Re: unstable kde4: interesting, somewhat tough to use

Hi,

On Monday 18 February 2008 02:53:40 Paul Johnson wrote:
> Today I was bored, so I tried your RPM packages for Fedora 8 in the
> unstable directory.  I did this by removing a bunch of rpms that had
> "kde" in the name, and then I installed kde-4 from the unstable repo.
>  I used yum to do the installation, it grabbed dependencies:
>
> Feb 17 14:38:51 Updated: kde-settings.noarch 4.0-8.fc9
> Feb 17 14:38:52 Updated: kde-settings-kdm.noarch 4.0-8.fc9
> Feb 17 14:38:52 Installed: kdelibs-common.i386 6:4.0.1-4.fc8.1
> Feb 17 14:38:53 Installed: qimageblitz.i386 0.0.4-0.4.svn706674.fc8
> Feb 17 14:38:54 Installed: exiv2-libs.i386 0.15-5.fc8
> Feb 17 14:38:58 Installed: strigi-libs.i386 0.5.7-1.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:03 Installed: raptor.i386 1.4.16-1.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:04 Installed: qca2.i386 2.0.0-1.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:06 Installed: poppler.i386 0.6.2-1.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:06 Installed: clucene-core.i386 0.9.20-2.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:07 Installed: poppler-qt4.i386 0.6.2-1.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:07 Installed: rasqal.i386 0.9.14-2.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:08 Installed: redland.i386 1.0.6-2.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:09 Installed: soprano.i386 2.0.0-1.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:17 Updated: kdelibs.i386 6:4.0.1-4.fc8.1
> Feb 17 14:39:20 Installed: kdepimlibs.i386 4.0.1-2.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:36 Installed: kdebase-runtime.i386 4.0.1-1.fc8.1
> Feb 17 14:39:39 Updated: kdenetwork-libs.i386 7:4.0.1-2.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:39 Updated: kdeartwork-kxs.i386 4.0.1-1.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:40 Updated: kdemultimedia-libs.i386 6:4.0.1-1.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:41 Installed: libvncserver.i386 0.9.1-2.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:41 Installed: chmlib.i386 0.39-5.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:42 Installed: libzip.i386 0.8-4.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:47 Installed: djvulibre.i386 3.5.19-4.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:56 Installed: kdeartwork-icons-crystalsvg.i386 4.0.1-1.fc8
> Feb 17 14:39:59 Updated: kdegraphics-libs.i386 7:4.0.1-2.fc8
> Feb 17 14:40:04 Updated: kdegraphics.i386 7:4.0.1-2.fc8
> Feb 17 14:40:16 Installed: kdelibs3.i386 3.5.8-22.fc8.1
> Feb 17 14:40:17 Updated: kdnssd-avahi.i386 0.1.3-0.5.20080116svn.fc8
> Feb 17 14:40:25 Installed: kdebase-workspace.i386 4.0.1-6.fc8
> Feb 17 14:40:41 Installed: kdebase3.i386 3.5.8-30.fc8.1
> Feb 17 14:40:45 Installed: kdebase3-libs.i386 3.5.8-30.fc8.1
> Feb 17 14:40:48 Installed: kdebase-workspace-libs.i386 4.0.1-6.fc
>
> Did I miss something important?

I would advise you grab extragear-plasma-4.0.0-1.fc8 this replaces kdeaddons, 
it gives you a few more Plasmoids.

> I logged out, logged in on VT1, and removed ~/.kde*.  Then went back
> to VT7 and logged in.
>
> Some things I like about KDE still work great.  The ability to
> customize the window title bar was still present.  That was nice.
> That's one of my favorite things in KDE.

I must admit it took me a day or to to get the "feel" for kde4, now I think 
its great :) there are a few little snags I have here but I have read they 
are fixed for 4.0.2,

> There were some changes I couldn't understand or fix.  I was wondering
> "are these problems in KDE4 itself or are they caused by Fedora?"
>
> 1. No right click on root window to "open a terminal" anymore. Too
> bad.  This one smacks of Fedora/Gnome, not KDE.

Why not use the "run" command when right clicking on the Desktop, or add 
Konsole to the panel for the time being.

> 2. I know these changes are KDE4:  dcop is gone, kdesktop is gone.  So
> how can a person run a command like:
> dcop kdesktop KBackgroundIface setWallpaper 4 myimage.jpg

I'll have to let the experts here answer this, but kde4 now uses DBUS I think?

> 3. The file manager dolphin has some nice aspects. It runs fine.  In
> the preferences, there's a thing where you can choose to have settings
> remembered for particular directories, or to use same for all
> directories.  That's a great improvement.

Indeed it is :)

> But I could not find a way to make it open a terminal in the current
> working directory.  It would open up a terminal-panel thing attached
> to the bottom of the dolphin.  That was not what I was aiming for.

You mean like F4 in Konq? I guess for the time being you could use Konq, I am 
still getting to grips with Dolphin here, or you could even use Krusader.
 
> 4. I can't make the kicker panel work properly.  I mean, I can't make
> it do hardly anything. It has a workspace pager and a couple of
> applets running.   There's no right click configuration--No way add
> applets or configure that panel.  

This will come in time, I recommend you keep an eye on planetkde, for Aaron 
Seigo's blogs I remember reading this is now possible.

> I want Firefox in there, and in 
> KDE3, a right click on Firefox in the K menu will allow it.  In KDE4,
> I can't figure it out.

Almost the same in kde4, open the Kmenu, and then you can right click on the 
App to place on the Desktop or Panel or Favourites..

> In the top right of the screen, there's an interesting thing.  It can
> zoom out or zoom in on the screen, and it can also start applets.
> They aren't kicker applets, though.  They appear on the desktop, not
> in the panel, although they appear to be the same kinds of components
> that used to go into the panel.

I think in 4.0.2 you will be able to drag Plasmoids to the panel, System Tray 
I am not sure.  Ksmarttray/Ksensors for example happily sit in the system 
tray on this box.
FYI Karamba widgets are compatible with Plasma and will/should show up in the 
Add Widget menu.

> The program chooser--under the blue K--is very tough to navigate.  I
> don't need a menu to run programs that I use often--I can just open a
> terminal and type their names.  I need a menu to help me find/remember
> programs that I use only rarely.   

It takes a little getting used too ;) Use the right click method mentioned 
above and add them to the favourites menu.

OK, I hope this helps a little, sorry I could not answer/help with everything.
I am sure you will enjoy kde4 as much as I am.

Cheers

Colin
PS a very good interview can be found here:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Interviews/KDE4

-- 
Fedora release 8 (Werewolf)
Registered Linux user number #342953

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