Submitted by The KDE Software Compilation 4.11 has been released.
Gearing up for long term maintenance, Plasma Workspaces delivers further improvements to basic functionality with a smoother taskbar, smarter battery widget and improved sound mixer. The introduction of KScreen brings intelligent multi-monitor handling to the Workspaces, and large scale performance improvements combined with small usability tweaks make for an overall nicer experience.
This release marks massive improvements in the KDE PIM stack, giving much better performance and many new features. Kate improves the productivity of Python and Javascript developers with new plugins, Dolphin became faster and the educational applications bring various new features.
This release of KDE Platform 4.11 continues to focus on stability. New features are being implemented for our future KDE Frameworks 5.0 release, but for the stable release we managed to squeeze in optimizations for our Nepomuk framework.
That name.
The worst part of KDE has always been this attempt to define what exactly KDE is, and name the different parts of it accordingly. It leads to much Konfusion.
Always? I recall them switching to the funny name only a few years ago.
I also recall that there are quite a few KDE software projects that does not use it, like Amarok, Dolphin and Bangarang.
Running it on top of openSUSE 12.3. By far, my favorite DE.
It feels a bit faster, uses less memory for what I tested, the task-manager applications bug (leaving empty spaces on it or not listing applications, very rare) seems to be gone. The new multi-monitor setting is really good (with KScreen you just drag to rearrange the relative positions).
Hold on if you like Amarok, it is not ready yet. I prefer Clementine.
Can not tell anything about Nepomuk as it is the first thing I disable whenever I install KDE. At least on openSUSE, there is no trace of Akonadi or Nepomuki running once you disable “Desktop Search”, what is goood (well, I actually stopped to test if they were there just collecting dust around kde 4.6 series so I can not say for sure what were their state on 4.8.x and 4.10.x but I think that one or other was there running as a daemon, even if doing nothing).
Going to check how Kate progressed with Python but it was already quite good on my opinion.
Overall, I am very satisfied and pleased with all that is happening on KDE side of fence.
Edited 2013-08-15 23:58 UTC
Awesome Job congrats KDE crew.
-Hackus
KDE developers, hire a real designer, not a icon maker, it looks ugly.
Let me guess… you are a windows troll.
Let me guess, you are a KDE zealot.
Negative. Try again.
Same to you, troll.
Troll, eh? Hmm, let’s see. You bash KDE in the comments section of a KDE article and then expect no one to reply to you? some people.
The less I spec is to be called a windows troll since my uname –all says the contrary:
Linux localhost.localdomain 3.10.5-201.fc19.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Aug 7 16:25:24 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
If you don’t like my opinion is not my problem, I think it looks ugly and they should hire professional help.
Edited 2013-08-16 03:53 UTC
They probably have a pro on board and just because you think its ugly doesn’t mean squat. You opinion is subjective. Further, the only real purpose you could possibly have it telling us your opinion is to troll, as it makes no difference whether you like it or not.
In order to not hijack this thread I won’t comment any further, but hey, is just an opinion.
beauty is in the eye of the beholder . . . . .
Some icons are good. the shutdown/quit icon definitely needs an update. the edges don’t look very clear in small sizes.
Edit: BTW, don’t troll. saying ‘it looks ugly’ without giving detailed input or opinion hardly helps
Edited 2013-08-16 10:18 UTC
There really isn’t any point in appealing for better behavior. Just look at his history, particularly related to KDE…
KDE has always been ugly… at least ever since I first saw it in 2002… 10 years later, stil bad. The icons are really bad, it’s no wonder the whole interface sucks if they same person who “designed” those icons is also their main designer.
What is so bad about it? I mean, other than the fact that you don’t like them…
I find that the icons looks tacky and are inconsistent (shape, form lighting) – too much like those horrible crystal icons that for whatever reason some people liked.
The file manager is complete mess panels here there and everywhere with a sort of window within a window effect because of plastering panels and bars on all sides of the file/folder view thingy.
I also don’t personally like the fodler sidebar fly out things – whatever they are called.
I mainly a windows user but use linux in VMs to run webservers and to develop in, but I have always found KDE to be gnomes ugly kid brother. I think gnome 3 is better than kde and suits the way I work more… but compared to apple (which I don’t own – i’m no fanboi), or windows certain things about linux desktops are just not right… there is something about it I find odd… whether it is unity or any other DE. Maybe it’s the mouse pointer or the speed the mouse moves or the responsiveness of windows and widgets but it doesn’t feel to me like a real product, like there’s something wrong about it – something the ios and windows have that linux doesn’t.
Sort of like vegan cakes and deserts… they look like the real thing but there’s something about them that gives them away, or feels wrong – but you can’t say wat it is.
