Trying KDE again
by Mez on Apr.19, 2009, under Personal
When Kubuntu switched to KDE4 as it’s main desktop, I was disheartened. KDE 4, at the time was just, well, pretty unusable for me. It kept crashing, I couldn’t do the things that I wanted to, and I spent more time fighting with KDE than I did actually doing work. After about a week, I’d had enough, and I switched to Gnome.
Now, a lot of people are probably going to respond to this with Gnome vs KDE flames, but let me explain my viewpoint on the whole “Desktop Environment” war
I prefer KDE, but if a desktop will let me do the work I need to do without getting in my way and causing issues, then I can learn to use it.
The above is possibly the reason that I can get along ok with Windows XP, but if I have to use Vista, I’ll end up wanting to throw the machine out of the window.
So, for possibly the last year or so (I’m not too sure on the timescale!) I’ve been using Gnome in Ubuntu, and I must say, I’ve liked it. the fact that I can login, and instantly get access to my servers without having to type in my SSH key password (yes, insecure I know!), and that everything seems to integrate in a nice way, well.. it’s been fun.
But still, my heart lies with KDE, and I’ve been flipping back to it to see how KDE4 is coming along on a regular basis.
So far, I’ve seen it gradually improving, and well, it looks damned sexy to be honest, but there were a few things that I felt it was missing. The ability to have multiple rows of apps on the task switcher was a big one for me. I generally have a lot of windows open, and I don’t like the “Grouping” functionality. So when I get more than a few apps open, I could only see the icons. That’s been fixed in KDE4.2, and it does it in a nicer way than Gnome does it (only switching to two rows once there are a certain amount of windows open.
Next on the list is the whole password management thing. Gnome does a GREAT job at this. I login, and it unlocks the default keyring, sets up the SSH agent, adds my key, unlocking it from the keyring, and I don’t have to do anything but login with my normal user and password (though I intend to switch that to biometric login once I can be bothered to setup the fingerprint reader).
I’ve fixed that little issue (well, for SSH) by setting up an autostart script using ksshaskpass to add my SSH key when I login.
So far, KDE seems pretty usable for me now, but then, I’m quite happy to plod along on my Laptop and try things out. I’m feeling a bit lost with all the new functionality, and wishing that the Ubuntu Gnome Notifications (from pidgin, which I use as my IM client) didn’t look so ugly in the new sexy KDE Desktop (in fact, if anyone knows a way to get pidgin to use the Jaunty style notifications in KDE, let me know, as they’d fit in quite well under the new KDE look 
) – I’d like to see some sort of common ground for notifications across the desktops, but who knows when that’s going to happen!
I’ll also try using it at work, if I can use it there without it getting in the way, then I will happily switch back permanently, but that’s the ultimate test.
I’m pretty sure that KDE 4 will be usable for me soon, and I’ll let you know if that’s now
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April 20th, 2009 on 10:50 am[...] Trying KDE again So far, KDE seems pretty usable for me now, but then, I’m quite happy to plod along on my Laptop and try things out. [...]
April 19th, 2009 on 9:50 pm
Regarding the taskbar, try the Stasks plasmoid. It allows you to put a lot of applications in your taskbar.
April 19th, 2009 on 10:17 pm
Kubuntu has always been the worst KDE distro in existence. I experienced crashes in KDE apps under Kubuntu I didn’t encounter under openSUSE. When KDE 4.1.3 or 4.1.4 was made available for Kubuntu 8.10, KMail would crash right after starting it.
International users are constantly being harassed by Canonical since years through broken language packages. I created a Flickr set that I use in bug reports: http://www.flickr.com/photos/19616885@N00/sets/72157608562200171/
I started documenting Canonical’s misbehaviour a year ago. Since then the situation hasn’t really improved.
April 19th, 2009 on 10:33 pm
I do put the taskbar on the left, it leave more space for many applications, also showing only application from the current desktop help a lot.
