I love dolphin. It's really smooth, simple, and just a joy to use. However, konqueror is still my swiss army knife. I can do anything with it. So, for most simple file management tasks, I use dolphin, but for web/advanced tasks I use konqueror. And I like it that way!

I can run kde3.x.x apps by just running "/usr/bin/3xappname" if they're installed on my system. However, some of them try to use kde4 resources because of the $KDEHOME setting. So, I have a session where I "ssh -X localhost" to get back all of my normal kde3 environment variables. From there I run for example "kontact & kopete & konqueror & konversation &" and I am greeted with my kde3 apps working perfectly in my kde4 desktop!

Overall I am pleased with the state of KDE4 development. Of course, KDE 4.0.0 is not going to be for general users, and in some ways, it has not achieved even feature parity yet much less configureability parity. On the other hand, There are many things in kde4 that are simpler than their kde3 counterparts but at the same time maintain all of their configureability. For example:

Konsole - I <3 everything they changed. It's simpler to configure, looks sharper and cleaner, and is fast loading.

Kopete - Once I get support for jabber ssl (I have messed up somewhere, it does work) it will become my main messaging app. Looks clean, beautiful and seems faster. It also is easier to work with.

Amarok - This is still in pre-alpha state, but I like where it's headed. And, I already love the 1.4.x series.

Plasma - I feel like we'll really see plasma shine come kde 4.1.x. It'll make its debut in 4.0, but you can clearly see that it isn't at all finished based on what Aaron S. has been blogging about.

Step - OMFG I love this. It is a physics simulator slated for kde edu 4.1. It is fast, nice, and has simple easy to use features. You can create particles, soft bodies, rigid bodies, etc.. and can apply forces, tracers, graphers, labels. it's so nice! You should check it out when you have time.

KDE Edu - For that matter, everything in kde4edu seems polished, usable, and just better compared to kde3edu. Highlights are KAlgebra, KmPlot.

Oxygen - I had my doubts when I saw early work on the oxygen theme, but it has REALLY come far, and it puts everything else I've seen to shame. This includes Vista Areo and Mac (Aqua?). It's just beautiful. You can see some of it on the screenshot I posted above, and more at my blog ( http://blog.chatonka.com )

Wow, this really turned into a mini review of kde4. Maybe I'll have to throw it up as a blog post =).

Hope that satisfied your questions.

- And - For a status update. I'm rebuilding KDE4 for maemo4.0, this time making sure I include as many optional libraries as I can manage. Maybe I'll have better luck this time.

It seems that these segfaults occur when something is compiled and then run during compilation. The segfault then happens because qemu does not replicate an armv6 (which the n800 has) correctly. The workaround for this would be to either use cpu-transparency (maybe a bash script to only use it when not running gcc?) or to disable that part of the make (which would only work if it was a check).

Hope that helps. It would be interesting to investigate the possibility of a cpu-transparency that only functioned outside of a gcc /g++ make.

From what i remember reading awhile ago wasnt kde 4.0 going to be lighter than 3.x because of the new libs or the new qt ? i would imagine its true only when heavy eye kandy isn't used.


cheers

-Rip

It's qmake that segfaults. Either not well built or yes, qemu doesn't like soft float point. No clue really. It's probably not worth it anyway (eventhough I would have liked to confirm..).
I tried forcing the build of qmake without these flags with a bash script awfull hack but didn't play well with scratchbox transparency.
I also tried to modify the qmake conf so that qt-tools are built without these but the libs are built with it. I failed understanding all the flags..

For me, the only thing that I'm looking for is a _packaged_ kde. Penguinbait's looks good enough but I simply don't like big archives with no uninstalls. It's like going back 10 years before. I'm a "long time" deb user, that probably explains it, it's not meant bad for people doing archives.
But I'd still be interested to see kde _4_
By the way, there is an amazing thread in 770 subforums where somebody discovered a huge (9000 packages?) armel port repository. It contains qt4.3.3 and kde 3.5.8 packages. When I get back home and play with my n800, I'll try this kde.

Hi! I'm trying to package KDE4 for OS2008.
I've packaged kdelibs and kdepimlibs, (the packages are available at kblogger.garage.maemo.org), but i don't understand because if i try to run a kde4 application it segfaults!
For Example:

[sbox-CHINOOK_ARMEL: ~/kblogger/kblogger-kde4-1.0~alpha2/build/src] > kdeinit4
qemu: uncaught target signal 11 (Segmentation fault) - exiting
I've the same error with my executable "kblogger"!

kbuildsycoca4 instead hangs up!
Any suggestion is appreciated.

Try running it on your tablet rather than on the scratchbox. The arm cpu emulater (qemu) doesn't have great support for actually running binaries.

I have heard that kde4's memory footprint is significantly
smaller than 3.5.8's plus qt4 is supposed to be a lot
faster. So that would in principle be very good if
these advantages carried over to the tablet.

So please keep trying - it's just amazing to have a complete
desktop environment in your pocket!

I've installed my kde4libs (~ 54 Mb with dependecies ) package (from kblogger.garaga.maemo.org) and it segfaults also on my N810.

It would be so great to have KDE4 on the IT...
KDE 3.5.X is so slow and i think, that KDE4 will run faster.
Wouldn't it be possible to install KDE4 to the integrated 256mb flash memory!?
And/or a full replace of hildon... !?!?

*bump* Any updates on KDE4s progress? I just started using it on my laptop and it's so much better and faster than 3. I have always used GNOME, but now it's completely gone I'd love to know if there's some work going on.