Composite KWin in KDE4

[Teh Roxor!]

http://dot.kde.org/1180541665/

KWin, KDE's window manager, has been around since KDE 2.0 (replacing KWM in KDE 1.x) and has grown to be a mature and stable window manager over the years. For KDE 4, however, there were a few people rumbling about visual effects, and perhaps KWin was feeling a little envious of its younger cousins Compiz and Beryl. While these new effects have created a lot of buzz around Linux and UNIX, long-term KDE users have wished they can enjoy the effects of Compiz/Beryl while still having the tried and tested window manager that is KWin. As a result, for KDE 4, KWin has received a huge graphical upgrade, with composite and GL support.

I think this is great. They seem to be focusing more on utility than the Beryl/Compiz project has. Click the link and check out the videos.

KDE 4 will be out in October of this year, I believe.

[Garfunkel]

Yeah, this is great stuff, what i like is how it "degrades gracefully", so if you don't have opengl it will disable some functions but keeps others, that's nice.

[BugenhagenXIII]

Too bad KDE sucks.

On a serious note, it's always good to see improvement, and I really like the desktop grid thing. I don't think it'll be enough to make me leave Gnome, but I'll definitely give it a try when it comes out.

[Khaos]

Haha, KDE doesn't suck.

But I am eagerly awaiting KDE4! This is really nice!

[Teh Roxor!]

Haha, I love KDE. I actually tried XFCE while E-mpire was down, it was pretty nice in a minimal way.

[Khaos]

I liked the minimalistic Fluxbox, but I don't have the time to manage it and add the features I wanted.

[BugenhagenXIII]

Haha, KDE doesn't suck.

But I am eagerly awaiting KDE4! This is really nice!

I know KDE doesn't suck. I just can't stand the look of Qt. GTK+ just looks better to me.

[Garfunkel]

I'm exactly the opposite, but i don't hate either, gtk
just seems a bit drab to me, unless really well done, qt looks more purdy and graceful, but that's just me, they both are great desktops and are good at different usability functions.

I do like kde more however, but i use gnome more, ironically....that should change with kde4!

[Teh Roxor!]

Can't you just change QT's look with KDE style themes?

I think one of the most horrendous looking things is the file select/save dialogue used in a lot of GTK apps, like Firefox.

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k229/PSIRockin/desk1.png

Some things about Gnome I do like. It feels "cleaner" to me if you know what I mean.

[Garfunkel]

yes i agree! another ugly one is the old TK installers for some games and stuff, like unreal tournament and a few others. they don't even add the shortcuts to the menu, even when i tell it to!

[BugenhagenXIII]

Can't you just change QT's look with KDE style themes?

I think one of the most horrendous looking things is the file select/save dialogue used in a lot of GTK apps, like Firefox.

[image snipped]

Some things about Gnome I do like. It feels "cleaner" to me if you know what I mean.


You can't change Qt's look. Unless you go in and edit widgets yourself in the shared libraries. You can, however, change KDE's look, through themes and icon sets and such. Even then, it's much easier to install themes in Gnome than it is in KDE.

Then you still have the maze of menus and dialogs to get to some of the options.

Gnome just fits my needs better than KDE, despite the fact that I like a lot of KDE apps, like K3b.

I don't have anything against KDE, it's just not for me.

[Garfunkel]

I do find that most KDE/QT apps are of higher quality then their Gnome/GTK counterparts, like kaffeine > totem, Kate > gedit, Amarok >>>>>>>>> rythembox, konsole > terminal (though settings are confusing). but there are exceptions like; smartpm/synaptic >>>>>>>> adept.

[OmniCloud]

I just installed KDE as my second desktop, but realized that it's just more cumbersome and I'm perfectly satisfied with Gnome.

It was messing up a few things like changing the background and some Gdesklet stuff so I removed it from the terminal.

But my firefox font is messed up now. The text is really light and I can't seem to augment the settings.

For my browser it's fine, but for internet I can't seem to changed the font:huh:

Firefox settings don't do anything and the only thing I've accomplished from the tool bar built into Firefox is making the text larger-but not able to change the font.

THis only happened when I was playing around with KDE, everything is back to normal except for the font. Any suggestions?

[Garfunkel]

Simple, go to edit -> preferences in firefox, go to content, go to where it says fonts and click advanced, change your settings (i can't remember what the defualt is but i think it is freeserif or something...), and untick allow pages to use their own fonts, and reload the page, done.

