Saturday, December 19, 2009
Programs using the root window considered obsolete in KDE4
See https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=219249. Unfortunately this means that my wife and kids will not get upgraded to KDE4 once I'll replace their 11.0 installations but will probably get GNOME instead. Because no xsnow (for my wife) and no xpenguins (for my kids) - that's just not an option.
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Port them to Plasma wallpaper plugins. This makes them useable for much more than just root windows.
ReplyDeleteYou *do* know that there are both an application for KDE creating little penguins (unfortunately, I forgot the name but you'll find it when you search for it) and that KWin actually has a snow plugin which is shipped by default?
ReplyDeleteIf you really think that xsnow and xpenguins provide important core functionality then nobody can help you.
ReplyDeleteKDE4 is not perfect and has important feature regressions (like missing support to manage SSL server certificates), but not running some ancient software which draws animated snow flakes and penguins on the screen is hardly one of them. Closing your bug report as INVALID is exactly what I would have done, too.
Really, if anybody whose computer I administer (and even if that's wife and kids) would seriously insist that desktop snow flakes or animated penguins are required core functionality (even justifying making the switch to an entirely different desktop environment) I would stop administering their computer or teach them that the main purpose of a computer is not to be sweet and cuddly but to actually get some work done.
Looks like this is the continuation of the Linux Hater's Blog :P
ReplyDeleteAs it says in the bug report, KWin has a snow effect. That takes care of your wife.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure your kids - given the chance - would appreciate KDE4 more than you do.
There's an equivalent to xsnow available as a kwin-plugin though.
ReplyDeleteAt least in Nürnberg we have snow outside the window -- no need for xsnow. :-)
ReplyDeleteWow! Crisis. According to last comment in that bug report Comment #5 From Richard Bos 2009-12-19 16:51:54 -------
ReplyDeletekwin has a snow effect already. Just go to kde's system settings -> Desktop ->
Desktop effects -> All effects (tab). n the 'Look' (assumed that this will be
word in English), there is the snow effect. Just enable it and use 'Meta +
ctrl + F12' to switch it on.
I can't try it as I can't run with Desktop Effects enabled (using FOSS driver with modern ATI card)
Andreas: not really, I actually like KDE4 pretty much, but I am not religious about it. And if it does not do what I need, I just might consider using something that suits my needs better.
ReplyDeleteRob: same for me.Old card RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10] which just is unusably slow once you enable 3D (and the illegal ATI kernel module, if it supports that chip at all, is no option for me).
"porting to a kwin effect" is not a useful advice, because on older machines I cannot use KDE4 because it unfortunately is much slower than everything else (it's not really annoying on an 1GB Pentium M or bigger, but see http://seife.kernalert.de/blog/2009/11/28/extreme-updating/ for a machine that really slows to a crawl with KDE4).
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I strongly detest such "vendor lockin" and I'd prefer trivial stuff to be desktop-agnostic.
Olga: Even if I could use the kwin effect, that would not help xroach and xteddy ;)
ReplyDeleteStefan: you can tell your users what you want, but my users expect their machines to be cozy and warm during December. They *expect* the SUSE icy-penguin boot screen during Winter and they are used to xsnow.
ReplyDeleteNow seeing that they still run KDE3 and 11.0, switching to a "completely different Desktop" is unavoidable anyway. So It won't matter if it is KDE4 or GNOME.
And if I wanted them to only get work done, I'd give them a sanely configured fvwm2, and no KDE at all.
After all, the reason why nobody is allowed to use the root window anymore is bling, not useful functionality ;)
You should check whether GNOME 3.0 will support your antique apps. As an alternative you could try to run screen mates for Windows using Wine.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the cheapest graphics card available these days it more than enough for KWin effects.
Unfortunately it is pretty hard to exchange the graphics chip on a notebook mainboard (I have the possibility to do BGA soldering, but there is more to it than just changing the chip).
ReplyDeleteGNOME 3.0 is probably many years away, so I'll worry about that once it is no longer vapourware ;)
GNOME 3.0 is currently in beta and can be used right now.
ReplyDeleteHeck, why is a clueless person like you even aggregated on Planet SUSE?
@Stefan & Markus : Whilst I can understand your point of view about snow & penguins, this has much more serious aspects.
ReplyDeleteThis will mean the sysadmin cannot have fun with their luser's using xmelt, xpusher and xroach etc. That has to be regarded with the utmost gravity!
@seife : "Additionally, I strongly detest such “vendor lockin” and I’d prefer trivial stuff to be desktop-agnostic."
ReplyDeleteRight on! It's really annoying when stuff gets down via "quick fixes" in GNOME & KDE applets, which ought to be done right at a lower level, that worked generally on all systems.
@seifer & olga: amor manages to put 1 little Tux on the screen. I have a vague memory of having lemmings like penguin scenes, made by some type of hack to it.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a multi-tux, and snow creature version of amor would be doable?
I had the same Problem, so i switched from KDE to GNOME.
ReplyDeleteThat's the good on Linux you have always another way.