KDE 4.2.0 Release [LWN.net]

KDE 4.2 has been released. The KDE 4.2 Visual Guide is also available. "KDE 4.2.0 is not the end, but another milestone along the road of KDE 4 development. This platform is designed and intended to keep on growing far into the future, and the KDE Team would like to invite you to join us in this fantastic journey. This visual guide highlights many of the improvements in KDE 4.2, and we hope that you will enjoy using this release."

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Congrats!

Posted Jan 27, 2009 18:40 UTC (Tue) by kragil (guest, #34373) [Link] (1 responses)

Well done. I am using it on Kubuntu 9.04alpha already. Works like a charm.

Thanks!

(Although being German I can hardly wait for the spell check with language detection in 4.3 .. but that is just me and my bad spelling talking I guess :)

Congrats!

Posted Jan 27, 2009 22:19 UTC (Tue) by xaoc (guest, #54140) [Link]

I've been using it through openSUSE Build Service since 4.1.3 and I can definitely say KDE4 is making serious progress with 4.2.0

Kwin improvements

Posted Jan 27, 2009 20:37 UTC (Tue) by proski (guest, #104) [Link] (12 responses)

The announcement talks about KWin improvements employing "motion physics". I wonder if KWin can finally support both Alt-Tab and Alt-Esc. Last time I tried KDE, having to choose between Alt-Tab or Alt-Esc was the reason I chose to stay with IceWM.

Kwin improvements

Posted Jan 27, 2009 21:11 UTC (Tue) by dowdle (subscriber, #659) [Link] (1 responses)

What does Alt-Esc do?

Kwin improvements

Posted Jan 27, 2009 22:25 UTC (Tue) by wstephenson (guest, #14795) [Link]

"Alt-Esc lowers a window, placing it at the bottom of the Z-order sequence."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt-Tab

Kwin improvements

Posted Jan 27, 2009 22:31 UTC (Tue) by wstephenson (guest, #14795) [Link] (9 responses)

Yes, KWin supports Alt-Esc, but it's not configured by default. To enable it, run systemsettings, Keyboard & Mouse, Global Keyboard Shortcuts. Select KWin, find Lower Window and assign Alt-Esc to it. It does not conflict with Alt-Tab.

Alt-MMB /is/ assigned to Lower Window out of the box.

Oh and if you really like IceWM, you can start a KDE session using IceWM by putting KDE_WM=icewm in your environment.

Kwin improvements

Posted Jan 28, 2009 0:07 UTC (Wed) by proski (guest, #104) [Link] (8 responses)

OK, I tried it with KDE included with Fedora 10 (that's version 4.1.4). I configured Alt-Esc to lower the window. However, it would not change the keyboard focus. That is, the keystrokes would go to the lowered window. Moreover, I cannot hold Alt and press Esc to cycle between windows. Apparently, the subsequent Alt-Esc would try to lower the same window.

Speaking of physical models, it's like I take a document on top of a pile, put it to the bottom and then write on it. Not very intuitive. If I lower something, it means I want to have another window on top. My intention is to work with the window that appears on top, not with the window I put to the back.

My impression is that KDE tries to frustrate users who prefer the keyboard to the mouse. New versions try it even harder. Is it really so hard to implement Alt-Esc properly? Windows 95 had it. I think even Windows 3.1 had it. I'm sure it's easier to do than wobbling windows on a rotating cube. No, I'm not a userspace developer.

I didn't have any success with making KDE use IceWM, but it would be quite pointless anyway. I can run every application from IceWM without having KDE running. The reason I want to run KDE is to use actively maintained software. But it looks like the goals of the project are incompatible with my physical abilities :-(

Kwin improvements

Posted Jan 28, 2009 0:46 UTC (Wed) by yokem_55 (subscriber, #10498) [Link] (2 responses)

Just curious, is there a bug report on b.k.o where this could be tracked on?

Kwin improvements

Posted Jan 28, 2009 9:43 UTC (Wed) by wstephenson (guest, #14795) [Link] (1 responses)

Bugs was down yesterday evening, but I've taken the liberty of filing it: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=182146

Oh, and the environment variable to change the windowmanager is KDEWM, my mistake.

Kwin improvements

Posted Jan 28, 2009 17:51 UTC (Wed) by wstephenson (guest, #14795) [Link]

And it's fixed - thanks, Lucas!

Kwin improvements

Posted Jan 28, 2009 7:31 UTC (Wed) by Adi (guest, #52678) [Link]

Standard question: have you filled a bug report?

Kwin improvements

Posted Jan 28, 2009 10:18 UTC (Wed) by lmurray (guest, #56356) [Link] (3 responses)

Thank you for (Indirectly) informing us of this bug. I have made the change to current trunk and will backport it to KDE 4.2.1 shortly.

If you come across any more keyboard-unfriendly actions feel free to open a bug report on http://bugs.kde.org .

Kwin improvements

Posted Jan 28, 2009 20:24 UTC (Wed) by roblucid (guest, #48964) [Link]

From the Bugzilla :
Opened: 2009-01-28 10:33 Last Changed: 2009-01-28 11:31:35

Awesome!

Kwin improvements

Posted Jan 29, 2009 0:07 UTC (Thu) by proski (guest, #104) [Link] (1 responses)

I didn't feel good about opening a bug without being a KDE user or even intending to use it. However, I'm impressed by the positive reaction to my comment, so I may reconsider. Thank you very much!

Kwin improvements

Posted Jan 30, 2009 7:13 UTC (Fri) by cventers (guest, #31465) [Link]

I am a KDE user... I've filed a few bug reports before that were fixed in a jiffy just like this one. Always puts a big smile on my face :p