The Plans For KDE Frameworks 5.0 Were Just Announced

[Luke_Wolf]

Just to start i'll stating i don't see any issuses with the usability of gnome or kde. Usability issues linux n00bs get hit by tend to be through driver isuses, dependecy problems and stuggling finding the right linux app for the job (perhaps they insist on stuggling to get all their windows apps running on wine).

Now that is something I can heartily agree with. There are no Major Usability flaws in either Gnome2 or KDE, minor problems sure, but unlike Gnome 3 or Unity the basic principles are sound. It's getting them to learn to use Calligra or LibreOffice instead of trying to install Microsoft Office and other examples that is a big problem.

That said the idea of presenting a simple enviroment to guide new users around as they slowly uncover and identify new funtionality is an exilent learning tool when dealing with a complex and powerful interfaces. When done right. Not saying its what kde should do but the idea isn't about bowing to the total computer n00ds. Its to guild a new user though the features bit at a time without overloading them in one go at the same time not incoveniancing the expiriancenced users after with anything beyond what a simple tick box can fix.

That's what sane defaults are for not this minimalist nonsense. I.E. All the general toolbars enabled by default whereas the more advanced toolbars may not be shown by default, Take LibreOffice as an example, There are 21 Toolbars you can have enabled however without tabbed toolbars aka ribbons or another toolbar style there is no point in exposing all of it because it'll just leave a tiny work area.

Dolphin's newest default on the other hand is an example of what not to do. The problem comes that the newest default is a reduction to Nautilus level capabilities by default when there are more general options left that need to be exposed, I.E. The Info Pane and the Nepomuk tagging integration. Obviously though you wouldn't have the terminal set up to be shown by default though in dolphin. And actually I really like the ribbon concept for something like an office program because it exposes all functionality, categorized, instead of having to hide anything. Koffice takes a similar but different activities based approach, and that idea is something I really like.

[DeepDayze]

Which options do you cut? Just look here and elsewhere at the KDE 3.5 fans screaming bloody murder because a pet feature or option was removed between KDE 3 and KDE4 most of the grievances are over features that I never personally use or used. I imagine that the simplified set of options that you would want would not be the same as the simplified environment I would pick.

I might question need for 5 different theming sections in configuration Widget Style, Gtk WidgetStyle, Colour scheme, Window Decorations, Workspace theme.

I agree that setting system can be overly complex but I don't see any way to simplify it significantly without alienating a significant portion of the existing users, many who use KDE precisely because they can configure it to work precisely the way they want.

KDE 3.5 was the most configurable desktop ever and the trend since KDE SC 4.0 was to dumbing down the options in systemsettings. What should be done rather is have levels like beginner, intermediate, advanced and only displaying the settings options for the user level. Advanced level will show ALL the advanced configuration options.

[Nevertime]

KDE 3.5 was the most configurable desktop ever and the trend since KDE SC 4.0 was to dumbing down the options in systemsettings. What should be done rather is have levels like beginner, intermediate, advanced and only displaying the settings options for the user level. Advanced level will show ALL the advanced configuration options.

Its a long time since I used kde 3.5 but from what i remember despite it being hugely customisable it felt very simple and logical. Kde 4 May arguably be less configurable but its no simpler. The lack of configurability can't be due to them mollycoddling beginners.

My first Linux experience was with KDE 3 and as someone coming straight from windows and a little bit of mac I had nothing but good things to say about the experience. I remember I was really impressed by how easily I could make it look like windows or like a mac.