April 19th, 2009 on 10:53 pm
@Markus
While I agree that the transition period in Intrepid was rough, I feel that the situation has vastly improved with Jaunty. I installed the beta of Jaunty on a windows machine I had (using wubi no less!) and had amazing results with it. Setup time was nearly nothing compared to my normal Arch+KDEMod install and it had KDE4/Qt4 versions of almost all of the apps I need (no cross-major-release apps that look ugly and function weirdly because they’re out of place)
I’m quite excited for the final release of Jaunty, it’s about time that Kubuntu got back on its feet
April 19th, 2009 on 11:23 pm
Regarding SFTP passwords: KIO won’t ask you for a password if you use public keys. Just like the ssh and sftp commands, with the same security/convenience tradeoff.
April 19th, 2009 on 11:43 pm
Ive replaced my kde4.2.2 ion jaunty with the trunk that I compiled myself, and works better then the shipped kde on jaunty, strange enough my freezings have dissapeared to now i have the trunk installed.
April 19th, 2009 on 11:54 pm
Fingerprint readers are _less_ secure than an easy password.
Give me a smooth surface you have touched, a scanner, and a laserprinter and I’ll be logged in on your machine in under 10 minutes.
April 20th, 2009 on 12:27 am
@Wesley
This seems typical for me with KDE on kubuntu.
When I was on Hardy (that was the 4.0 KDE kubuntu right?) I started living off trunk KDE (4.0 wasn’t pleasant), then on the switch to Intrepid I found that 4.1 wasn’t quite as good as my builds but saved the effort for me. Then I got trunk withdrawal and started 4.2 on intrepid, then when there were packages for available I switched back but then I was having some major issues with playing videos and having desktop effects at the same time crashing KWin. I switched to jaunty alpha for something unrelated and found the 4.2 build in jaunty were just flying, no more kwin crashes (woot), makes me wonder if this is a good build for once or whether I should compile it myself and be amazed how it is even better
? But I am being optimistic … or lazy … one of the two.
My only real issue at the moment is when I try to send an email that is signed it tells me the passphrase is bad without letting me enter one. Is this a KDE bug or probably a kubuntu one? I not been able to find anyone else with the same issue so I am guessing kubuntu or I am just very unlucky.
What other KDE distros would people recommend? I looked at arch but the install seemed like more effort than it was worth, am i wrong?
April 20th, 2009 on 1:09 am
Never really been a fan of Kubuntu. Their KDE implementation always seemed half-assed. I used to bounce between Mandriva and openSUSE (both damn good KDE distros, IMO), but the Build Service has be on SUSE full-time. 11.1 ships with a well-done 4.1.x, there’s a Build Service repo for 4.2.x (which I’m running now, and it’s great), and another Build Service repo for /trunk snapshots.
I don’t know how things are on the Gnome side of the fence, but unless you really can’t live without apt-get/aptitude, there are better options for KDE.
April 20th, 2009 on 1:33 am
It seems a lot of people don’t understand that Kubuntu is (mostly) a testing distribution.
If you need stability, run Debian + KDE.
April 20th, 2009 on 1:55 am
I’m using KDE 4.2.2 under Arch and it’s really amazing. Well done, solid desktop. You have to use a text installer and edit a few files manually to begin so following the guide is necessary. It could be a bit thrown-off to a new user though but i think the rewareds are worth it.
April 20th, 2009 on 4:48 am
adz21c that is a kubuntu bug, I read about it on launchpad. i don’t have it in debian, like a lot of *buntu bugs that don’t exist in debian
April 20th, 2009 on 6:32 am
“What other KDE distros would people recommend? I looked at arch but the install seemed like more effort than it was worth, am i wrong?”
Mandriva 2009 Spring gets released end of this month. So far best KDE4 distribution what I have never used. (since 2009). I am currently on cooker (development version what gets updates all the time and it is now freezed) and I just love the KDE4 functionality. My opinion is it goes even over OpenSUSE (what is mostly for gnome!). I am forced to have one computer in science labs to use OpenSUSE and all others are running Mandriva. We tested few times Kubuntu or just Ubuntu and we needed to turn those off because the quality is by some reason lower for what we need.
