Kubuntu breezy feedback

[Christoph Wiesen]

Hello everyone,

As it took me longer to actually do this than I originally intended I did the 
following first:

Re-install the breezy preview release and let it download the 'missing 
language packs'. During installation it downloaded quite a few other packages 
which it didn't mention by name. I suppose those are dependencies of the 
language pack or something like that.
Anyway first thing after installation was to go to console (didn't start KDE 
yet) and do a dist-upgrade - fetched all the current packages from today 
(09-25-2005).

Now I rebooted and logged into KDE for the first time. So everything I write 
applies to this setup.

((Excuse the length of this mail - I somehow like to be thorrough on this 
stuff))

ARTWORK

The new artwork is great - good looking and doesn't get in the way, I like 
that. Hope there will be a bootsplash and grub background based on that.

Minor thing about the ksplash: The text - "Starting System Services.." and so 
on - is right in the corner. There could be one or two pixels each to the 
left and bottom between the border and the text.


KONQUEROR

I guess the more concrete separation of Web Browser and File Manager is a good 
thing mostly. But it might be more confusing now when a local folder is 
mistakenly opened within the web browser.
This happens if for exampel you have a web browser open and then open "Home" 
from the Kubuntu System-menu for example. It will then pop up in a new tab of 
the opened web  browser. For this and other concerns explained before I'd 
still  strongly encourage you to turn  the "open external links in current 
konqueror" feature off until there's a way to have it for web browsing bot 
not for file management.
FYI same just happened to me the other way around - external web link opened 
in my FM Konqueror.

Might be a good idea to remove the google search bar in File Management mode - 
to discourage users to use it as their web browser - if more seperation is 
intended.

Btw. the google search bar has no icon at this time.


SYSTEM SETTINGS

The System settings aren't fully translated (to german).

System Settings is in english even though I got the german language pack 
download during initial install. The modules that are opened within System 
Settings are partly english as well, though all the strings are available in 
german (Kcontrol and settings:/ have it in german). If there are any more 
strings to translate please tell me I'll help out asap.

Several elements are in german though. Quite a few of the modules have the 
correct german strings and inside some modules certain elements are 
translated as well. In "Panel" for example the sub-modules to the left and 
all of the headers (text in bold at the top) are correct.
The string "System Settings" (in  K-Menu) isn't translated.

Sometimes after I have opened a module - Network settings specifically - and 
went back with "Show all" the next time I try to open the same module I get 
an error message saying it's already opened inside System Settings.
Only closing the window an opening again helps.

"Network Settings" Module uses too much vertical space. I can hardly see the 
"Administrator Mode..", "OK" (and so on) buttons even on 1280x800.

"Joystick" module doesn't come up in System Settings, but works in kcontrol.

The search feature is great, just one issue: Some of the (default) icons 
aren't very colourful, for example "Mouse" and "Keyboard", so it's hard to 
distinguish between them beeing active or greyed out (filtered). To improve 
this you could consider greying the text of filtered items as well. 
Alternatively items that are not filtered yet could have bold or italic text 
once you've entered the first character in "Search:". I think the first idea 
(grey out text) would work better though.

"System" Menu still contains a link to settings:/ instead of the "System 
Settings" which is available from K-Menu now, where it will be redundant, 
wenn the entry in the "System" Menu is fixed.


KSYSTEMLOG

KSystemLog doesn't show the boot log: "/var/log/boot.log doesn't exist"

The "kernel log" and "daemons log" are empty (no error message).

ACPI log won't open: "no permission to read /var/log/acpid". As it expected it 
works with sudo (Just maybe some user's won't know this).

CUPS Access Log "/var/log/cups/access_log" doesn't exist, neither do the samba 
or apache logs. It's logical because apache and samba aren't installed. 
Assuming that all of the paths are correct the logs that don't exist (due to 
services not beeing installed for example) should just be greyed out (context 
menu items / buttons disabled.

KSystemLog is still GREAT, so if there's no time o fix this stuff please don't 
remove it or something like that.



CALCULATOR

No kcalc, instead an optimized type of caculator with an unintuitive name. Not 
sure if that's a good idea for an application usually only used now and then. 
Might be better to have a more calculator like interface and especially name. 
Please put kcalc back in - this is just a bit too geeky - people might not 
accept any learning curve for their calcuator at all.



MANAGE DOWNLOADS

KGet could be evaluated again. It won't clutter the toolbar with an additional 
icon if it's disabled from the beginning and the strange "drop target" isn't 
there by default as well. Kubuntu just lacks the fundamental option of 
download resuming without it - I don't understand why. What are kubuntu users 
expected to do when downloading a file from a website?

If it was reconsidered the question that pops up at first launch "integrate 
with konqueror?" would only have to be pre set. Then kget will not have to be 
running (cluttering system tray) when it's not needed. Konqueror downloads 
then open automatically in kget and only then will it be opened and visible 
in system tray.


NETWORK SHARING

I can browse SAMBA shares with "Remote Places" just fine right now, which is 
great but I can't share anything over the network in a simple way it seems.

All the graphical interfaces are there insie KDE, but the SAMBA package is 
missing. Unfortunately isn't very verbose about that. When the "Administrator 
Mode..." is enabled everything is still greyed out and theres no indication 
why.
Theres a text at the top of the module that's not reaable because only half of 
it is visible, no matter how the window is resized.

I thin samba should be used for this (and not e.g.) nfs simply because there 
doesn'T seem to be a gui to access samba shares like there is with "Remote 
Places" and smb:/ for SAMBA.


ADEPT

No icon yet. Kynaptic is still there. Adept first opens in  a too small 
window.

MISC

kaffeine always says it can't play this stream, no matter what i trow at it - 
simple MPEGs for example.

"Window" Key on modern keyboards doesn't have any effect. It could open the 
K-Menu by default.

Didn't see the Guidance tools yet, hope they make it into the release.

KoulourPaint is missing - I don't think Krita is a good replacement. it has a 
different purpose as a more powerfull graphics app but is too complicated for 
simple tasks. Having both won't hurt the 'only one app for a purpose' 
philosophy

Regards,
Christoph Wiesen