4 ms·

It feels to me that a lot of the bigger ideas in KDE fell away over the years. In the 2000s I would log in every morning, open a KWord doc in one Konqueror tab,

by thom 4mo ago

It feels to me that a lot of the bigger ideas in KDE fell away over the years. In the 2000s I would log in every morning, open a KWord doc in one Konqueror tab, a KSpread sheet in another, and some browser tabs alongside them, then I'd launch Kate and open some files over SSH or FTP and get to work. It felt like someone had really embraced OO and applied it to every part of the desktop, and I assume something like KParts and KIOSlaves still exist. But for the most part, I use KDE now as a bog standard boring Linux desktop that just works. I am grateful that it hasn't been dumbed down quite as much as GNOME over the years, but I hope they have a few bold experiments left in them (and would love to hear what I'm missing if it's already there!)

lallysingh 4mo ago
All the development action went to the web. Dolphin's still pretty awesome.
andrewgodwin 4mo ago
I still find a decent amount of the integration, like KIO, is still there and works well - it puts MacOS and Windows to shame in terms of how I can just interact with files anywhere as if they're native within KDE apps. It's kind of a shame that Konqueror fell to the wayside, but modern browsers are so complicated I cannot fault them for focusing elsewhere.
- johannes1234321 4mo ago
  > It's kind of a shame that Konqueror fell to the wayside, but modern browsers are so complicated I cannot fault them for focusing elsewhere. KHTML became webkit (Safari) and then blink (Chrome) so they created the foundation for quite many browsers ...
- caycep 4mo ago
  it kind of vaguely reminds me of the OpenDoc concept although tbh I didn't really understand what Apple was describing at the time
fragmede 4mo ago
KDE-connect is my preferred cross-platform local clipboard/file/whatever sharing program when venture out of a walled garden
handzhiev 4mo ago
Still using Kate for all of my coding
AhCoonu7 4mo ago
I feel the same. A lot of big projects fell by way side over time for various reasons. Goes with the nature of experiments, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. k3b - died with the cd-rom calligra office - creation of LibreOffice stole the thunder konqueror - maintaining a secure browser that isn't a fork of chrome is a tall ask these days amarok / kmail - rewrite lost features, introduced bugs, and many existing alternatives filled the gap That said there are still a lot of good ones still there that continue to improve every day. Kate, dolphin, KDE connect, etc.
- xorcist 4mo ago
  > maintaining a secure browser that isn't a fork of chrome is a tall ask these days > maintaining a secure browser that isn't a fork of konqueror is a tall ask these days FTFY
- The_President 4mo ago
  Kmail worked great for years then one update akondai would no longer sync and that was the end of it.
PurpleRamen 4mo ago
KDE4 killed too much momentum; many promising features and apps disappeared for whatever reason or slowly faded out into irrelevance. Stuff like KIOSlaves is still around, but never really evolved beyond what it was 20 years ago.
- calvinmorrison 4mo ago
  Well, Trinity Desktop is alive and kicking and is a fork of the 3.5.12 series. over 16 years of steady releases now.
  - PurpleRamen 4mo ago
    Isn't Trinity just maintenance and small improvements of KDE3? I don't remember to have heard about any revolutionary changes, or even just significant evolutionary improvements.
    - calvinmorrison 4mo ago
      Definitely not revolutionary. Plenty of evolutionary changes - because linux itself has changed. the last major release brought - LUKS encrypted disk support desktop-wide, - storage device hot plug/unplug - new Bluetooth GUI (tdebluez) - new media player (kplayer), - PulseAudio support - window tiling
thom 4mo ago
And in case this comes off too negative, I don’t think anyone has mentioned KStars, my favourite KDE app for many years. All my early Linux experiences were eye opening and mind expanding about what computers could be, but somehow none more than that.
liotier 4mo ago
> I use KDE now as a bog standard boring Linux desktop that just works "bog standard boring Linux desktop that just works" is a low key major achievement - I love it !
- Hugsbox 4mo ago
  Yep, I'm past my days of wanting my OS to be "exciting" :) now boring and functional is king.

by thom 4mo ago

lallysingh 4mo ago

All the development action went to the web. Dolphin's still pretty awesome.

andrewgodwin 4mo ago

I still find a decent amount of the integration, like KIO, is still there and works well - it puts MacOS and Windows to shame in terms of how I can just interact with files anywhere as if they're native within KDE apps. It's kind of a shame that Konqueror fell to the wayside, but modern browsers are so complicated I cannot fault them for focusing elsewhere.

johannes1234321 4mo ago
> It's kind of a shame that Konqueror fell to the wayside, but modern browsers are so complicated I cannot fault them for focusing elsewhere. KHTML became webkit (Safari) and then blink (Chrome) so they created the foundation for quite many browsers ...
caycep 4mo ago
it kind of vaguely reminds me of the OpenDoc concept although tbh I didn't really understand what Apple was describing at the time

fragmede 4mo ago

KDE-connect is my preferred cross-platform local clipboard/file/whatever sharing program when venture out of a walled garden

handzhiev 4mo ago

Still using Kate for all of my coding

AhCoonu7 4mo ago

I feel the same. A lot of big projects fell by way side over time for various reasons. Goes with the nature of experiments, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. k3b - died with the cd-rom calligra office - creation of LibreOffice stole the thunder konqueror - maintaining a secure browser that isn't a fork of chrome is a tall ask these days amarok / kmail - rewrite lost features, introduced bugs, and many existing alternatives filled the gap That said there are still a lot of good ones still there that continue to improve every day. Kate, dolphin, KDE connect, etc.

xorcist 4mo ago
> maintaining a secure browser that isn't a fork of chrome is a tall ask these days > maintaining a secure browser that isn't a fork of konqueror is a tall ask these days FTFY
The_President 4mo ago
Kmail worked great for years then one update akondai would no longer sync and that was the end of it.

PurpleRamen 4mo ago

KDE4 killed too much momentum; many promising features and apps disappeared for whatever reason or slowly faded out into irrelevance. Stuff like KIOSlaves is still around, but never really evolved beyond what it was 20 years ago.

calvinmorrison 4mo ago
Well, Trinity Desktop is alive and kicking and is a fork of the 3.5.12 series. over 16 years of steady releases now.
- PurpleRamen 4mo ago
  Isn't Trinity just maintenance and small improvements of KDE3? I don't remember to have heard about any revolutionary changes, or even just significant evolutionary improvements.
  - calvinmorrison 4mo ago
    Definitely not revolutionary. Plenty of evolutionary changes - because linux itself has changed. the last major release brought - LUKS encrypted disk support desktop-wide, - storage device hot plug/unplug - new Bluetooth GUI (tdebluez) - new media player (kplayer), - PulseAudio support - window tiling

thom 4mo ago

And in case this comes off too negative, I don’t think anyone has mentioned KStars, my favourite KDE app for many years. All my early Linux experiences were eye opening and mind expanding about what computers could be, but somehow none more than that.

liotier 4mo ago

> I use KDE now as a bog standard boring Linux desktop that just works "bog standard boring Linux desktop that just works" is a low key major achievement - I love it !

Hugsbox 4mo ago
Yep, I'm past my days of wanting my OS to be "exciting" :) now boring and functional is king.