KDE 3.2 Alpha 1 Finally on FTP 285
An anonymous reader cut-and-pastes from the announcement: "Stephan Kulow finally managed to get the last bits of the KDE 3.2 Alpha 1 codenamed 'Brokenboring' including KDevelop 3.0 Alpha 6 on the ftp server (the mirrors should soon pick it up). There won't be any binary packages for this release because the KDE 'P(a)i' release is coming out soon. Everyone using it is asked to compile it with --enable-debug, so we can get valuable feedback. There is a new unstable version of Konstruct to install it."
KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:4, Interesting)
In my opinion, the KDE guys are just a bunch of hackers that do it for fun with not much political, religious and legal considerations.
Technical considerations are always number 1 for KDE. As an example, KDE has chosen QT because of it's clean design - despite the license which could have been interpreted as incompatible (or just evil) by some at that time. (Today it's GPLed)
Not so altruistic (Score:3, Informative)
2. The KDE project is a quality project, I never liked GNOME's politics. The KDE team had the "harmony" project to create a GPL'd Qt replacement, just in case, the GNOME team could have worked on that instead of going after KDE in a holy war.
3. We have one developer licensed on Qt (triple platform) and one other that is probably being added to Qt development.
HOWEVER
The KDE team was a bunch of Trolltech guys. At least in the beg
Not true (Score:5, Informative)
TrollTech is not the self-serving evil company you make it out to be. They actually care about writing quality code - and it shows in their products.
And no, I'm not a TrollTech employee. I've just used their software in the past commercially and was very impressed by it.
I love TrollTech (Score:5, Interesting)
They DO care about writing quality code. They also have HEAVILY supported KDE development to create a market for their API as cross-platform.
What about that is evil?
The fact that the resulting desktop is made available for free under the GPL makes it great. They provide for "free," albeit restricted for development, environemtn, to push their product.
What a great side effect of the invisible hand! In their creation of a market, everyone gets free benefits.
The only thing that I would like from Qt is a better RAD environment to work with. One of our project upgrades was going to be moved from Cocoa to Qt, which was cancelled because certain limitations in using Qt for RAD development. I look forward to new versions of Qt, they keep getting stronger.
BTW: as a commercial licensee of Qt, I am REALLY happy that a lot of the KDE core is on Trolltech's payroll. Each version of Qt incorporates more functionality that was handled at the KDE level, and KDE is upgraded to use the new Qt. That makes the features available to those of us wanting Qt's cross platform benefits.
The Qt/Mac GPL release was also great (although, obviously, with Panther including X11 in the OS, they had no choice, as Qt/X11 on Panther would hit the dreadful "good enough" level without Qt on board). I look forward to the Qt/Mac KDELIB port being in the main tree, and being able to install KDE apps under OS X for my power use.
Alex
Re:I love TrollTech (Score:3, Insightful)
Indeed, you never even implied them to be evil. But you still got the KDE history wrong. QT existed before KDE and was choosen by the KDE founder(s), none of whom were a Trolltech employee (AFAIK).
Later on, some of the KDE developers got hired by Trolltech, though.
But the reason for KDE's existance was never that it might be a marketing tool for QT.
Re:Not true (Score:2)
Just little mistake (Score:2)
Re:Not so altruistic (Score:2)
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
Yet, it pales in comparison to the accomplishment that "could have been" if they had collaborated with the Gnome team (or verse visa) to create one standard desktop.
Now we have two competing desktops with the users sitting on the sidelines waiting for a winner.
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is? IMO KDE delivers a complete desktop without any major shortcomings. Could you come up with an example?
Also GNOME was started because at that time QT was not GPLed and the goal was to replace KDE/Qt.
"Replace" means "destroy" in the software world which isn't a very good start for cooperation.
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
Well, the most obvious one is that's something of an all or nothing proposition. You're either a KDE app (which almost always means C++) and have access to the infrastructure provided, or you aren't. That poses problems for Wine, OpenOffice, Mozilla - not to mention all the desktop neutral software out there like XMMS, Gaim, mplayer and so on.
There are people of course who use KDEs replaceme
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
Some would say that the confrontation started when the founders of GNOME decided to work on a competing desktop environment instead of a free replacement for Qt. The former was not "inevitable".
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
No. That would not have been an acceptable solution. If you're going to do something as big as a desktop, you need to get your priorities in order, and if there was a need for a toolkit then there was a need and meeting it should have been the first
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
Also, it is possible to use KDE's infrastructure without being a KDE app.
For example: ioslaves for network transparency.
Say you want to get a file through HTTP as if you were a KDE app?
