On January 27, a year after the release of the first KDE 4 version, KDE 4.2 "The Answer" will be released. This release will feature stabilisation and feature completion and is likely to be taken up by a wide audience of users. To celebrate the important event in KDE's history with our fans all around the world we would like to invite our community members to organise a release party. It is all up to the organising teams to make it just the way you like it. There could be presentations, workshops, maybe some translation marathons, a hacking contest, just some socialising fun with a drink or two. It can be short and sweet or a whole-day event. Do not be afraid to invite some local press to the event to get the word about KDE out there into the wide world. If you decide to throw a party, or know about one, do add it to the list of party locations.
Comments
I am about 72% sure you are a fool, about 96% sure you are somewhat litterate, and about 65% sure your reading comprehension was not doing so well when you posted that or you didn't read my post... Father Bob.
You could be 0.1% right son.
"I now realise it's plasma"
Possibly, but I'm doubtful.
The most likely reason is that the graphics driver sucks at painting the sorts of things Plasma draws. (Yes, vague and non-technical description ...)
A less likely reason is that kwin is painting the desktop too much (turn on Kwin's repaint plugin to see).
A less likely reason is that Plasma is painting the whole desktop constantly on window changes (QT_FLUSH_PAINT=1 plasma)
It could also be that something is happening like the pixmap cache is being overrun and Plasma is re-rendering the background constantly instead of using a cached copy.
Oh, if the behaviour only shows with desktop effects on, then it's not the last two and less ikely to be the lsecond one.
I can't turn on desktop effects on this particular notebook. I think graphics chip is blacklisted. Reason I think so is, I can play OpenGL games. DRI = yes. But, Kwin says:
"Failed to activate desktop effects using the given configuration options. Settings will be reverted..."
I know there is probably no acceleration going on this machine for Kwin. So drawing simple things like shadows and transparency is probably quite heavy for Plasma. This is just my guess. It just seemed to make sense because there is no lag when I move around a window in front of a maximized window.
By the way, I don't think it is a bug or unstable, as Bobby said. It's very stable and hasn't crashed on this machine since BETA1. It's very nice. I think it's just that it needs acceleration. So that's why I thought if I didn't have to load Plasma or make a theme that doesn't need any acceleration, it would be more fast and smooth. I am in a rather fortunate position. Rather than fix the driver for this card, perhaps Plasma or Kwin or whatever it is, should be able to work with no DRI. Linux doesn't always get great hardware vendor support. So maybe the software could be flexible enough to handle these bad situations.
it's really not about the plasma theme, but about plasma using what's called an argb visual. you could hack the source (plasmapp.cpp in particular) and remove that bit and see if it helps you any.
"Rather than fix the driver for this card, perhaps Plasma or Kwin or whatever it is, should be able to work with no DRI."
it does work. but if you have craptastic drivers you're going to have poor results; the option is to do what we've done the last 10 years and be boring, limited and do nothing special because *other people's* code isn't great.
there is hardware and there are drivers that work well, and they are getting better specifically because we are pushing on them.
and seriously, unless we want to repeat the wonderful strategy of CDE with all its glorious results, it's critical to keep current and pushing forward. i happen to want more than 100 people using our stuff in 10 years. =)
"Linux doesn't always get great hardware vendor support."
which is why if you're using Linux you need to be picky about the hardware you purchase. =)
"So maybe the software could be flexible enough to handle these bad situations."
it works and looks ok while doing so; that was a lot of work in and of itself. i often find myself wishing we had the luxuries of Apple and could just say, "screw the crap, we're only using *this* hardware because it actually works." oh well, reality is more complicated than that.
I had the exact same problem. Everything in trunk worked fine one day, and then the next I would get that "failed to activate" message. Turned out that I need to tweak my xorg.conf yet again, this time with an undocumented setting. It feels like I'm back in 1996 trying to calculate modelines based on conflicting information found on usenet. No, it's not KDE's fault, but it doesn't lessen the frustration any.
Aaron, I agree. If it's as you say, then so be it. I would not want great development hindered because someone blacklisted my functioning opensource driver. (Just a guess as I heard others saying the same thing.) I did purchase my hardware for Linux over 3 years ago. I made sure I had a graphics chip with dedicated RAM and the opensource ATI driver works well with Xorg - just not Kwin.