April 20th, 2009 on 7:37 am
To get Notify OSD (Jaunty style) notifications under KDE, just run this:
sudo chmod -x /usr/lib/notification-daemon/notification-daemon
killall notification-daemon
To revert:
sudo chmod +x /usr/lib/notification-daemon/notification-daemon
killall notification-daemon
April 20th, 2009 on 9:12 am
I switched from opensuse to arch recently, and I am very happy with it! (in fact I used chakra livecd to do the install, was a bit scary because of beta status but turned out ok)
stuff that I could not get to work in opensuse just works in arch (e.g. changing some stuff to eclipse..). I like that arch does not try to ‘improve’ or brand their packages.
April 20th, 2009 on 9:42 am
@Martin: I admire your pragmatism! It’s refreshing.
@adz21c: I used Arch to set up a light-weight desktop with Openbox etc. It was a lot of work for me because I wasn’t that experienced but it was a superb learning experience and the more I use it as a distro the more I like it. Also, pacman owns all others.
I think with Arch, the first time you set it up will take you a while but the second and subsequent times will be much easier.
April 20th, 2009 on 10:00 am
I totally agree with you. Even though I switched from KDE to gnome a little earlier (with ubuntu 6.06) but it was all because of kubuntu being not the best kde-distro out there.
Even though I have been using gnome instead of kde I allways was a kde-usere in heart so I knew sooner or later I would come back.
I made 4.0 to magic release that I wanted to use KDE again. But as you said it was pretty much unusable. It was even hard to see the potential of the desktop. 4.1 was actually usable but not ok for the day to day work. But after all with 4.1 I changed all the KDE apps that I have been using in gnome (kmail, akregator, amarok and some others) to the 4.x versions.
With 4.2.2 I’m back in KDE. Not that I like everything about the desktop and there is still some work to do. But after all 4.2.x seams to be the release I use KDE again on a regular bases.
So after all I can also encourage everyone to take a look at the latest release (or wait till 4.3). It might fit your needs.
Thanks to all the developers.
April 20th, 2009 on 10:06 am
“What other KDE distros would people recommend? I looked at arch but the install seemed like more effort than it was worth, am i wrong?”
I would say the effort is worth it. Arch is a great, clean and simple distribution. You can use the new tribe installer from chakra live disk and don’t have to worry about editing files manually.
April 20th, 2009 on 10:16 am
Well, good luck with the biometric thing.
For me it does not work too well. And this is why:
When logging in with the fingerprint reader, gnome is unable to unlock the keyring because the encryption physically needs your password to do that.
So at the moment, for me, the fingerprint reader is nothing more than a high tech useless gimmick.
And, i agree with some of the commenters: It is not as secure as hollywood would make you think.
P.S. Talking abount ubuntu 8.10, no idea if it got fixed in 9.04.
April 20th, 2009 on 12:57 pm
A lot of people don’t understand that Kubuntu is a testing distribution because Ubuntu advertises itself as “Linux for human beings”, easily installable, easy to configure, easy to use, without glitches, … , and Kubuntu is officially part of the Ubuntu family, so people expect that the same philosophy applies to Kubuntu. Clearly it doesn’t and Kubuntu doesn’t say on its website that people should not expect that it does. That’s why we (its unfortunate users, fooled by the not-kept promise of “Linux for human beings”) are so angry at Kubuntu.
April 20th, 2009 on 1:47 pm
If you need a nice and well integrated IM client for KDE, you should try kopete (or, if you only need MSN, Kmess is definitely better).
April 20th, 2009 on 5:22 pm
i almost didnt even read the rest when you start off with KDE4 wasnt ready (blame the distros, EVERYONE knew it wasnt ready for every day use. there was a warning on the bottle but no one ever reads these) so you switched desktops instead…
I have yet to find one person to explain why you didnt jkust use KDE3.5 which was updated twice in 2008 and is still a great DE.
