Myriam Schweingruber schrieb:
...
> Calling the kicker menu being dreadful is very subjective. 

Of course, although I suspect that it wouldn't get high marks with more or less 
objective usability criteria.

...
> Well, you might have missed the paradigm change in KDE4 then (which
> happened almost 3 years ago): Konqueror is *not* intended to be used
> as a file manager anymore,

Again, this was for me a (subjectively) dreadful decision, enough to put me off 
KDE unless they keep developing Konqueror. BTW, some distributions still use 
Konqueror as file manager and Firefox as browser!


> the decision was to make it a lean and fast
> browser, not a "Eierlegende Wollmichsau".

Yes, it is still my favorite browser, more useful than Firefox except for those 
  sites it can't show. But I think the unique combination of browser and file 
manager is so useful that it was a great mistake for the KDE community to 
degrade the best KDE program. (even though you might prefer EMACS :-) )

...
>> I realise this is OT here, but I need to gripe! Otherwise KDE4.2 has lots of
>> terrific features. I just wish they'd merged with Gnome beforehand, which 
>> seems
>> to want to do a major rebuild as well...
> 
> What? Theo, either I misunderstand what you are saying here or you
> have not understood the basics of software development frameworks:
> merging KDE with Gnome is impossible, having two Desktop Environments
> is in the nature of the two: KDE uses Qt, Gnome sticks with GTK+.

You're right of course, but look at it from the user point of view: a while ago 
there was mainly a choice between KDE and Gnome as well as a few very lean, 
very 
basic desktop environments.

Now we have KDE 3.5 (still my choice for productive work), a very well 
developed 
Gnome, XFCE as a slightly leaner version, and many other leaner ones coming 
along nicely. With KDE 4 we have a super new thing surpassing Windows Vista and 
perhaps MacOS for effects. And all the add-ons like Compiz, Cairo-dock, etc. 
And 
now Gnome is threatening to do the same as KDE, a major new rebuild! While this 
is all pro-choice and pro-freedom, I think it is getting too intimidating and 
may put people off Linux. Therefore it *would* have been nice for Gnome and KDE 
to get together, so that we have only one and not two "advanced Desktops".


> Everybody can use KDE applications in Gnome and Gnome applications in
> KDE, so there is no big problem there, besides the look not being very
> harmonized. 

Yes, that is a great thing and the basis of Swiss Remix. The unharmonized look 
has a bit to do not just with the toolkits, but that Ubuntu *wants* a different 
design for each "family", whereas others try to make them look the same.


> [rant]
> Criticizing Free Software to be this or that and not how *you* would
> like it to be exactly, while one really has enough choices, is
> something that makes me angry, especially when it comes from people
> who have the knowledge to take part in the development cycle and/or
> influence design decisions. I don't think I have to remind you that if
> you don't like it, make it better, make something yourself or pay a
> developer to do so...

This is of course exactly what I'm doing to the best of my abilities. I like 
*ubuntu a lot, but don't think much of the standard install-CDs. Hence the 
Remix. However developing KDE applications is quite outside my ability, so all 
I 
can do criticise on lists like this and hope to influence some developers.

Cheers, Theo

-- 
Ubuntu-ch mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-ch

Reply via email to