Just call
kfmclient copy http://whatever
and wait() on it.
Want to open a file using the KDE mime-type associations? Just call
kfmclient exec url
Want to make your app use KDE icons for mimetypes and such? This one is t
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
You want a C lib? There is one, too. Of course it means you are linking all of kdelibs to your app, too, and then, why not use it, right?
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:4, Insightful)
Well that is pretty much the nature of the beast: Of course only KDE-aware apps can use KDE-specific features.
But I agree that for example GTK-prgrammers could have written wrappers to use KDE-dialogs etc.
That's one side of it, a valid side. But really, the KDE guys made it inevitable when they chose to give two fingers to the philosophy that had made the free software movement possibly in the first place. Having built an entirely free software platform, there were a lot of people who weren't pleased with the idea that it might be compromised by Qt.
While I agree that the original Qt-license was not perfect, I think KDE has chosen a right balance between being open and getting things done - which also made Linux successful in stark contrast to all the GNU-fanatic projects like the Hurd. So yes, Qt's former license was a concern, but not big enough IMO to stop using KDE.
This kind of I-only-care-about-licenses-if-it-concerns-me and get-things-done attitude is exactly what Linux and KDE have in common and which is to a great part reason for their success.
A similar example are binary-only modules in Linux, which were allowed by Linus but most likely not by RMS.
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
The main problem with depending on KDE for apps like Wine, OO, Mozilla is that they wish to remain desktop neutral - remember t
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe not for the KDE or Gnome projects, but the point is certainly not moot for their users, who often wish to use these apps and have them integrate nicely.
And, incidentally, they're both horribly bloated and sluggish applications. Frankly, I think KOffice and Konqueror/KHTML have a better long term future, especially now that KOffice will be using the OpenOffice XML document formats and Apple is helping
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:3, Insightful)
Then talk to the Gnome-team. After all, it was the Gnome-folks who set out to reinvent the wheel. KDE was started before Gnome was even a twinkle in de Icazas eyes.
And besides, "standard desktop" on Linux is not possible. People will run whatever suits their needs, you can't force them to run some "standard desktop". Besides, competition between the two desktops is a GOOD thing!
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
You fool! Go back to the console, this gooey crap will never catch on.
Say, what's this I hear about a version of lynx that does "images"? Do they have those on gopher now?
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
Secondly - its the challenge that an alternative exists that drives both teams to innovate and make their particular project better. So whats to say that this actually means that KDE (and GNOME) have not got further than if they had tried to fit incompatible technologies together.
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:4, Insightful)
Yet, it pales in comparison to the accomplishment that "could have been" if they had collaborated with the Gnome team (or verse visa) to create one standard desktop.
I disagree. The two desktops compete (even though they say they don't), trying to keep up with one another, stealing each other's good ideas and enhancing them with their own. The result is much faster progress on both that would have been achieved by either individually.
Further, it's a mistake to think that both GNOME and KDE are drawing on the same limited pool of development talent, for two reasons. First, the set of C programmers and the set of C++ programmers are pretty much disjoint. Sure, the syntax has common roots, but philosophy and approach are worlds apart, and pushing the camps together would just create massive infighting. Second, competition generates excitement, excitement generates interest and *interest* is what drives open source development.
Your statement holds the implicit assumption that if a KDE didn't exist, the KDE developers would have been hacking on GNOME, and vice versa, but I'd be surprised if there would be more than a bare handful for whom this is true.
Now we have two competing desktops with the users sitting on the sidelines waiting for a winner.
Who's sitting and waiting? Both environments are very usable (IMO, both are far superior to Windows), and users are free to pick the one they want. Or, in the case of the newbie or the corporate desktop, have one picked for them.
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
Now we have two competing desktops with the users sitting on the sidelines waiting for a winner.
You're kidding right?
I always thought how great it is to have two major desktops on the same platform. Competition drives innovation, and I think that has been well demonstrated by the pace of development of both KDE and GNOME in recent years.
Put
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:5, Insightful)
The moc is a hack that brings key c++ functionality to even the most mediocre c++ compilers. What's wrong with that? Sure, the syntax is different, but at least then there's no confusion about what's going on.
Have you ever tried to do *heavy* templated c++ code and have it be cross-platform? Have you written complex code relying on functors and it work on dozens of different c++ compilers? Good luck, chief.
All the moc does is use preprocessor trickery to make sure that functor mechanisms are completely functional regardless of compiler. Sure, it hides string invocation of methods in a SIGNAL() and SLOT() macro. Big deal. It works, beautifully, and between KDevelop and KDE's autoconf scripts, it's all hidden.