Edited 2013-08-16 13:49 UTC
May you please give us one example of good and consistent look for a file manager? Please, do not call it OSX finder as its scroll buttons are nothing but distracting and, in my opinion ugly. Also, please, avoid any MS thing using the new ribbon, they are, to me, a bad joke, why I would sacrifice space on my screen to have them there “all the time”? On a text editor, I like to have most space free to read what I am on, on spreadsheets it also steal precious space, an on an on.
There are things I like on OSX, like monochrome icons on toolbars and the quality of their icons but all around the system there are inconsistencies here and there. On windows front, well, their icons are far from what I could consider top quality and I really dislike the path they are “cruising” even though I agree that makes sense to have the spaces they are allocating on a touch system, but not on a desktop and even less a whole app alone on anything > 15″, that is pure nonsense.
Anyway, this talk about consistency throughout the system is a bit boring and overrated in my opinion. Now we have icons with exactly same shape, like rounded, all over the places for what reason? Are them easier to spot? No. Is the form restrictive on what first sight recognition they may transmit? Yes.
KDE is not perfect, but it can be easily customized to my taste like no other DE can. I like that. Most of its native apps are very good and not crippled, far better situation than what we see by default on others DEs. Yes, on MS camp you can find apps that are better than some of the ones that come with KDE and many top KDE apps are based on what were good apps for Windows/OSX (like K3b/Easy CD Creator 4, Scribus/Pagemaker, Dolphin/OSX Finder) and extended. Some KDE apps are top quality, like Digikam, Kate, KDevelop and Amarok (I prefer the old interface present on what was forked as Clementine). Anyway, KDE reached a point where most of the users needs are well contemplated on default installs. Before someone complain, I know that Scribus is a Qt app.
As I said many times, the only thing missing for me is Autocad, the rest is just your or mine opinion anyway.
Edited 2013-08-16 16:07 UTC
You can hide the ribbon bar leaving even more room for content. I do this on Office for OSX because I still have the menu bar menus.
What I really don’t like about the ribbon is the massive item density and mixture of buttons, I get completely lost when looking for things.
Try this as an autocad replacement for linux. It works beautifully and will read your DWG files perfectly.
http://www.3ds.com/products-services/draftsight/overview/
Not affiliated with the company, but have done many linux migrations where draftsight came in handy.
Thanks for the link, will try it but really, if you work with civil engineering with different people nothing is going to substitute Autocad and its additions. I guess, this is the same kind of problem people that work on press industry faces, they need the Adobe Creative Suite (or Corel equivalent).
I really hope Autodesk someday, out of complacency and compassion, would port Autocad to linux but, sure, I understand the relation cost/reward may prove impracticable. I can dream, but never would hold my breath, of course.
What is inconsistent in the lighting? they’re all lit from the top. The Shapes all follow the same design language, most of them you’d find almost exactly the same on any OS.
You don’t like them, that’s fine, but I think your reasons are a little superficial.
Dolphin can be as simple or complex as you want it. None of the panels are required. I think even the defaults are quite sensible, No different from Nautilus.
Why would using OSX (I assume that is what you mean by Apple) make you a fanboy?
One of the things I really don’t like about KDE’s look is the fact that a lot of things seem to be out of proportion.
One of my first jobs was using HTML/CSS framework to make grid based websites using the company’s CMS. I have a pretty good eye for spotting poor alignment or poorly thought out proportions.
Everything just seems a little bit off in terms of what you would call in Web dev paddings and borders widths/height.
Constrast seems to be all over the place (Windows 7 Aero was bad with this as well and Windows 8 you can’t disable it without hacking the uxtheme.dll :|).
These might seem like nit-picky things, but there are just so many little things that I haven’t mentioned.
I am sure KDE is very technically good, I know you can theme it, change the icons but I really don’t want to be mucking about that much when I think it would be obvious to most designers that it is iffy.
I think this explains the problem with KDE better than I ever could.
http://www.27bslash6.com/brochure.html
Funny
Martin is like a lot of people. They think that because they have a graphics editing program and a vector editor that they are designers.
This happened in the 80s too when DTP software. Every one and their dog fired the graphic designers and got their secretaries to layout and design everything.
They discoverd shortly afterwards, that yes, they can now do it themselves, but they can only do it very badly.
But you see this in all walks of live… car drivers thinking they can drive F1, people with an ikea kitchen thinking they could work for ramsey…. etc. etc.
Edited 2013-08-16 14:55 UTC
I would say the main design issue with KDE is padding – too much of it, and usually also too much of it in Qt apps in general. It is because Qt by default uses too much padding and developers would need to reduce it. But in most cases they do not realise it.
