Arch Linux

veek

Member

Registered: 2006-03-10

Posts: 167

A few thoughts on KDE4, Compiz, ION and window management

Is there anything particular people are looking forward to in KDE 4.2? I'm currently using 4.1.3 from extra, and I really like it. Using it with Compiz.

In KDE I like how things are integrated. I like the tabbed application launcher with the search bar at the top. I also love Dolphin. It is the best graphical file manager I've used hands down. I like all of the views that are available, icons, columns, and details. A great feature in the icons view is being able to view files in groups. You can group by filetype, so it shows folders as a group, and each file extension as a separate group. It's particularly nice when you have a whole morass of files in one folder and you know the type of file you're looking for. You can also group using different criteria like date, and type. The other Dolphin features I like are tabs, and the command line that can be opened in a pane at the bottom where you can easily issue commands in the current directory.

I'm also using Kmail, Kopete, and Ktorrent. After using a lot of "patchwork" desktops with x window manager, y file manager, and z mail client, torrent client, etc, not to mention trays and other stuff; it is kind of nice to have some integration and consistency across programs. One way that integration manifests itself is the ability to use notifications in various apps to give you a little heads up that something happened.

I saw that KDE 4 got hated on a lot by the old guard of KDE 3.x users, but I was never really attracted to the old KDE. I gave KDE 4 a shot and now have myself a very cohesive environment. I don't even use plasma and the widget stuff. I think some of the backend projects like nepomuk have potential too. I hope the devs don't lose faith due to the naysayers, because I like the direction things are going.

Using Compiz is icing on the cake and actually pretty essential in my view. My main desire for whatever desktop environment I'm using is to have many desktops available, and be able to keep track of and switch between many windows easily. Using Compiz lets me do this smoothly and effectively.

My other favorite window manager is ION3, but ever since it was removed from the repos I was kind of left out in the cold. I tried at various times to duplicate my ION setup in other tiling managers, but in some it was impossible without major hacks to the core code, like in dwm, or wmii. Xmonad was the closest one, but frankly I didn't have the time to get around all the obstacles in tweaking the config. I had Xmonad quite close at one point, but in the end ION was better at being ION. It was very very fast, and had many little features that were time consuming to duplicate. So I abandoned them entirely, and went full tilt in the opposite direction from the minimalist enviornment of the tiling managers.

Actually I commonly had both a Compiz setup and a tiling manager setup at the same time, and would switch between the two as it suited me. This may seem strange to seem people, but I never really cared if I was using a minimalistic desktop, or a full blown smooth and shiny one. I just wanted a setup that let me multi task efficiently, and in my experience either ION or compiz let me do that pretty equally, although each one had a different way of doing it.

Presently I'm finding Compiz with KDE4 to be a pretty powerful combination. Even on a fairly old Dell laptop with a 1.8 Ghz single core centrino processor, and a Radeon Mobility 9000, the desktop is snappy and responsive even when I'm running a bunch of programs simultaneously. The real key to this is RAM though, and fortunately I have above 1 gig. I'm even able to run this setup and throw Windows XP running under VirtualBox into the mix, which is pretty remarkable.

There's more to be said, but I'll leave it at that for now. I just wanted to share some thoughts, and hear anything others have to say. The continued innovation in all areas of the Linux desktop is a beautiful thing.

tesjo

Member

Registered: 2007-11-30

Posts: 164

Re: A few thoughts on KDE4, Compiz, ION and window management

Well heres my story. I tried kde4 from extra the last 3 weeks and I like it. I have used xfce for the past 3 years, previous to that gnome. Tried kde but never really liked it. Now I am only using workspace, base, mutimedia and graphics.

Here is what I like.
1- Dolphin, awesome I have used thunar a while and it is great but I love splitview, and fish for ssh (which has been around a while I know), and the ability to mount other partitions on my hdd with a click no fstab entry or nothin'.
2-Pretty, I've used xfce with built in compositor an love the snappiness. But I like desktop grid with kde4 and flipswitch. Compiz-fusion is cool but I prefer not to use I'll take what the DE gives. Plasmoid are cool too.
3- Gwenview is nice too. Use to use gqview, but thumnails are nice.

Looking forward to or lacking
1- Keyboard shortcuts, Yes xbindkeys is there but if I have a DE I want it to do it. They just don't work now.
2- kde4 has windows specific settings, but I can't set the opacity for particular windows , doesn't work.
3- Ram of course is much higher in kde4, but maybe I'm getting old I just don't care as much.

shazeal

Member

From: New Zealand

Registered: 2007-06-05

Posts: 341

Re: A few thoughts on KDE4, Compiz, ION and window management

1- Keyboard shortcuts, Yes xbindkeys is there but if I have a DE I want it to do it. They just don't work now.

Compiz does the keyboard stuff for you using his setup.

2- kde4 has windows specific settings, but I can't set the opacity for particular windows , doesn't work.

Compiz does this.

3- Ram of course is much higher in kde4, but maybe I'm getting old I just don't care as much.

I'd agree with you if using the KDE desktop effects, compiz however is no where nearly as bad.

Saying all that, KDE4 to me is miles ahead of KDE3.5, maybe not feature wise. But in terms of usability and customization. But I find plain old Compiz standalone still to be better for myself for day to day use.

As it is I am using a bastard child of KDE4/Xfce4.6/Gnome, Compiz as WM with no actual DE.