Linux Tech Talk 2
December 19th, 2009 by ComputerBob
Regular readers of this Journal know that I’ve enjoyed the freedom, power and security of using Linux full-time instead of Windows since July of 2006.
And that I’ve been happily using Debian Linux since December of 2007.
Specifically, I use the Debian “Squeeze” (Testing) branch with the KDE desktop environment.
But even though Debian Squeeze began using KDE 4 several months ago, I wasn’t ready to “upgrade” to any of its earlier, problematic releases.
So, instead, I manually selected and upgraded all of the non-KDE 4 Squeeze upgrades and “held back” all 134 of the KDE-related upgrades.
And I continued to use KDE 3.5.10.
It’s been over 4 months since I wrote about doing that.
In related news, here’s a brand new article touting Ten KDE 4 Tricks Worth Knowing About.
I couldn’t help but notice that, even after all these months, many of those “KDE 4 tips” describe how to make KDE 4 look and work more like KDE 3.5.10.
Which makes me glad that I’m still running KDE 3.5.10.
In fact, the only thing that’s changed for me in the past four months is that the number of KDE-related upgrades that I’m holding back has gradually grown from 134 to 158.
The other day, I told a friend that I’m not really sure if I’ll ever upgrade to KDE 4, especially since a lot of people still complain that KDE 4 is is a “dumbed-down” desktop environment that ignores what users really want and need, makes them learn completely new ways to do many common tasks, and hides or even removes many of the configuration options that they could easily access in previous versions of KDE.
Plus I have no interest in running KDE 4’s impressive visual effects — especially not on my seven-year-old home-built PC.
So I don’t really see any “advantages” that make me want to switch to KDE 4.
I’m almost relieved that, in my household, the whole KDE 4 upgrade issue has been a moot point for the past few months. My wife and I have needed (and still need) our two computers to be up and reliable all the time, so I just can’t risk the errors, downtime, and less-than-fully-productive re-learning time that would result from switching to KDE 4. In fact, our second computer has been running Puppy Linux from a Live CD, simply because I haven’t had the time to install and configure Debian Linux on it yet.
But, maybe even more importantly, even when both PCs are running Debian Linux, I’m not sure that I’ll ever want to go through all of the hassle of switching to KDE 4 — even when I regain the luxury of time to experiment with one or both of our PCs.
So, I’m thinking that, some day, I might give up using KDE all together, and switch to a more lightweight-but-friendly desktop environment like LXDE.
What do you think? What would you do?
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Tags:
Debian, Freedom, Linux, Microsoft, Personal, Security, Tech Support, Windows
December 21st, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I got so frustrated trying to use kde4 on Ubuntu Karmic that I pulled the plug and switched to Gnome. A bit of a tough haul after being a happy KDE 3.5 user for too many years. Sad, how this came down!
I do find the config stuff in gnome frustrating at times. Usually there are fewer options and I sense a “we know what’s good for you” attitude from the Gnome developers. But, a bit of googling usually finds a solution.
BTW, I just love the options and effects available with compiz!
And I still use a number of KDE apps. Ktorrent for one.
Frustrations which continue to **** me off: Konsole (from kde 4) doesn’t work properly, nor does the old amaork. So, I’m using gnome-terminal and rhythmbox.
Ah, why couldn’t they just have fixed/upgraded/whatever kde 3.5? I really don’t understand. But, it’s nice to have the choices! Gnome is just fine.