Questioning the Norm

So, when i moved to Rotterdam the only computer i brought was my EEE. And since holland is rated 3rd internationally for internet penetration ( combo of speed and usage ), i thought, let me actually do what south african internet speeds held me back from. So i installed the latest KDE 4 beta. Using openSUSE 10.3, the one click install process subscribes you to the repository and gives u the latest packages. After those had dl'd and installed ( about 20 minutes on my 6mb/s cable connection ) I reopened YaST software tool and made sure i had all the packages i wanted. I installed some openSUSE branding, just to make it look polished. But i was in for a surprise. The last time I used KDE 4, it was ok. It crashed randomly and clearly was still a work in process, but the potential was certainly there. I can see KDE 4 for what its worth. A great advancement in desktop technology. The plasma concept is amazing, and I love the idea of getting rid of "the desktop as an icon ghetto" ( in the words of Aaron Seigo - brilliant quote btw ). This was where I entered KDE 4.1 Beta 1. Wow was my first impression. The polished openSUSE branded loading screen is really pretty, so I'm glad I took the time to install the extra stuff :P

Now down to what's important. KDE 4.1 is clearly becoming a very polished desktop! Folderview rocks, and once the desktop alpha thing is fixed ( not sure what else to call it ). The idea of that is so kewl, its much better that a standard icon desktop, since you can do so much more. If you really want an icon wasteland, u can have one, but i like order on my desktop ( sadly my wife is using the laptop for work until we get a pc, so she dumps everything on the desktop ). The desktop zoom out, add activity is kewl. It doesnt really appeal to me, purely cause i'm not a multidesktop person, but if i was i can see why it'd use it. Kopete still doesnt seem ready ( crashed after a few mins ), but Kopete for KDE3 still works great :) That aside, I can see where kopete for kde 4 is going and I like it. Its gonna be very difficult for me to choose between digsby and kopete. Maybe i should write another post about digsby, a really kewl im client with a lot of features ( making it far more than an im client ). Dolphin has been amazing since it was first put into KDE 4, so I dont need to say much more than if you are to replace konqueror as a file manager, dolphin is the only replacement i could accept. Since I mostly use the net and web apps ( and the EEE is pretty much made for that :P ), opera runs great on KDE 4 ( as expected ), which takes care of most of my needs. So after a few minutes playing around, I realised I was missing YaKuake. For anyone who uses the terminal a lot, maybe a programmer like myself, YaKuake is one of my killer apps. Its a Quake style drop down console. One button ( which I normally make ~ for nostalga sake ), and u have a term, which hides away with none of this alt+tabbing stuff :P With openSUSE one-click install, again it was done quickly, and all there :) Again, great job done to the KDE guys!!! The only things which i miss greatly are autohide panels ( since im on the EEE, 800x480 res and need all the screen space i can get ) and mac style menu bar at the top the of the screen, something I got used to before moving to Holland. Now for the screen shot spam.