David, can you share some insight on what you did to get it to work? I felt very much the same way - 1996; Redhat; modules; "Look Mom, windows and mouse and sound! Printing!" I was actually kind of surprised that the settings in xorg.conf were so sparse. I hadn't looked at it in ages. Everything was detected automatically. So I really have nowhere to start. :/
Posting from a work computer. This computer needs a cookie reset. Post above name = winter
Anonymous wrote: "after all, who still uses Plastik on 3.5".
I do! If I wanted a shiny desktop I would Armor-All(tm) my monitor!
Okay,
I have really enough of KDE4.
Here and now I announce a fork of KDE3 to get back the further development of
a desktop environment which was before the big stop of the development of this branch a near perfect DE for GNU/Linux.
There are many people who have the same opinion.
I want back the further perfectisation of my favourite DE.
And for this I will act against the current KDE project - because THEY are
causing me do this -.
You can make parties all days long. We will see, which branch will end more
likened.
Okay? Thanks.
it's a free world ... might be interesting to see how this plays out though i think you might be more blaaaaaaaaa than action. either way, it might be challenging for you to keep up with the pace we see in kde4 but then again let's see how it works out. also, maybe some people agree with you but i kind of doubt they will all be active coders but hey ... why not.
i personally like kde4 very much and follow its development rather closely; kde4.2 will definitely be a great step forward so congratulations to all developers!
oh yeah, please do it and also please make a dot.kde3.org and a commit-diggest3.org and take slacker and kubunter with you. there would be so many people appreciating it.
LOL, I think he deserves a little winding up doesn't he? Where is TJ? I guess TJ would join him too.
I can imagine him coming back in 6 months and asking for a Qt3 fork, which of course he can also have.
I appreciate the slander, but I've never called for a fork.
I wouldn't mind seeing people continue to polish off KDE 3, apply bug fixes, etc. Maybe even apply various patches in BKO that still aren't committed for some crazy reason.
If someone wants to do that, great. However, I don't expect anyone to seriously develop or maintain a fork. Nor would I ever suggest it. It isn't realistic or beneficial.
I really don't care for this black-and-white divided nature here on the Dot. Either you blindly praise all aspects of KDE as being perfect, or if you criticize anything you are a cancer and a troll.
The developers don't have to listen to me. They don't have to cater to me. I've never suggested they have to. But I am free to express my opinions and state that I don't like things. I tried the latest 4.2 snapshot release on openSUSE 11.1, and I still can't stand using a KDE 4 desktop. Bugs and issues that have been reported since the 4.0 betas (constant plasma crashes, the panel jumbling the layout) still seem to be prevalent.
At every turn I look for something to discover what I want just isn't there. I see forward progress on the KDE 4 front, but I just can't bring myself to use it. Software should enable me as a user, not stymie me. I am able to do everything I want in an expedient manner with KDE 3. I'm grateful the various KDE devs over the years freely contributed their time to make a product I enjoy so much.
But the moment I load a KDE 4 app, I find my entire desktop noticeably slowed, even with the latest Nvidia drivers, and even with composite effects turned off. The moment any KDE 4 app loads on my wife's laptop, her webcam stops working. It is a known issue with a bug reported on Novell's website since the 11.0 launch, but it still isn't clear if it is a distro problem, or an upstream problem, or if it will be resolved.
I really loved many of the early Oxygen concepts and mock-ups, but the final product really leaves me wanting.
Many of the apps themselves are just now starting to come to speed (like Ark). Again, I see progress, but there is plenty of core functionality that has been missing this past year.
> if you criticize anything you are a cancer and a troll.
no, if you are a cancer and a troll you are a cancer and a troll. saying things like "but it's just how i feel" doesn't justify half the stupid things i've read in the last 18 months. i really don't remember what you yourself have written/said (couldn't be bothered to keep a running tally on every person =), so you could be completely blameless in this regard. but yeah .. it's unfortunate because people who are complete dicks ruin it for pretty much everyone at some point.
> panel jumbling the layout
several different causes of that were caught and fixed by this point.
> constant plasma crashes
if you are experiencing constant plasma crashes, you either have a crap built of Qt (there are several crash fixes in qt-copy) or a jumble of crud from previous installs.
> I find my entire desktop noticeably slowed
your *entire* desktop? if so, then something is using resources. cpu, ram or both.
> The moment any KDE 4 app loads on my wife's laptop, her webcam stops working.
could be whatever backend Phonon is activating on that system?
