.comment: A (P)review of KDE2

By: Dennis E. Powell
Wednesday, August 2, 2000 09:24:26 AM EST
URL: http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/previews/2139/1/

A New Look as Well

There's never been a time in the history of Linux as exciting as the next few months promise to be: the 2.4.0 kernel promises to make more hardware work, and the hardware that already works work better, under Linux than ever before while introducing a host of exciting new features. (Among these is allowing the features introduced in XFree86-4.00 and repaired somewhat in 4.01 to work, though the XFree86 and DRI projects have some work yet to do, too--perhaps also available in the next few months.) And KDE2 will be released, which to many of us is the most exciting thing that has happened to the desktop since Al Gore wrote the original Linux kernel many years ago.

Last week the KDE developers imposed a feature freeze for the 2.0 release, so for the first time we have a solid idea of what the new KDE will comprise. It will be great (it already is), so the complaints I raise here and there (or, more likely, here, and here, and here) are minor whines and quibbles, which isn't to say that the KDE developers are not cordially invited to follow my sage advice.

The Desktop
There's nothing in KDE2 that will leave the user of earlier versions entirely astonished, but there are some things that will be a little puzzling, perhaps annoying at first (and not inconceivably annoying after that). Gone are the KPanel and Taskbar, replaced by a unified thing called Kicker. It contains a number of links to applications by default; unlike the old KPanel, you can drag a file onto it and drop it there. This is of course useful for application launching, for those apps you don't want to navigate the KMenu to find. Yes, the KMenu is still there, though the familiar alphabetical listing of categories is not; the new arrangement must have made sense to someone somewhere, but I do not know who or why, because it makes no sense at all to me. Briefly during development alphabetization returned, but it has disappeared; here's hoping it will get restored by release time. A good change is the addition of non-KDE applications to the appropriate submenus, instead of segregating them in a submenu ghetto of their own.

The Taskbar has been incorporated into Kicker, instead of being a separate desktop element. As a matter of personal taste, this is not a change for the better. In KDE-1.x, KPanel and the Taskbar could both be set to autohide, triggering on a user-configurable edge of the screen. (Kicker can be set to autohide, and it lives at the bottom of the screen by default, but you can drag it to the top or side of the screen, and it will stay there.) I populated KPanel with all the applications that I frequently use, and really don't have the space to spare for a taskbar, too. Making them separable would be a Good Thing. A clock applet lives on Kicker, too, and other applications, such as the dialer, KPPP, are supposed to dock there. Puzzlingly, there is now across the top of the screen an odd menubar that has in its defense only that it can be turned off (right mouse button on desktop, Configure Desktop, uncheck "enable desktop menus"). It's redundant; better to restore the old taskbar, I think.

Beginning in KDE-1.1.2, there was kludgy support for what were called themes. KDE2 now has full support of themes, and will import Gnome themes, if you have one or more of those that you like. There are several bundled with the release. (For what it's worth, I've found that XFree86-4.01 is happiest with the KDE-SGI theme.) Of equal delight to some users, among them me, is that KDE2's warm embrace of things non-KDE extends to incorporation of the wonderful XscreenSaver modules in the list of available screensavers. (One chooses one screensaver module; if you want to use XscreenSavers instead, put that fine application before KDE2 in your ~/.xinitrc and leave the KDE screensaver application off, as it is be default.) Likewise, desktop background programs, both from KDE (KWorldWatch) and elsewhere (XEarth, XGlobe, and XPlanet that I know of; maybe others as well) can be configured and launched in the KDE2 background configurator. This is good stuff.

Not so good, to me at least, is the titlebar one sees when first launching an application under KDE2. It has gotten all scrambled, with the X to close the app moved inexplicably to the extreme left. Many is the KDE user who, upgrading, will maximize the application he or she seeks instead to close. Fortunately, you can click the right mouse button on the titlebar and restore sanity by choosing Decoration > KDE 1. Unfortunately, the other attractive choices all have the close button on the left. The change is gratuitous and in my opinion a little contemptuous of users. But it is, as I mentioned, easily changed, though it would be nice if the old style of arranging buttons were in the control center, so that sane KDE2 users could still take advantage of the other window decoration options.

