KDE 4.1.2 "Codename" Finally Out

Two days later than initially planned, "Codename" (or more traditionally KDE 4.1.2) was released just a few minutes ago. The delay was caused by binary incompatibility issues in the branch. Those have been resolved so we are now looking at a stable release. 4.1.2 is another one of those monthly bug fix and translation updates. No new features are allowed into the 4.x/ branches, so no new features went into KDE 4.1.2, but some nice bug fixes instead. David Faure has fixed a long-standing and annoying performance issue when deleting files using KIO, so you can now accidentally delete your home directory 32 times faster For the more faint-hearted, it will also work well with other files. You can read about all the changes that went into Codename in the changelog which offers links to the comprehensive SVN log files.
KDE 4.1.2 is a recommended upgrade for everybody running KDE 4. The next feature release of the KDE workspace and applications will be in January 2009 when 4.2.0 will be upon you.

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Comments

by Diederik van de... (not verified)

At least the Akademy participants agree what color the bikeshed is... :-)

by TheInvisible (not verified)

Eh, for a moment I thought its codename was "Finally Out"! :D

by slacker (not verified)

A good idea for the next release! :D

by T. J. Brumfield (not verified)

I wrote a movie script about retail hell that was far too similar to Clerks (I wrote my script in 1995, and then saw Clerks which made me sad) to ever pursue, but we didn't have a name for the script. So the working title was simply working. Given that it dealt with shitty retail jobs, we just stuck with "Working" as the title. I thought it was a cute joke that no one enjoyed but me.

by André (not verified)

Oh, I am so happy about the zoom level fix. Great. There are many simple usability glitches with Okular for KDE 4.1. The worst probably that you cannot deactivate the screen-eating side panel or that sometimes page up-down scrolls through the side panel which is pretty annoying. Anyway, I am confident Okular will rock. Another point I had unter Kubuntu and I guess that's a Windows manager problem is that Kubuntu always opened as a very small window on the upper left part of the screen. You can make the "click" test of how many clicks you need to make an application usable for your work, in this case to read the opened PDF file.

I am also happy to see Konqueror progress. It really blows you away how the rendering has been improved.

by DanaKil (not verified)

>> always opened as a very small window on the upper left part of the screen

you could use kwin's per window settings (size and position) as a temporary fix. I just love this feature and all my frequently used programs use this

by André (not verified)

You are right on that. If you want to read a pdf file the usual format per page is ISO A4. So a mini window is not really helpful. Okular btw. has an excellent fullscreen mode. I was really impressed by Okular and its functionality but you see a few 'would irritate my mum' glitches.

by Pino Toscano (not verified)

> There are many simple usability glitches with Okular for KDE 4.1.

They won't fix themselves in the night, if nobody tell us about them, for instance.

> The worst probably that you cannot deactivate the screen-eating side panel

Like Settings -> Show navigation panel? (exactly like in KPDF, FYI)
Or maybe right click on the sidebar, and eg hide the text and/or change the icon size?

by user (not verified)

"Hide panel" should be added to the panel context menu. That's the first place you look when wanting to hide the gigantic panel.

I spent quite some time before I realized that this option was present in Settings->Show navigation panel.

Usability is never obvious, but please add "Hide panel" to the context menu.

by Albert Astals Cid (not verified)

Do not confuse usability with what you first think of.

"you" are not a representative set of the rest of the humans. As an example all the "joe users" (those that *really* need usability) i know never ever in their life would think to use a context menu, they probably don't even know it exists.

by Anon (not verified)

Likewise, don't confuse "usability" with "catering to the lowest common denominator".

by Andre (not verified)

I would expect this particular option to be in the View menu. I sometimes may want the side panel, and sometimes not. It is not logical to hide an option that you use once in awhile in a settings dialog, IMHO. For me, having the hide option also in the context menu makes sense, but it does present a usability issue. The issue is not, in my opinion, the context menu itself. The fact that there *is* such a thing already indicates that the concept is not being seen as too troublesome UI wise. The problem is that you may run into the situation that people will not be able to find how to reanable the side panel if they (accidentally?) hide it through the context menu. It should therefore warn the user and explain how to re-enable the panel on closing when that closing is done from the context menu.

