Filed under: OS Updates, Linux, Open Source
KDE 4 is available: First impressions
by Kristin Shoemaker Jan 11th 2008 at 10:00AM
On January 11th, 2008, at roughly 7 am ET, KDE 4 became available for download. Not that we were refreshing our browsers or anything in anticipation. Packages are currently available for Kubuntu (Hardy and Gutsy), Debian (in the experimental branch), Fedora (in the Rawhide repository), and openSuSE. ArkLinux and Mandriva packages will be available soon.We had two main questions. What's new? What doesn't work as intended?
The short answer to the first question: Just about everything.
The short answer to the second: A few things. The most notable being that in Kubuntu (and I would assume any distro that relies on sudo instead of root to install packages), Adept still won't accept your sudoer password. We worked around this by giving root a password, and then starting adept. It worked, but it really shouldn't have been necessary.
The look is very different than KDE 3.5.8, and certainly more polished and streamlined than the release candidates. The KDE 4 components are well integrated, which in turn makes the KDE 3.5 components we already had on the system a bit incongruous. We found there were KDE 3.5 applications on our menus, as well as the KDE 4 counterparts they replaced. It's easy to determine which is which (KDE 4 applications are labeled as such) but we can't seem to launch the KDE 4 menu editor to remove references to the KDE 3.5 applications.
We really like the Favorites tab on the Kickoff menu (formerly the K menu). We like that you can easily remove the default favorites, and add your own by simply right clicking the application. The functionality of Kickoff is very different than the traditional K menu, and we suspect a decent portion of the user-base will have some issues with it at first. Selecting a tab brings up a menu. The menu slides to reveal any submenus, and you can navigate back and forth with arrows. Not terribly difficult, but different enough that many people will find it slows them down at first.
As far as speed goes, KDE 4 is a winner. We don't have it installed on a slouch of a machine (AMD X2 processor with 2 gigs of RAM), but it seems much more responsive than KDE 3.5. It loads quickly, and transitions between programs and workspaces are fast and easy, even with desktop compositing effects turned on.
We'd recommend upgrading to KDE 4 if you're a trailblazing type (or really, really like eye candy.) The most significant flaw we found was far and away the Kubuntu/Adept oversight. We'd recommend keeping KDE 3.5 for at least a bit longer if you've got less time or inclination to tweak your system. KDE 4 promises to be, and at least now partially delivers, a strong, fast, and utilitarian desktop.
Krunner is a neat little application. It's a launcher, a web search tool, and a calculator. It also shows and allows control over system processes. We could see ourselves using this frequently.
As far as speed goes, KDE 4 is a winner. We don't have it installed on a slouch of a machine (AMD X2 processor with 2 gigs of RAM), but it seems much more responsive than KDE 3.5. It loads quickly, and transitions between programs and workspaces are fast and easy, even with desktop compositing effects turned on.
We'd recommend upgrading to KDE 4 if you're a trailblazing type (or really, really like eye candy.) The most significant flaw we found was far and away the Kubuntu/Adept oversight. We'd recommend keeping KDE 3.5 for at least a bit longer if you've got less time or inclination to tweak your system. KDE 4 promises to be, and at least now partially delivers, a strong, fast, and utilitarian desktop.