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New Menu unacceptable

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pcbear

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1

Sunday, July 27th 2008, 7:21pm

New Menu unacceptable

This is the first time I have given feedback on KDE. I sought out and created an ID solely to make this comment. HINT - this is an important issue for me. I have used KDE from its inception and prefer it to GNOME. Nonetheless I will switch to GNOME if I am forced to stay with this awful menu in KDE4. What were you guys thinking? Are people so interested in new and snazzy that they forget usability? I have many systems up and running and switch between them all the time, so I am using KDE3 and KDE4 every day. I've come to dread logging on to the KDE4 systems because the menu is so awful.

What do I mean by awful? I mean it takes four times as long to get to anything as it used to. You are not only forced to move in a horizontal direction, after you get to the menu section where the choice you want resides, many times you are forced to scroll vertically as well (if you haven't had to already along the time-consuming way to your menu choice, that is). Compared to the full and intelligent menus that present far more choices at once in KDE3, work slows to a crawl.

There is a famous study by IBM on the effect of interruptions in UI response to the user's train of thought and hence, productivity. The KDE4 menu is a classic case of something that slows you down just enough to be maddening and to constantly disrupt your train of thought.

What was the reason for this thing anyway? It looks like a menu designed for someone with a 640x480 resolution! Screen real estate is not so precious that we have to give up using it for the KDE menu to this extent.

In short, this is a giant step backwards. It may seem to some like a small thing, but it impacts the usability of KDE in a big way. If another release of KDE comes out with this thing, I'm gone to GNOME.

Get a clue. If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Don't f**k with the basic UI unless you have a GOOD reason for it. I see no advantage to the new menu and fear it was some compsci grad student's project, now inflicted on the rest of us. Argh!

neverendingo

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Sunday, July 27th 2008, 7:29pm

Did you already try to switch to the traditional menu inside kde4?

If not, simply right-click on the menubutton and click "Switch to Classic Menu Style".
Or, if you don't see that, you can also add an plasmoid for classic menu and remove the new one (right-click on desktop -> add widget)

OhReally

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Sunday, July 27th 2008, 8:57pm

Quoted from "neverendingo"

Did you already try to switch to the traditional menu inside kde4?


I think that's KDE4's biggest strategic error: it forces things upon us...

I think there should not be a need to spend time finding out how to switch to behaviour you're used to.

After installation, KDE4 should go out of it's way to mimic the look and feel of the version that was installed before; users have spent time configuring it...
Then, on first login after installation, a run-once could be executed, saying "You have installed the new and improved KDE4. We've done our best to make it look like your previous KDE version. To make it look like Vista's little imbecile stepbrother, hit --this button--. To personalize it manually and discover the new features, hit --this button--."

neverendingo

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Sunday, July 27th 2008, 9:14pm

There is ongoing work on a import-tool from kde3 to kde4. Don't know when it will be finished, but it will. So all settings from a previous KDE3 install can be ported.

OhReally

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Sunday, July 27th 2008, 9:22pm

This tool should have been available before KDE4 was released...

I think this is typical for OSS: no planning...

neverendingo

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Sunday, July 27th 2008, 9:44pm

Hehe, ok, a mod discussion. :thumbsup:

To give you some insights on how i did it. I simply copied over all of my configuration data. Most of the Apps did recognize it and it worked well. Some though had some rough edges, and some don't even exist on KDE4, but that's okay, i can use the KDE3-version of them inside KDE4.

But the greatest problem is the well known problem: not enough manpower. Not planning, but manpower. There will always be little parts that are overlooked but nevertheless important. So it's up to the user to tell us what needs to be done to make KDE rock It's not a big deal. Go to bugs.kde.org, search for an entry, that already fits your needs. If it doesn't exist, feel free to open a new Wishlist-item. YOU as a user can help to make KDE become a great DE.

Nevertheless, to give all the visitors an idea, at this point, OhReally is the Guy for KDE3.x and i am the Guy for 4.x. We both love KDE, for sure. We don't agree in all points, but we try our best to solve all problems coming up.

OhReally

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Sunday, July 27th 2008, 9:53pm

Amen.

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