Fwd: Re: [kubuntu-users] Kubuntu's KDE settings

Sun Jan 22 14:36:19 GMT 2006

Seems like my original message wasn't actually posted on kubuntu-devel
 because it's too big. So I put the image attached on my webserver instead:
http://www.deadhand.com/kubuntu/konq-kubuntu.rc.png

----------  Weitergeleitete Nachricht  ----------

Subject: Re: [kubuntu-users] Kubuntu's KDE settings
Date: Sonntag, 15. Januar 2006 16:53
From: Christoph Wiesen <chris at deadhand.com>
To: kubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com

Hello Jonathan,
Hello everybody else,

it's sunday and I *finally* managed to have a dapper test system installed
 and a live system booted for verifycation while typing. Here's what I can
 come up with so far and I hope some of the things I point out might be
 helpful.

Again, please don't get a wrong impression if the mail has a somewhat
 negative tone - I mostly mention the elements that bother me, not the cool
 stuff ;)

Here we go...

System Settings / Conrol Center
-------------------------------
Right now there are too many various to get to a configuration item via the
K-Menu.
Actually I expect "System Settings" under the 'System Menu' (like it was
earlier with Kubuntu). Where to put this is a design choice though I guess
and not really important as long as it can be found by the user.

In K-Menu there is: "Settings" (under All Aplications) and "Settings" (under
Actions) with the exact same icon. "Settings" (Actions) can be removed imo,
since it's a duplication of "System Settings" right above and allows the user
to start the "Control Center" as well, which might be confusing since the new
"System Settings" front end is used.

For this it's important though that every setting from KControl is now
accessible via System Settings, which they aren't. One example is the
"Security & Privacy -> Privacy" module, which is essentially Konqueror's
place to clear the cache.

System Settings -> Network
--------------------------
It asks every time which distribution I'm using. It asks again when I swith
 to su (which is necessary) and it asks yet again when closed. This setting
 is not stored and shouldn't be asked in the first place.

Adept Updater
-------------
Normally I'd expect this to be a System Tray Module and not a stand-alone
application. When started it shows a *really* wide window with just one
button (Fetch Updates). Maybe this can be made into a System Tray app that
(if the user want's it) checks for updates now and then and tells him if
there's something new / let's him fetch the packages. In any case the current
application window should be reworked - it should not be larger than really
necessary.The real issue here is the 'statusbar' at the bottom where it says
which changes there are and how many packages you have installed. This
information needs to get a better layout, so the rest of the window will be
considerably smaller.

Window Width
------------
Some places have windows that are too wide for even a 1024 screen. A system
like Kubuntu should aim to be usable on 800x600 I think - but 1024 is a
definite must. Examples for this are several System Settings modules
(Networking) and Adept Updater. Even Konqueror isn't usable this way
sometimes due to the google bar.
None of these issues are really noticeable with resolutions of 1280 and
 above.

Katapult
--------

The System Tray icon doesn't seem to be of much use. Katapult is mainly in
 the background and only invoked when needed, so the System Tray icon might
 be considered clutter especially when you consider that user's will want to
 have real applications there (mail, rss, IM, amarok).

Download Manager
----------------
KGet is still not included which seems like an oversight to me. It's neither
large, nor annoying nor does it interfere with normal operation; there's no
always-on System Tray icon when you did not start a download through
Konqueror. Right now we can not resume downloads with Kubuntu's default
browser...

Konqueror
---------

Starting a file management session gives you the google bar. This really
 isn't needed when browsing your local filesystem. The worst thoug is that to
 actually show the google bar in it's full glory the much more important
 adress bar is beeing resized. On my 800x600 (that's intentional) test system
 with one konqueror window I can _not_ see the content of the adress bar
 (only the small icon) but I hae a full width google bar, that is of no use
 at all.

