21 replies to this topic 1 votes

[+Mephistopheles]

KDE Plasma Workspaces, Applications and Platform 4.8 Improve User Experience

KDE is delighted to announce its latest set of releases, providing major updates to KDE Plasma Workspaces, KDE Applications, and the KDE Platform. Version 4.8 provides many new features, and improved stability and performance.

KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.8 Gain Adaptive Power Management

Highlights for Plasma Workspaces include Kwin optimizations, the redesign of power management, and integration with Activities. The first QtQuick-based Plasma widgets have entered the default installation of Plasma Desktop, with more to follow in future releases. Read the complete Plasma Workspaces Announcement.

KDE Applications 4.8 Offer Faster, More Scalable File Management

KDE applications released today include Dolphin with its new display engine, new Kate features and improvements, Gwenview with functional and visual improvements. KDE Telepathy reaches first beta milestone. Marble's new features keep arriving, among which are: Elevation Profile, satellite tracking and Krunner integration. Read the complete 'KDE Applications Announcement'.

KDE Platform 4.8 Enhances Interoperability, Introduces Touch-Friendly Components

KDE Platform provides the foundation for KDE software. KDE software is more stable than ever before. In addition to stability improvements and bugfixes, Platform 4.8 provides better tools for building fluid and touch-friendly user interfaces, integrates with other systems' password saving mechanisms and lays the base for more powerful interaction with other people using the new KDE Telepathy framework. For full details, read the KDE Platform 4.8 release announcement.

Source: KDE website
Download information: KDE SC 4.8.0 Info Page

Screenshot:

[Ninja Grinch]

I cannot see why people "like" KDE. Too bulky and clunky for me.

[Mamoun]

Ninja Grinch, on 25 January 2012 - 17:00, said:

I cannot see why people "like" KDE. Too bulky and clunky for me.

To me its UI looks professional and its feature set is impressive. It sometimes get a bit too messy and it lacks a cohesive and organized approach to some parts of the settings and management of the desktop environment (it's called a DE, right? Sorry for any linux geeks If I got that wrong). But all in all it has its place in the linux world with its different goal in doing things than gnome. I also think it's slightly more familiar to windows users than gnome (but it could be only me).

[Joshie]

Mamoun, on 03 February 2012 - 23:35, said:

To me its UI looks professional and its feature set is impressive. It sometimes get a bit too messy and it lacks a cohesive and organized approach to some parts of the settings and management of the desktop environment (it's called a DE, right? Sorry for any linux geeks If I got that wrong). But all in all it has its place in the linux world with its different goal in doing things than gnome. I also think it's slightly more familiar to windows users than gnome (but it could be only me).

It's not just you. Where Gnome has taken cues from Mac OS, KDE has taken several cues from Windows. For funzies, while Gnome users acknowledge that it takes cues from Mac OS, KDE users get a sandstorm in their gender-appropriate crevices whenever anyone points at something added to KDE just a few months after the same element was added to a version of Windows.

I'm in the flustercuck camp, myself, when it comes to KDE. Everything strikes me as bubbly and gaudy and lacks a cohesive design language. KDE feels like somebody ran one of those disgusting custom-GUI, shun-all-native-controls, wifi configuration or anti-virus applications and thought that kind of intentional inconsistency was a great idea. The above screenshot is the closest I've seen to an improvement in years, and only because there's so much gray everywhere it all just sort of blurs together and you don't register the skin anymore.

But that's cheating.

[Lo Tec]

Joshie, on 03 February 2012 - 23:58, said:

It's not just you. Where Gnome has taken cues from Mac OS, KDE has taken several cues from Windows. For funzies, while Gnome users acknowledge that it takes cues from Mac OS, KDE users get a sandstorm in their gender-appropriate crevices whenever anyone points at something added to KDE just a few months after the same element was added to a version of Windows.

