“It’s all about the apps”

HIS is by no means a review, but just a quick mind dump that reflects on my impressions of KDE 4 applications in isolation (other factors aside). Think of it as a ramble which I’m unlikely to proofread properly (a bad habit of mine, I know). It has become tiring to find rants about KDE 4.0. Yes, some people have decided to put to shame a product that is not yet finalised and they also evaluate what appears to be the wrong things.

Several months ago, in KDE’s news site (the Dot), someone started a whole big flame when he insinuated that KDE 4 was all about clocks, and widgets, and plasmoids. This is simply not true and it is the form of superficial perspective which has had recent proprietary platform releases assessed in the wrong way (e.g. Leopard, Vista, both of which suffer from other real issues). To many of us, it’s all about function, not visuals. The internal structures of KDE have been overhauled and the promise of a better system will be delivered as time goes by.

For me, using KDE 4.0 should primarily be a question of applications; general usability (advanced functions in particular) is probably second. So, here’s just a quick comparison that convinced me to gradually move to KDE 4.0 once it’s made final. It’s truly something to look forward to.

KNode in KDE 4.0 beta still indicates that it’s version 3.5.6, assuming the About windows is anything to go by. The same goes for KOrganizer.

Korganizer (KDE 4 on the left, KDE 3 on the right), click image for full size

KWriter is a different story because 3.8 is said to be in use. There’s no apparent visual difference, but it’s likely that new functionality is hidden away in the menus somewhere.

KWrite (KDE 4 on the left, KDE 3 on the right), click image for full size

Dolphin is an impressive addition that will probably convince many beginners to hope on the KDE bandwagon. I haven’t had a chance to experiment with it all that much, but in all these screenshots that are here (be sure to view them in full scale), the subtle differences can be seen. I’m combining KDE 3.5.6 and 4 in the same session, just in order to do a quick comparison.

File managers (Dolphin on the left, Konqueror on the right), click image for full size

If you’re left curious about a proper 4.0 session, here’s a demo video

Remember that KDE 4.0 is still work in progress and if you need to get your work done properly, KDE 4.0 is probably ready for you. I’ve had no crashes and encountered no issues or quirks while tinkering. That indicates that stability is almost there, even at a stage of prematurity.

No investigation, no scrutiny, and Robbie Bach is not even in jail. Let the following recent story teach you why the legal system in America is broken beyond repair and why Microsoft is virtually above the law. It is permitted to steal millions from investors and get away untouched.

MarketWatch.com reports that Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division, sold $6.2 million of Microsoft stock just prior to announcing that Microsoft was going to have to extend XBox 360 warranties to three years because of extensive failures. The filings note that this was not part of any scheduled diversification or selling program; this was a conscious, unscheduled sale by the guy in charge of releasing news that could affect the value of Microsoft stock.

[...]

Insider trading is a very serious violation of the law; just ask Martha Stewart, who served five months in prison for avoiding losses of $43,000 through trades that just had suspicious timing (no insider trading was actually proven). This is $6.3 million that went straight into Robbie Bach’s pocket.

It has been weeks. No apparent action taken.

IGG had a long downtime last night (or so it seemed from here). More strangely, this morning, some content simply vanished. About 20 hours after I submitted a timely FSF-related item, the item is just gone. I don’t know if Digg had a massive error that led the Web site to restoring from backup. I checked their blog, I checked the front page, but there is nothing to indicate this.

I submitted a link to a video of Professor Moglen, which very quickly accumulated a lot of Diggs and at least one comment Why has it disappeared? Has Digg censored (as in “deleted”) this? If so, why did this happen after so many hours of the item being ‘live’? For the time being, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. I wish to see if more than just my own contributions was lost.

In any event, I have submitted the same story to Netscape, in case you are curious about the content which Digg had deleted (either deliberately or not)

Joe Wilcox, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Several days ago, I left a comment in his inherited Web site just to say that Microsoft hides some of its Vista weakness by secretly patching vulnerabilities. I even provided two links from very reliable source to support this. One of these sources was the Microsoft Blog at ZDNet. With further confirmations that this is true, I see no reason whatsoever why my comment should be removed. This leads to the suspicion that Microsoft Watch has turned from a professional Web site run by Mary Jo Foley into a Microsoft shilling dumpster. Several months ago, the site dropped its Windows server and had it replaced by Red Hat Linux. This is hypocritical, is it not?

It has become obvious (by admission) that many Microsoft employees visit the Web site and even comment without disclosure. I refuse to participate as much as I used to knowing that a site which once served me well has decided to lift and iron first and decide what is valid information and what is an inconvenient truth.

Knowledge is power.

Over a year ago I expressed my concerns about newspapers that wish to know too much about us. I mentioned the New York Times, in particular for its required registration process. These concerns now seem justified.

Barely a year after their reporters won a Pulitzer prize for exposing data mining of ordinary citizens by a government spy agency, New York Times officials had some exciting news for stockholders last week: The Times company plans to do its own data mining of ordinary citizens, in the name of online profits…

“Let’s all just pretend”

More mind control through exclusions of information and expression. China keeps chopping off bits of the Web.

Seems that the web is not only cause of youthful addiction to games, but also can cause people to think in non-socialist and non-communist ways. Clearly bad all around.

• As you probably know, Gates predicted that SPAM will have reached final demise by 2006. The vast majority of it is delivered from compromised Windows PCs and the prediction was made back in 2004. Bill Gates has been publicly whining about SPAM (again, sent from Windows zombies) which he receives himself, even though he has staff to do the filtering for him. It is like a country using nukes against a neighboring nation and then complaining about radiation that drifts across the border. To Gates, never mind the hundreds of millions that suffer from vulnerabilities—those that extract spam from Gates’ own creation.
• Windows is an alternative operating system, which some claim can actually replace Linux. Of course, it is unstable, prone to breakage or hijackers, and it will not run some of your favourite applications. This last statement is especially true when you come to consider its most recent version. I cannot envision Vista regaining any market share for Microsoft. Au contraire: it already drives many people away. Even aggressive lockin attempts lead to backlash nowadays, owing to the openness of the Web.
• Linux can import and export individual windows and treat them in a flexible way, owing to the way X server functions. Windows, on the other hand, is not modular, so remote connections are flawed from the get-go. Linux could (and can) mimic the same approach which is grabbing an entire desktop environment to be redrawn. This instantiates a whole new animal on the server and sips resources though.
• Prebundling remains a major concern as Microsoft now prepares to ‘pull a Netscape’ against VMWare et al. It happens endlessly. For example, by bundling a proprietary formats-biased media player in Windows, not only monoculture is encouraged. Web users who do not use Windows will face more encoded files that cannot be opened. It leads to a danger and circularity trap — a self-sustaining monopoly.
• Microsoft was wise enough to name their operating system in a way that makes them seem like inventors whose work is copied. Just describing this paradigm would involve uttering the word ‘windows’.
• Microsoft pays people to write Windows praises on the Internet. It’s a proven fact. One day everyone will look with contempts at pro-Windows ‘Internet trolls’ that advocated a dinosaur O/S and carry on bashing rivals. I had people fake my identity and do some nasty things under my name. I digitally sign my E-mail messages because of this. Me and my electronic accounts/sites are otherwise sensitive to social engineering. I had a couple of imposters in the past, but it’s more of a nuisance than a compliment. Being described as a transgendered person is no joy and the forgers have stooped pretty low in order to fuel slander. Subtly rude and ambiguous phrases like “artichokes on banana” are sometimes used. It’s just one that crossed my mind some time ago (just replace Arty with a girl’s name, please).

Macs and iPods — different company, same problems