KDE 2.2 beta 1 Review

[Deven Phillips, CISSP]

Warren,

    The bugs that you have talked about here have been squashed already. 
The correct way to get KDE 2.2 beta  running on a Mandrake system is to 
use the MandrakeFreq CDs. You can download them from many Mandrake 
mirror and do a n upgrade from those CDs. My Mandrake 8.0 Freq system 
works great with KDE 2.2 beta 1.

Deven Phillips, CISSP
Network Architect
Viata Online, Inc.


Warren Togami wrote:

>Today I tried KDE 2.2 beta 1 on my Mandrake 8.0.  Please check out this
>screen shot.
>http://www.mplug.org/archive/2001/kde22beta1.png
>In particular look for:
>* Anti-Aliased fonts
>* New Nautilus-like features in K file manager
>* Windows XP taskbar behavior
>
>You can read KDE's official page on the subject at
>http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-2.2-beta1.html , but here are the
>things that I noticed most.
>* Performance!  KDE 2.2 *feels* faster and smoother than KDE 2.1.1.
>* Konquerer file manager has many added features that brings it at par with
>Gnome's Nautilus in the bells-and-whistles department.
>* Full support for anti-aliased fonts.  Within the Konquerer web browser,
>fonts have a gorgeous... almost MacOS X feeling.  Unlike in Nautilus,
>anti-aliasing fonts does not seem to degrade performance.  Things look even
>better with true type web fonts from the Font Deuglification HOWTO.
>* A controverisal new feature in KDE 2.2 is the Windows XP style taskbar
>where each running program is shown in the taskbar, and all open windows of
>that program are selectable in a drawer menu that pops up when you click it.
>I often right-click and open links in a "New Window", although this may
>confuse many Windows users.  This behavior introduced in KDE 2.2 and Windows
>XP is actually how things behave in MacOS 9 and X web browsers, so this is
>not a new concept.  You can see this on the bottom of the screen shot.
>*KDE's khtml engine is very good, but Mozilla's gecko is still seems faster
>at rendering pages.  Fortunately you can use Mozilla's gecko rendering
>engine within the Konquerer web browser with a simple plugin.
>
>Key Newbie Usability Features
>Many features were introduced into KDE that are important to the acceptance
>of Unix as a mainstream desktop platform by the average user, although many
>seasoned Unix veterans may hate them.  These features are of interest to me
>because I am in a position where I am trying to show users that Linux
>desktops are usable and intuitive.
>* Application Feedback - For years Unix lacked something as simple as an
>"hour glass", telling the user that programs are loading or thinking.  The
>lack of application feedback of this nature has been a constant annoyance
>and barrier for new users, who would idiotically click on the Netscape icon
>five times because they don't see any indication that the program is loading
>just because they are used to application feedback in all mainstream Windows
>and Mac operating systems for nearly 10 years.  Although I am sure this is
>configurable, KDE 2.2's application feedback displays a tiny version of the
>icon of the program being launched next to the mouse pointer, giving the
>user some indication that the program is being loaded.  I see this is a
>welcome improvement to the mouse pointer in Windows 2000 with a tiny hour
>glass floating next to it, because it tells the user that something is
>occuring, and which program is doing that.
>* Double click to open stuff.  Previously KDE 2.1.x had NO OPTION to set
>double clicking in the environment because KDE developers hated it.
>Evidently, enough stupid Windows users nagged, and they added the feature in
>a new Windows 9x "style".  Although this would aid in the transition for new
>users to become comfortable in a Linux desktop, I personally would not
>enable this feature because KDE is just so much enjoyable without it.
>Although many of us may hate this feature, the key thing here is flexibility
>and choice for those who may like it.
>
>Conclusion
>Although I see some major usability, performance and visual improvements,
>there seems to be many nasty bugs so I don't recommend people trying this
>unless you seriously know what you are doing.  Installation required
>figuring out some non-obvious things with RPM with conflicts with already
>installed but incompatible packages.  After installation, it seemed to have
>killed KDM's ability to login in runlevel 5 due to a typo in their included
>scripts.
>
>I have a feeling that after they ironed out all these issues, the final
>release of KDE 2.2 will be very sweet.
>
>
>---
>You are currently subscribed to luau as: dphillips at viata.com
>To unsubscribe send a blank email to $subst('Email.Unsub')
>