Other than that: I think the option belongs in the context menu too. It should just not *only* be in the context menu. No option should be. Every option in a context menu should be available through other ways. The idea of the whole context menu is just to present those actions that make sense for the selected object, so you can find them easily. The normal application menu's are organized in groups of types of functionality, the context menu is organized by what object that functionality applies on.

by ddosia (not verified)

i always wondering, does those who made some apps like kwalletmanage used it before release? first thing i do when launch kwalletmanager is make a propper size all parts of it, like a those small panel with a list of all passwords (i use kde-4.1.1, try to upgrade to 4.1.2, gentoo distro with layman kde-svn), and have you some smell of usabillity, why so much new windows? or you do this small applications to increment count of its on in release, and don`t think about users? maybe better to do more stable and functional release but later than this one? sorry if i was little aggressive, i realy like what you`ve done guys

by anon (not verified)

Actually I'm not really able to understand what your problem is. The best would be that you make a short sketch or mockup to better explain what you mean. Put that one in a bug/wish report and you've done a sensible and helpful contribution to KDE.

Stupid questions like "does those who made some apps like kwalletmanage used it before release" are not helpful at all but insulting. Have it ever occured to you that there are other people on this planet besides you who might use applications in a different way you do or simply have another taste of design/other preferences than you have?

by user (not verified)

I find it sad that KDE 4 devs puts priorities on making fancy fading effects everywhere, when basic features like global shortcuts for applications(khotkeys) isnt working. I still haven't started using KDE 4 as my primary DE, most because of the huge amount of quirks and small bugs everywhere.

KDE rely on developers donating their time on the project, but when you stop targeting developers in KDE apps, then you will indeed lose quite a few contributers over time. (Mouse driven desktop isn't attractive to developers for instance)

by Anon (not verified)

I can't be bothered to - yet again - point out that developers are not interchangeable cogs and not all tasks are equally easy; that volunteer-driven projects cannot be said to have a "focus" on or "target" anything; that writing "fancy fading effects" is absolutely trivial with Qt4; that if the people adding "fancy fading effects" weren't writing these effects they would likely not be contributing to KDE at all; that, even then, the "fancy fading effects" account for a vanishingly small amount of total work going on in KDE; that a new SVN account is requested and granted on average every day; that July and August had the greatest number of commits in the history of the KDE project; etc, so I'll just point you to this instead:

http://michael-jansen.biz/blog/mike/2008-09-18/kmenuedit-support-applica...

by John Doe (not verified)

Your point is valid... however, the original poster's point is valid, too:
Making something free of charge (which btw isn't always the case, quite some devs are on someone's payroll) does NOT, I repeat, NOT, make you free of criticism.

Quite the contrary, feedback from the userbase, even if critical, should be taken as an incentive to make it better. Any criticism which is discarded because "the dev is not payed for it" meanns discarding another chance of improving KDE.

BTW, I'm quite annoyed by khotkeys, too ;))).

by Anon (not verified)

"Making something free of charge (which btw isn't always the case, quite some devs are on someone's payroll) does NOT, I repeat, NOT, make you free of criticism.

Quite the contrary, feedback from the userbase, even if critical, should be taken as an incentive to make it better. Any criticism which is discarded because "the dev is not payed for it" meanns discarding another chance of improving KDE."

I didn't say anything even approximating that, though :)

by John Doe (not verified)

Yes, but you tried to make the criticism invalid by pointing out that nobody can be forced to fix the bugs described by the OP.

You're obviously right when saying that; however the OP was also right with his criticism. That's no contradiction.

And if every criticism will be put off with this arguments and devs never listen to complaints of end users, exactly those end users will simply vote with their feet.

I'm simply a bit tired of hearing criticism on any open source project (not only KDE) being neglected with the argument "devs are not paid to do this so they do only what they personally want to do".