If you don't like the moc, why don't you go out and fix all the compilers for all the platforms that Qt runs on.
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:2)
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:4, Informative)
He was even dissing the variances in multiple C++ compilers. That is the reason for moc. You need moc to make sure that it all compiles no matter what your compiler is. There are still a lot of things that are different between compilers (g++ supports array indexing with unsigned longs, VC6 doesn't, for example) and moc takes care of a lot of those.
It makes C++ easier for doing cross platform development.
Tell you what, next time I hear someone slagging off the Windows kernel, I'll explain at great length why Windows Media Player isn't as bad as they're making it out to be.
The only reason why you would be doing that is because you don't understand what moc does.
moc generates C++ code, sparky.
Re:KDE most impressive open source project - ever (Score:5, Informative)
Brokenboring? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Brokenboring? (Score:3, Informative)
Anyway, Brokenboring comes from a proposal that was made during the KDE 3.2 development cycle. "Brockenboring" was the name given to the proposal, and a detractor quickly turned that into "Brokenboring."
See http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-core-devel&m=10565545
a native port of kde on osx (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:a native port of kde on osx (Score:2, Interesting)
Depends on what you mean by "native". KDE is already working with X11 on OSX.
We're still working [befunk.com] on making it build with Qt/Mac.
Re:a native port of kde on osx (Score:2)
Don't let the source code compilation scare you! (Score:5, Insightful)
Checkout Konstruct [kde.org] to learn how to run a simple script to download, verify, compile and install the components to get KDE working on your machine.
Re:Don't let the source code compilation scare you (Score:2)
Re:Don't let the source code compilation scare you (Score:2)
Yeah but... (Score:2)
Re:Don't let the source code compilation scare you (Score:2)
Re:Don't let the source code compilation scare you (Score:3, Interesting)
Btw I don't think KDE should take all the honour for Konstruct. After all it was "inspired by GARNOME" - good to see idea exchange across the major Free desktops.
Doesn't work for me.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Doesn't work for me.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Doesn't work for me.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Doesn't work for me.... (Score:2)
:: SIGH :: (Score:5, Funny)
O-well...
Live CD with this alpha release? (Score:4, Insightful)
I think it would be advantageous to provide a Live CD with the alpha/beta releases, so that people can get into debugging the code straight away (I for instance, cannot download, compile and use KDE easily due to disk space, bandwidth problems. I could however, use a Knoppix version with the alpha release to test around).
Searching around shows the DragOS Project [berlios.de], but I haven't had time to check it. Does anyone know of similar efforts?
Re:Live CD with this alpha release? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Live CD with this alpha release? (Score:3, Informative)
-Benjamin meyer
Re:Live CD with this alpha release? (Score:4, Insightful)
HH
Rough? (Score:2)
Hmmm, as many wise developers have said to me, it only takes about another 10-20% longer to write decent well documented code. When you think of how long it will save you debugging it might save you time.
Re:Rough? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Rough? (Score:2)
Oh well, it isn't a stable release yet. I just don't want people to be put off KDE.
Lame K name jokes here! (Score:5, Funny)
Here, I'll start: "hey, didja ever notice how a lot of KDE apps start with 'K'?! What's the deal with that? Ha! Ha! Ha! Those KDE guys aren't very 'K-creative' Ha! Ha! Get it??" There, that's about the best one I've ever read, actually.
Will this have the Dreamweaver killer Quanta 3.2? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Will this have the Dreamweaver killer Quanta 3. (Score:2)
That would first require that Dreamweaver be available on Linux, wouldn't it?
Re:Will this have the Dreamweaver killer Quanta 3. (Score:2)
If Quanta were available on Windows, it would be a competitor for Dreamweaver on Windows -- but still not on Linux.
Re:Will this have the Dreamweaver killer Quanta 3. (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, keep an eye out for Juk (KDE's answer to ITunes) in this new release. It is an incredibly cool jukebox program that has automatic tagging and vFolder playlists.
Kolab groupware (Score:3, Interesting)
Ostensibly these look to be part of KDE 3.2, has anyone done the download/compile/install yet that can confirm/deny this.
This is great stuff, btw. I'm excited that KDE is tackling these kinds of applications, I may just switch back from Moz once the kinks have been worked out.
Re:Kolab groupware (Score:2)
The guys REALLY need a good HOWTO set this up for Exchange, which I have been unable to find. Kolab is great, but realistically, many people are going to be looking for Exchange compatability.
Re:Kolab groupware (Score:2, Informative)
http://developer.kde.org/development-versions/k
It's marked red there still. I can also attest that there are no signs of Exchange support in CVS ( thanks to my distro providing easy compiles, I update every week ).
