Another Opinion Among Many

This is not a review

Well, I must say, the title says a lot. I’ve just installed KDE on Arch Linux, which has resided on my computer for the last few months as a second operating system, after Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). Now, I must confess, I installed a cleaned up and themed version called KDEMod, that’s been packaged for Arch. Its what the Arch community has been asking for, since many other distributions are now offering a modular version of KDE.

KDEMod Rocks

Now, Arch users can get this version that has been patched for more eye candy and functionality and they’ve tweaked Qt3 to drive it over the top. Now, I’ve not used the interface for more than a few hours so far, but I’m impressed. Its cleaned up and respectable. After the simple yet functional application menu deployed by Ubuntu, I was overwhelmed when I tested any KDE-centric distros afterwards.

I’ll be honest. I installed Ubuntu because I wanted an enhanced and up to date interpretation of Debian that wasn’t as crashy and unpredictable as the “Unstable” branch. Once I began to use the tools that were developed at Ubuntu to make Gnome useful, I realized that my former preference of KDE (for its convenient and useful apps), had gone by the wayside, in lieu of enhanced functionality. I was tired of wading through the menus and sub menus just to open an application. Finally, I get a nice compromise between the granular selection that I liked about KDE and the simplicity of a well laid out menu structure that has been the emerging appeal of Gnome for me.

I don’t know the magic but…

The “eye candy” enhancements are subtle but planned. I opened Kopete and signed into my Yahoo! and MSN accounts in case someone wanted to IM me (they didn’t, BTW). The Kopete icon sat nicely in the taskbar, twirling away. I don’t know why, but I really liked the animation. One of the things that I like about using Compiz is the way that the icons expand and fade at the same time when you select an application from the taskbar quick menu. KDEMod does this as well (and I don’t have compiz installed).

I’ll have to explore some more, but this might be the switcheroo for me to act upon. Maybe Arch will become my primary desktop. Its hard to say at the moment, as Ubuntu can give me everything that is Debian, which is very popular with my little dood. Caleb is a complete Wesnoth addict (downloading for Arch now).

Compiled for Speed

Everything that I’ve called up is really fast and responsive. It reminds me of when I compiled KDE with prefetch enabled on Gentoo. Finally, the 10,000lb gorilla was as light as a bird. This is different, however. I installed binaries. Its strange that it would take several seconds for a terminal window to open, so it was refreshing when I clicked on the icon for Konsole, it was immediately on my screen. Little things like that are nice to see. However, I guess those who need a screen reader won’t be enjoying the new KDE on Arch, since there isn’t one for KDE.

I haven’t had any programs really delay in their opening. Now, there are a few that didn’t load quickly because I was using XFCE, I guess.

Anyhow, its open and I’m open for options.

Hat tip to Ray, for reminding me that KDE has a good bunch of things going for it.