KDE 4.2.90 (Beta 2) experiencies

[youknowwho]

Hi everyone, after successfully downloading Fedora 11 codenamed Leonidas, I've installed it on my Kingstone USB Drive and from there to my HDD, and I am very pleased with it -of course, I've been following the Fedora 11 Leonidas development since the Beta, so I knew what to expect- so far it's been a wonderful experience, as usual.:)
But with all the excitement for the release gone, I thought that I should try Rawhide just because I like to live on the bleeding edge and Fedora 11 it's just too stable for me, also I wanted to try out the KDE 4.2.90 (4.3 Beta 2), that's available on the repos right now, so I gave a try and once I rebooted...


IT WORKED!!!
So far so good, a couple of applications crashing every now and then, can't use KpackageKit because as soon as it starts the thing just crash, at least I have YUM...that's what I use, so no problem there...
KWord is excellent for word processing, although so people say it lack some of the features it previously had, it's fine for every day use I'd say, at least for me, I only need it to write some college papers so, it's sufficient for me.
Amarok just ROCKS!!!
Konqueror is fine for every day web surfing, that's all-right with me...it plays flash content, so, that's enough.
The level of customization it's everything that I could possibly want in Desktop Environment, the responsiveness it's amazing, for me at least, ==>Toshiba A205, 1Gb RAM, 120 Gb HDD, Intel Celeron 1.86 Ghz Processor, Intel Chip Video Card, Atheros chip Wi-fi (work out-of-the-box thanks to ath5k drivers...).
A couple of minor bugs, a couple of crashes, but I can bare it, it's not so bad, actually it's quiet good...
The weather option for wallpaper seems to not function properly and there's no air theme...but it's actually a good beta...

Conclusion:
Give it a try, use it, (it doesn't crash that often...) report bugs, and let's make the next KDE 4.3 a great Desktop Environment, and show the greatness of the community, the Free Software one...of course...Also let's make the next Fedora release even better than Leonidas! (Although that's a hard one to do...).

Thanks to the Fedora developers and community and users for giving us Fedora!

Now, tell me...what's your experience with KDE 4.3 Beta 2 if you have updated to Rawhide?

Sorry for any grammatical mistakes, this is not my native language...I'm from Argentina, so although I've spent some years learning English it's not perfect yet...:D

I'll upload some screen-shots later on...

[youknowwho]

Here's the screenshots I promised, kinda let down because nobody post anything in this thread yet but, I'll try to make more interesting to people by showing my desktop so they post...

Using subversion I got the air theme, so If anyone running Rawhide using KDE 4.2.9.0 (Beta 2) is interested in the air theme, just let me know.

Here are the links (nothing to impressive though, just the default desktop and some plasmoids):
1) http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9664/snapshot1amd.png
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9664/snapshot1amd.th.png (http://img72.imageshack.us/i/snapshot1amd.png/)

2) http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/5853/snapshot2r.png
http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/5853/snapshot2r.th.png (http://img198.imageshack.us/i/snapshot2r.png/)

3) http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/4069/snapshot3.png
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/4069/snapshot3.th.png (http://img329.imageshack.us/i/snapshot3.png/)

Well, there, I hope you'll like it, and I'll be uploading some more screenshots soon, so stay tuned!

[kevmif]

Thanks for the info. KDE has come a long, long way since that mess of code they dubbed KDE4.0x and 4.1x was released. KDE 4.2x was the defining point in the KDE4 life cycle and it can only get better from here.

I would like to see even more speed and stability improvements. Can't wait until the KDE4 based K3B is finally released either.

[Demz]

KDE Plasma i like a lot top screenshots of it

[youknowwho]

Well, I noticed that people like screenshots, so here are some more, showcasing some of the upcoming features in the KDE 4.3 already present in KDE 4.3 Beta 2 (4.2.90).

But, first, I wanna post some screenshot of a few applications just recently ported to QT4:

Can't wait until the KDE4 based K3B is finally released either.

