OpenSuSE 11, Part 2

Sorry, it's been a while.  Tonight we'll discuss the other big feature of OpenSuSE 11: KDE 4.0.4.  KDE 4 is a total redesign of the venerable KDE window manager and desktop environment that promises a new, almost Mac-like interface.  Unfortunately, the KDE team decided to pull a Vista on us and released KDE 4.0 as more of a "developer's preview" than a stable, end-user release.   Guess it just goes to show: don't trust point-oh software.  The community's response to 4.0 has been mixed.  Early reports I read showed that the KDE 4 environment in SuSE 11 was a little more stable/polished than most other releases.  Now, I've not toyed with KDE 4 beyond SuSE 11, so I can't really comment on SuSE's KDE 4 implementation vs everyone else's KDE 4 implementation.  What I can comment on is how I like the SuSE11 version and what works/doesn't work for me.

KDE 4 introduces a new desktop shell called 'Plasma.'  Plasma consists of a bunch of different 'widgets' (why does that word always remind me of Wicket, the Ewok from Return of the Jedi?) that constitute all your icons- program icons, KickOff, the trash, all the little applets running in the panel.  What this means is that it's not a simple drag-and-drop to take applications from the "KickOff" menu-- a sort of Vista-style Start menu for KDE-- and put them on the desktop or the Panel, which is the bar on the bottom of the screen that holds the workspace switcher, clock, etc.  Oft times the icon image doesn't tranfer over, so you have to right click the icon, select 'Icon Settings', then click on the Icon image (which does show up right in this window) and select the proper image.  To move the icons around, you must select 'unlock widgets' after right-clicking on the desktop.  Doing this causes a grey square to surround each icon after you move the mouse pointer over it.  This 'shadow' (if you will) gives you the following little icons: a 'starburst' pattern, a refresh-looking icon, a wrench (configure) and a red x (remove).  The fact that I just spent 10 minutes trying to figure out what the first two icons do should tell you something about the completeness (or lack thereof) of the KDE 4 environment.  Regardless, this shadow is incredibly annoying, and the decision to only hide it with the 'lock widgets' option seems to me to be a bad design.  

One positive aspect of KDE 4 is the new Personal Settings application, who's design is very Mac-like.  Anyone familiar with OS X's System Preferences will instantly recognize this application.  The icons are different, but the layout and groupings are very similar.  From within this application one can configure the Look and Feel of the KDE desktop, personal preferences (default apps, language, etc), network and sharing settings, fonts, keyboard, joystick, etc.  After making your changes, select the 'Overview' button (the one with the Back arrow) to return to the main list-- like I said, very Mac-like.  However, one problem I've had with Linux and the past and still havn't quite gotten over is the multitude of different configuration panels/programs, all of which configure different aspects of the system.  SuSE 11/KDE 4 still don't have everything in one place.  YaST (Yet another Setup Tool) controls all your system administration tasks-- servers, hardware, software management, etc-- into one place.  Given that you're changing system-critical settings here, YaST requires the root password to access.  The Personal Settings app controls more KDE/profile specific settings and does not require root authentication.  

KDE 4 includes a bunch of other eye-candy, such as Expose-esque effects and Compiz Fusion dekstop effects, but because I'm running this in a VM that is hosted on an Intel 950 GPU (blegch!) I don't have the power to use any of these features.  In terms of eye-candy/polish/ease of use, KDE 4.0.x marks a dramatic change (and not-so-dramatic improvement) from KDE 3.5.x.  Is it worth it for a production-level desktop?  No.  It's still got it's bugs- every so often you run into the KDE Crash Handler (selecting the 'Preview' tab from the Icon Settings window consistently crashes the desktop, though it recovers decently) or other error messages.  While SuSE 11/KDE 4 may be a better implementation of KDE 4 than most, it's still very much 'bleeding edge' software.  If you want a stable desktop, use KDE 3.5.9 or Gnome 2.22, both of which are included on the DVD.  Reviews for these environments on SuSE 11 to come shortly. 

Stay tuned for more SuSE 11 goodness, including the aformentioned KDE and Gnome reviews as well as my DVD-playback issues, general notes, and (hopefully) notes from an actual physical install instead of a VM.