However, as far as I see it, most OSS (and most KDE) devs, even if not paid for doing so, listen to their users - and that's good ;)))).

by Anon (not verified)

Ok, that's fair enough. The argument "devs are not paid to do this so they do only what they personally want to do" isn't intended to "neglect" the criticism, however; it is simply an honest statement of fact, and one which people who think a project "only focuses on X" should keep in mind :)

by ink (not verified)

different devs work at different areas and have different priorities ..i am sure the feature you want is somewhere on somebody todo list ... bringing up one area where you dont care about to show how neglected another area you care about will bring the kind of response the first responder made ..

if you are a simple user, you can vote for this feature(i am sure somebody already requested it and if not, you can open a wishlist) ..or you can bring it up in a place like this to raise awareness and somebody else who know what they are doing can pick it up or the person who already have it in his/her todo list can move it up a bit ..

follow up comments largely depends on how the original post is structured ..the OP could have raised his complain a little bit better IMO

by Diederik van de... (not verified)

> I find it sad that KDE 4 devs puts priorities on making fancy fading effects everywhere, when basic features like global shortcuts for applications(khotkeys) isnt working.

Sorry, but I find this comment insulting. It implies that KDE only cares about fany effects, which is not fair to the developers who did participate in the discussions about fixing shortcut keys.

This issue wasn't unhandled yet because KDE developers like nice effects, but because the issue complex and required careful thought. If you google for the blogs you'll find out this particular bug annoys KDE developers as well.

by zilti (not verified)

The Codename shouldn't be "Codename", it should be "Kodename" - we are at KDE, right?

by jospoortvliet (not verified)

Actually the latest fun was to take words starting with a K and use them with a C instead. This Codename skipped on that joke ;-)

by anonymous (not verified)

Fantastic project. Please dont forget "autohide" taskbar sometime, I had to go to gnme desktop for now to have it, as I really need it, but plan to switch back to kde when possible. I still use some kde apps though, though Konqueror wont remember the position (and width) I leave it's "date" column in, otherwise I would use it more as well.

by Jonathan Thomas (not verified)

The feature is already implemented in the development build of 4.2.0 which will come out in January. ;-)

by Kevin Kofler (not verified)

And we're currently evaluating it for Fedora 10 and a possible Fedora 9 update (backported to 4.1.2), it's sitting in Rawhide right now, I can't promise yet that it'll stay there though.

by T. J. Brumfield (not verified)

That feature works in KDE 3.5.x

I never understand the argument that KDE 4 lacking a KDE 3 feature makes people go to Gnome. I presume you used KDE 3 and then switched to KDE 4. Why not just go back to 3?

by Anon (not verified)

If you are looking for logic and rationality, you've come to the wrong place :)

by MamiyaOtaru (not verified)

because it's deprecated?

by Anon (not verified)

Yeah, I remember when the Offical KDE3 Deprecation Notice was issued from KDE Central Command - all my KDE3 stuff was auto-wiped from my harddrive :(

Luckily, GNOME3 isn't on the horizon, so GNOME2 will obviously be around for many, many years yet!!

by JoMo (not verified)

...because there is a lot of "basic" stuff that just dont work. Some examples:

- global shortcuts (as said before here)
- drag and drop is broken in kmenuedit
- renaming menu entries is broken in kmenuedit
- kbookmarkeditor is just a mess (drag and drop broken, imports broken, sorting broken and crashes often)
- this weird dolphin thing, where it takes ages to load the contents of a directory while not using much cpu at all

I dont want to sound offensive, but this is basic stuff for me... Afaik there are already bugs filed. And yes, i would fix it if i would be able to code :) Just look at this as a reminder for stuff that doesnt work properly since 4.0.0...

Its nice to do feature-development, but sometimes you have to look for breakages too, imho...

You should report bugs at http://bugs.kde.org/ where they will actually get attention instead of here where they'll just be forgotten...

kmenueditor basic stuff?
I always thought that editing the an application launcher menu was an advanced task not done everyday by everyone, which should define "basic thing" in a desktop environment.