Did s0omeone force you to use KDE4… no. you had to have the latest and greatest even though it wasnt ready.
You have TWO choices.
THE newest version of the greatest user frendly distro PCLINUXOS (im a Gento0o guy but for friends and family, PCLOS is low maintenance and just works out of the box) was just released last month and guess what…. its using KDE3.5.
I like 4.2 but there are still a few things Id like to see back in 4.3 so Ill wait till June. You know why….because I can.
And you know what Im going to do if its not ready for me in June…. wait till Xmas for 4.4.
While my propretary using friends sit with old OS and desktops, I have one which is still kicking ass.
Why would I try an unfinished DE and then drop my current one for another one….makes no sense.
I use KDE, XCFE, E17, XP and OS10 during a day of work…. I minimize all taskbars and use kids photos as background, so I could care less about the decorations. the only one I wont use out of principle is Gnome which is using the disease known as mono as integral parts of preograms like Evolution. i didnt mind it when it was plugins for Silverlite but not when its part of the core infrastructure.
Btw, my brother is a distro whore and he keeps telling me that Kubuntu is never in his top 3 KDE distros. They break to many things to do it their own way and is a mess. He still recommends Mandriva as the best KDE4 distro.
Of course, I think most people like him are just like the wine swishers and pot connaisseurs talking about bouquet and aroma.
Distros using the same DE look the same.
My brother had 3 distreos running KDE4 on his machines and our brother in law asked if these werent the same.
they are.
April 20th, 2009 on 6:32 pm
@Tommy.S I moved from mandrake/mandriva (I think the last release I used was 2007? or 2006? the one after they started using years for versions) because I had enough of lagging so far behind and a lot of bs floating around at the time. As I recall at the time the latest Mandriva release had KDE 3.4.2 and people were using custom repos for 3.5 and when Mandriva came to 3.5 you still needed custom repos to get your hands on anything nearly remotely the latest version (I think 3.5.3/4 was out while official repos were still 3.4.2 or 3.5.0 or something, I even recall them making a repo with 3.5.0 in it themselves at one point after enough people started bitching). Then to top it off the mandriva devs were slagging off the custom repos for “ruining their distro” when mandriva were clearly not meeting their targets users needs so, I got annoyed by the bs and moved to kubuntu since I heard good things (which for a while was the case, being English I have never had the translation issues so I count myself lucky in that respect). That being said I found Mandrivas forums to be very helpful, I usually struggle to get any kind of support on kubuntu forums or irc but I always had someone respond on Mandriva forums, I found that impressive. Have things improved?
@KDE+Debian (if that is even your real alias
)
It’s funny you say that it’s meant to be testing when I clearly said that I got more stability out of a custom build of software that isn’t even considered released yet, that sounds far more likely to fall over than kubuntu’s should yet it didn’t … there were bugs with some behaviour since its still in development but it didn’t crash or run slow like I have had with their packages (although so far I have to say jaunty has shaped up very well in comparison so I am quite pleased) … interesting …
@lefty.crupps this proves one thing … I suck as googling (I hate that word, we need a replacement … searching sounds boring …). However I am really not surprised. Fortunately it is not a feature I need, just me messing about for the most part, but doesn’t excuse kubuntu
.
April 21st, 2009 on 8:36 pm
I am using Arch linux for past 2 months and running KDE 4.2, I created a blog with screenshots and you can visit if you like to see the KDE 4.2 screenshots on Arch linux http://duopetalflower.blogspot.com/2009/04/these-are-arch-linux-screenshots-i-to.html
September 19th, 2009 on 12:20 pm
Could you share your ksshaskpass trick? I would really like to stop typing “ssh-add ssh-key” every time I log into KDE.
September 20th, 2009 on 10:09 pm
Flavio:-
#!/bin/bashexport SSH_ASKPASS=ksshaskpass
ssh-add
Add this to ~/.kde/Autostart (I called it ssh.sh and chmodded it to a+x)