There is nothing stopping you from using KDE applications from another desktop. I mostly use CLI applications myself but even from a simple window manager like xmonad I can use any KDE application without any difficulties (and certainly XFCE can handle that sort of thing too, and even has options for pre-loading KDE libraries). You can install GSB for Gnome if you like, you can fight with the Trinity project, you can use KDE4, you can install enlightenment, the list goes on. KDE3.5 is but one desktop environment in a sea of options. I keep KDE installed for the applications but I don't actually use KDE. This is not a crime against humanity.

2 members found this post helpful.

False.
KDE3 applications are useful but not necessary
and other WM/DE certainly do not depend on them.

2 members found this post helpful.

So? KDE4 apps don't impede the functionality of XFce, they add to it. For example, I like using KSnapshot when I run XFce. Slackware is all about choice. We always recommend a full install to users so that a user enjoys full functionality out of the box. If you don't want to use KDE4 don't use it. Customize your system to your needs.

Here we don't discuss possible replacement for KDE 3.5.x but rather what Slackware offers instead of KDE 3.5.x. I know that there is a sea of options. This is why I started this thread.

I wrote that they depend in the sense that without KDE applications one have to download more additional applications. Documents previewers, plugins for thunar and many other stuff.

Now I am staying with Slackware 12.2. I hope Trinity will be developed. The future? I also hope that there are other persons like me who want KDE 3.5.x to live and able to do much more than me.

Well, Slackware offers KDE 4.5.x instead 3.5.x. I'm sure that you have your reasons to stick to KDE 3.5, but if you want to use up-to-date Slackware you should try KDE 4, or try to install Trinity on Slackware 13.1 (even it seems pretty tough task). As many said before me, KDE 4.5 is already enough full of features and could be used as replacement of KDE 3.5. If system requirements of KDE 4.5 are some kind of obstacle to you, you can use XFCE with KDE applications installed. Also XFCE has ability to start some KDE services and thus you will avoid some complaints of KDE applications. I used KDE 3 before but as of Slackware 13.0 I'm using XFCE along with KDE 4 applications installed, and I'm using these apps with no problems. If you have some certain reasons to choose KDE 3.5 feel free to ask, may be some one else has found a way to use another app for the same purpose and will give you an advice.

You could update the KDE 3.5 SlackBuild scripts so that they'll work on 13.1. A big project, sure, but I'm sure it's doable. And if there are other people that feel the same way you'll do, you'll gain their appreciation.

True as far as it goes, but not a problem for everyone. I like being able to install whatever applications I prefer, and don't mind the time it takes(not much time, at that) to customise My Slackware installation to suit me; I know how to work with Slackware, and very much appreciate it's stability and functionality regardless of the WM/DE. I don't install any component of KDE(unless you count QT)- I don't have a problem with it, I just have other preferences.

Honestly, it has been said a few times here but maybe one more time will help. It is not Slackware's job to further develop KDE 3.5. If you really want it you truly should be taking your case to KDE. I honestly do not understand why you think Slackware should support it further. As with all things computers, they change and evolve and you really need to keep up sometimes.

There are so many options yet you produce no valid arguments why they will not work for you. What I read behind your arguments is "I like KDE 3.5 and I do not feel the need to change, so, you all change so I stay the same"

I can't believe that we're talking about this . . .

To debate the appropriateness of Slackware no longer including KDE 3 is, as so many others have pointed out, total folly. KDE 3 is abandonware.

ALL of this debate about window managers is completely moot, anyway. If you want one DE or another, or a blend of two or three or more of them, you can have it. With enough doing, you can make just about any DE work, including KDE 3, whatever version of Slackware, Debian, Ubuntu, or any Linux distro you are running.

I like compiz paired up with most of the other non-window manager parts of XFCE. It gives me that lightweight (or, really, middleweight) crispness of XFCE with all the eye-candy BS that KDE 4 has. Does Slackware ship with this DE set up for me? No, but with a tiny bit of effort, I can make it happen. Even if Slackware didn't come with any support for any piece of the setup that I like, I could still achieve it, because Slackware is a nice, vanilla open system. That's choice. That's running an open system on your desktop. In fact, if you ask me, thanks to the efforts of our esteemed BDFL and others, Slackware is just a better FreeBSD than FreeBSD is, with a Linux kernel, an attitude, and a pipe. And FreeBSD is, if you want some more unsolicited opinions from me, the de-facto standard of a vanilla, open system.

I kinda liked KDE 3, too, during the end of its run. However, before that I was on a K6-3, and KDE 3 seemed bloated and slow, just like KDE 4 does to me now. Personally, I think that KDE 4, even putting aside its slowness and memory usage, is still a poops-McGee DE. But, that's just me. I don't worry about that, because I don't ever have to.

To summarize: if you want to run KDE 3, you still can, so do it! But don't think that the rest of the Slackware world will ever, or should ever, worry about KDE 3 ever again. It has joined CDE, DOS 5, BeOS, and SunOS 1 in the ethereal netherworld of software that was once pretty nice but has reached its end of life.

Hey, there's always Debian Lenny . . . it'll probably still include KDE 3 in 2020.

Anybody else think it's odd that KDE 3 has inspired way more crying than GNOME did?

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Not really... Gnome is utter garbage.

lol
+1

Seriously, I don't understand why anyone uses or likes Gnome. It almost impossible to change the default file browser, and anything on the desktop will open in Nautilus no mater what... WTF? Changing the default video player requires a rather arcane hack... WTF?

KDE 4.x isn't perfect by any means; I really wish they'd get around to setting up an auto-open feature for external media, for instance. But Gnome is just stupid.

I totally agree with you.
I once tried gnome and it resembled more to ms-windows than
kde (for instance its file manager is just like windows explorer).
But now all these desktop managers resemble more and
more to ms-windows (useless icons on the desktop,
My Documents folder, and all that crap).
I've been postponing using slackware13.1
until I find a leaner alternative to kde-4.*