have the old-style listing.

Re: Clear list of requirements? - Allen Winter - 2008-02-07

http://techbase.kde.org/Schedules/KDE4/Requirements has what you want. The "Software Requirements listed by Function" chapter is incomplete. But the "Software Requirements listed by Module" chapter should been complete.

Re: Clear list of requirements? - Alejandro Nova - 2008-02-07

Thanks fot the info. BTW... where can I get FooPackage? And how Foo will change my life? :)

mouse double click - Iuri Fiedoruk - 2008-02-07

Does the fix for using double click get into 4.0.1? I never use single click and in 4.0.0 setting to double click had two major problems: a) plasma didn't knew about new configuration without restarting whole kde session b) double click didn't worked at all I tested and it just looks the smae on 4.0.1 in kubuntu :( But maybe it's distro-specific or configuration problem.

Konqueror / CSS: Some progess, but still... - Planetzappa - 2008-02-07

Just a quick feedback: Konqueror from KDE 4.0.1 now shows http://www.kde.org correctly (my 4.0.0 installation didn't) but http://www.spiegel.de still does not work (i.e. all boxes are rendered vertically, making the page totally unusable).

AMAROK news? - John S - 2008-02-07

What's the news on Amarok? The program has a great following at our University. Students as well as techers prefer it over iTunes and it's great under Linux. We can't wait for the Windows and Mac versions!! We'd love to see more of KDE ported to Windows and Mac. We're stuck with Windows and Mac OS-X machines in the computer labs, but would love to install KDE and Plasma on top of that. Is there going to be an iPhone/iPod Touch port of Amarok?

Re: AMAROK news? - Kevin Kofler - 2008-02-08

Just follow the developer blogs, for example this post by Shane King: http://amarok.kde.org/blog/archives/583-Windows-Binaries-of-Amarok-2-Tech-Preview.html

Re: AMAROK news? - Max - 2008-02-08

Cool.. Thankies.. I LOVE AMAROK. Cool to see a newsletter on KDE about it too. :)

Re: AMAROK news? - Steve on a Sony - 2008-02-11

Any new developments on Amarok?

common people, join the fun!! - eMPee584 - 2008-02-08

@everyone who knows a bit of C++.. instead of writing rants here on the dot or waiting for someone to fix a bug.. get the sources from SVN and have a look! I myself started to fix some of the small strange glitches myself and the KDE sources are really nicely documented, with superb API docs, so START HACKING ON IT TODAY! Every bug you fix, god resurrects a kitten! And it's fun, too :)

Retardovision Panel - ritardo - 2008-02-08

The panel is just awful!

Re: Retardovision Panel - Max - 2008-02-08

I'm hoping that by the time 4.1 is around there will be multiple "panel's" to choose from. The idea is that it's modular. I nominate a gnome themed panel to ease the transition for users. (also to mess with people's heads.. :p I did that when I made my KDE 3.5 install look like Windows XP default one day, and Windows Vista default another day. The reaction of people is priceless.. ]:-)>~ ) There should be an easy way to find said themes. KDE-look.org is confusing at best. They don't really make a distinction between KDE 3, and KDE 4 and it's hard to use for beginners. We need an alternative, and links from within KDE 4, and from KDE.org. It should be easy to find widgets, Plasma apps, "Panel's", Window decorations. It be cool to see some google vids of what people have come up with.

tab change with mouse scroll - hitchhacker - 2008-02-09

KDE 4.0 is really amazing. One problem I've been having in KDE is that you cannot move between tabs with a scroll wheel. This has been in Gnome and is a very handy feature - just place the mouse on top of a tab and scroll over it to go to the next tab. This is what I've been looking for in successive KDE releases and is a gauge I use to measure if KDE is responsive to user requests. I'm surprised KDE4 doesn't have this. Are there any plans to include this feature in 4.0.2 or 4.1?

tab change on mouse scroll - hitchhacker - 2008-02-09

KDE 4.0 is great! One important feature often overlooked by KDE guys is the changing of tabs by scrolling over them. Gnome has had this feature for ages and is extremely handy. Amazingly, konsole has this feature (the tabs change by just scrolling over them), so it is technically possible. Can't this feature be adopted from konsole to apply to the whole of KDE4. Can we see this feature in 4.0.2 or 4.1?