> but there is plenty of core functionality that has been missing this past year.
and i'm sure that people such as yourself will be here to remind us of that for the next year, as well. makes, how did you put it, "freely contribut[ing our] time to make a product [you] enjoy so much" feel a little less enjoyable. kde 3.5 wasn't born in a day, and neither will kde4. being pestered during the entire development process, when none of us are taking away your beloved 3.5, is a bit of a PITA.
Soory Aron, but my webb-camera (Logitedh Quick 9000 pro fusion) work NOT too ...like T.J's wife...
video and video= findf NOT from /dev-directory... (only maybe 1 from 20 try)
it means, I can't phone videophone with Skype...
OpenSuse 11 and OpenSuse 11.1 failed both!
So they do work in for example ICEWM and Gnome and not in KDE 4.1.x?
That must be phonon. See if starting KDE apps disables the thing. See if starting a KDE video or audio app disables it. In other words, figure out WHAT exactly causes it, then post a bugreport so the people at Qt software & KDE can fix it in time for 4.2...
I proudly use Kubuntu on my notebooks. I went from Gentoo to Kubuntu. Oh what? You want me to use SuSE? It was a good distro when it was a German distro. It was the only distro I ever bought. But now the MS loving Novell has it. Oh woe is me. So Kubuntu it is. And it's great. It works fine. It's never been better.
Kubutnu is a distro built around a KDE desktop that uses Debian packages and package system. Is there an alternative? If there is, I'd like to hear of it. Otherwise, talk to the hand.
I didn't say kubuntu, but kubunter. if you read the dot the last weeks, you would have noticed that he is one of the people who constantly bash about kde and dannys commit diggest.
btw, I use kubuntu too, because of aptitude and being able to upgrade without to reinstall (from dapper to intrepid and I made each upgrade) but I'm running trunk and one reason is the messed up localization of intrepid because they use this *piep* rosetta and overwriting a 100% german translation from upstream with a mixture of german and english (try to convince somebody to move from windows to linux if it doesn't even have a consistent language within the applications). a few weeks ago I read on planet.ubuntu.com that the rosetta team gave upstream translations a higher priority so I hope that it's getting better in jaunty.
I see. Sorry. I thought that was jibe directed towards Kubuntu and it's users. I just wanted to defend it. It does get quite a bit of flack. I haven't read from a user named kubunter. So my bad. Yes, Kubuntu is cool. ;)
If that's your only reason for not using openSuse then that's a really weak one because openSuse doesn't belong to Novell. Suse Linux and openSuse are not the same. Get the facts and come again.
I don't have a problem with you using KUbuntu because Linux is Linux in my eyes but I don't condone people putting down other Linux distros for no rational reasons at all
Whilst I use opensuse, I have in the past used Kubuntu. Suse's kde packages rock, but I cannot say the same about the rest,mostly lower level stuff. In my experience debian based systems just work better and faster. With opensuse I just can't get it going as nicely and I always have to fix something when I install fresh (or upgrade).
Either large ego or perhaps cognitive abilities should be examined.
too many happy new year drinks? I'm kidding but I think that you're not understand very well what's happening around you...
Happy new year
So... Got a source repository already? Show us some activity, baby!
After you have used the 4.2 final/trunk, the 3.5 series feels soo old generation.
Good luck porting all KDE3 to Qt4 you and your alter egos alone.
If what you want is continue the maintenance of the KDE3 branch in bugfix mode only, you will be more than welcome to do so in the KDE repository, because some distros will be packaging it, and some users will still use applications from there.
You're welcome to KDE3 and your forks, personally I adore KDE 4.2 beta2. Having taken the time to actually USE it, - it would be very hard to go back to 3.5.x now.
Lets see how much action there is behind your big words. I think none.
"We will see, which branch will end more likened."
I'm sure the "Jayy the Gayy" branch of KDE3 will be very popular.
You can probably even continue to develop kde3 in the normal kde svn repertory (there is no feature freeze for kde3 in svn, is there?)
So, just apply for a svn account and good luck :-) (i will be using kde4, but everybody should be able to develop whatever he wants)
You are free liike a bird in a tree. This is open source man so you can fetch the codes and have a lot of fun ;) As for me, I am too old and lazy for that type of adventure so I will continue to use KDE 4.whatever until all the KDE 3 apps are ported.
Troll, oh, Troll, why is it your desktop has a kidney on it?