All this wasted space makes apps look somewhat comicy and unprofessional. Granted, childish icons add their part in many cases…
I upgraded from KDE 4.10.5 to 4.11.0 on openSUSE 12.3. Here’s what I’ve noticed:
* The printer applet that is supposed to unhide itself from the system tray when printing and re-hide after finishing doesn’t work anymore. It doesn’t unhide, and it doesn’t work to manage print jobs at all. This is a regression. I filed a bug: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=323560
* The extremely annoying problems with the lock screen seem to have been mostly fixed. There was a problem where the lockscreen password field didn’t receive focus after resuming. This seems to be fixed now. It also seems to have stopped showing the current workspace for a few seconds before the lockscreen comes up, which is nice fix for improved security. But I still wish that it would resume to the lockscreen instead of the screensaver, which requires moving the mouse to see the lockscreen.
* Irritating little “papercut” style bug is still present: The mouse pointer is visible on the blank screen saver. This has been present ever since 4.10.0.
* Icons no longer show artifacts when dragged across the desktop. It remains to be seen if icons will still occasionally appear one on top of another.
* In general, I hate the KDE plasma themes. I just want something that looks simple and flat without any shadows or gradients. And I want my plasma panels and menus to have the same style and colors as all the rest of my KDE/QT apps. I hate all garish bling of the plasma themes. And even with the “Klassic” theme it still doesn’t match the KDE/QT style and some text isn’t properly antialiased, as though it was fighting with a subtle gradient.
Thanks to KDE for producing a sane desktop environment that lets users basically be in control of their desktop settings!
Edited 2013-08-16 04:51 UTC
You perfectly worded my primary problem with KDE.
Every so often I’ll install the latest version and try it out. Each time I’m disappointed at how much work and tweaking is needed to stop KDE from screaming HEY I JUST WANT TO REMIND YOU THAT YOU’RE USING KDE!
I want use the benefits of the amazing KDE software, but then have the user interface just get out of my way.
Hey i’m really happy you’re doing some work and imma let you finish but KDE is one of the best desktops in the world! – Kanye West
Qt.
Get it right.
I’m surprised to see so much hate for KDE on here. I personally feel that it is the best DE I have used and it’s not even close. I also happen to think it looks quite nice. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Well, you know what they say: those who can’t do whine.
Right, they whine.
What is on their screen? At 98% of the surface, a browser.
KDE is perfectly usable and if you do not like what it looks like, then change it, there are loads of themes or you build your own.
And please do not forget, you did not pay for it.
I’ve been using KDE since I started using Linux exclusively a decade ago. I did jump ship to Gnome 2.x when KDE 4 came out but then I returned after many of the bugs were worked out. In my opinion, KDE is the most powerful, configurable desktop available on *NIX today. While its developers do take risks and try new things, it’s usually not at the expense of user experience because nearly all features can be reconfigured or turned off.
All I have to say to the haters is if you don’t like KDE then don’t use it. If you don’t like it but want to use it, be thankful that all aspects can be tweaked unlike other desktops that shall remain nameless. Don’t want to take the time or the effort to get KDE how you like it? Move on to another desktop; it’s not the job of KDE developers to do your work for you. It’s absurd to expect the KDE team to be able to configure its default theming to satisfy everyone. As another commenter pointed out: beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Not to mention that THERE ARE flat themes for KDE out there. Few and far between but hey, they are there for those that want it and it took me a whooping 2 seconds in Google to find them:
http://kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=154048
http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/?content=150037
http://samuaz.deviantart.com/art/KDE-flat-themes-preview-377240156
http://samuaz.deviantart.com/art/KDE-Something-White-and-Flat-37739…
It is important to point out that for those with OCD regarding their desktops, Bespin allows one to tweak pretty much every visual aspect of KDE. As you very well put it, the ability to customize it remains one of the defining traits of KDE.
Every KDE post here and on Slashdot has a few standard comments.
“What ever they are doing now, I will never forgive them for 4.0. The horror. The horror.”
“It uses cpu and memory. Its too slow on my early 2000 netbook.”
“How dare they put in that semantic desktop thing. I won’t say why I hate it, but I do. Linux desktops should never implement anything that wasn’t in Windows 95.”
“It is ugly. Why can’t it look like Gnome2? Linux desktop must forever look like Windows 95.”
The last one is particularly interesting since KDE (at least in Kubuntu) is, by default, configured to look ugly and gray. Just like Gnome2, LXDE and Windows95. It takes literally entire minutes to make it look nice.
Whenever new KDE SC is released there is always the same flame war:
user A: KDE is butt ugly,
user B: Just tweak it to be beautiful
(User B may or may not include links to kde-look web page)
What user B doesn’t get is that KDE makes it unbelievably hard for newcomers to change a theme. In fact, regarding aesthetics, KDE did everything wrong (again looking from newbie perspective). Even word “theme” has a different meaning in KDE, you get “themes” for every part of the desktop: windows, window borders, cursor, icons, splash screen, desktop, taskbar, desktop background… But there is no GLOBAL theme (the one that would unite all of this stuff into a consistent and coherent group).
