KDE-Forum.org

i think they know the ones i really want: amarok 2, kaffiene, k3b, ktorrent

A few niggles, ranging from big to small... I'm mostly not using it right now because it's still missing some applications... and some KDE 3 apps don't work right (like RSIBreak has trouble going into the system tray). Otherwise I'm happy with it. Here's my list...

The BIG Stuff:
- No panel hiding yet. Really need that. If it was in there, I might be using it now.

- In the open file dialogues, thumbnails have been replaced with a "show preview", which means you have to click the image first to get a preview of it. That's like Gnome, for goodness sakes! I want it like it is in KDE 3.5, where it shows thumbnails of all the images and videos and whatnot if I ask it to (Konqueror still has this feature), as oppose to me having to click them one at a time to see a preview. It's extremely bothersome.

^-- I'm really worried this one isn't going to make it into KDE 4... anyone know where I could find out if it's planned, or submit a request? It's very important to me... even Windows has it!

Niggles:
- The calendar. It's not like in KDE 3, where it has close and maximize buttons on it and it's on "always on top" until you click to close it or click the clock again. Instead it goes away if you click anywhere outside it, which makes it more like the Windows calendar than the KDE calendar I love so much. It's impossible to multi-task with it now.
- I know they're trying to get rid the whole "desktop icons" thing with folder view, but they really still need to re-add the align to grid option so that my icons are straight and lined up on their own because, yes, I do still have regular ol desktop icons. Might use folder view in future, though.
- Gwenview really needs an "add to desktop" function for changing wallpaper.
- I miss the popup that would appear whenever I put a DVD/CD in, the one that asked if I wanted to play the DVD/CD or browse it or whatever. I should like to see those options added to the device applet thing, which I otherwise love.

I hope the developers hang out here and can see all the things we've got to say about this.

Here are my wishes for kde4

1 two panels on top of each other on the bottem of the screen
the bottom one has the clock the pager systemtray shutdown/lockscreen, programs to start, maps with programs to start
the top one has the taskbar
the two together may not be higher in size as the default panel

2 the classic menu from this menu its not possible to add a program to the panel (bottum one) and to the screen
it has no menu of actions when you rignt click a entry can this change ? Konqueror as file manager can.

3 every program kde3 or kde4 or x or gnome must be possible to place down in the screen where it must fall on to of the panel
and then out off the screen like in kde3

4 the plasma handling in the rightop of the screen has to go to system setting its interfering with programs in that space kopete amsn emsene. they have the X right on top of the plasma handle

5 the panel must be configered as in kde3 tab appearance enable transparency advanced options etc etc

6 total transparency so the background go's from top to bottom of the screen

7 there must come a KNEMO for kde4 not a plasmoid but sitting in de systemtray as in kde3
kde4 .0 used the kde3 one after that release it was gone

8 kweather applet must come back in the same way sitting in the panel with all the airports to chose from for me tnca tncb tncc that are aruba bonaire curacao

9 Konqueror this must have the option Image-View and show animated gif png (avatars from windows messenger)

10 As Konqueror get that option i dont need Dolphin any more

11 Gwenview also needs show animated gif , png a early version had iit now its gone

That for me what has to come in kde4 will it be usable as kde3

One thing that I was surprised to find absent from 4.0, and now 4.1 as far as I can tell, is the ability to change how wallpaper is displayed in a slideshow (i.e. whether it is centered, tiled, scaled, etc.). It can be done in KDE 3 and it can be done with a single image in 4, but not in slideshows.


Dan

1. I would like Dolphin to have a button for "Create Folder". At present it only has a text label. And Dolphin is a file manager, whose bread-and-butter tasks should include creating a folder! Even better, restore the right-mouse-button functionality of "Create" with submenus as in KDE 3.5.9.

2. I would like to have a transparent konsole by default. I cannot do so even in KDE 4.1 even after checking "Enable Desktop Effects". This is very confusing. I do not want to use Compiz because it is not KDE-friendly.

Thanks.

I don't like dolphin, And cant find a universal way to make konqueror default.

When i changed to classic kicker menu style to plasmoid moved to the right of the taskbar, It took 5 mins of puzzling to figure out how to get it to the left.

