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KDE 4 news: Plasma icons, Solid information and taskbar mockups
liquidat.wordpress.com — Plasma introduced interactive icons, Solid now takes over the media, and the first taskbar mockups have been revealed.
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- HerbertScrunge, on 10/11/2007, -1/+24It's probably worth pointing out that the mockups here are in no way official, and might not be even close to what we'll see in the actual KDE4.0 release. Also, even if it were official and people didn't like the result, I'd draw attention to:
"with Plasma writing your own task bar should be much easier, which is in contrast to today where kicker is said to be a nightmare (from a developer point of view)."
Every "desktop" element (desktop icons/ widgets; panels; taskbar etc) in KDE4 will be a Plasmoid, and Plasmoids are about as easy to write and install as Firefox extensions: Plasmoids can be written in C++ which is tricky to write and even worse to deploy, but they can also be written in the far more portable Javascript, and I believe Python and Ruby support is planned, too. So it's reasonable, in the long run at least, to expect a rich and diverse array of approaches to the typical panel and panel elements to be created and installable from clean, centralised and repositories browsable via GetHotNewStuff. Hopefully, there'll be something to suit all tastes :)- corevette, on 10/11/2007, -10/+23not as beautiful as Compiz Fusion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Fbk52Mk1w
- HalFTW, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8@corevette (#7286905)
The alt + tab ring swap is sweet, Tomb Raider infantry style. - schoate09, on 10/11/2007, -14/+3Just more eye candy to slow everything down without providing any real productivity features.
Vista-check
OS X-check
now KDE-check
Guess it's down to fluxbox. - antitab, on 10/11/2007, -7/+5"not as beautiful as Compiz Fusion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Fbk52Mk1w"
The Fusion team is taking some massive pages from Apple, which is never a bad thing design-wise. - wastern, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1@corevette
pretty cool, but I wish they'd tighten up the physics. It seems really loose and sloppy - KungFuJesus, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2HOW is C++ tricky to write/difficult to deploy? It's not that hard when you get the hang of it, and i've only been coding for like 6 months
- Darkhacker, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1And that is exactly why I am so excited for KDE 4. Finally we can start seeing new ideas taking place on the desktop and ways of replacing or modifying individual KDE components in a much easier fashion. It will improve customization and will allow people a lot more options for creating a desktop experience that suits them the best. I hope to see more software in the future that acts like Firefox and KDE where one can write extensions without delving into massive piles of code and having to learn how everything works together to make small changes.
- mrfeetio, on 10/11/2007, -5/+0is it sad, that i have seen both videos already, and it says its hard to keep up. So this is how I'm going to spend my summer, I do like that it puts the videos together for everyone, who aren't obsessed about KDE 4.
- schestowitz, on 10/11/2007, -8/+3They seem to be making a lot of changes and release is just months away. Can they make it stable on time without some form of feature freeze? All these features are *very* impressive, no doubt, but some surmise that KDE 4 won't be truly stable until 2008. Is there a 'stable' and 'testing'/'unstable' branch already , just like Debian's model (or Fedora/RHEL, or the Linux mm-tree)?
- mrfeetio, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5http://techbase.kde.org/Schedules/KDE4/4.0_Release_Schedulemn2ab
I wouldn't expect it to be very stable till 4.1, but that is just an opinion - HerbertScrunge, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14"I wouldn't expect it to be very stable till 4.1, but that is just an opinion"
This is my opinion, also. I wouldn't recommend using 4.0 unless you are an early adopter who is willing to put up with (and preferably file/ fix!) bugs. I'm hoping people won't form any lasting conclusions on KDE4 based on 4.0, as it is likely to be very rough.
As a general reminder, not directed at anyone here: KDE 4.0 is the *beginning* of the KDE4 series, not (as surprisingly many people don't seem to grasp) the final version.
- mrfeetio, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5http://techbase.kde.org/Schedules/KDE4/4.0_Release_Schedulemn2ab
- SirBotchness, on 10/11/2007, -4/+8well, i guess i'll have to see a more feature driven demo, that was very...uninteresting.
- mancat, on 10/11/2007, -7/+1That's nice. So when does it actually get done?
- ostracize, on 10/11/2007, -2/+13KDE 4 = Dugg!
- Kyoushu, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11As of now, Gnome is still my favorite gui for linux, but KDE4 is looking amazing, while gnome isn't taking any steps forward in their graphical interlace a much as KDE is (or so it seems). Also, I know there's Beryl and Compiz, but those are for both gnome and kde.
- MrSpontaneous, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9It's great to see the amount of usability work going into this version of the desktop environment. Its also gratifying to see that they're taking their time and realizing the need to preserve usability, uniformity and graceful degradation.
Keep up the good work, KDE Team! - Topher06, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5So, its a context menu, without the grind of having to depress the right mouse button. Why didn't Apple think of this? Although, I tend to avoid having icon clutter on my desktop and prefer a list view for showing folder contents, so I can't see this being overly effective for many people. Nice to see some innovation on the Linux platform though.
- funkytaco, on 10/11/2007, -9/+3Ugly taskbar much?
I could do the mockup for the taskbar in about 30 seconds in the GIMP. It's just a bar with rounded corners and gloss with what looks to be PNG icons thrown on it...- mournsanity, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Put your money where your mouth is or shut up.
- opencoder, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7It's just that a mockup. And I don't think its ugly. It is different. And I almost like that idea. Of course, they are nowhere near done with it. And that will probably not be the panel we see in the final version. I have been thinking about writing a panel replacement for KDE, but I have other projects ahead of that on the list.
- geoken, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1What the ***** did you wan't it to have? Spinners and faux diamond encrusting?
- Darkhacker, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1You do understand that it is just a mockup right? It doesn't have to look good. Hell, I would have been fine with it if he scanned a piece of notebook paper with a drawing on it. It's just supposed to help you visualize the idea and see where things are to be placed.
- kderules, on 10/11/2007, -7/+2kderules
- Je55e0wn5y0u, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Neat
- alphaone, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6The Thunderbird and Firefox icons in one of the screenshots were pretty cool.
- vrillco, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1After thirteen years of Linux, I still don't "get" KDE and Gnome. They're trying to boast features that have existed elsewhere for years. Seriously, who gives a ***** ? Meanwhile the fluff projects like Compiz progress very rapidly to make Xorg look pretty... ok great, but it's still a usability nightmare! Heck, IBM could probably design something less boring and inane... yes, I said IBM. If you're too young to remember Wham, then you're too young to know what the hell that means.
- GliTCH82, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1It's also worth pointing out that Linux ***** blows for not letting me install it on my ICH7R 4 drive RAID10 array and seeing each drive as separate instead of the whole volume of 4.
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