First impressions: KDE 4.0

CARDS on the table time – I'm a KDE man at heart.
There, I've said it – let the KDE v Gnome flame war begin!
But seriously, I'm not knocking Gnome at all, it's just that personally I prefer KDE.
Yes, it is bloated, and no, I probably don't use half of the applications that come with it by default (does anyone?).
However, it is the desktop environment I keep returning to which, without revisiting the same tired old debate, surely says something.
The latest version of the K Desktop Environment has been available for around a week now, after around 30 months of planning and development.
I got my hands on it via openSUSE, who have mastered a KDE-Four Live CD (http://home.kde.org/~binner/kde-four-live/KDE-Four-Live.i686-1.0.iso) to enable users to get to grips with 4.0's new features.
Version 4.0 is not so much a tweaked KDE as a total rewrite from the ground up. Design, performance, applications, system tools – they've all been upgraded.
It certainly looks lovely, and I'll return to that shortly, but there's something more substantial going on here.
In an attempt to create a more solid, businesslike desktop there's been a fundamental shift in the KDE approach.
One of the criticisms of KDE in the past, largely from overwhelmed new users, focused on the large amount of settings, tools and options available.
This has changed in 4.0. Take the panel, for example.
Version 4.0's panel has the usual KDE menu, task manager, virtual desktop pager, notification tray and clock.
To these, KDE 4.0 adds a 'Recently Plugged Devices' icon to enable you to manage external disks, which worked flawlessly with my (FAT formatted) USB stick.
However, the new panel is less flexible: It is fixed at the bottom, its size is fixed, as is its colour.
Gone, too, are the panel applets and subclasses of panels.
You can still add icons from the start menu, although you have no control over their positioning.
A desktop has to work on two levels – visually and practically.
On the visual level 4.0 is very sophisticated, from its dark, stylish splash screen to the transparencies, abstract wallpapers and icons from the default Oxygen theme.
It brought to mind the latest version of PCLinuxOS which, given that Texstar's distro tops the Distrowatch hit-ranking chart, can't be a bad thing.
Behind the scenes, the KDE 4 devs have used new applications for interacting with hardware, switched to the Qt4 widget set, and rewritten core libraries.
The end result is a desktop which speeds along at a pace Xfce would be proud of.
Your desktop environment is a deeply personal place. Some people crowd it with widgets, system monitors, calendars, weather reports and all manner of eye candy.
I take the opposite approach – I like things clean, orderly and clutter-free.
For this reason I see the new KDE desktop widgets feature as little more than a gimmick reminiscent of Microsoft Vista.
That said, some of you will love it and we will no doubt see a widget cottage industry developing overnight.
The manager for these widgets is tucked into the upper-right corner of your desktop.
Clicking on it launches a window from which you're able to select from the default widgets.
Each widget is surrounded by a fringe containing mini-icons that become visible when you mouse over them, and which are used for configuring, resizing, repositioning, and deleting widgets.
The widgets aren't a deal-breaker for me as I have the option to take them or leave them.
But the same cannot be said for the new KDE menu, which is of the side-scrolling kind being increasingly employed in modern distros.
Repeated, long-term use may change my mind – I do try to keep an open mind on these things – but my initial thought, after a week's use, is that it's horrid.
Instead of listing all available programs, it now displays an uncustomisable series of views - Favourites, Applications, Computer, Recently Used and Leave - topped by a Search field.
Rather than open in their own attached window, sub-menus replace the top-level view, with an arrow icon for toggling left and right between levels.
I frequently found myself losing track of where I was in the menu structure, which surely defeats the whole point of a menu.
You can, however, add a traditional KDE menu to the desktop as a widget – if you like widgets!
Now we come to the applications shipped with KDE 4.0, and our first port of call has to be the new file manager, Dolphin.
Dolphin replaces the much-loved, multi-talented Konqueror (which is still included) as the default FM in 4.0.
Here, again, we see the attempt by the KDE devs to simplify things for the user: Konqueror can be made to do just about anything if you've got the time, patience and knowledge.
Dolphin is a file manager, and only a file manager.
It is also a good file manager, for those of us who admire simplicity.
Sure, there are customisations to be had – you can display two directories at once, for example – but it seems happier just getting on with doing its fundamental job and, because of this it reminds me very much of Nautilus.
Another application that has undergone major revision is Konsole, the KDE shell.
Its menus have been reorganised and more keyboard shortcuts have been added, plus there's a new split view that allows you to work on related operations without opening extra versions of the program.
Other new features include automatic changes of the title of a tab to reflect the program that is running, and a history for search results.
Then we come to Okular – what a great name! - a new document viewer with supports for different formats, including PDF and OpenDocument, thus greatly reducing the number of file viewers required.
Gwenview is the preferred image viewer in 4.0, featuring a full-screen view for large files and a simple but adequate slideshow program.
The venerable KDE Control Center has been resigned to history and been replaced with the Systems and Setting window, which is a better-organised tool.
It has a tree of setting panes with icons arranged in groups and divided into General and Advanced tabs, generally presenting a more simple, organised approach.
So, that's most of my initial impressions covered.
It's been a week of surprises and learning new habits and, while some of it has been enjoyable, there have been the odd frustrating moments too – like getting to grips with that side-scrolling menu.
I imagine that user feedback could see yet more changes to KDE by the time 4.1 comes along, and it's almost certain that that first revision to 4.0 will be the one seeing its way into many of the distributions we use.
I'd strongly recommend you download one of the 4.0 live CDs and give it a try for yourselves – it's an interesting, fun experience.
Personally, I'm not yet sure all the radical changes have succeeded, but there's certainly been a seismic shift in KDE's way of thinking and they are to be congratulated for having the courage to take such bold steps.
After my time with KDE 4.0, I can safely say I'm still a KDE man at heart.