Re: tab change on mouse scroll - Kevin Krammer - 2008-02-09

KDE has had this feature for ages. Any specific application where it doesn't work?

Re: tab change on mouse scroll - hitchhacker - 2008-02-11

Try the help -> About menu of just about any KDE app! Even the about KDE dialog. Also, the system settings app.

New compositioning effects? - Steve on a Sony - 2008-02-11

Any new compositioning effects with that release? (for my fast "daily-driver" machine. I realize on a 600mhz machine it won't work.. :) ) It's really cool that finally something similar to Compiz-fusion exists under KDE.

Re: New compositioning effects? - Riddle - 2008-02-15

No new features are being added until 4.1. 4.0 is in a "feature freeze".

Gwenview issues - hitchhacker - 2008-02-11

There are several annoying things in gwenview. 1) Double clicking on a photo thumbnail should open it (in full screen). As it stands, e.g. in browse view, nothing happens when you double click. Instead, when you hover over it, some icons popup which include open in fullscreen. IMHO, double clicking it should just do the same thing. 2) Apparently, Gwenview does not scale photos to fit the screen or window and does not even have an option in its settings to enable/disable this feature. This is very annoying since one would think that opening a photo in full-screen mode would scale that photo to fit the screen instead of showing it at actual size! At least put an option to enable the scaling (with different algorithms e.g. linear, bicubic, etc). 3) There is a slight flaw in thumbnailing. As it stands, generation of thunbnails of a large photo collection in browse view is sequential. What I mean is, it tends to thumbnail images one after the other and even when you've scrolled down, it takes a lot of time for it to catch up to your screen as it is still processing those already passed. I think gwenview would appear more responsive if the thumbnailing was user centric and generate those that are in the screen as a priority to those not being see. Just a side note, does gwenview utilize the Qt concurrency thingy?? In the age of multicore, thumbnailing would really benefit from this concurrency.

file open dialog - slither - 2008-02-11

Several things here. 1) Should always open file in relevant app e.g. Fileopen in kate and you select an mp3 file (not text), instead of giving you garbage & telling you its a binary file, why not open the relevat app e.g. amarok2, if associated with the mime type or ask. After opening in that app maintain the original file-open dialog. 2) File-open dialog should take most of the screen realestate IMO. Look, it is a blocking dialog & you are not going to be using the app while its open. Its better to have most (if not all) of the screen real-estate for such a temporary task as opening a file so as to make it natural. The tiny default size is a relic of the old days when widescreens didn't exist and the maximum resolution was 640x480. You see, we must assume that we are dealing with users who who want things done, not the processes of getting them done. This user does not know (nor care) about mimetypes or binary/text stuff. He/she knows that a file called 'sales forecasts' contains what he/she wants. This historic assumption should be corrected.

Re: file open dialog - Riddle - 2008-02-15

> 1) Should always open file in relevant app e.g. Fileopen in kate and you select an mp3 file (not text), instead of giving you garbage & telling you its a binary file, why not open the relevat app e.g. amarok2, if associated with the mime type or ask. After opening in that app maintain the original file-open dialog. That would not be a good idea, because, for example, the extension might be wrong. Also, most people open a _file manager_ whose job is running external apps, to run external apps. It's not normal, nor does it make sense, to open a text editor just so it can run Amarok. > 2) File-open dialog should take most of the screen realestate IMO. Look, it is a blocking dialog & you are not going to be using the app while its open. Its better to have most (if not all) of the screen real-estate for such a temporary task as opening a file so as to make it natural. The tiny default size is a relic of the old days when widescreens didn't exist and the maximum resolution was 640x480. That I can agree with. However, please don't open it full screen. I may need to look beside it.

dolphin - panther - 2008-02-11

Why not make the information & places panes appear by default?? Its not like they are not useful and there is no need of hiding useful functionality.

dolphin search - iguana - 2008-02-11

There is a feature that has been available for ages in windows and is extremely handy. Why isnt there a search in the context menu of dolphin. What I mean is, you right click a folder in dolphin and there is a search entry in the context menu to allow for a blind search from that folder. Blind searches are very important and even when akonadi (strigi??) arrives, such a feature is very important, just integrate with it and relegate the blind search.

my computer / my system - gunner - 2008-02-11

It would be really nice if there would be a system: protocol to show the available devices and such much like the my computer in windoze or that in gnome. This would be really handy especially for new users. Also, when the devices/volumes are displayed, why isnt there a graph widget like that in gnome showing you the percentage of the volume/drive in use!

