Some folks remain content with Slackware 12.2 and KDE 3.5.10. Do you have a critical need for something specific in 13.0?

@piratesmack - No, I wasn't aware that someone put together the KDE 3.5.10 packages for Slackware 13. Thanks for that. I'll look into it. There are a lot of things about KDE 4 that I like, and I'm not nostalgic for KDE 3.5 just because it is KDE 3. But I do like the stability of KDE 3.5.

@Woodsman - No, there was nothing in 13.0 that I needed in particular. I just don't like to get too far behind because the upgrade instructions always specify that they are tested only for the -1 release to the new one, e.g., 10.2 to 11, 11.0 to 12.0, 12.0 to 12.1, 12.1 to 12.2, 12.2 to 13.0. If the upgrade instructions were tested and recommended for upgrading over a release or two, I would probably not upgrade each release. Once I get my system working to my satisfaction, I'm happy with it and usually don't want to change anything. I'd rather have stability than new features.

I made a mistake, that is certain. There were two things that contributed to it. First, I made an assumption, and the old adage about the meaning of "assume" has once again proven to be true. I have gotten spoiled over the years by the routinely high quality Slackware new releases, so I assumed the same would be true of 13.0. I waited a couple of months after I got the DVD (I have a subscription), then I found I had some spare time, so I upgraded. I failed to check this board to see if anyone was having problems, so confident I was that Slackware would be as stable as ever. So I didn't know about the issues with KDE 4.2.4. My other mistake was vainly hoping that upgrading would solve an annoying problem I've long had with a lack of sound in flv videos played by my browser (e.g., youtube videos). Of course it didn't. I still have the sound problems. And now on top of that, I have a desktop that has glaring quality issues.

ZO38, I suspect Pat's decision to include KDE4 was influenced by the fact that upstream had pretty much abandoned KDE 3.5 by that stage. Setting aside whether the KDE devs could have done the transition to KDE4 a little better, Slackware can only work with what upstream provides, and in this case it was a choice between a more or less abandoned older version, and a new one that wasn't quite all-there yet, but which was deemed close enough to be usable. And as Woodsman has already said "Anyone with issues could stick with 12.2 until KDE4 settled down" (which is what I ended up doing after trying 13.0 out for a while) and I'm sure that fact wasn't lost on Pat either.

Rather than call it a 'poor decision' to include KDE4, I'd call it a 'good decision in less than optimal circumstances'.

You are probably right about all that GazL, but if you upgrade rather than do a clean install for new releases, you will still have to go to 13.0, at least briefly, before you go to whatever the next release is. Upgrading is only supported to the next higher release. You may not find it a big deal, of course.

I decided to stop lurking and register on LQ.

'ello :P

Just wanted to throw my two cents in about kde 4.

I'm running 4.2.4 on a stock install of slackware 13.0.

Having been with 3.5 for quite a while and really loved its functionality and layout, transitioning to 4 was a bit difficult in the beginning. My initial response was that of shock in regard to the very large icons and panel and the bit of difficulty in figuring out how to tweak this or that.

Quickly, however, I began to really love the new environment. I have since then figured out how to get it working exactly the way I want it to, and the few problems I've ran into weren't particularly difficult to fix.

Stability in general is better than I had expected considering lots of negative reviews. Plasma has crashed a handful of times for me but always was re-launchable. I joined the crowd of people who simply disabled Nepomuk and Strigi because they seem to hog system resources under varying conditions and I simply have no use for them.

> My first impression was that KDE4 had clean lines and a modern appearance. I was initially excited and I was prepared to like it. But this KDE makes it difficult. The more I use it, the more it reminds me of Gnome; vast, empty, useless screen space with everything that should be at your fingertips hidden and/or tedious to reach.


Definitely agree with the clean lines and modern appearance. Looks and feels great, IHMO. I'd have to agree that there definitely was a learning curve involved with things being hidden. After a bit of fiddling, I've found previously out in the open things and brought them back to their rightful place or at least know how to access what I need. A lot of options are in way different places than you'd expect to look, but are still available.

Side note: I love Dolphin. Silly and small reason - it shows available disk space. :P Don't get me wrong, I loved using Konqueror, but Dolphin does everything I used Konqueror for (and now shows me available space).

I'm not a fan of Amarok 2 and the new version of K3B doesn't work correctly for me, but the old packages and kde3.5 libs are available to run them (and apparently flawlessly, haven't had an issue with them myself...)

All in all, I think the KDE team is definitely moving in the right direction to keep things 'modern' and I'm excited for 4.3.4 to move to the next release of Slackware (i'd update to -current, but my machines work just fine and are stable for now). KDE 4 is not KDE 3. There will be and has been a bit of a learning curve for a lot of people, but in my case I feel it was worth it. Definitely still prefer it over Gnome (which is great for a lot of people, but not for me) or XFCE (even though the latest release seems quite impressive and I definitely admire it in general) or other lightweight managers (you know who you are :P I'd use them, but, well.... I like the feel of a larger environment... that's me...)

Oh! Can't believe I almost forgot.
4 uses way less system resources than 3.5 by what I've noticed. Uses way less RAM. Me likey.

Major props in regard to Slackware 13 in general! I've learned so much about Linux using this distro and have always gotten it to do what I need it to.

Thanks for your perspective, genericflounder, and welcome to LQ.

Greetings to everybody.

At first (about a year ago) when first KDE-4 packages appeared in Slackware I was also very disappointed by stability, performance and usability. But Kde-4.2, and then KDE-4.3 changed my opinion.

Two days using kde-4.4 rc1 from Alien Bob: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/kde-...for-slackware/
It is indeed another big step forward from KDE team.

Thank you Erik, for building this and making it public.

I do not\can not want to go back to KDE-4.3....

brgrds,
Vladimir