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Author Topic: [EN] Desktop Linux Revolt: How KDE Survived Its User Backlash  (Read 4888 times)


Offline dibl

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RE: Desktop Linux Revolt: How KDE Survived Its User Backlash
« Reply #1 on: 2012/09/13, 10:48:46 »
Yes, that is a very good analysis -- thanks devil!

I was a rather new Linux user in 2007, and was just getting my proficiency with KDE 3.5. So I was already in "learning mode" when KDE 4.0 was launched. It was certainly new and different, but I never understood all the howling and outrage -- it was disappointing to me to see that the Linux community was not so open-minded as I hoped.

But, you always have to be careful when you mess with people's productivity.
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Offline devil

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RE: Desktop Linux Revolt: How KDE Survived Its User Backlash
« Reply #2 on: 2012/09/13, 11:10:06 »
Quote

But, you always have to be careful when you mess with people's productivity.

Right, and it is just human to want to keep what you are used to and be sceptical of new stuff. In retrospective, put KDE4.8.x and KDE3.5 next to each other and wonder how you could ever have worked with something as ugly as kde3. That is the human factor.

greetz
devil

Offline Lanzi

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RE: Desktop Linux Revolt: How KDE Survived Its User Backlash
« Reply #3 on: 2012/09/13, 11:47:17 »
Good article and a good analysis.
I might add, that I think KDE4 lost users because it was published too soon, in an unfinished state.
Shocked users came back, when with KDE 4.2 the general usability and stability got better.

What I still do not understand, is the actual criticism by a lot of users testing KDE4 on fedora and kubuntu.
I really cannot image that they do implement kde in such a bad way. Inever tested them though...

Offline vilde

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Desktop Linux Revolt: How KDE Survived Its User Backlash
« Reply #4 on: 2012/09/13, 12:53:52 »
Before KDE 4.x I always used kde since probably 1.0. But when KDE 4.x came I left and have used Xfce since that. I have tried KDE then and then but for me it's only to much, I don't need all the features, I don't even understand a lot of the features. I don't say it's bad or anything but I have everything I need in Xfce and don't need anything bigger, heavier and more fancy.

It's nice that there are choices and that we are able to use what we like.

Offline clubex

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Desktop Linux Revolt: How KDE Survived Its User Backlash
« Reply #5 on: 2012/09/13, 14:48:59 »
vilde: I understand your experience with early KDE 4. I took me a while to understand the concept of Activities but now I wouldn't be without them. They have improved my work flow no end and made tasks easier for me to visualize and control.

To my mind any new DE which may improve your work flow always warrants a thorough investigation and is more important than any slight decrease in bloat or marginal increase in spead.

Offline ralul

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Desktop Linux Revolt: How KDE Survived Its User Backlash
« Reply #6 on: 2012/09/13, 17:30:13 »
Phoronix has just published a test about propr. Nvidia with
- Win7
- Ubuntu-12.10
- Kubuntu-12.10
Shows Kwin and Win7 about 20percent in front of compiz. Grässlin announced he likely will try to make Kwin just qt dependent. With all of kdelibs out of the game Kwin would gain credentials as the really best and universial WindowManager .... think of razor-qt ...

@clubex, I would appreciate an intro about activities!
Having tried them when functionality was buggy in the early days, I had lost motivation to wild try on my own again ...
experiencing siduction runs better than my gentoo makes me know I know nothing

Offline midrow

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Desktop Linux Revolt: How KDE Survived Its User Backlash
« Reply #7 on: 2012/09/13, 18:44:04 »
Quote from: "ralul"
@clubex, I would appreciate an intro about activities!
Having tried them when functionality was buggy in the early days, I had lost motivation to wild try on my own again ...
That does apply to me too.

Offline vilde

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Desktop Linux Revolt: How KDE Survived Its User Backlash
« Reply #8 on: 2012/09/13, 20:14:26 »
Quote from: "clubex"
vilde: I understand your experience with early KDE 4. I took me a while to understand the concept of Activities but now I wouldn't be without them. They have improved my work flow no end and made tasks easier for me to visualize and control.

To my mind any new DE which may improve your work flow always warrants a thorough investigation and is more important than any slight decrease in bloat or marginal increase in speed.
That's good if it's that you want but I have no need for speeding up any workflow, I don't do work on my computers. I don't like that everything shall be "speedy", I make it a thing of being inefficient when I do some work and take it easy normally, I don't want to run through life. But as I mentioned above, we are all different and have different needs, and we are lucky that devs of Linux-operating systems deliver their distributions with a choice of desktop environments.

Offline clubex

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Desktop Linux Revolt: How KDE Survived Its User Backlash
« Reply #9 on: 2012/09/14, 02:04:00 »
ralul + midrow:

https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/564826-kde4-activities-for-fast-efficient-workflow

seems a reasonable, more up to date tutorial.

wromey

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Desktop Linux Revolt: How KDE Survived Its User Backlash
« Reply #10 on: 2012/11/18, 15:28:38 »
For me are the activities the most important feature of KDE. I have 9 of them on my laptop: Medien, Arbeit, Musik, Grafik, Lesen, ... I did not find anything comparable on another platform. It is verty easy to use, after one understands. Imagine it 9 different laptops in my laptop, which i can switch.

Wolfgang