So, what a newbie that doesn’t like default theme does?
He/she goes through system settings, discovers Application appearance and Workspace appearance, tries to get new themes though nice “Get new themes” button, finds something interesting on kde-look, and… just part of the screen changes. After going through all those regional themes (for the lack of better name), unless you have some talent for arranging colors and shapes, you end up with something that was designed by a color-blind person (typically in top results you get theme A for windows theme, theme B for taskbar theme, theme C for Icons, and so on… ).
And the best part, you can’t even reset everything to default values with a single button click. Seriously, at this point it is much easier to reinstall the system.
And it is so easy to solve this mess. Instead of forcing users to set each element of desktop individually, just introduce global themes that can be installed automatically (with a single mouse click). Then users can just go to kde-look or deviant-art (or where ever) select some theme (the one that changes everything on the screen), and be happy about KDE looks.
Let user browse different designs, notice “that nice greenish theme”, one click instal it, and praise the beauty and simplicity of KDE.
But I don’t have my hopes high, KDE people like it the way things are. They don’t think it is complicated to change desktop looks, they don’t see a problem with current approach (where user is forced to change everything piece by piece), so things will probably remain the way they are for eternity. Too bad, because KDE CS is such a great product. Such fantastic product that fails on such minor, easy to fix things.
No need to reinstall the system.
If you are so pissed off at your KDE installation that you want to reset everything back to defaults, log off kde, and remove your ~/.kde4/ which is discouraged anyway because removing some .conf files is more than enough (or throw your computer from the window \o/).
Seriously though, ask for support in your distribution’s forums or KDE forums. I am sure there is someone who can tell you how to reset a few KDE settings without reinstalling your whole distribution
BTW, we all learn from scratch so just read and ask questions. your kde settings are in your home dir under .kde4 or .kde folder.
there is never a need to reinstall a system to reset personal settings either on windows (unless you are still on windows98) or linux.
Edited 2013-08-17 12:59 UTC
I am an engineer, I can easily edit conf. files, find help on forums and so on. As a programmer I can easily wrap a small Python or Bash script to automate a task. Conf files are no problem for me, but are too much for my wife, not to mention my parents or all the other non-techical people I know.
My logic is quite simple really, if you set something through GUI, you should be able to reset through gui. For me, as a software developer, it a sign of a bad design when reseting stuff is done manually though various conf files.
In my opinion KDE look an feel settings are broken at fundamental level. You have two settings in Configuration (Application and Workspace), you have a number of “regional” themes, installation that requires manual copying of files and removal of stuff through manual deleting of files. How can you realistically expect non-tecnical users to overcome this mess?
What I am trying to say is: KDE makes it needlessly hard to change default looks, it should be a one click process. Browse though themes, select “that nice mintish theme” and be done with it.
There should never be internet debate about looks of KDE. The fact that such debates exist, and are repeated every single time new KDE SC is released, is proof enough that KDE should do something about it. Introducing themes that change everything on screen, and a simple shell script for distribution that does file copying, would wipe 99% of “KDE is ugly” threads/post off internet.
you can reset to defaults with the gui under kde. almost all kde system settings parts have ‘reset’ and ‘defaults’ buttons.
Give me a frigg’n break! Honestly, just use Gnome!!!
Thanks for advice, I already did just that.
But your post is interesting because this kind of attitude is THE REASON why small problems like clumsy look and feel settings never get fixed.
I am trying to debate a real problem here. GTFO statements are not the kind of feedback I was looking for.
I just don’t use the name – I just call it KDE. We all know what the DE part of it stands for, even if it’s now “not an acronym” rather like BT doesn’t stand for British Telecom.
The world has moved on, maybe it’s time you do the same.
Has it? Is it?
One of my pet peeves with KDE is how it flogs on you their kool nomenclature which is oh, so meaningless.
‘Akonadi has stopped working’, ‘Nepomuk has crashed’, ‘Remove Plasmoid’. WTF?
There ya, fixed it for you.
Funny you feel this way as it sounds like a pair made in heaven with your nickname.
I think, and may be wrong, that part of the reason they picked the names was so that they sounded funny too and sure, at least to me, they do and I enjoy the playing.
I switched to KDE 4.x around the time Gnome 3 came out, and was using it since. KDE is the most flexible DE out there. Their pace of development is a bit slow (it will take KDE almost a year from now to get a full Wayland support for example), given that it’s a huge project. But it’s developed by the community for the most part, so that’s OK.
Edited 2013-08-18 17:38 UTC