>Its nice to do feature-development, but sometimes you have to look for breakages too, imho...

This release is *all* about fixing bugs, not about adding features. That's what 4.2.0 will be about again. I'm sorry for you if your pet bugs are not fixed yet, but don't accuse the KDE devs of not caring about bugs or regressions. If that were the case, this release would not have existed.

by dipesh (not verified)

> Why people talk about regressions...

Maybe cause not everything we had in KDE 3 is in KDE 4 yet? But since each dot-O release does provide new features+fixes it may turn around soon again into a "uh, to much features" talk ;)

> Its nice to do feature-development, but sometimes you have to look for breakages too

Absolute.

by Aeryn (not verified)

come on when will kde4 catch up with some good old kde3 functionality?

minimizing windows one by one is kinda backwards, so is crtl+f12 getting rid of the panel :(

by NabLa (not verified)

There's a panel plasmoid that does that. Also (not sure this works on KDE4 since I'm at work and using windows) have you tried Win+M ?

by Aeryn (not verified)

which one + where to find it?

trying to fetch new widgets via the built in function gets me nowhere :\

by Yogesh M (not verified)

Its called "Show desktop" ;)
You must have that already

by Andre (not verified)

Sounds like a feature to me, not a bug, so it does not belong in this release AFAIK. Maybe you'll have more luck with KDE 4.2.0.

by Iuri Fiedoruk (not verified)

Does someone have information about KDE4 version of programs like k3b and quanta+ - that for what I know will be merged into kdevelop, that I think is bad, so my question is also about kdevelop with full html/php support - and such?

You know, it's a shame there are so much really great KDE3 apps that aren't and will never be ported to KDE4 :-(

by King Kong (not verified)

A shame? Come on! I can tell you what a shame is: Some people still haven't grasped that somebody has to do it. Somebody they do not have a contract with. Somebody who will not get money, water, bread and a roof from them. And if that somebody does it and shares it with you you should be full of cheers and praises. Instead you demand...

Think about it. Comments like your's don't motivate people, it rather turn them down and frustrate them. How do you feel if you work hard and give the result to someone else who does nothing but point out deficits?

by Iuri Fiedoruk (not verified)

Man, what did you eat at breakfast today? Ouch!
I mean for shame that it's too bad, not like "those bastards developers are just lazy".
C'mon, easy man... easy!

by You (not verified)

You want bread and butter? Code for money!

by Whatever Noticed (not verified)

K3b has been ported to kde4, you can download beta versions for most linux distributions. In the mean time, you can use k3b from kde3. Same with applications like amarok en such: new versions are coming...

by Iuri Fiedoruk (not verified)

I know there were some betas of k3b, but I did not found it for ubuntu hardy (and now intrepid).
Yes, I do use amarok for KDE4, it is still very imature in comparsion with KDE3 version, but usable.

Unfortunately, there are some apps without replacement so far:
- quanta+ a html/php editor, should be replaced by kdevelop, but I don't believe kdevelop suits for web development, way too big for such a small task. Maybe I should start hacking a Qt editor to include HTML/PHP tag editing and such? I could even make it in php/qt, it would be cross platafform and easy to code ;)
This is a must for me, as I'm a PHP/HTML/Javascript developer :-P

- Subtitle Composer just got and KDE4 version, so no complain here.

- knetstats: should be easy to port, does anyone here knows of a guide for kde3 to kde4 porting?

- KGmailNotifier: still the best one, but not as good as the google talk notificer. Maybe I (or anyone else) should just code a small and simpler version? Again, I'll avaliate if it's possible to use php-qt.

Any more apps?

by Kevin Krammer (not verified)

> quanta+ a html/php editor, should be replaced by kdevelop, but I don't believe kdevelop suits for web development

This is a misunderstanding.

KDeveloper and Quanta will be based on a shared application base called KDevPlatform.

by Iuri Fiedoruk (not verified)

Really big misunderstanding really, but it was what I heard a looooooooong time ago. Quanta guys are kind of in silent-radio lately, that is too bad :-P