I'm still not convinced (and have to disable it where i put Kubuntu) about
 the feature that every external link is opened inside the one, first
 Konqueror window you open. This first window often is a file management
 window and you get then websites opened via external links and everything
 else in this one window as a new tab. Still can't see this as a usability
 improvement.

This is still the one major annoyance I have with Kubuntu, so I mention it
again - don't want Kubuntu to become another Windows XP where you have to
rush through various settings first before the system is usable. The concrete
option is called "Open as tab in existing Konqueror when URL is called
externally" and is found in Web Bahaviour -> Tabbed Browsing -> Advanced
Options. This applies to local folders as well and should be turned off :(

Disabling this one option, will still maintain opening of every "subwindow",
like pop-ups and _blank links open inside the same Konqueror Window as a new
tab. Only(!) links opened from somewhere else (like System-menu) won't open
inside that one Konqueror window, but open a new one.

The ability to modify manage View profiles has been removed - please add it
back - this make Konqueror an extremely powerful application and doesn't
usually get in the way of normal use.

--------------------------------
About the attached files
--------------------------------

"Split Views" have been removed (only shortcuts remain..). To get this much
loved feature back I suggest changing konq-kubuntu.rc with the attached diff.
This alters the menu layout slightly and puts the features back in a clean
and non-distrubing place. Please consider it.

There's a screenshot attached as well to get an idea of it. Aditionally the
navigational panel is toggleable again - I think it is just wrong to remove
this part and have it only on a keyboard shortcut.

I really hope this get's included in some way since that's my second major
issue besides the "external links in new tab" thing. And this here is _not_
easily removed even if you know what to look for.

--------------------------------

ListView
--------

The Process Table of KSysGuard has the nice shade effect I mentioned earlier.
Here the column that's used for sorting is slightly shaded- this makes it
easier to see which column is used for sorting. Applying this in Konqueror
woul make the interface consistent with KSysguard as well. From one of my
earlier mails:

"https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59791

This is about a change to list view that highlights the column used to sort
the current listing. Thus you can see at a glance what way everything is
sorted.
To get the same info you would normally have to specifically look at the
headers for the little "^" or compare two elements to see how they relate to
each other. With the patch this info is always there subtly.

The nice part is that (from what I can see in the bug report) all the code is
already there and it has just to be enabled. It actually had been active for
some time in KDE's CVS, till someone disabled it - can't agree with the
reasoning though."

----------------------------------
----------------------------------
----------------------------------

Here are some issues that have been there since I send my last feedback mail
for breezy - I verified that those issues are still present and put them here
to have everything in one place instead of point towards some older mails.

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.

SYSTEM SETTINGS

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.

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 think 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.

MISC

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

----------------------------------
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----------------------------------

This one issue is not KDE specific, but it really bothered me during install
 - it might even break Kubuntu for non techy user's:

You can't configure a two sound card system - the appropriate alsa bash tool
is missing. I realize there can't be a KDE GUI for everything just yet - so
soundcards should be configured easily another way.
Some time earlier the config tool was actually removed(!) by a ubuntu
developer from alsa. The exact reasoning I can not tell, but I think he said
it was not needed.

Usually every mainboard nowadays has sound onboard. Everyone who gets a
(better) add in card like a simple soundblaster will have two audio devices.
In kubuntu we can't manage that afaik.
I actually had to disable the onboard hardware to get sound back...

Please feel free to discuss any of these on the list, I'll be sure to check
 by and try to explain why I think this and that should be changed.

Thanks and Kind Regards,

Chris

Am Dienstag 03 Januar 2006 05:10 schrieben Sie:
> On Sat, Nov 05, 2005 at 11:50:03AM +0100, Christoph Wiesen wrote:
> > Don't get me wrong 80% of the ideas in the wikis are really great stuff -
> > just some things might break Kubuntu for me - that's where my concern
> > comes from.
>
> Please try out dapper flight-2 and let me know what can be changed for
> the better.
>
> Jonathan

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