So, after having been fed up with akonadi/nepomuk Disaster in previous KDE4 Versions (and hence switched to Trinity) I decided to give it another try.
This was mainly triggered by recent, rather positive feedback in KDE mailinglists, which indicated, things could have been significantly improved.
So I bit the bullet and installed Kubuntu 12.04 with KDE 4.9.2 (from backports PPA) alongside my favourite Debian/Trinity on my main Desktop, which is a rather weak peace of Hardware (Dual core Intel Atom, 1.7 MHz CPU, 1 GB RAM, Intel GMA3150 Graphics), but more than ok with Trinity, in fact: this flies :D
And now, KDE 4.9.2:
Installation went rather unspectacular, Hardware fully recognized, Login/Desktop came up as expected, with default settings.
This included a rather conservative screen resolution (1024x768) which looked really ugly :-/
Instantly changed via Systemsettings, much better…
Then, as a surprise, there was no konqueror, but rekonq as Browser and Dolphin as Filemanager, instead.
Seems to be Kubuntu specific thing, though, so I installed Konqueror as a next step.
Then started Kontact to check if the KDE-PIM-mess finally has come to an end .
And, yes, everything important (email, kontacts, newsfeeds) worked more or less ‘out-of-the-box’ after configuration/Data Import.
Even virtuoso (Backend for Nepomuk) worked directly (which was never the case for me with previous KDE Versions).
Then I decided to switch to the sqlite Backend for Akonadi (instead of running the default mysql Server, which is Bloat/Overkill, IMHO).
Seemed to be just 1 click away in Systemsettings, but after that, Akonadi stopped running and gave a bunch of error messages (missing Drivers etc…). Turned out I had to install package akonadi-backend-sqlite, which was not obvious, though.
Then I proceeded with Installation of some additional software like blogilo (which is a nice Blogging Program, currently used to write this Blog entry), and, out of curiosity, the KDE Office suite: Calligra.
This one seems slowly to reach a usable state, its predecessor, Koffice (KDE4 Version) had several times corrupted my Data Files, which was another reason to stick with Koffice 1.6 (Trinity Version), which is simple, but reliable.
What else ?
So I bit the bullet and installed Kubuntu 12.04 with KDE 4.9.2 (from backports PPA) alongside my favourite Debian/Trinity on my main Desktop, which is a rather weak peace of Hardware (Dual core Intel Atom, 1.7 MHz CPU, 1 GB RAM, Intel GMA3150 Graphics), but more than ok with Trinity, in fact: this flies :D
And now, KDE 4.9.2:
Installation went rather unspectacular, Hardware fully recognized, Login/Desktop came up as expected, with default settings.
This included a rather conservative screen resolution (1024x768) which looked really ugly :-/
Instantly changed via Systemsettings, much better…
Then, as a surprise, there was no konqueror, but rekonq as Browser and Dolphin as Filemanager, instead.
Seems to be Kubuntu specific thing, though, so I installed Konqueror as a next step.
Then started Kontact to check if the KDE-PIM-mess finally has come to an end .
And, yes, everything important (email, kontacts, newsfeeds) worked more or less ‘out-of-the-box’ after configuration/Data Import.
Even virtuoso (Backend for Nepomuk) worked directly (which was never the case for me with previous KDE Versions).
Then I decided to switch to the sqlite Backend for Akonadi (instead of running the default mysql Server, which is Bloat/Overkill, IMHO).
Seemed to be just 1 click away in Systemsettings, but after that, Akonadi stopped running and gave a bunch of error messages (missing Drivers etc…). Turned out I had to install package akonadi-backend-sqlite, which was not obvious, though.
Then I proceeded with Installation of some additional software like blogilo (which is a nice Blogging Program, currently used to write this Blog entry), and, out of curiosity, the KDE Office suite: Calligra.
This one seems slowly to reach a usable state, its predecessor, Koffice (KDE4 Version) had several times corrupted my Data Files, which was another reason to stick with Koffice 1.6 (Trinity Version), which is simple, but reliable.
What else ?
- Some minor annoyances, so far:
- Kmail (as well as other Programs) keep asking for access to kwallet at startup, despite having activated 'always grant access'
- Yakuake doesn't save settings (screen width)
- everything (especially switching Windows/Desktops) is not as snappy as in Trinity, as expected, but acceptable, even on this weak Machine.
On the other Hand, some well appreciated Improvements, like:
- Nice new Applications (Blogilo, Gwenview, improved Kate+Plugins, Calligra ?)
- Handy Plugin Concept for PIM-Enhancements (akonadi-kde-resource-googledata..)
- Flexible Aggregations for Mail-Overview (kmail)
- Much improved Konqueror (compared to Trinity Version) w.r. to Page-Rendering/Javascript etc.
So, ATM, I will not yet draw a conclusion, as I still have to explore/investigate much (Activities, new Apps, Configurations, Akonadi Data Handling/Backup..), but it is obvious, that KDE4, after more than 4 years, now has finally reached a usable State, at least, on not too old Hardware (I still have 2 Machines on which I will not even try once more a KDE4 Install).
To be continued…