[Khaos]

KDE vs Gnome never gets old. Haha.

[Garfunkel]

hahha, and then the xfce guys come in and go "yu nubs! liek teh resource hevi!! ololol"

[Khaos]

Yup. Exactly. ;-]

[Garfunkel]

and then the console only leet guys come in in pwn everyone.

[Khaos]

Of course. Wait. They still exist?

Actually I use my tty's somewhat regularly. To run emerges and other stuff I don't want to be stopped if X crashes. I also run rtorrent in one.

[BugenhagenXIII]

When ever I have a project due in a programming course I switch to console-only. Emacs + Scons is all I need for coding, and I can still play music through mpd/ncmpc. Allows me to focus better.

[Garfunkel]

it makes me feel 1337 when i use it, which i do all the time, apt-get, updates, folding at home, compiling, doing simple move, copy, rename commands, and all of that

makes it easy too when using yukuake

[Khaos]

It's all about simplicity. If I want to randomly listen to one song, I'll go to a tty and use madplay (or use yakuake Garf ;-]). I'm not going to wait for Amarok to load, as I don't require those features.

Slowly moving off topic! Whoo whoo.

Once the beta for KDE4 comes out, I am definitely unmasking it and giving it a shot!

[Garfunkel]

same! i want to try now but want to wait for the beta so i'm not disappointed.

[Teh Roxor!]

Haha, yeah. The alpha won't even load for me.

[Garfunkel]

i haven't tried it but ubuntu feisty comes with some kde4 packages.

[Khaos]

I may give it a go, when I have loads of free time next.

[Khaos]

The detailed Release Schedule is as follows, by the way:

Schedules/KDE4/4.0 Release Schedule
All dates given here are subject to revision, but we will try our best to stick to them if possible. The KDE Release Team is acting as the coordinator for the 4.0 release. Contents

Milestones
Milestones help guide us toward a final release, and the dates are subject to change. For more details see our roadmap.

April 2, 2007: Subsystem Freeze
From this date forward, no new KDE subsystem or major changes can be committed to kdelibs.
The buildsystem requirements (i.e. cmake version) are fixed.

May 1, 2007: kdelibs Soft Freeze
The kdelibs API is "soft-frozen", meaning that changes can be made but only with the consent of the core developers.

May 3, 2007: Alpha Tagging
The Alpha will be source only -- without translations.

June 1, 2007: trunk/KDE is module frozen
Trunk is frozen for new or resurrected applications.
A list of main modules that will be included in the final release will be made.

June 25, 2007: Beta1 Tagging
Beta 1 is prepared and released after some initial testing. The incoming bugs will be reviewed for their severity.

July 20, 2007: Message Freeze
Only previously untranslated strings or clear errors in strings can be fixed - no new strings.

July 25, 2007: Beta2 Tagging
Beta 2 is prepared and released after some initial testing. The incoming bugs will be reviewed for their severity.
Trunk is frozen for feature commits. i18n string changes are allowed.

August 25, 2007: Beta3 Tagging
Beta 3 is prepared and released after some initial testing. The incoming bugs will be reviewed for their severity.

September 23, 2007: Total Release Freeze
This is the very last for committing anything that isn't reviewed on the development lists. If in doubt, ask the release coordinator.

September 25, 2007: Release Candidate 1
Targeted date for first release candidate. Only regressions (breakage caused by the KDE4 port) or grave bugs can be fixed.

October 9, 2007: Release Candidate 2
Targeted date for second release candidate and then wait for show stoppers to appear.

October 23, 2007: Targeted Release Date

I just love how they chose exact dates, instead of giving date ranges.

[Garfunkel]

Agreed, i mark them on my tomboy notes so it reminds me of important dates like this :)

BTW: isn't tomboy just the greatest darn piece of incredibly useful yet simple ingenuity?

[Khaos]

I've never used tomboy.

emerge -va tomboy

[Garfunkel]

do it! tomboy is fucking useful, just today it reminded me i have to complete my testing and bug reports for Gutsy Gibbon.

[Khaos]

Screw this. It wants all these Gnome dependencies. Which is not surprising... But 49?

[Garfunkel]

oh shut up, stop your eternal whinging and just go for it already. no more "oh boo hoo poor me and my shitty gentoo computer can't do anything oh i wish my mummy would have secks with me! I wuv her!".

Seriously though, tomboy rules.