On Sun, 06 Dec, 2009 at 09:37:24 +0100, Sven Burmeister wrote:
From scratch is certainly exaggerated but yes KDE4 includes opportunities and changes that demand the user to learn new things as one has to in the real world every day.
A bit like "there no problems, only challenges" ;)
And yes, I still claim that if those buttons would have been crucial for a considerable group of KDE users somebody would have spent time or money on them. Yet even those that claim to need it really bad are not willing to do so. And none of those that still praise KDE3 and claim KDE4 to be unusable cared enough about KDE3 to take over the repo maintenance. Go figure.
Basically 'put up or shut up', which is fine I guess.
Nobody ever claimed that KDE's users are a static group so while KDE4 attracts new users it will also drive away those that do not like the change and put off most things they do not need as bling,
Widening the userbase is probably not bad. The problem for me is that KDE seems to be heading in a direction that I don't neccessarily agree with. The impression I get is that many of the things I really liked about KDE3 turned out to be 'sideeffects' or bugs, which have now been 'corrected'. Previously KDE and I were much more in agreement about stuff. 1 -> 2 -> 3 felt very much like going 'forward' where 3 -> 4 feels more like going... sideways? To me it's not so much the 'bling'. Once I figure out how to switch it off, it's gone (although I'd very much like a 'master switch'). It's more about really really basic stuff. I don't have metrics to prove it, but my overall impression is that KDE4 is much more mouse-intensive than KDE3 was, which is no improvement IMHO. One of the things that originally made me favor KDE over other DE's was the supreme configurability of everything. With 4 I get a little disappointed every time I right-click something, and only get one 'parameter' to change. Of the 8 bugs where I managed to actually muster up the energy to be active - even if only by voting for them - 1 has been fixed: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=164261 The rest are hanging in limbo somewhere between unconfirmed and 'well yes it could be done, so there...' https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=145358 https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=160024 https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=190588 https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=205221 https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=152385 https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=164519 https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=194891 Particilarly 152385 highlights the 'conflict' between what I like, and where KDE seems to be going: I simply cannot understand how having windows open with the same geometry as the one 'last in focus' improves anybody's 'desktop experience'. The bug is about 'konsole', but the phenomenon is KDE-wide - and the result of a deliberate decision. All of those bugs represent something I consider 'good ideas', but for some reason they're not 'popular' enough to get attention, which leaves me with the disheartening feeling that I'm no longer in the target group for KDE. I have neither the energy nor the skills to fix any of it, so basically I can just 'shut up' - which is precisely what I've been doing. Especially since speaking up anytime during the last year year or so, would have just added to the noise of the 'KDE4 haters'.
When claiming that KDE4 puts one off because of changes one should never forget that KDE4 attracts new users as well and as long as more users are attracted than put off it's community will grow.
I'm not afraid of change, but I'm saddened by the fact that much of this change is in a direction away from my preferences... regardless of a more general community growth.
One might ignore that fact and wonder why oneself gets ignored but hey, that's life. Everybody has the right to make their own decisions and if they don't like KDE4, fair enough.
It's not so much that I don't like KDE4, as it's the feeling that KDE has stopped liking me. For the time being I'm probably going to continue trying to get used to 4. Who knows, over time I might get used to the feeling of 'lack of control I used to have', or the tweakability might creep back in? /jon -- YMMV -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org