[oclug] Re: KDE rant time (was gnome2 rant time)

[Arcana]

On Wednesday 11 June 2003 11:34, oclug-request at lists.oclug.on.ca wrote:

Sorry, I'm on digest mode and I haven't received the digest before seeing the 
message, so please excuse the bad, bad quoting.


>>--quote:
When I looked at KDE, I saw many apps that had OPTIONS.  Options to
configure applications as you please.  Options allowing you to, for
example, change many configuration settings in kconq.  The end user is not
taken for as an idiot, because the end user is not an idiot.  KDE may have
a look and feel that allows a M$ user to easily adapt to it, but it has
configuration options that would make a M$ UI expert freak out.  It gives
you power that you won't get with M$ config options.. and certainly not
with Gnome options.
>>--end quoute:

One of the reasons that KDE feels like a real desktop environment is because a 
lot of work has been placed into it to make it more useable by both ordinary 
users and power users.  The usability list for KDE is extremely busy and has 
been very active in getting developers to make their UI's more intuitive, 
consistent, and proper.  (GNOME also has a usability list but I don't keep up 
with it, so I can't compare).  KDE doesn't offer options just for the sake of 
options, though... the volunteers tend to do a thorough discussion of 
anything they add to an options dialog because too many things clutter it up 
and will make it go from "cool options panel" to "cluttered mess" in a 
second.

KDE is starting to make itself known because it appears so professional.  It 
has the alpha-blending and round bubbles that MacOS X and Windows XP has 
(dare I say that it definitely beat Windows XP to the punch).  It has nice 
icons and a usable configuration utility for your colours and your settings.  
Before KDE, people who use UNIX desktops think of something like CDE, which 
is butt-ugly.  Like, really, really ugly.

For anyone worried about the speed, I think many of the KDE speed problems 
have been resolved ever since glibc introduced prelinking in glibc-2.3.  I 
can't speak for the speed of KDE compiled with prelinking on my home machine, 
but I've seen it run on a Pentium 233 with 128 megs of RAM.  It lags a little 
but it's not that bad.  Try running Windows XP on that. :)

Unfortunately, I must confess that end users are probably stupider than they 
seem.  You would be definitely surprised.  People who use my computer to surf 
the web don't know how to launch the web browser.  They can't associate the 
globe icon on the Panel to web browser.  It's like a buzzer that says, 
"Warning: non-Windows operationg system.  Do not touch." :)

-- 
-- Arcana