I wonder... (Score:2)
Microsofts Nightmare. (Score:5, Interesting)
The conlusion is that with a proper setup there is no doubt what so ever that KDE kicks MS Windows up and down the street usability wise in every possible detail. It takes me about 30 seconds to get any Windows desktop user conviced that MS days as a monopoly are counted.
Further on: Ralph Nolden showed previews of what brewing with the 3.2 version of KDevelop and some other goodies. Apart from built-in support of something like a dozen and more programming languages there is a lot of stuff that will cause me to migrate from 3.1 to 3.2 asap.
To me it's quite evident: If OSS is the hauting horde of MS executives sleepless nights, the current and future KDE is the chief Boogieman of them all.
Re:Microsofts Nightmare. (Score:2, Funny)
o\/\/nZ0Rz (was: Re:Microsofts Nightmare.) (Score:2)
The fact that you jumped to it actually proves that I was right in my choice of words for
Re:Microsofts Nightmare. (Score:2)
Re:Microsofts Nightmare. (Score:4, Informative)
You could, for example, define a mouse gesture to tell kwin to close the current window. Or, you could define a keystroke a tell kdevelop (or any app using dcop) to open a new project and add a bunch of files to it.
Oh yeah, media keyboard support is also better in this alpha.
Re:Microsofts Nightmare. (Score:2, Flamebait)
I'm sorry, but Visual Studio
In another 5 years? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Microsofts Nightmare. (Score:3, Informative)
The new kdevelop in kde 3.2a1 has been pretty much rewritten from almost scratch. It's actually been in development for nearly 3 years.
> to that mess of a menu
The kmenu has also been cleared in up 3.2. Not only does it have a reduced amount of catagories, but it it follows the freedesktop menu standard (with GNOME (2.6?) and others)
KDE Developers Anonymous (Score:4, Funny)
KDE Developers Anonymous
Hello group, my name is Klark and I'm addikted to the letter K... As is the kase with many of you, I've always been krazy about komputers and like many of my fellow komp sci students, I was looking forward to a suksessful kareer in the field of information and kommunikation teknology... but my troubles started when I diskovered open source software and the wonderful kommunity around it and got kwite seriously into KDE development... At first I didn't komprehend the effekt this would kome to have on my life as a koder - it wasn't really konspikuous initially when I started to spell more and more kommon words with a k, sometimes even with a kapital K... But then my kolleagues began to wonder why I kouldn't spell korrektly. They asked me, "Are you on krack? Kut the krap!"... some even went as far as kalling me kompletely krazy! What kould I do? I must admit, I'm a kolerik person, even kwick-tempered you might say... okkasionally I would get inkredibly angry and kuss and kurse at my ko-workers... People should judge me by the kontent of my karakter instead of just kriticizing what they konsider kurious spelling! Other times, I would just retreat into a korner and kry kwietly by myself... However, it wasn't until they kicked me out of my kalligraphy kourse at kommunity kollege and I lost my job on akkount of my unkooperative konduct that I finally realized I had to kome to terms with my problem... so here I am, this is my koming-out... I know my kase is a komplex one, but I do hope it is kurable...
Heretic! (Score:2)
To the whiners about one unique desktop (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows has one GUI because it's made by one company with one central management. KDE and Gnome are different teams, that work in different ways, use different languages and have different ideas. To expect that just because you think one desktop is needed that they'll leave whatever they're doing and start coding your ideal desktop is foolish. Deal with it, most OSS developers work on things because they like working on them, not because they're working for the common good.
Besides, there can't be a perfect WM. I don't want KDE 3 on a P166, there I'd use IceWM or Enlightenment. I don't want IceWM on my dual Athlon either, where I can use that extra power for something useful. I also don't like Gnome, while many Gnome users probably hate KDE.
Heck, how does anybody expect that we can somehow get independent developers to agree on one unique project when the world still hasn't managed to agree on one unique measure system?
It's odd really. In the poll that's here right now the options are in kg, and half of the posts in it is whining: "But where Americans! Why isn't it in pounds?". Then go to a KDE discussion and somehow now half of the discussion is whining about that we need a single standard.
Fine (Score:2)
Fine, then stop whining when Linux gains only miniscule desktop market share as a result.
Re:To the whiners about one unique desktop (Score:2)
Equally, however, I would not want to see KDE go away, or lag behind Gnome (or the same happening to Gnome). If this did happen then there would be a strong incentive for Gnome's UI complexity to increase, detracting from Gnome's strengths and turning it into an inferior copy of KDE.
