4 ms·

I am pretty sure you mean 3->4. KDE5 was so smooth, that you were wondering why they were talking about a major release. The problem with the KDE4 was that peo

by JepZ 9y ago

I am pretty sure you mean 3->4. KDE5 was so smooth, that you were wondering why they were talking about a major release. The problem with the KDE4 was that people were adopting it too early. I started to use it with the first alpha and saw a lot of bugs during that time, but I always knew that I was using incomplete alpha software. KDE4 wasn't stable enough for every day use until 4.3 or so and many people started to use it with 4.1 which was just the first version which claimed to be usable at all (most basic programs had been rewritten, but many more advanced programs still weren't ready).

blablabla123 9y ago
> The problem with the KDE4 was that people were adopting it too early. True, it also meant that distributors were replacing KDE3 too early and the system wasn't receiving much updates anymore before KDE4 was usable. I ended up using mostly XFCE, Gnome and macOS the years after. ;) Might give KDE5 a shot though.
Zitrax 9y ago
> The problem with the KDE4 was that people were adopting it too early. Don't you mean that it was released too early? People will in general install and use the released version and complain if it's not good enough.
shirakawasuna 9y ago
> The problem with the KDE4 was that people were adopting it too early. Yes, but this problem was caused by the KDE release team botching their announcement. They had an alpha release, a beta release, and then a big 4.0 release. Then, it turned out that their '4.0 release' was really what everyone else would consider alpha/beta, and they didn't want people actually using it for production environments yet. They screwed up communication royally, sending mixed messages about whether the software was actually ready or not. source: I maintained some KDE-related packages on arch and the 4.0 release was horribly botched.
- seba_dos1 9y ago
  It was all mixed up due to library frameworks and application suite being released as one big "KDE" package. Kdelibs5 4.0 was ready and stable, but the KDE desktop wasn't. They tried to communicate that since the beginning, but not nearly hard enough.
znpy 9y ago
> The problem with the KDE4 was that people were adopting it too early. IIRC, that was on purpose. KDE purposedly release KDE4.0 even though it was not completely tested in order to have more bug reports. In retrospect, that was a stupid move. Still in retrospect, I still miss KDE3.
- JepZ 9y ago
  Well, the way I remember it, there were a lot of people telling you to skip KDE 4.0 and wait for 4.1 at the time of the 4.0 release and I was pretty sure that there was some warning in the release notes. So I took a look at them again: https://www.kde.org/announcements/4.0/ https://www.kde.org/announcements/4.0/ But I can't find there any warning what so ever. So even if the people who were actively engaged with the development knew that this software wasn't ready for prime time, they didn't mention it and therefore I have to agree with you that this move must have been done on purpose. :-/
  - emilsedgh 9y ago
    Right. Not in the announcement. But it was communicated with the community what KDE 4.0 was about [0] Obviously there were mistakes made. But the fact that KDE 4.0 was not ready for every day use _was_, in fact, communicated with distro's. [0] http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/01/talking-bluntly.html http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/01/talking-bluntly.html

by JepZ 9y ago

blablabla123 9y ago

> The problem with the KDE4 was that people were adopting it too early. True, it also meant that distributors were replacing KDE3 too early and the system wasn't receiving much updates anymore before KDE4 was usable. I ended up using mostly XFCE, Gnome and macOS the years after. ;) Might give KDE5 a shot though.

Zitrax 9y ago

> The problem with the KDE4 was that people were adopting it too early. Don't you mean that it was released too early? People will in general install and use the released version and complain if it's not good enough.

shirakawasuna 9y ago

> The problem with the KDE4 was that people were adopting it too early. Yes, but this problem was caused by the KDE release team botching their announcement. They had an alpha release, a beta release, and then a big 4.0 release. Then, it turned out that their '4.0 release' was really what everyone else would consider alpha/beta, and they didn't want people actually using it for production environments yet. They screwed up communication royally, sending mixed messages about whether the software was actually ready or not. source: I maintained some KDE-related packages on arch and the 4.0 release was horribly botched.

seba_dos1 9y ago
It was all mixed up due to library frameworks and application suite being released as one big "KDE" package. Kdelibs5 4.0 was ready and stable, but the KDE desktop wasn't. They tried to communicate that since the beginning, but not nearly hard enough.

znpy 9y ago

> The problem with the KDE4 was that people were adopting it too early. IIRC, that was on purpose. KDE purposedly release KDE4.0 even though it was not completely tested in order to have more bug reports. In retrospect, that was a stupid move. Still in retrospect, I still miss KDE3.

JepZ 9y ago
Well, the way I remember it, there were a lot of people telling you to skip KDE 4.0 and wait for 4.1 at the time of the 4.0 release and I was pretty sure that there was some warning in the release notes. So I took a look at them again: https://www.kde.org/announcements/4.0/ https://www.kde.org/announcements/4.0/ But I can't find there any warning what so ever. So even if the people who were actively engaged with the development knew that this software wasn't ready for prime time, they didn't mention it and therefore I have to agree with you that this move must have been done on purpose. :-/
- emilsedgh 9y ago
  Right. Not in the announcement. But it was communicated with the community what KDE 4.0 was about [0] Obviously there were mistakes made. But the fact that KDE 4.0 was not ready for every day use _was_, in fact, communicated with distro's. [0] http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/01/talking-bluntly.html http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/01/talking-bluntly.html