Get rid of the plasmoid starter on the screen, It interferes with production. A couple of times i have gone to close windows and activated it, Theres one on the taskbar-who needs 2.

Where's all the config options, I like to customize and now it's harder to do so.

Bugs(reported)- Since the updates i only have one desktop.
If i activate desktop effects i get a white screen and have to restart x-server.
When i change the taskbar colour the plasmoids,clock-network manager etc keep the black backgrounds

THE BIG ONE.
Why can't i add application icons to the taskbar.
This is very important to me as i usually have 2-3 applications open at once over 2-3 screens( on my business machines.) and having to run through the kickoff menu or minimize windows is annoying.
Eg:- at the moment i have on my panel .
system menu.
kontact.
synaptic.
qcad.
konsole(root)
The whole games submenu ( for lunch time only of course.)
4 quick file browsers one to my home folder and the other 3 as direct links to my other drives.
kgpg with the shredder the ONLY thing on my desktop.( i also have the shred function added to the right click function in konqueror, Can't seem to get it working on dolphin)

The folder view plasmoid is very pretty and in theory is a good idea, but when i put it on my office machine for a trial it had my secretary screaming at me in frustration as it adds unnecessary complexity
and in her words " It's as much use as a chocolate fireguard."

It's lucky My work units are running kubuntu LTS so i don,t have to upgrade for a few years yet. I think three years should let them make it functional.

At home i use kubuntu for desktop and sabayon for my laptop. sabayon with kde.
I hope the devs get over the everything on the desktop phaze. My desktop is a work area and i want to use it as such.
Ps I don't like dolphin.

My top three annoyances about KDE 4.1 are as follows (in order of importance/irritability):

1) Desktop icons

Folder view is no substitute for being able to use your desktop as a collection of launch icons or a dumping ground (which I choose freely to do). I like to line up all my favourite icons around the left and top edges of the screen so that they are almost always within quick and easy reach (leaving the panel at the bottom and KMess & gkrellm on the right edge). Having a desktop without application/folder icons would be like not having a dashboard in a car. Folder view is no good for me because it gets obscured by windows I have open, and when I have to click the show desktop button just to see my desktop icons, then what used to be one-step process to access something is now a two-step process.

Also, I'd like to be able to draw selection rectangles around my desktop icons as well as right-click somewhere to align them to a grid (and a grid that's configurable so that there isn't a one-inch margin down the left hand side as there is in GNOME meaning that I can't line up my icons around the *edges* of my screen and keep them tidy). Currently my KDE icons don't line up to a grid nicely, so I'll probably cope, but this feature would be very nice indeed!

The annoyingly-tall handles on desktop icons - if I drag them out of a folder view - are pointless. I'm quite happy right-clicking to do non-obvious and occasional stuff to my desktop icons: KDE users typically aren't morons who rely on these hand-holding irritations. If I was a moron who couldn't cope then I'd use GNOME :-)

2) Dolphin

I like Konqueror (as I have it configured) but I can see that the days of a combined a web browser and a file manager are rightfully over, so I'll cope. However, Dolphin would be a joy to use if the following could be arranged (in the fullness of time):

• I was about to mention that the navigation bar needed a button to make the path editable, but I just discovered that clicking in the empty space to the right makes it so. Nice :-)

• I prefer the way Konqueror currently does not highlight the full width of the column and only makes the width of the file/folder the selectable area. Call me an old dog who can't be taught new tricks but this behaviour bugs me (though, I will prefer the current one-column selectable area to the full-row selectable area in Nautilus, don't get me wrong). If I want to draw a selection rectangle around a few files with short names, and the column is much wider, then having to start my selection rectangle further to the right just annoys me when I'm used to starting the selection in any whitespace nearby. Even if the compromise is just to add an option to enable this, I'd be happy.

3) Not being able to close windows by double-clicking at the top-right corner

Another from the "can't teach an old dog new tricks" department. Yes, I also close windows at the top-right, but sometimes I just double-click at the top-left (depending on where my mouse is). The closest way to close a window wins out, and KDE 4.1's GNOME-esque behaviour in this regard drives me nuts!


Looking back at these "gripes," none of them are show-stoppers because the alternative (GNOME) would be an absolute nightmare by comparison. So, I don't want to complain too much because KDE 4.1 is a positive step forward; it just needs more configurable options, which I'm sure will come.

