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Desktop Switchoff Annoyances

This is a collection of annoyances that the participants of the February 2010 Desktop Switchoff experienced. It is supposed to offer ideas for future improvements of either desktop environments. Every entry is signed by the person who experienced a specific annoyance to make it easier to work out a solution together.

KDE to GNOME Switchers

Compiz configuration

GNOME overrides my ccsm-based compiz configuration in lieu of its anorexic "Deskop Effects" setting dialog, which does not allow me to keep Wobbly Windows enabled. Will file bug on the last issue. Rrix 04:42, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Try installing compizconfig-backend-gconf and set it as the configuration backend in the main settings of ccsm. That should work. --Heffer 09:23, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Hotkeys

I stole this chart from below. Similar hardware (x200 tablet)

Key Function Works in GNOME? Works in KDE?
Fn-F2 Lock Screen Yes Yes
Fn-F3 Display battery info No Haven't tested
Fn-F4 Suspend to RAM Yes Yes
Fn-F5 Rfkill Haven't tested Haven't tested
Fn-F7 Cycle Monitor outputs haven't tested Haven't tested
Fn-F8 Turn off Trackpoint No No
Fn-F9 Undock Haven't tested Haven't tested
Fn-F12 Suspend to disk Not tested Not tested
The following pretty much depend on the player used. I use amarok on GNOME, and well, it doesn't work :) should be expected I guess...
Fn-Up Multimedia Stop No Configuration needed
Fn-Down Multimedia Play/Pause No Configuration needed
Fn-Left Multimedia Previous No Configuration needed
Fn-Right Multimedia Next No Configuration needed
Volume Up Volume Up No OOTB
Volume Down Volume Down No OOTB
Mute Mute Broken Broken (Only mutes, does not unmute; ACPI issue, see below)

Notes:

Rrix 03:54, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Tray UI headaches

As far as I can tell, GNOME applications lack any sort of useful notifications configuration, even tray statuses. It's nice to know how many unread messages I have just by looking at the tray, but gwibber and most GNOME applications simply lack this feature. Furthermore, Gwibber's UI pales in comparison to Choqok's. Also, the inability to hide tray icons is a big annoyance. Rrix 04:42, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Evolution unconfigurability

  • how can i specify alternate ports in mail configuration?
  • why does evolution-rss show under mail (in local folders?)
  • Evolutions "Work offline" button is ridiculous[1]

Rrix 04:42, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Anorexic document viewer

The GNOME document viewer, evince, simply does not compare to Okular in terms of usability and features. The ability to take notes, highlight passages and keep track of those annotations is basically a required feature for me, as I use the readers a lot in class to read books, take notes, etc. A merger of evince and xournal would be pretty awesome. Rrix 06:27, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

GNOME to KDE Switchers

Multimonitor Support

Especially in conjunction with docking stations. When I dock my laptop I expect the internal monitor to turn off and have my TFT monitor, that is connected to the DisplayPort of my X200 Ultrabase, to take over. In GNOME this unfortunately doesn't work automatically. In KDE however, additionally to it not working automagically, when undocking my laptop (after using it with the internal monitor manually turned off) the internal monitor is not turned on again thus leaving me without any graphical output. I can then only zap the X server and login again. --Heffer 01:01, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Hotkeys

Hotkeys don't work as well as I'm used to in GNOME. Based on a Lenovo ThinkPad X200 (7455-D7G)

Key Function Works in GNOME? Works in KDE?
Fn-F2 Lock Screen OOTB No
Fn-F3 Display battery info OOTB Yes, after manual setup
Fn-F4 Suspend to RAM OOTB No (no further setup/testing yet)
Fn-F5 Rfkill OOTB OOTB
Fn-F7 Cycle Monitor outputs OOTB No (no further setup/testing yet)
Fn-F8 Turn off Trackpoint No No
Fn-F9 Undock Not really No
Fn-F12 Suspend to disk Not tested Not tested
The following pretty much depend on the player used. I am comparing Rhythmbox to Amarok here.
Fn-Up Multimedia Stop OOTB No
Fn-Down Multimedia Play/Pause OOTB No
Fn-Left Multimedia Previous OOTB No
Fn-Right Multimedia Next OOTB No
Volume Up Volume Up OOTB After manual setup
Volume Down Volume Down OOTB After manual setup
Mute Mute No Broken (Only mutes, does not unmute)

--Heffer 01:01, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

  • See above ;) Looks like we are having some configuration differences Rrix 05:42, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Localization

German localization in GNOME is much more complete than in KDE. There are many places that are untranslated (Assuming KDE 4.4). --Heffer 01:01, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

  • Huh? The German localization is one of the most complete ones, almost 100%. Make sure you have kde-l10n-German installed, and if you use KDE 3 apps (i.e. anything using kdelibs3) also kde-i18n-German. If there are specific untranslated apps, please point them out so I can look at what's wrong (translations not packaged, not released by upstream or whatever) and possibly fix it. --Kkofler 01:31, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Design

The design does have some glitches. I will try to provide screenshots of the actual annoyances soon. Also GTK Apps look ugly (which mostly isn't KDE's fault)

Untidy

KDE seems untidy, especially what the menu is concerned. I need a lot more clicks to start programs or adjust settings.

KDE Wallet

GNOME's Keyring unlocks automatically on login. KDE's Wallet does not and doesn't have an option for that. Also it keeps asking for the password from time to time if the timeout is not deactivated.

Formatting Drives

GNOME has an option built into the Desktop to format Drives. KDE has a partition manager in the repos which is quite uncomfortable to use.