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Well, I used KDE on Slackware for a few months this year because I hadn't tried it out for a few years. There thing that made me think that it was buggy was that I ran into some rendering issues, which want a big deal. But then I realized that some of the base programs like Kmail and Akregator would freeze up for a few seconds occasionally. They wouldn't load content properly unless I clicked around on different tabs then go back to the tab I wanted to see. Then, of course there is the theme manager that works well, except when you try to find a new window decoration, it doesn't load anything from the network, so you have to install manually. There are a lot of things like that through the KDE environment that I don't get on XFCE. Then again, XFCE doesn't have nearly as many features, but what can I say? I have always been a lover of the simple desktop. My philosophy on software has always been that the simpler the software, the less likely things will break. Hehehe
GNOME was dropped ages ago for being too complicated for the team to maintain; whereas Budgie depends on GNOME as far as I am aware. There are community builds of GNOME, like Dropline GNOME, but that hasn't been updated for nearly two years now. It is possible to make these things work on Slackware, and it is possible to make GNOME run without systemd, but it takes some effort, and probably more than the team would want to put in. There is also a community build of Cinnamon:
I have tried, some years ago enlightenment 17. Eye-candy, lightweight, reasonably functional. But (as far as i can recall now) i always had the feeling that something was not clicking to me.
Haven't tried mate and i am not intending to do so. From time to time, i use Openbox. Of course, openbox is a standalone window manager and not a (full) desktop.
Well, I used KDE on Slackware for a few months this year because I hadn't tried it out for a few years. There thing that made me think that it was buggy was that I ran into some rendering issues, which want a big deal. But then I realized that some of the base programs like Kmail and Akregator would freeze up for a few seconds occasionally. They wouldn't load content properly unless I clicked around on different tabs then go back to the tab I wanted to see. Then, of course there is the theme manager that works well, except when you try to find a new window decoration, it doesn't load anything from the network, so you have to install manually. There are a lot of things like that through the KDE environment that I don't get on XFCE. Then again, XFCE doesn't have nearly as many features, but what can I say? I have always been a lover of the simple desktop. My philosophy on software has always been that the simpler the software, the less likely things will break. Hehehe
Thanks for noting your experiences. I can't be sure if they are attributable just to KDE since I don't use KMail and have only used Akregator a little but I never had any rendering problems with it. Since rendering web-based apps depends on both graphics hardware and drivers as well as network connections that might explain a variety of experience. Even if it turns out that the cause is within KDE, 2 minor web apps hardly are cause to consider the whole of KDE as "buggy". It seems to me akin to referring to a Mercedes Benz auto as flawed design because the radio reception isn't always good, but different strokes... eh?.
KDE should be kept; it is a very powerful, fast and fairly light (compared to what it does)
There are parts I am not overly fond of (Akonadi mostly) but overall, it is a DE that does what I want a DE to do for me. (yes, I want a DE, not a WM)
As my pc is suffering from thermal issues (bought the wrong AMD CPU) I cannot really compile overy complex applications that take days to compile. In summer I cannot even compile most stuff and it takes winter for me to be able to compile wine.
I created a VM in which I try to rebuild all packages I have but then Slackware -current; and once that is completed I will switch to -current and take all my prepared packages along. Hopefully I can complete that before the end of this winter. I had to abandon the run just after I managed to compile openjdk8...
Keep KDE, I hope we can upgrade to KDE5 soon; so I can run digikam again :-( (really missing that one; old sources for Slackware 14.2 are not available anymore)
Even if it turns out that the cause is within KDE, 2 minor web apps hardly are cause to consider the whole of KDE as "buggy". It seems to me akin to referring to a Mercedes Benz auto as flawed design because the radio reception isn't always good, but different strokes... eh?.
Oh those are just the main issues I've had with kde really, like the ones that really got annoying because of their persistence. There are other issues, like programs randomly crashing, and other issues like that. I have never had any issues with xfce, so I guess that's what I am comparing it to. I actually like kde to a point, but I am not going to use it as my main driver since I like to be able to load my system and not worry about anything not working correctly. Then again, xfce doesn't have all the programs that kde has, so their project is probably easier to hunt down bugs. It is all more of an opinion I suppose.
Oh those are just the main issues I've had with kde really, like the ones that really got annoying because of their persistence. There are other issues, like programs randomly crashing, and other issues like that. I have never had any issues with xfce, so I guess that's what I am comparing it to. I actually like kde to a point, but I am not going to use it as my main driver since I like to be able to load my system and not worry about anything not working correctly. Then again, xfce doesn't have all the programs that kde has, so their project is probably easier to hunt down bugs. It is all more of an opinion I suppose.
Well, to be perfectly honest, I think KDE in Slackware and say a distro like Mageia are two very different experiences. Perhaps this is not well known, and those who use Slackware only, might get a wrong impression of KDE in some ways. My impression of KDE in Slackware is not all that great, I wish it was, but I had many issues, but my experience with KDE in some other distroes is exceptional.