I dont like single clicking to open things. I want the option to turn on double clicking this way I can easily select things and not worry about opening them.

After a day using KDE 4.1, there are a couple of things that I strongly miss :

1. It is not possible to configure the behaviour of the Desktop. In KDE 3.5.* I could configure the actions when pressing the mouse buttons on a empty area of the Desktop. In particular, the window list menu was very useful to move around, specially if many windows were open.
   
2. There is no "save session" item in the Start menu. I have selected the option "restore session from a previously manually saved session" in the session manager so that the "save session" item should appear in the start menu or in the kick off menu inside the "Leave" tab.
   

Quoted from "wrender"

I dont like single clicking to open things. I want the option to turn on double clicking this way I can easily select things and not worry about opening them.

That can be changed (it annoys me, too).I have the openSUSE KDE 4.1 Live CD installed into a VirtualBox at home, so, if I remember rightly, click on your KDE menu, then there'll be a Customize Desktop icon. Click on that, then go into the mouse properties, and it's in there somewhere.

I spent some hours discovering v4.1 - I am afraid I am going to drop it as I dropped v4.0. Well, I feel it more rapid than v3.5.9 in displaying graphic objects, this is a very good thing. But I am a system administrator, and thus a power user - hence my requests :

- in KDE 4.1, Alt-Tab shows the window list horizontally (as Gnome does ! with all these OpenGL bells and whistles :-(( - thus it does not display each window title; when having regularly far more than 10 windows open, it's impossible to switch quickly to the required window - it's unusable - I do need a vertical list displaying the titles - at least as an option

- in KDE 3.5.9, each removable media (DVD, USB dongles) can be mounted automatically (once successful in accessing the hidden checkbox in the storage media configuration) without starting any filemanager - I use mainly the command-line, so I don't care opening an object into a graphical window - I need that the desktop is able to pmount-hal on my behalf - for efficiency

- Ksysguard should be able to display the processes as a tree - as it's able to in v3.5.9 - I'm back to htop and pstree !

- being able to dynamically reconfigure the panel without entering a configuration mode seems obvious. And being able to change that sad black background as well ...

- why do you set all this grey as a background colour in Konqueror/Dolphin ? I mean, in the sidebar ? i don't know what is other people opinion, my feeling is that I lose contrast, and thus usage comfort : I read these zones less easily - it seems important to me, getting back to the white background, in order to keep a good contrast.

- I must say I am not a Dolphin fan - I never use it. I enjoy feature-reach environments, and thus Konqueror - with simple tools like Dophin, i don't feel comfortable at all. With Konqueror I can split windows, copy things with ftp, sftp, fish, and get URLs with http, rip audio CDs, read man and info pages : this is an efficient tool ! I like it ! (at least, in v3.5.9 - hopefully it will keep maturing, and not regress ...)

maybe you could display, out-of-the-box, a simple and cute layout, graphically oriented (with all these OpenGL toys), for normal users, but supply some sort of "expert zone", a backstage full of options for power users. We use KDE as well, but have different needs ;-)

Some thoughts about kde4:

• size fetish - default fonts, bottom panel, tray icons are HUGE. One tray icon in kde = 4 or 9 icons in xp or vista. Waste of space + it looks ugly and makes harder using kde on lower resolutions

• there should be possibility for easy using kde and all apps only with keyboard (tiled desktop? keyboard shortcuts?)

• there should be support for touch screens and multitouch pointing devices

• lack of voice recognition/voice commands/voice feedback

• no uniform mouse gestures for ALL apps (new document, save, reload, back, repeat etc.)

• support for MIDs and UMPCs, tablets etc. (support for small screens etc.)

• still no easy way to synchronize with any mobile device or another kde desktop. how am i supposed to sync my contacts and calendar between my desktop/laptop/mobile? kde should take inspiration from apple here. maybe akonadi/decibel should be put into kernel so that every distro can take benefit from it? bookmarks, browsing and chat history, notes, rss also should be synced

• no social networks in akonadi (inspiration from digsby?)