For the non-technical (Score:3, Interesting)
* Report bugs. If you find something crashes, doesn't work as you'd expect it to, or there's a feature you think is missing, report it at http://bugs.kde.org [kde.org].
* Submit documentation. Lots of apps in KDE will have out of date documentation, or none at all. If you understand how to use just such an app, consider writing documentation for it and submitting it to KDE.
* Submit translations. If American English isn't your native language, consider translating the text in applications to languages you feel confident with.
More can be found at: http://www.kde.org/support [kde.org]
I tend to upgrade with Mandrake (Score:2)
When the next Mandrake release is out I hope to be using KDE 3.2 or better.
But with all this talk about Konstruct I may give that a try on a test box.
With so many applications built into KDE (KOffice, Konqueor, Games, etc.) you could almost have a nice little distro based entirely on KDE.
Re:I tend to upgrade with Mandrake (Score:2)
3.1.4 will be out soon, with bugfixes to 3.1.3.
> With so many applications built into KDE (KOffice, Konqueor, Games, etc.) you could almost have a nice little distro based entirely on KDE.
Lindows? Xandros? Lycoris? Corel Linux?
Re:I tend to upgrade with Mandrake (Score:2)
Yes, but the next release of Mandrake is going to use 3.1.3 and I tend to upgrade my distro as a whole
>Lindows? Xandros? Lycoris? Corel Linux?
I'm talking about a KDE only distro, many of these others include duplicate apps such as OpenOffice or Mozilla. I think for the standard user a distro optimized for and using only KDE could easily fit on 1 CD and have just about everything they need.
Re:So... (Score:2, Funny)
It's trying to compete with XP for the desktop.
Re:So... (Score:2)
You say that useability is the leading cause of failure among adoption, yet KDE brings it and then you say it works like XP. That's a big smack in the face for the KDE developers, and I've been following the CVS. The verdict is in:
It rocks.
Re:This just in: (Score:2)
I'm not sure I agree with that analysis, but hell, that's okay. ;-D I've not had my coffee yet.
I'm just surprised to see that anyone still cares. With people going all apeshit stupid over GNOME's further crippling of their own system, I thought KDE's feature richness would have killed it by now. Features are hard!
Heh, just had to put in a shot at GNOME. Yeah, yeah; you can use GNOME apps when you're running primarily KDE, and vice-versa...meh.
Well... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Screen shots (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Screen shots (Score:2)
My first slashdotting, what a rush!
Re:Screen shots (Score:2)
Re:Screen shots (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Good for technically uninclined. (Score:5, Informative)
I like the ability to customise, but it has to be said some of the menus in konqueror and konsole and various other core parts of KDE are a bit messy at the moment. I see they're working to improve the situation in konqueror's file management mode but I still think a lot more could be done.
A lot of the options in kcontrol could be better grouped and so be more intuitive and obvious, without removing things completely. If the devs could do this, then I'd might switch, since for me KDE now looks good (with Plastik, hopefully the default in KDE4) and is much faster than it used to be.
Re:Good for technically uninclined. (Score:2)
If you have the time to spare, and good ideas on KDE usability, consider subscribing to the usability mailing list [kde.org]. Even if you can't program C++, you can help discuss usability problems, and so help the developers focus on coding.
Re:Follow the money. (Score:3, Informative)
Canopy owns some 6% or whatever of Troll Tech.
Maybe you are not familiar with how corporations work, but usually, the company pays dividends to the stockholders (or not), but the company doesnt send the stockholders the companys bills.
Canopy did finance Troll Tech once, when they bought the shares. Around 1998, IIRC. You know, when Caldera was still a Linux company.
Re:Follow the money. (Score:2)
You say "Canopy representatives". I think it's more "Canopy representative" (I could be wrong).
Troll Tech is not pro-Linux or anti-Linux. Troll Tech is a company, they are pro-themselves. That is what companies are by definition. Ignorance of such obvious thing is a recipe for disappointment.
And I say that even though I actually LIKE Troll Tech.
Re:KDE's connection to SCO. (Score:5, Informative)
KDE is not made by Trolltech, but by a network of around 200 regular contributing individuals around the world. Two or three of these work on Qt for Trolltech, and contribute to KDE in their spare times.
(Yes, I've been trolled, so what)
Re:KDE's connection to SCO. (Score:2)
Re:Hear. Hear. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Brokenboring? (Score:2)
Re:Is KDesktop included and working? (Score:2)
KDesktop *is* included in kdebase, as always, but it has nothing to do with networking.
Re:portage woes and fp (Score:3, Informative)