So, I have just come out of a self-imposed exile from KDE (you remember them, right? the team that wrote KHTML–the HTML rendering engine that Apple uses?). A while ago, a friend of mine challenged my manhood by saying that Gnome had everything I wanted if only I would get used to it.

I’d been using KDE as my Desktop environment previously to this exile for a good couple of years. The problem was that, then, the applications that I need/use most (web browser, PIM/e-mail application, IM client, IRC client) were VERY weak in KDE’s side of the court. KMail/KOrganizer/Kab/etc. just were not as polished and functional as their Gnome counterparts (Evolution, Gaim, etc.). So I used KDE as my desktop, but used mostly Gnome/GTK apps inside of it. And I was happy. =:)

But then, as I said, my friend laughed at me and called me names for using more memory, etc., etc. So I fell for it and insisted on putting up with Gnome’s lack of configurability, quirks, etc., etc., and I was reasonably happy for a good 6 months or so.

Then boredom kicked in, and I felt the itch to try KDE 3.3.1 out, having not used it in a long time. And let me just say, WOW. The KDE guys have always impressed me with their software, and they have definitely done an outstanding job. I’m not sure whether the majority of the credit should go to the KDE team or Fedora’s KDE packagers, but this is one solid desktop. It is every bit as (if not more) snappy as Gnome is, and I really appreciate the configurability in KDE. I guess that’s either a love-it or hate-it thing, by the way. Most of the negative comments I’ve seen about KDE are centered around the argument that it is too configurable, with too many options. Well, to that I say a pre-emptive “SSHHHH”. (Oh–and by the way, show me where you can configure your mouse cursor in Gnome again? Oh yeah, that’s right, you can’t…. You have to do it yourself or download gcursor, whereas KDE has allowed you to do this for the last year….) KDE just feels much better than Gnome to me. Leave it at that and check your weapons at the door–I’m not interested in a holy war today.

Anyway, where I was going with this was…. The applications in KDE have finally gotten to where I can use them!! =:) Heh. Here’s a short list of the apps that I’m using/not using and why. My goal, by the way, was to use ONLY KDE apps–to give them all a fair trial. I’ll likely update this post as I work with/through some of these things.

• Kopete is an AMAZING piece of work! It is REALLY solid-feeling, with many nice touches (like the buddy list animations!!). My only complaint with it is that it doesn’t handle proxy connections. I have 2 accounts (jabber and MSN) that I have to go through a proxy to be able to connect to, and without the ability to do that, I have to use Gaim for the time being–not that Gaim is bad in any way–it’s VERY good. It just means that I can’t use only KDE apps.
• Kmail/Korganizer/Kaddressbook/Kontact : WOW! Awesome job guys!! This is really quite solid now. And KMail actually does a much nicer job of displaying the meeting requests than evolution’s frame-within-a-frame approach!! And Korganizer’s interface is cleaner IMO than Evolution’s is. Little things count here, like being able to drag/drop an appointment from one day to another in week view.

  My main complaints are around little quirks, such as:

• Group scheduling : it takes far more to schedule an appointment in KMail/Korganizer than it does in Evolution. I would LOVE to see this get easier and simpler for the user. Evolution does this very well, IMO.
• Related to the above : accepting incoming meeting requests don’t seem to work. I got one from my friend the other day, sent from an Outlook mail client, and Kmail displayed the meeting request correctly, with “Accept” and “Decline” links at the bottom of the e-mail, but clicking “Accept” did not either reply to the sender, nor did it place the appointment in my calendar. Slightly disappointing. On the good side, though, sending requests finally works correctly!! =:)
• KPilot : I use my Palm to hold the right half of my brain (and so that I don’t have to carry an organizer around, etc.), so integration between my Palm and my PIM is absolutely essential. A couple of years ago, KPilot was light-years behind gnome-pilot, honestly. Its interface was clunky, its kpilotDaemon didn’t work correctly, and its conduits didn’t work correctly. It was simply not useable. BUT NOW, WOW! Its interface is way better than gnome-pilot’s, its conduits work as good if not better than gnome-pilot’s/evolution’s (I have had many problems with evolution 2.0.x’s conduits). But KPilot’s address book and calendar conduits have not failed me yet. My only complaint with KPilot is that it does not have a reliable MemoPad conduit. The KNotes conduit doesn’t work for me (and several others, apparently). So I’m going to pull on my coding lederhosen and create a new conduit for KPilot that works the same way that gnome-pilot-conduits’ memofile does. But more about this in another post….
• Integration between all applications (KMail, as a good example) and the underlying DE : MUCH better in KDE than in gnome, IMO. KDE has always done this better than Gnome. Gnome 2.8 is a HUGE improvement in this area, but it is still way too difficult to open something that the DE doesn’t know about in Gnome. KDE makes this so simple that it’s a pleasure to deal with. In Evolution, if you get an e-mail that has an odd attachment that it doesn’t know how to handle, your only choice is “save as”. Yuck. With KMail/any KDE application, you simply right-click and say “open with…”. =:) And KDE remembers your choice if you want it to so you don’t have to do that again. =:) Silky smooth.
• I’m using Beep media player (a gtk2 port of xmms, which is WAY nicer already than xmms) instead of a native KDE music app. I honestly do want to use a KDE app for my music, but Fedora has chosen to not allow any KDE apps to be able to handle the mp3 format. I understand why, and that’s a different issue. But the problem is that whereas with Gnome apps, one is able to remedy this pretty easily by downloading gstreamer-plugins-mp3, I haven’t found an equivalent method for getting KDE apps to handle mp3’s, short of recompiling KDE, which I’m not aching to do right yet. Anyone know how to fix this??
• Kdevelop : WOW, this has really gotten good!!! I am amazed at how much they’e done with it. If I could just figure out how to get it to do code insight like JBuilder does, I’d actually pay money for this!

Anyway, like I said, KDE is a REALLY solid environment. I am using Opera for my web browsing (7.60 P3 for Linux just plain kicks butt, and its developers are REALLY responsive on the opera-linux mailing list!!), Kontact/Kmail/Korganizer for my PIM, KPilot for my Pilot, and Gaim and beep media player are my only 2 GTK/Gnome apps at this point. =:)

Back to work with you now….