KDE 4.1 was released at the end of July and you can add it to any
Ubuntu installation with a simple repository update.
Add
is the operative word here. It's basically a no-risk operation since
4.1 will happily co-exist with your current version of KDE or Gnome(or
Enlightenment, or Fluxbox, or Openbox, or ...). It's simply a matter of
switching display managers at the login screen.
Kubuntu users should add the following repository to Adept Manager (by
clicking
Adept
/
Manage Repositories
/
Third-Party Software).
Ubuntu users should select
System,
Administration,
Software Sources
from the desktop menu and add it there.
deb
http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubuntu hardy main
Install the package:
kubuntu-kde4-desktop
either via your GUI installer or by running the command
sudo
apt-get install kubuntu-kde4-desktop in a console. The
total download is around 112MB.
For good measure I also added:
gtk-qt-engine-kde4
: a theme engine that gives GTK+ 2 applications a
more
unified KDE 4 look.
kdeplasma-addons
: a collection of additional Plasma data engines and widgets.
kdebase-workspace
: to fix a
bug
when running the KDM-KDE4 display manager. I only added this
to try and fix my graphics woes (see below). It didn't work.
The initial result was a sumptuous graphical feast ...
KDE
3.5.9 Desktop (Before)
[Click
for a larger view]
KDE 4.1 (After)
The
graphics are rich, transparency looks great, and Compiz
-- which I'd set up in KDE 3 -- transferred across flawlessly. To get
an idea of the integration, compare
these two views of the Dolphin file manager. The KDE 3 version looks
positvely old-fashioned in comparison ...
Dolphin -- in KDE 3 and KDE 4
But I won't bore you with talk of
all
the new features. Instead, let's talk about the problems.
Kickoff
Kickoff,
the new menuing system, looks good and I like the Search facility, but
it's actually a retrograde addition since it requires more mouse
wiggles and clicks than the Classic menus, and is less intuitive to
boot. To start OpenOffice.org Writer in KDE 3 I ...
- Click the K menu
- Slide the mouse to Office
- Slide down to OOo Writer
- Click on the item
In KDE 4 that sequence is ...
- Click the K menu
- Move to Applications
- Move to Office
- Click on it
- Scroll down to OOo Writer
- Click on the item
A
first it looks like this isn't a big
deal because switching back to the Classic menu is simply a matter
of right-clicking the K button. But caution! Doing this
removes
some functionality. In KDE 4, the only way to put icons on the panel is
to right-click on them in the Kickoff menu. (But they don't seem to
stay there! When I restarted 4 they'd all vanished.)
Panel Control
Speaking
of Panel, a lot of the old options and functionality seem to have
vanished in KDE 4. These are the only options I've found so far ...
... compared with the multi-layered controls you had in KDE 3 ...
In fact there are now so few user-configurable options in Panel I've
started calling it ... er ... Gnome.
Dolphin
It
looks better and works more smoothly in KDE 4, but I still don't like
it. Konqueror is a
vastly
superior file manager. Fortunately it is still available in KDE 4, but
it's hidden
away under its web-broswer+file_manager+??? cloak. One of the first
things I did was create a separate menu item for it using the
ridiculously arcane command string
kfmclient
openProfile filemanangement then set this as
the default file manager
Other Interface Nonsense
Back in January, Insane Coder pointed out
other
retrograde interface steps in KDE 4. Unfortunately, no one at
KDE was listening. They're all still there.
Input Actions
I'm
a big fan of using hotkeys to start applications and perform various
useful functions, but I've had big problems with 'em under 4.1. They
seemed to
work
initially and then stopped. For good. Even enabling the preset
Example set produces nothing. And what happened to the Run command
(Alt+F2)?
Screensavers
Where did all
the screensavers go? By default you have a choice of Blank Screen or
Random -- which obviously means you'll just get a blank screen. Fix
this by adding the
kscreensaver-kde4
package.
Graphical Desktop Weirdness
The
underlying platform seems rock solid but I get a
lot of
graphical weirdness. With focus on an application like OpenOffice
Writer or Kompozer (but
not
Gimp),
dragging the cursor over the Taskbar creates all sorts of weird effects
...
Clock weirdness
... sometimes wrecks the menu ...
Wrecked menus
... and can even screw up the entire desktop ...
None
of these are fatal, but they're damned annoying -- and distracting.
It surprised me to find this much instability in an upgrade/bug
fix version eight months after the inital KDE 4 release. Of course it
may be -- and almost certainly is -- something to do with my set up,
but until I get it sorted I'll be sticking with KDE 3.
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