Not sure why this is, but I guess it could have something to do with those dependendies and perhaps the general way KDE is distributed. I hold KDE in exceptionally high regard due to years of very stable and improving usage experience, aside from the obvious fact that it's an exceptionally feature rich and probably the best desktop on the market (of all and any desktops). Some people say it's bloaty or heavy, but it's not really, it's surprisingly lightweight (I'd bet way more so than windows and apple desktops)
Well, first off I'm a bit unclear as to whether we're currently on the subject of KDE4 in Slackware 14.2, or KDE5 from ktown on -current.
Either way, though, Slackware applies little to no patches to its KDE and does not customize it in any way, so if other distros are putting all kinds of time and effort into patching KDE and highly configuring it, you're going to have a different experience.
It's a double-edged sword though. On Slackware, when I report a bug upstream, I know with relative certainty that the bug is an upstream one as opposed to being specific to a particular distro's patch-set or configuration. Whereas on other distros you never know for sure which it is, so bugs get reported to the distro first generally, which results in duplication of effort (among other things).
I prefer the approach of Slackware (and, e.g, Arch) but being a member of the testing community at large is important to me. That's less important for others, but I'd wager it's on average more important for Slackware users than users of other more 'beginner' oriented distros.
Either way, though, Slackware applies little to no patches to its KDE and does not customize it in any way, so if other distros are putting all kinds of time and effort into patching KDE and highly configuring it, you're going to have a different experience.
I don't know the practices of the various distroes, but I think KDE working well on alot of distros is not the accomplishment of those distros, but of KDE. I think the stock-KDE version is probably a stable and good experience, and not due to custom patches or anything like that. I know Mageia customize the looks and such of their KDE version, but I highly doubt they patch it and such things. The only thing I know is common practice in Mageia is to run the long term support (and/or most stable) version of things. Not sure KDE has a version like that, and I doubt the rest of the KDE released would be unstable.
Anyways, my experience with KDE5 is that it is highly stable and very mature for a long time.
Not sure why this is, but I guess it could have something to do with those dependencies and perhaps the general way KDE is distributed. I hold KDE in exceptionally high regard due to years of very stable and improving usage experience, aside from the obvious fact that it's an exceptionally feature rich and probably the best desktop on the market (of all and any desktops). Some people say it's bloaty or heavy, but it's not really, it's surprisingly lightweight (I'd bet way more so than windows and apple desktops)
+1 on that. KDE user since version 2.4 here (currently 5.12.8 on OpenSUSE Leap 15.1). My current distro aside, I've found KDE Neon and Debian to offer some satisfying KDE implementations. Back in 2014, I had a crisp and clean trimmed-down KDE 4 desktop built from scratch on Slackware that was even featured on The Linux Rig. Eric does a tremendous job of building KDE for Slackware, and I admit I'm a bit puzzled why Plasma 5 hasn't yet been included in the mainline distribution.
Been following Slackware closely since 2001, and one of its more mysterious quirks is its stubborn non-inclusion of stuff that's already running perfectly everywhere else. (Remember the frustrating wait for the 2.6 kernel and HAL back in 2006?)
That's one thing I dislike in Plasma 5, the "run" dialog has been replaced with that search based thing. I just want to type a bloody command and I may not have a working pointing device to select something from the drop list and I couldn't ever seem to get that in focus. That Alt+F2 in Plasma 5 actually screwed up recovery for me when, for example, trying to get out of a malfunctioning game. It doesn't matter, as switching TTYs is the better method for that anyway but the point is I used to do that with Alt-F2.
I don't like indexed database searches and I don't allow search indexers (especially that idiotic "Baloo") to run. Not in any OS or environment. No "slocate" for me either, I can't stand those pointless, i/o intensive cron jobs to update the db. When I search for something I'm not doing it blindly, and I prefer to just use the find command. Also, I trust the results of brute force file searches, index databases not so much.
In my Trinity Desktop (KDE 3) the Alt+F2 dialog is straight forward, type a command and hit enter. Too much cleverness these days.
In Plasma 5, when you press Alt+F2 and "krun" appears (the "run" dialog), at the left there is a "levers" icon. Clicking on it lets you allow the active plugins. You can just leave the "command line" plugin as the only active plugin, and there you go (see attached screenshots).
Last edited by sombragris; 10-15-2019 at 01:00 AM.
I have created a monster, and I am not feeding it oh well. At this point it is settled KDE isn't going anywhere, and I am legit fine with that. I regret not being specific - but again I am not creating another poll, so the next question is - at this point how much longer must we wait until we see Plasma? Yea feeding the monster here - and now devolving into the 'is Plasma ready for inclusion' debate, but to my credit at least again I kept out of that debate; however perhaps it is time to stop kicking the can down the road and revisit that with a conclusion perhaps.
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