• ubuntu should ditch gnome and go to kde (Shuttleworth did not deny it in future)

• koffice should become superior to openoffice and go-oo, support better legacy ms office formats, opendocument, wordperfect files, those chinese standards and new ms office formats (open and save)

I want a panel which has a different content depending on the desktop I am on.
Or, for the same effect: Applications which belong to an activity, and widgets which behave like a panel (always on top, applications 'dock' to them, ...)

If anyone knows how to do this already, let me know.

There is a (buggy) demonstration available of what I mean here
http://www.luftgetrock.net/mockup_flash.swf

Click 'Start', then click on the _icon_ of an application, drag it to the left sidepanel, switch the profile (desktop), and notice the panel there didnt change. Human interface designers call this functionality 'task orientation'. Here it's done by: One desktop per task. Applications and the sidepanel belong to desktops.

(The demo also shows desktop icons on a per-desktop basis only, but i dont need that - i even disabled desktop icons completely, as they are usually covered by applications anyway.)

Please, don't talk about NEW features, there are many bugs to fix and elementary feautures not working yet !
Some examples:

Bugs in application launcher(s):

• corrupted menu structure (classical menu)
  
• menu content not (completely) updated after software installation (classical menu)
• usage of wrong icons for application in some cases
• ...

Download/installation of new desktop widgets still doesn't work (KDE4 reports success nevertheless ). This is a real "showstopper" !
Stability / version policy is the big point I'm not happy with...

Quoted from "mshelby1"

Since the announcement of the availability of KDE 4.1 I thought this might be a great place to get a ranked listing of the missing functionality present in KDE 3 series and not yet ported to 4.1

1. Prt-Scr button on keyboard doesn't launch Ksnapshot as before (Kde3)
2. Kwallet asks for pw AFTER Kontact exits (makes no sense, and not what happened in KDE3)
3. kgrab blanks entire screen and gets a blank image. Ksnapshot doesn't do this.
4. kweather won't start
5. kcontrol is missing
6. Amarok 2 lacks the 5.1 surround sound settings 1.x has
7. Akgregator obscures the list of messages in a feed, by default, at startup, the first few times it's used.
   

Broken in KDE3 also:

1. korn is incredibly hard to set up right the first time. I barely got it working in KDE3, and now can't in KDE4 - nor do the settings seem to migrate
2. CTRL-L in Dolphin shows the file path editing field, but this field doesn't stay ON by default - seems there is no way to force it
3. Kate doesn't automatically save the latest Recently Accessed Files list in the File menu

I agree with maeshtro that the possibility to attach action to click on Desktop background is still missing. Especially (for me) the ability to attach menu to the left button click.

The other feature I really would like to see is more easy access to "show hidden files" menu in Dolphin. For moment I add this menu entry to toolbar, but no icon is set and it's not very eye-candy. What I really wish is to be able to reach this menu entry from right click menu.

Quoted from "robertg"

- in KDE 4.1, Alt-Tab shows the window list horizontally (as Gnome does ! with all these OpenGL bells and whistles :-(( - thus it does not display each window title; when having regularly far more than 10 windows open, it's impossible to switch quickly to the required window - it's unusable - I do need a vertical list displaying the titles - at least as an option

Well, this can already be done. Go into System Settings > Desktop > Desktop Effects > All Effects > Window Management and deselect all the switching options.

What I need is in file view, you cannot see the full filename, even when you hover over the file or select it. This needs to be fixed. Also, activities should be arranged in a grid depending on the zoom level, and the background should be prettier Also, you should be able to create a panel within an activity for activity specific panels, independently theme each activity, and associate an activity with a KWin desktop. Finally, I'm having trouble figuring out how to select which side of the screen to put a new panel.

Edit: And almost forgot! A plasmoid for switching between activities!

Hi!

I am missing the following:
- keyboard-shortcuts for menu-entries (khotkeys is totally broken...)
- knode should authenticate to my newsserver - it doesn't need to, but you only get 11 groups without it...
- kmail should be able to sign my mails again
- the print key should start ksnapshot
- kde should switch to a network-code which is working with every router. There's a bug and all http is really slow, I only get time-outs most of the time. konqueror or akregator are just unusable for me.

That's it. Nothing special, just bugfixing. Things like folderview for the whole desktop or transperant panel is nice to have, but I think it is not essential for working with kde. They will come, but I could live without them.

Thomas