11 Myths about KDE

As a response to recent negativity on the Internet, we've been working with Groklaw to get a story running detailing facts about questions such as "Releasing KDE 4.0 was a mistake", "I am forced to use the kickoff menu", "The whole KDE4 desktop interface is radically new". among others. Thanks go out to Pamela Jones for giving the KDE community a chance to rectify certain points that have recently been said in public. This way, we hope to make it easier for journalists to put KDE's direction, recent decisions and put simple myths into the right light.

Comments

by Karl Günter Wünsch (not verified)

It's not enough by a mile! The problem persists as this solution would hide my main application in large parts. How is anyone supposed to discover this short cut anyway? May I cite one of the main paradigmas of designing an UI: "discoverability/intuitivity". A function that is so well hidden in an UI that it needs the manual to find it is as good as not implemented...
For me the plasmoids in their current state are a usability nightmare and everytime I read about yet another port of a once useful mini application to plasmoid I have to cringe about the mere thought of loosing another helper application!
As to my choice of words - I describe my frustration that I can't switch desktop while these things persist but yet would love to switch to new versions of for example gwenview which does one thing right (although loosing a lot of previous available functionality) I would like to have access to.
And from frustration comes the need to vent!

by Picander (not verified)

The only mistake was version numbering. People are used to see 3.99.12 when a 4 version in incomplete. This generated a lot of confusion because they thought kde was way more complete when 4.0.0 was released.

The second half-mistake is that people still don't understand where plasma is going. Maybe an update to the plasma site would help a lot to understand what's the developers vision. I guess it's intended to be more than a platform for desktop toys, but at the moment this is the only thing people can see.

by Karl Günter Wünsch (not verified)

"I guess it's intended to be more than a platform for desktop toys, but at the moment this is the only thing people can see."
Wrong it's much worse, all I can see is that existing functionality which has it's place in normal applications is put into plasmoids on the whim of being the "cool new toy in town" and in the end diminishing the usability of the whole as there is this break in paradigma.
This wall that has been erected by the design between plasmoids and normal windows has to be torn down - if you must then both ways although I would be against that as it would open another bag of fleas - so all the work put into plasmoids will have been a waste of effort...

by a computer scie... (not verified)

I want to add a positive voice here (mine). KDE4 is really a great step and especially plasma is an innovation with much potential.
I don't understand some of the complaints, KDE3 is still maintained and everyone can use it until KDE4 is mature.

I trust, that the kde team knows about the importance of stability on the long term.

Keep up the great work, I'm sure many (maybe particulary new) users will like KDE4.

by Mark W. Shelby (not verified)

Hey, I have a crazy radical idea...

Why not post your story on the front page of the KDE website instead of on Groklaw? Don't you think more people will look to the source (www.kde.org) to check out your response?
When your team answers in various other publications it looks like your efforts are not unified. But then again, maybe that's what the complaints are alledging?
I actually really like the 4.x series desktop. I think it is revolutionary to some degree. I like the framework. But hey, KDE's communication skills as an organization are abysmal! Put a link on the first screen seen on www.kde.org. that is clearly distinguishable to the non-development community so that people can find out more about what KDE is and is not(yet.)

by tehsagemaster (not verified)

I personally love where KDE 4.0 is going. Its like having the best of Microsoft, Apple, and Linux mixed. My opinion on bitches is to ignore them. They are the same lame ass bitches that complain when Microsoft wants to change something because they got a lot of request for it, and same goes for Apple. They are also the same assholes that bitch for McDonald's giving them hot Coffee.

There are lots of good ideas out there and as developers I say to to get as many as you can in. People like to bitch because it makes them feel better, hell, even I feel better now because I'm bitching about the bitches. Seriously though, keep up the great work, someday KDE 4.X will be done and people will start to notice why its awesome, especially the computer illiterate that only knows what Windows is and found out they can get a OS that is not much more of a learning curve and is free vs $1000 for Microsucks Winblowz and Office Ultimate suck.

I am not currently using KDE 4.X because I'm waiting for it to get more stable, but I'm keeping watch on the news and in a Virtual box. At the moment if you need a few ideas, I am using Linux Mint 5 and really like it. On of my biggest pet peeves I'm still waiting to see a cure for in nearly all Linux is Network Transparency and being able to play media without needing them to copy first(Gnome is fine on that). This is a good feature of Microsoft that is making it difficult for me to get rid of them completely. Basically, I can mount/map a share and it works the same a folder and all apps can use it equally. I can also have that share/map start automatically with Windows. Great feature to have for Songbird and any related program, and to have that program use your server as its working location. Fuse sorta helps, but I would like to see something that is natural to KDE/Gnome and any desktop linux. Supposedly GIO/GVFS is suppose to help cure this problem, don't know what the plans are for KDE.

Again, keep up the great work and I hope my two cents meant something.

by Stefan Majewsky (not verified)

There is the kio-fuse project which allows you to add arbitrary KIO locations (i.e. http://, fish://, imap://, and so on) to your file systems. I do not know whether KIO itself supports streaming, but from what I know about IO devices in Qt, I think it should be possible.

by Cobb (not verified)

THANK YOU! It is about tie someone made these points. Question, does Sebastian write often from Groklaw? I would not have expected a KDE "clarification" article to be on Groklaw.

Cobb