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Polishing KDE: It's Pre-1.1!
With the release of KDE 1.1 imminent and GNOME progressing nicely, 1999
is shaping up to be a banner year for desktop Linux users. Since KDE is
already into stable releases and the next one is right around the corner,
this week we're going to look at the KDE pre-1.1 test release.
Downloading
The KDE pre-1.1 release is available in source format, .deb format, and .rpm formats
for a number of different distributions. To install pre-1.1,
do the same things you did to install KDE 1.0. First, a new version of
Qt, then kdesupport, kdelibs, and kdebase, in that order, and then, all
the rest of the packages in any order. If you plan to develop KDE applications,
don't forget to grab the development packages as well, which hold relevant
include files and documentation to aid in development. The Caldera OpenLinux
1.3 test system accepted the new .rpms without a hitch and I was using the pre-1.1
packages in no time flat.
Versus
There are no earth-shattering changes between KDE 1.0 and the pre-1.1
release. What has been added are those two things so long lacking in the
Linux desktop field: polish and maturity. Granted, at its release, KDE
1.0 was already far and away the most polished Linux desktop environment,
but it still felt a little bit clunky to those of us who work on other
platforms as well, and some configuration options which could have been
included weren't. The pre-1.1 release streamlines KDE and makes it a really
mature environment, ready for work. New configuration options are everywhere,
some of them sorely needed, others luxuries, but still useful. A number
of new minor features and new applications are also included as a part
of the standard distribution, but we're going to focus primarily on configuration
and menus here.
Highlight: Disk Navigator
The first and perhaps most interesting thing I
noticed about the new KDE was a new K-Menu entry titled "Disk Navigator"
located in the Panel area (toward the bottom of the K-Menu). The Disk Navigator
turns out to be a configurable, graphical method for browsing the Linux
filesystem, and one of the most ingenious I've seen at that. The Disk Navigator
combines with the KDE file manager, KFM, to integrate menu-based and icon-based
file access across the entire file system, with separate entries to quickly
access things like the CD-ROM drive, your home directory, or the KDE desktop.
The Disk Navigator allows for quick and intuitive filesystem access.
Each file or directory is presented as a menu
entry; subdirectories and trees are traversed via submenus. At the top
of each directory menu, an "Open Folder" entry opens a KFM file manager
window in the selected directory. Selecting a regular file from a menu
opens the file with the correct application based on its internal KDE MIME
type.
After playing with the Disk Navigator for a couple of hours,
I can safely say that I'm hooked.
Highlight: KWM Configurability
Two new configuration panels resolve many past complaints about the
KWM window manager. The first of them, the "Mouse" tab of the KWM style
panel, allows users (finally) to bind different KWM actions like raising,
lowering, and focus changes, to different mouse buttons and in different
areas of the window. Specification based on the meta (ALT) modifier are
also supported.
A tiny-decorated xcalc window on top of a shaded application.
New KWM configuration options make this possible.
Even more importantly, the "Advanced" tab of the KWM style panel now
allows users to decorate windows differently, or leave windows undecorated,
based on either their window title or class resource. Users can decorate
windows with "tiny" decorations (no titlebar), no decorations at all, deny
them focus, make them automatically sticky, or exclude them from session
management (a godsend for those of us who hate killing off shell windows
before logging out). KWM has now also implemented a shade function for
those of us who like that sort of thing.
New Display Properties
What we've seen so far is nice, but the real highlight of my day with
KDE pre-1.1 came when I opened the "Display settings" dialog box.
Most of the tabs in this box are reasonably similar to their KDE-1.0 counterparts
(with a few slight additions), but two new options on the "Fonts, etc."
tab promise to change the way many people view the KDE.
Highlight: Styles For non-KDE Applications
The first one I noticed is labeled "Apply style to non-KDE apps." Seems
innocuous enough, but this little checkbox has the miraculous effect of
applying KDE color styles to non-KDE applications. Do not check your eyes;
you read correctly. Athena (Xaw) and Xt applications like xcalc, xedit, xterm,
and so forth seem to work especially well with this option, but many of
my Motif applications also now "listen" to KDE's color scheme hints.
Xboard and the X Calculator "listening" to KDE pre-1.1 color style
hints.
This option addresses one of the major complaints of integrated desktop
detractors, proving that an X integrated desktop can in some way address
the problem of legacy applications. This option does indeed make KDE feel
much more integrated with the rest of the X environment.
Highlight: The MacOS-like KDE
The other new option on the "Fonts, etc." tab is more clear in what
it does, but no less miraculous, if only in its conception (since the code
was probably not difficult to write). The checkbox labeled "Menubar on
top of the screen in the style of MacOS," while a little verbose, does
exactly what it purports to do. It draws the menubars of KDE applications
across the top of the display, just as MacOS does.
This functionality shouldn't be confused with other MacOS-like window
managers which simply put a "bar" across the top of the screen containing
some general manager-oriented functions such as killing an application
or logging out. When this box is checked, the menubar at the top of the
screen is the actual menubar from the application which currently has focus.
When the focus shifts to a new application, the menubar also changes to
contain the drop-down menus for the new application.
 
Upper-left of the display showing the MacOS-like KDE. When the
focus shifts (second image), the menubar changes. Note that the
menubar no longer appears in the applications' windows-proper.
This feature is a needed one for all of the MacOS converts to Linux
who have been looking (without much success) for a MacOS-like desktop for
Linux. The MacOS-like changes work only with KDE applications, of course,
but with so many KDE applications already out there and the KOffice suite
on the way, it will soon be possible to have a complete MacOS-like desktop
in Linux.
The Year of the Desktop
The rest of KDE pre-1.1 is there for you to learn about. Download, enjoy,
and submit bug reports if you find bugs so that KDE can continue to
evolve. I for one am enjoying pre-1.1 thoroughly. Judging by what we see
here, the KDE 1.1 release adds maturity and polish to the already excellent
KDE 1.0, keeping KDE solidly on the map as a competitor to GNOME.
Given the accelerating evolution of GNOME, it is probably safe to say that
we are entering the year of the mature desktop in Linux. It's a welcome
change.
Also in Issue #57: Adding Fonts to StarOffice and Status Information.
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