Here is a screenshot of the latest K3b, although I haven't try it myself, by the looks of it, it seems that it can do, pretty much the QT3 version could. I'll try to burn some DVD's later to see if it actually works.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/2349/snapshot9w.png

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/2349/snapshot9w.th.png (http://img5.imageshack.us/i/snapshot9w.png/)

Here's a KWord:
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/513/snapshot5r.png

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/513/snapshot5r.th.png (http://img99.imageshack.us/i/snapshot5r.png/)

Here's AmaROK! latest version 2.1.1, to widgets on the context menu, Current Track and Wikipedia:
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/4643/snapshot13.png

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/4643/snapshot13.th.png (http://img170.imageshack.us/i/snapshot13.png/)

Well, that's about it for applications, let's move on to the KDE 4.3 features:

There's a feature for folder view, when you hover to a specific folder it would open that folder in spacial mode:
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/3739/snapshot14.png

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/3739/snapshot14.th.png (http://img230.imageshack.us/i/snapshot14.png/)

Then, there's also the Network Manager plasmoid, which is good, but it still doesn't connect to WPA2 encrypted networks, so I'm stuck with nm-applet for now...:
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/3023/snapshot7.png

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/3023/snapshot7.th.png (http://img229.imageshack.us/i/snapshot7.png/)

Moving on to System Settings, there's the detailed tooltip, and the Tree View:
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/1249/snapshot8.png

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/1249/snapshot8.th.png (http://img411.imageshack.us/i/snapshot8.png/)

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/2263/snapshot15q.png

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/2263/snapshot15q.th.png (http://img26.imageshack.us/i/snapshot15q.png/)

Next we have the calendar, that it's now able to mark holidays:
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/1433/snapshot10t.png

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/1433/snapshot10t.th.png (http://img259.imageshack.us/i/snapshot10t.png/)

Finally, we have one option on the desktop settings to use as a wallpaper, the globe option:
http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/6630/snapshot12.png

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/6630/snapshot12.th.png (http://img36.imageshack.us/i/snapshot12.png/)

Well, that's it for today, if you want to see a feature that I left out, and wanna see how it looks just tell me and I'll screenshot it for you!

[Icm76]

Hi, I'm still new to Fedora (& Linux) but after a bit of persistence I figured out that "kdebase" was a good phrase to search within the package manager, after enabling the extra development repositories in Fedora 11 in order to find the KDE 4.3 beta.

Which packages should be downloaded to get just the basic KDE desktop environment? I looked at KDE 4.2.3 previously, but the standard install gave me 101 applications & games that didn't interest me. It'd be nice to test it without so much clutter!


Also, has anyone managed to register at the KDE community forum at http://forum.kde.org/index.php ? I figured that would be the obvious place to ask questions and discuss KDE, but I can't get an activation email to complete registration! (I have used an ISP based email account)

[youknowwho]

Hi, well, I installed Fedora 11 straight from the Live CD, the KDE Live CD, but if you want to install KDE on a Fedora box, you just have to open the CLI (Command Line Interface, "Terminal", I believe in Gnome), then issue the next command: su -c 'yum -y groupinstall "KDE (K Desktop Environment)"`
That command should install KDE, along with the dependencies needed, and you should have a working environment after you reboot.
Let me know if you need anything else, note that I updated from Fedora 11 KDE 4.2.3 to KDE 4.2.90, I didn't install it without first applying all the updates that there were for Fedora 11.
Hope it works for you!

[PatMcLJr]

Hello youknowwho and all,
Thanks for the posts. KDE4 has not been good to me so I kinda shyed away for a while. In 3.x days I was fanboy, so I really hope it's finally getting to a point where it can be a daily use desktop.

It would be nice to have someone show me KDE running on their Windows box and then start telling about how great Windows is! Too funny.

Thanks Again,
Pat Jr.

[marko]

Hi, well, I installed Fedora 11 straight from the Live CD, the KDE Live CD, but if you want to install KDE on a Fedora box, you just have to open the CLI (Command Line Interface, "Terminal", I believe in Gnome), then issue the next command: su -c 'yum -y groupinstall "KDE (K Desktop Environment)"`


Or install yumex and use the nice groups feature to see all the groups graphically, including KDE, and install from there.

[NikShah]

I have installed KDE 4.3 beta several times now, but when I chose the KDE session at the login prompt it begins to load - then aborts - and then reverts back to the login screen.

Any ideas?