KDE Applications

The experienced KDE user will find a wealth of familiar applications in KDE2; most of them have been ported over, and in many cases improved. The big stories are KOffice, the first integrated, open-source, full-featured, GPL'ed office suite and one that, were there others, would likely be the best, and Konqueror, the delightful file manager and network and web browser. I'm writing this in KWord, the KDE2 word processor, as I have all of these columns. I have written about both KOffice and Konqueror in the last few weeks; you can find the KOffice story at http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/1849/1/ and the Konqueror piece at http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/previews/1901/1/.

But it doesn't stop there. KMail, to pick an application with which I am intimately involved on a daily basis, has grown tremendously into a full-featured email application (yes, it reads HTML mail; no, it doesn't do anything to keep this from being a bad idea, unless you enjoy spam) with a new, prettier, and far more elaborate configuration routine, message threading (important if you're on mailing lists and your email program is more like a newsgroup reader), child folders, and more.

There is a new newsreader, KNode. There is an AOL Instant Messenger program, Kit. There are new toys (eyecandy apps). The Pixie image management system, written by Daniel M. Duley, the legendary Mosfet, shows enormous promise. KMenuEdit, the menu editor, has managed to become even more weird and complicated, but longtime KDE users have found other ways to edit their menus anyway (about which I'll write a piece in a few weeks; if I forget, remind me). In keeping with the "tips on startup" philosophy that is found in the Gimp and in commercial applications that crash frequently, there is a tip application that actually contains useful information. There is said to be Java support in many places, but it doesn't work very well in KDE2, anymore than it does elsewhere. (Do I get to say it yet? Java may be a good idea someplace, but the desktop isn't that place.) The multimedia engine has been rebuilt from the ground up, with a selection of applications and even an application builder.

The Personal Information Manager, KOrganizer, has received a much-needed overhaul and now can tie in with KMail, serving as its addressbook among other things.

Configuration Tools

At this point (I'm writing this based on a compile of CVS code from over the weekend), two configuration facts are evident: KDE2 will be tremendously configurable, more so even than the very configurable KDE-1.x, and it's been rewritten and rearranged to the extent that KDE-1.x configuration experience will be somewhat but not entirely useful. The new KDE Control Center manifests both increased power and considerable reshuffling. If you are among those who could without blinking change mouse focus policy in KDE-1.x, you'll enjoy some new exploration in KDE2. Some of the new options are mentioned above. Most of them are available in multiple locations--the Control Center and KMenu > Preferences, for instance. The new user and upgrader alike would well spend some time exploring the Control Center, not necessarily making changes but learning where changes are made.

The Bottom Line
I caught hell a couple of weeks ago when in this space I called KDE as close to a standard desktop as exists in the Linux world. To which I say: "Tough." If you purchase or otherwise acquire a Linux distribution and install it, chances are KDE is what you'll see when you boot it. And I think that this is a Good Thing. Moreover, it is a thing that will be better when KDE2 is released and becomes the standard (okay, "commonly encountered") desktop. I build the CVS code of KDE2 once a week or so, and I follow the developer mailing list. The extent to which these guys and Emily anticipate user needs and provide for them is truly amazing. If they were philosophers defining the meaning of life, I sometimes think they'd get it sorted out in a couple of weeks. These people are pretty good.

If you're using KDE-1.x in a production environment, now is not the time to switch over; some notions notwithstanding, KDE2 smells very good, but ain't soup yet. It will be by release time (though if you have proprietary apps written to QT-1.4x, you'll need to make provision for them). Now may well, though, be a time to download the source and take a look. You'll be pleased.

But I'm convinced that anyone given a computer with nothing on it but Linux and KDE2 could in very short order be doing useful work of many kinds. The KDE home page asks if Unix is ready for the desktop. KDE2 answers that question.

The answer is yes.