Savanna Says: KDE 3.2 - A Quick Review

Right on the heels of the KDE 3.2.1 release, Savanna is back with an article about her latest upgrade to the KDE 3.2 desktop. After being on 3.2 beta for several months, she wasn't expecting too much of this upgrade.

KDE 3.2 - A Quick Review

by Savanna

Last week, I finally took the time to upgrade to the fully released KDE 3.2
desktop system. I was a little nervous at first because, as many of the devs
online can tell you, I really don't know Linux that well. That means that if
something goes wrong, I usually freak out, go "Oh my God", and panic like
never before. Then they usually have to help me get through the crisis and it
always ends up being something fairly simple and stupid that I did myself.

Needless to say, however, I've been learning. So I took the big step myself
and, happily, I can say that it went off without a single problem. I'm
running KDE 3.2 on Debian - just so you know, and apt-get is a wonderful
tool.

Anyway, after being on the beta release of 3.2 for a few months, I wasn't
expecting much of an upgrade. But, of course, I was wrong.

Beta CVS heads are nice, but they have all sorts of minor quirky problems. At
least that's what it always seems like to me. You know the type: your memory
going off the charts at random moments, memory leaks making you restart your
desktop every few days (unless you know what you're doing and can shut down
the appropriate processes, but we're talking about me here), little programs
that don't work *quite* right all the time. You know - buggy things. I don't
mean Microsoft buggy, but quirky enough to make you realize that you're still
not on a full release.

Well, all that is gone. So far, I haven't seen a single application do
anything weird. In fact, it's been as stable as ever.

Okay, if you've never run or seen KDE, there are a few things to know:

1) It's stable.

This is my work computer. I write columns, essays, articles, etc... And this
is my computer on which I do all that work. I browse, email, organize, read,
write, spellcheck and even entertain myself with music all from this
computer. It doesn't crash or give me weird errors. I can leave it on all day
and night (and I do), and I know that nothing will be lost when I get back to
it.

2) It's convenient.

KDE is nice because it has all these integrated packages that work with it
seamlessly. For example, when I blog something and enter the text into the
browser window (Konqueror), I can spellcheck it right there in the writing
box. In fact, it even spellchecks for me while I type (live spellchecking).
No more copy/pasting posts in forums and blogs to see if you made a typo. It
will do it right there. It also has a nice little dictionary I use all the
time on the Kicker (the applications bar on your desktop), and lots of other
things which integrate so nicely that you never have to really maneuver
around one application to the next to get something done. It's like your
whole desktop is one big application that you use in various ways.

3) It's easy to use.

As I said, I don't know Linux very well at all. But I don't have to. I've
written about this last year in another column, but it bears repeating again.
And since KDE isn't only for Linux, it bears remembering as well. Just like
many of my friends don't know what the heck a .DAT file is for, I don't have
to know what all sorts of techy Linux files are for either. The reason is
that KDE is all I deal with when I'm on the computer, and that makes it easy
to use. Instead of cryptic command lines, I just have very nice icons
everywhere, and I can customize it any way I like. If the Kicker bar is too
long, I can make it shorter. If I want more desktop space, I can have it with
3 clicks of the mouse. I usually use about 10 virtual desktops on my system
so nothing is ever crowded at all - I always know just where everything is
and I don't have to figure out what goes where because I never run out of
real estate space.

4) It's got everything you need.

Unless you play lots of games, you just don't need Windows anymore. If you're
like me and you use your computer for
writing/browsing/emailing/organizing/listening to music, etc... then you've
got everything you want in KDE and more. And I don't mean really hard to
understand applications with no style at all, but friendly and nice looking
stuff. In fact, some of the applications I use are easier than the ones I use
on Windows (I have two machines, but I use my Windows one mostly for a few
games. If I didn't play games, I'd put KDE on that too without blinking).
100% of the applications I use in KDE are friendlier and easier to use than
Windows ones. They never crash and I can customize whatever they look like
without even downloading weird shareware which might, or might not, have a
virus or do something strange to a .DLL file and mess up my system for good.
I have no worries like that. In fact, I have so many options that I now think
of Windows as being very limited and clunky and (gasp) techy to use. That's
right. KDE is that friendly.

5) It's secure.

I just mentioned viruses, and I don't get them. Well actually, that's not
true: people send me viruses from their Outlook mail, and I giggle. I mean
it! I giggle. I don't even have a virus checker. Why? Because I don't have to
worry about it with KDE. They won't run on KDE so I don't even have to think
about it. No Norton subscriptions, no worries about strange .EXE files being
sent to you. To me, viruses are a thing of the past. I read about how others
get their hard drives trashed, and I smile. Beat that.

6) It's pretty.

KDE is pretty. Hands down, it's just beautiful. Actually it's gorgeous too.
I've got some nice set themes that come installed with the KDE default, and
they are all so amazingly nice that I have a hard time deciding which to
choose from. I've used Windows themes on my XP box, and it's such a pain in
the butt to customize and make it look nice. Not so with KDE. Every part of
the system looks like you can customize the look with different types of
widgets. You just go into the control panels and click around to suit your
taste and apply. That's it. It can even do desktop slide shows with fade-ins
and other things to make your desktop really come alive and to make it
unique. The icon sets that I have so far are some of the nicest and prettiest
things I've ever seen. And when I get bored of one set, I just choose another
and apply. Even my Kicker bar can have wallpaper (and it does). I'm glad KDE
is this pretty because it makes it look even more friendly, which is exactly
what I want.