I'm in the flustercuck camp, myself, when it comes to KDE. Everything strikes me as bubbly and gaudy and lacks a cohesive design language. KDE feels like somebody ran one of those disgusting custom-GUI, shun-all-native-controls, wifi configuration or anti-virus applications and thought that kind of intentional inconsistency was a great idea. The above screenshot is the closest I've seen to an improvement in years, and only because there's so much gray everywhere it all just sort of blurs together and you don't register the skin anymore.

But that's cheating.

Umm.... Wrong. Windows took cues from KDE. Mac took cues from Gnome.

[Fus10n]

I really like it as well..

[Colin McGregor]

Lo Tec, on 04 February 2012 - 00:06, said:

Umm.... Wrong. Windows took cues from KDE. Mac took cues from Gnome.

lol yeah and Doom 1 took cues from Call of Duty MW3.

[+ViperAFK]

Joshie, on 03 February 2012 - 23:58, said:

It's not just you. Where Gnome has taken cues from Mac OS, KDE has taken several cues from Windows. For funzies, while Gnome users acknowledge that it takes cues from Mac OS, KDE users get a sandstorm in their gender-appropriate crevices whenever anyone points at something added to KDE just a few months after the same element was added to a version of Windows.

I'm in the flustercuck camp, myself, when it comes to KDE. Everything strikes me as bubbly and gaudy and lacks a cohesive design language. KDE feels like somebody ran one of those disgusting custom-GUI, shun-all-native-controls, wifi configuration or anti-virus applications and thought that kind of intentional inconsistency was a great idea. The above screenshot is the closest I've seen to an improvement in years, and only because there's so much gray everywhere it all just sort of blurs together and you don't register the skin anymore.

But that's cheating.

So you are saying it looks too inconsistent, but the grey skin looks too consistent? One thing to note is the default theme is very customization via color schemes. There are many color schemes to choose from by default that are less "grey", and you can download more as well.

I actually just gave 4.8 a try today on my arch install. I had never liked kde in the past, mainly do to buginess and performance issues and I am actually pretty impressed with 4.8. Its extremely fast and responsive on my laptop, even more so than gnome 3 which ran pretty well too. I'm getting 17 seconds boot time to a usable desktop, apps are all opening fast, and kwin effects are super smooth for once. Best of all plasma no longer crashes if I so much as look at it wrong :0

The best thing so far for me is dolphin. Its so much better than nautilus in every single way, and a lot faster. The new layout engine it got in 4.8 has some really nice eye candy and is screaming fast.

I also really like that there is finally an option in system settings to disable nepomuk. I very rarely search for files so have little use for it. If I do search for files I use FSrunner (krunner plugin)

There are still issues with the look in feel, the gui can indeed be weird/convoluted in certain places but its improved.

[.Neo]

Lo Tec, on 04 February 2012 - 00:06, said:

Umm.... Wrong. [...] Mac took cues from Gnome.

You're delusional.

[James7]

I'm on KDE 4.8. I already have explained my conversion from Unity to KDE. I'm not hardcore and never have been.

But I had my desktop set to display, well, my desktop folders. I have to remind it now every time I log on to get it to treat my desktop as a place where you can have files.

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

[Lo Tec]

.Neo, on 06 February 2012 - 22:03, said:

You're delusional.

Gnome was released in 1997. The current Mac interface came about in the early 2000s. Some of Mac's interface was "borrowed" from NeXTStep.

[Fus10n]

This looks really cool. I think I am going to test this out in vmware first..

[+Mephistopheles]

Mac OS X is NeXTStep with a modified UI. NeXT had a beta with a shelf (dock on steroids) in the works around the time they were bought by Apple. This is where the OS X UI draws its inspiration from. Certainly not GNOME 1.x.

[Fus10n]

haha I remember that. Good point

[AJerman]

I think Windows 3.1 looked better than this. KDE looks absolutely awful. I keep thinking they'll come to their senses and revamp the UI, but it doesn't look like it's gonna happen. Are there at least other themes that look more professional?