[arch-general] We have lost the desktop war. The reason? Windows 7.

[Jozsef]

On 26 Oct 2009 at 11:57, RedShift wrote:

> This thread will probably erupt in a massive flamewar, yet I decided to post my
> story anyway. I am talking about the desktop experience in general, not the
> technical details behind it. Keep that in mind.
> 
> 
> I've been working these past few months with KDE 4.3 and it feels very sluggish
> and incomplete. I can't enable the desktop effects because that makes things
> even slower. I'm doing this on a fairly decent setup, an AMD Sempron 2 Ghz with
> an nVidia FX5500. My laptop suffers from this sluggishness as well. On top of
> that, lots of things annoy me in KDE 4.3, see the end of this post for my top
> annoyances. Yesterday I had to reboot to my Windows XP installation on this
> computer and I was shocked when I arrived in XP's userland. Everything was
> ridiculously fast. When returning to my linux desktop everything felt even more
> sluggish. That's when I decided to go back to KDE 3.5. I restored my old KDE 3.5
> profile, installed the necessary packages and logged back in. WOOOOOF,
> everything is fast again. Opening new windows is instantaneous, hell even
> bringing up context menus is faster. If Linux is that much better, why does the
> current Linux desktop (KDE 4.3) still suck compared to an operating system
> that's 8 years old?
> 
> Last week I also had the chance to check out Windows 7, and I was stumped. I was
> genuinly impressed by Windows 7's GUI. It feels fast, works fluently, it has
> nice effects which just work and work FAST. When browsing around it felt like a
> very solid desktop environment. I am jealous. I really am. The thought of
> using Windows 7 in favor of KDE 4.3 has occured to me much more than I like. And
> it's little things like dragging the windows to the top of the screen makes them
> maximized, dragging them to the left makes the take exactly 50% of the screen.
> How many times have you been manually resizing windows to fit next to each
> other? I have, too many times. These are things that really improve your
> productivity.
> 
> 
> So when should we have started working at a better desktop environment for
> Linux?
> 
> When Mac OS X came out. When was that again? 2001. Yes, it really was that long
> ago. It already had awesome desktop effects that just work on (compared to these
> days) VERY modest hardware. And it worked fast as well. It was and still is a
> solid desktop environment. From that point on the Linux community should have
> recognized the threat Mac OS X was for the desktop environment. Unfortunately
> nobody did and we went on creating a big mess, fighting over implementations and
> technical details instead of attempting to create a solid desktop environment.
> 
> Yet we did have a second chance in 2007. Microsoft obviously screwed up with
> Windows Vista, we had the chance to win back alot of terrain here until the
> release of Windows 7. So what did we come up with? KDE 4. Yes, a big
> dissapointment. We still don't have something that's comparable.
> 
> 
> So basically, where are we at?
> KDE 3.5 is Windows XP
> KDE 4.3 is Windows Vista
> ??? is Windows 7
> 
> 
> When are we getting to the Windows 7 stage?
> 
> Microsoft didn't do a big advertising campaign for the launch of Windows 7,
> nevertheless they delivered a big slap in the face to the Linux desktop
> environments. The numbers speak for themselves, Windows 7 has already sold more
> copies in its first week than Windows Vista did in its first month. And with
> good riddance, Windows 7 really is better than Windows Vista. Microsoft
> recognized the problems with Windows Vista and dealt with them. And dealt with
> them swiftly if you ask me, doing it in less then 3 years.
> 
> 
> Conclusion
> 
> We are losing ground. We are losing it fast. Our competitors recognize what the
> user wants and delivered.
> 
> If we are comparing enterprise desktops, there's no going around Red Hat. The
> current Red Hat desktop (5.4) ships with KDE 3.5, while its succesor RHEL 6 will
> be, if looking what Fedora brings now, shipped with KDE 4.2 or 4.3. That means
> KDE 4.2/4.3 will be the main desktop for enterprises for at least the next 3
> years. A disgrace if you ask me. Users will be comparing desktop environments
> and they will find Windows 7 or Mac OS X to be better. After the damage RHEL 6
> will have done to the reputation of the Linux desktop, it will take again as
> many years to rectify the damage done. Granted if we will have a solid desktop
> environment comparable to Windows 7 by the time RHEL 7 gets released. Which I
> can't help but doubt.
> 
> 
> 
> My top KDE 4.3 annoyances:
> * Slooooowwww. Logging in takes a multifold of times it did under KDE 3.5,
> repainting windows takes up a lot of time
> * The battery status applet is buggy, it only shows the actual percentage after
> you've hovered it with the mouse, even when you've set it to always display. The
> scale it uses is also difficult to interpret. These bugs have been reported a
> long time ago and are still not fixed.
> * The run dialog is useless. The reason is the history function. It can't
> display a full history when you start typing, you have to type alot more. Having
> a pull down menu and using the arrow keys to select the entry you want is alot
> faster. Even Microsoft knows they shouldn't touch that dialog, it still works
> like a charm in windows 7.
> * Double clicking the system icon in the titlebar doesn't always work to close
> an application (the system icon is the left-most icon in the titlebar). This bug
> has also been reported a long time ago and still not fixed.
> * I get a full 10 minutes of extra runtime on my laptop when I switched back to
> 3.5
> * Power management is buggy in KDE 4.3 and sometimes powerdevil just loses
> its settings
> * Some settings KDE 3.5 used to have aren't there anymore in KDE 4.3.
> * Where's my "home" icon!!!??? :-(

I guess you are right about everything. As a desktop Windows is 
better than KDE. If desktop is all that is matter for you then you 
should go for it :)

By the way Alt+F2 is something I like in KDE4.3.2 for example. What 
about you? Is there anything you like in KDE4.3? 

I think it's always good to see things you like and to try to be 
positive even if KDE4.3 sucks.

Thanks for the message.

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