Ever in Flux i {work, rant, geek out, lost my mind}

Finally giving something back…

Thanks to a co-worker, I am now a KDE user. I run Kubuntu 8.04 as my primary operating system. Kubuntu is a derivative of Ubuntu Linux which uses KDE as it's desktop environment. Having been a long time Gnome user, it was with great trepidation that I even begin using KDE as my primary desktop. (If I've already lost you, it's ok. *You* have not yet fallen prey to the seductive wiles of a free OS or you run proprietary hardware that prevents you from doing so.)

Ever since I started using KDE 3.5.9 and actually spending the time to configure it to my tastes, I was hooked. Advanced Window settings allowed me to pin an application to any one of my four active workspaces. My keyboard shortcuts were considered global so that meant that an application couldn't override the keyboard shortcuts *I* wanted to use. KDE was the word and the way.

Backtrack to 7/3/2008: A few Midori sours and I logged into #kubuntu-devel, the Kubuntu Developers channel on IRC. I asked if there was some way that a longtime Linux user with moderate Python abilities could help out with Kubuntu's future. Jonathan Riddell, founder of Kubuntu, responded with a yes: Help us port Ubuntu language-selector to PyKDE4. I agreed and I am happy to contribute to Kubuntu in whatever way I can.

As wonderful as the experience of modifying and committing code has been, the KDE4 experience hasn't been all that glorious. Here are some of the low points:

• Clicking on an application in the taskbar causes that application to minimize if I'm already on that desktop. In other words, if I attempt to use the taskbar to switch applications that are on the same desktop by clicking it's icon in the taskbar, the application I want to use gets minimized.
• Turning on Desktop Effects (aka Compiz for Gnome users), causes my computer to run like it's powered by hamster wheels.
• Most of the icons in my menus and for the plasmoids (widgets, gadgets, et al) are the standard box with a -?-
• The taskbar at the bottom will sometimes show corrupted graphics
• Kopete can't connect to Google Talk securely without crashing

Good points:

• KDE 4.1 is really pretty.
• KDE 4.1 implements a "dashboard" layer where the plasmoids are separate from the desktop.
• Konqueror is MUCH improved - faster, cleaner looking
• Dolphin has column view. Ah, how I missed that.

Still, I'm glad to be helping what I believe to be the best operating system. I hope to continue contributing to Kubuntu for some time to come.

In the meantime, I'll be using KDE 4.1 extensively and exclusively. When I remember, I'll post my experiences working with it here. Currently, I'm giving KMail a once-over. I'm a long-time Thunderbird user and I'm not pleased by the preliminary looks of the KDE 4.1 equivalent. It's been one night, though, so we'll give it some time and see what happens.