Re: my computer / my system - Anonymous - 2008-02-11

Like http://en.opensuse.org/Image:103sysinfo.png?

Re: my computer / my system - gunner - 2008-02-13

exactly!!

Re: my computer / my system - dum - 2008-02-29

I don't really like the openSUSE sysinfo display, The icons of the drives are to small and a lot of space lost on useless system info i don't need at that point. don't get me wrong Sysinfo is nice but i want a "computer" icon (inside kickoff) that displays an window with only the drivers with some info like the name/type/total space and free space in a nice manner. this "computer" place should also be the last place when going "up" (example:--> /home/my_name/documents --> go 1 up --> /home/my_name/ --> go 1 up --> /home/ --> go 1 up again --> / --> go 1 up --> ://computer.

printing - gunner - 2008-02-11

i know printing is a bit off, but is there a way of making the print dialog also configure things like both-sides printing and print tray selection, stapling, enveloping, etc?

independent sound - sinnneer - 2008-02-11

Is independent application volume control in the offing, maybe in 4.1? This is very nifty and would make kde4 compete well against vista/osx. Pulseaudio as a backend dos a really good job but the devs seem to prefer gnome for the client apps.

proxy support still broken - Dmitriy Kropivnitskiy - 2008-02-12

pity, but I will have to wait till 4.0.2 till actually trying it out.

Slow - Artem S. Tashkinov - 2008-02-13

Windows resizing is very slow, KWin special effects with the onboard GeForce 6150 are slow (latest proprietary NVIDIA drivers + dual core CPU), some of them are just plain buggy and unfinished, too few usable applications, too few settings. Besides I (AND AN HORDE OF KDE USERS) WANT SMOOTH SCROLLING in EVERY scrollable control be it a list or a Konqueror Internet page. MS did that in 1997 with release of Windows 98, in Linux TEN YEARS LATER we still do NOT have it. It's VERY PITY. I hope KDE 4.1 will be much better. Anyway KDE4 rocks as nothing else on the Earth. Thank you developers for your hard work! I'm peacefully awaiting for KDE 3.5.9.

Thanking the KDE team... - Tamara R. - 2008-02-18

I finally got around to installing 4.0.1... I was hesitant because I've seen a lot of criticism. I was expecting an unusable trainwreck, but I've found it to be quite nice. To be sure, it's rough around the edges and many of the concerns expressed here are valid. It's not a final product, but it has exceeded my expectations for a .0 OSS project. I don't know if I will be using it fulltime as my desktop right now, I'll have to tool around a bit to see... but I can already see the positive direction KDE is headed, and I want to thank the KDE team for their work. I can't wait to see where this all ends up. =)

I have a question about the desktop icons on KDE4 - dum - 2008-02-29

I have a question about the desktop icons. I don't really like the way Desktop icons are projected. They are widgets without any right mouse actions. And no way to delete the file. When I use the desktop normaly I put everything that I'm using or downloading on the desktop and delete it later or move it to the right location. In KDE 4 I can't do that, when i delete a deskop icon (widget) I only delete the widget not the file. so that ****, now I have to open /home/my_name:)/Desktop to edit/delete my desktop items. I would like to see my old desktop icon behavior back... With or without widgets I don't care. Do anyone know if this desktop icon behavior will be altered? beside of the icon behavior The KDE 4 desktop will be a beatiful desktop but at the moment it is not yet my desktop of choice, that is for now KDE 3.5.9 :D My english is not that good... :( sorry.

Re: I have a question about the desktop icons on KDE4 - Rubens - 2008-03-27

I totally agree with you, dum

Re: I have a question about the desktop icons on KDE4 - Will - 2008-05-10

I agree; I have Ubuntu 8.04 with Gnome and KDE 4. When I delete files in Gnome, they still show up on the Desktop of KDE, and I have to manually delete them one-by-one (can't just highlight them all and delete... lame)

old style for kde - mborn - 2008-07-01

I agree too. I do not like the way plasma works. I would prefer kde to work as it used to. I have always used kde and I realy want to have the same old way of dealing with files and desktop icons the same. mborn