2009-12-13.

Gentoo has recently removed all KDE3 (3.5.10) from portage, and gone over to 
KDE4 (4.3.3) as the 'stable' version.   `Upstream' KDE has support only for 
KDE4, and the versions of Konqueror and Kmail in KDE3.5 are getting quite 
old (for bugfixes and general improvements).

I've been resisting use of KDE4 since its release nearly two years ago.
I've seen it in FreeBSD as well as in some other (non-gentoo) linux-based
distributions that I sometimes see but never really use.  I saw nothing to
recommend it, but plenty against it:  the interface can fairly be said to 
be aping the major `desktop-user' operating systems' recent styles, paying
more attention to fancy effects of fading, `exploding windows' etc. (much
of which even detracts from quick, easy use of the computer), and appallingly
ugly default colours, than to anything of any worth. (I've since then found 
/some/ improvements and some further regressions, in KDE4).

However, I accept that I will in the end have to change, in order not to
waste too much time adapting things or remaining with an ancient gentoo
(bear in mind that lots else has changed in stability/availability to allow
KDE4 to be the default: upgrades of other packages will become more arkward
if keeping KDE3.5).   So, how about trying out this 4.3.3, reputed to have 
had several improvments.  I made a new Gentoo system in the beginning of 
December, building the default kde-meta with my usual huge list of USE flags
for various file-formats, documentation etc. 


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Bad things in KDE4 (comp. KDE3).

One can't have different background options for different virtual desktops!
This was so fundamental -- different wallpapers for the differently used 
desktops -- that it's a strange lack to have.

The filemanager (dolphin, or konqueror) and webbrowser (konqueror) now 
don't have an option for saving window-size in the profile.  This is a 
pity: /not/ following the elsewhere-popular habit of opening with the 
previous size is actually often a virtue with these uses, where one 
sometimes wants to make a particularly big webpage or special directory 
be in a bigger window, but doesn't want to have the next start-up being 
so big.

The desktop switcher (pager) doesn't do at all so clear a view of all the
windows on each desktop, along with their icons.  It also crashed (plasma) 
when I tried to move a window between desktops.  Begins to be more and 
more like m$windos, which usually crashes its whole desktop within a 
couple of minutes of my use, in everything from 2000 to '7' (and we don't
get even that far in the earlier versions).

The quicklauncher is more arkward to insert new things into (I haven't 
managed yet).

Kworldmap doesn't show up properly (could some of this be opengl matters?
trust the nvidia card/drivers to cause some sort of problem here, as with 
googleearth a few years ago).

No 'kweather', but instead two plasmoids: their sources are different from 
the (selectable) weather-stations used for kweather: just a US, UK and CA 
source are shown, and just by luck the UK one doesn't work (the Web 
suggests that BBC weather changed the format of its website's responses
a couple of days ago ...)   Kweather got its source of /current/ rather
than predicted weather from a large selection of much more reliably 
available sources.


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GOOD things in KDE4 (comp. KDE3).

The many new options for how to switch windows or desktops (e.g. the 
built-in effects of zoom-out, cube etc. are neater than the previous 
add-ons of 'kompose' etc., though I must say I don't actually ever
use them as they are more about `isn't it pretty' than about any 
real utility -- middle-click on desktop for a window-list is much 
more sensible).

The dolphin location-bar is pretty good, when one realises that clicking 
to the right of the content will cause the traditional display of an 
editable path (which is particularly useful for going down to further 
depths, especially if into hidden directories); having the clickable 
components of the path to allow direct access to any ancestor (in the
style of the old CDE filemanager) is certainly a moderately handy 
change, though a few quick 'up' clicks always served the purpose 
pretty quickly.