You are outperforming. I feel sorry for the real trolls you have now put into the shadow and stealing all their bread.
You should really do this as a separate dot article, though you'll need to give a few more details, such as whether you are going to use a branch or an external repository, etc.
If you are using a different infrastructure you might want to coordinate with the KDE infrastructure sysadmins so you can get all KDE3 related bugs and wishes exported from bugs.kde.org and imported into your bug tracker.
Additionally provide information about your developer mailinglists, so that current KDE developers can subscribe and provide technical help. After all they are the ones with best knowledge of the KDE3 code base.
Desktop Environments stopped striving for consistency, ease-of-use and perfection when NeXTStep/Openstep stopped being released.
You want perfection? Drum up a few million and hire Keith Ohlfs to build a team to do it.
Or hope for Étoilé -> http://etoileos.com/
I think you're really loosing people of the same opinion, no offense.
I liked KDE 3.5 too, but I - for myself - do not look back at all. KDE4.2svn is stable, fast and highly usable.
cheers
I had my problems with the release policy of the 4.x series. Well, that's history, I don't feel any need to discuss that any longer and it's time to get back to normal business. 4.2 will be a great release IMHO.
Therefore, being one of the critics, I feel a strong urge to distance myself from such childish announcements of a KDE fork.
Please, when I read comments like this, but alos Blog entries like Mark Kretschmanns from today:
http://amarok.kde.org/blog/archives/862-KDE-Trolls,-eat-this.html
I ask myself: Do we really need another round of aggressive flame wars? And why now? The debate about the release policy is over and I thought things were cooling down?!
you loose
kde 4 rocks
Will you create a website? A foundation? Will you maintain Qt3 for us? Marvellous!
Now, how about a nice, hot, steaming cup of reality?
Nice, finally somebody who steps up and puts all his power into maintaining and bugfixing the stable KDE 3.5.x series :-)
You're welcome.
Alex
My small non-representative, non-technical audience survey has achieved a 100% "gosh we love it, can we have some...", I've never heard anyone say that about any other Linux based GUI, all of which have been admired for their competence.
For the wider "we want our stuff to say something about us", KDE 4.1+ is a total winner. I'm holding them off until 4.2, but I've got a small queue of people waiting for it, who are now receptive to the wider Free Software arguments.
This is excluding the Mac user, who remembers Linux when she was at University 8ish years ago... :)
Yes it's had a few problems, but the latest openSUSE RPMs on a recent £24 6200 and the beta 180.17, sing on otherwise 5 year old hardware.
And the top left corner of Plasma is really useful for a disorganised, "where's that bl..dy app?" person like me.
If someone wants to take 3.5 further, well that's the other beauty of Free Software, and I will be grateful if they achieve something. The Bazaar has always achieved better outcomes than the Cathedral as several Cathedral builders have demonstrated by changing their attitude.
"Aaron Seigo will give a talk, food and drinks afterwards."
What are you doing in Switzerland before you give a talk, food and drink afterwards? Thats very generous of you being a speaker, waiter and barman at the same event. Value for money.... :o)
LOL, it really reads like this! talk, food and drinks! But even without that I'd really love to come!
Cheers!
Speaking at the Student Summit for Sustainability.
and yes, it does sound like i'm cooking for a lot of people there doesn't it. hm. maybe i should bring my pots and pans.
My experience with KDE 4.2 beta is very positive, it shows a lot of polish and subtle details all of which make the Linux Desktop a serious contender when it comes to look and feel.
For my use (and my wifes), I hope KDE 4.2.x will focus on speed improvements, especially in booting up.
There is one other area I would like to see improved upon in future releases of KDE and that is for use on small low resolution screens. I put KDE 4.2 Beta on my Lenova Netbook with a 10" screen, and it is rather difficult to use as many of the dialogs are to big to fit on the screen. There seems to be a hardcoded values for spacing and margins that are not appropriate for small screens.
All in all I really like KDE 4 and look forward to 4.2's release.
have you posted screenshots? and submitted bugs for those dialogs?
Either way, small screens have been a focus for this release and there have been several improvements in this area.
Will this release include detection (and utilisation) of freetype with font hinting (if enabled?)
You'll have to wait for KDE 2.1 for that.
LOL
Another question then. Does it detect mindreaders yet? I've bought one, and Vista worked out of the box with it! It detected my hamster only thinks about running, food and sleeping.