7) It's fun.

You want AIM? ICQ? MSN Messenger? No problem. Kopete on KDE gives you access
to all that and more. It's got a beautiful user interface, awesome icon sets,
and it's all integrated into one window and in your Kicker dock panel. It
works flawlessly as far as I can see, and I love it. Chat to your heart's
content.

I also have a nice little weather updater on my Kicker bar with pretty icons
telling me the temperature and what the conditions are outside. Of course I
can look out the window but if I click on this, I get a nice little window
with more info.

I always have music playing with Juk. It's integrated with a small applet in
my Kicker as well (MediaControl) which lets me control everything from the
kicker, even when I'm not on the desktop where Juk is. I just love that. And
if you don't know what Juk is, you can read my review here.

I said that if you play a lot of games, then maybe KDE isn't for you, but I
wasn't exactly right on that score. KDE does have games included. And while
they aren't the latest shoot-em-up type of games, they are a heck of a lot
nicer than the windows games. You have tons of fun ones starting with
solitaire, backgammon, mahjong, and then even the best tetris-like game ever
called Frozen Bubble (you have to try this), and some other nice games as
well. That just makes you realize that Windows, as it is, is just a
little...boring and stale by now. I love my KDE games and I do actually play
them sometimes to relax.

So all in all, I have to give KDE 3.2 a big thumbs up. It's about as nice as I
ever imagined, stable, easy to use, and practical as well. If you're
completely new to the idea of running something like this, you really
shouldn't worry about it because you'll be up and running in no time. If you
know windows, you can run KDE. After a day, you'll never want to go back.

So congrats to the KDE Dev team and many thanks. I hope to see even more
surprising refinements in the near future.

Dot Categories: 

Comments

by macewan (not verified)

yes, plastic is nice :)

I've been waiting to switch my wife to 3.2+ so maybe the time has come. My testing with 3.2 over the last few weeks has been pretty much a joy. And let me tell you, I had to use XP at work today trying to show someone how to change her wallpaper. XP blows compared to KDE.

by Jerome Loisel (not verified)

I was interested to read that you had a good experience using apt-get to upgrade to KDE 3.2. I installed Debian (stable), recently, and tried to do the same. I addes the sources line listed in the release notes and it didn't work. I eventually managed to "upgrade" by manually uninstalling my old version of KDE and re-installing to the new one, but even that seemed to leave problems lying around. Is there something I don't understand?

Thanks,

Jerome

by Frerich Raabe (not verified)

I'm not sure about this, but the last sentence of #7 goes like "And if you don't know what Juk is, you can read my review here." <-- shouldn't the 'review' or 'here' - or both - be an hyperlink to whatever review is being referred to? Or does 'here' mean 'it's on dot.kde.org but I don't want to spoil the fun of digging through the archives so no further tips from me'? :-)

by ac (not verified)

Hey ya prolly. If you didn't find it: http://dot.kde.org/1055452455/

by Ian Whiting (not verified)

Great review for the best destop environment on Linux.

I just thought that I must add that Linux users must be careful about viruses too. Virus can effect us (if they have been written to attack our systems) but we should be aware of not spreading viruses to those who still run M$ Windoze systems. There is a great Open Source Linux Virus system that is covered by the GPL called Clam Anti-Virus (http://www.clamav.net), it includes features such as on-access scanning, mail scanning and on-line updates.

Also, check out the Open Anti-Virus Project at http://www.openantivirus.org .

Ian

by Ralph (not verified)

Just have to mention that you don't necessarily have to keep windows around for a few games.

I use KDE as my desktop at work and at home, and play quite a few games with WineX (http://www.transgaming.com/).

It integrates quite well with KDE, as it creates entries in your K-Menu and on your desktop just the same as in windows, can use ALT-TAB to switch between apps so you can just pause your current vice city rampage (or whatever) and answer your friend on kopete, check to see if your download has finished, line up the next album on juk, or whatever takes your fancy.

It's not free software (yet), but a US$5/month subscription is pretty small potatoes when compared to the cost of new games.

Even if that doesn't appeal, there are plenty of decent native linux games, both commercial (such as anything by id software, neverwinter nights, etc) and free (freeciv, freedroid rpg, etc). The only real peeve I have with these is most of them don't support the KDE ALT-TAB focus switching, which WineX has made me used to.

Personally, I've been hooked recently by Scorched3d (http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/), a GPLed cross platform clone of an old DOS game Scorched Earth, except in 3 dimensions and networkable, using SDL and OpenGL. Scorched Earth was like a bells and whistles version of the old artillery games you got on the microcomputers of the early 80s if you don't know it. Only an emerge scorched3d away if you are running gentoo...

by Martin Galpin (not verified)

How is Kopete in your kicker sidebar?