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List:       kde-promo
Subject:    [kde-promo] the Redhat hooplah
From:       Scott Wheeler <wheeler () kde ! org>
Date:       2003-09-11 0:51:21
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Ok, so as I promised, I downloaded and installed the Redhat beta that was 
mentioned here.  I started off with a complete default install -- i.e. I 
didn't select to install KDE.

With the default install, Qt, aRts, kdelibs, kdebase and kdegames are 
installed.  So basically the fear of it not shipping suitable libs for a "KDE 
platform" are out.

The second positive note is that the default look of their desktop is much 
more like the KDE default look than the Gnome default look.  Here are a few 
screenies.

http://ktown.kde.org/~wheeler/redhat-1.png (KDE)
http://ktown.kde.org/~wheeler/redhat-2.png (Gnome)

http://ktown.kde.org/~wheeler/kde-default
http://ktown.kde.org/~wheeler/gnome-default.png

The first two are from the Redhat beta on my laptop; the last are taken from 
my desktop based on complete defaults for the Gnome 2.4 RC and KDE from HEAD.

Despite Gnome being the default environment, they've made Gnome (and KDE) look 
very similar to the KDE default look.

Bluecurve is used as the default theme in both environments.

Note that it is possible with the default install to select to use a KDE 
environment, but only the apps from KDE base are available.

It is also of note that there are precisely two web browsers in the default 
install -- Mozilla and Konqueror.  Galeon and Epiphany are left out.  There 
also exists a default application chooser (based on function) that allows 
selecting Konqeror as the default web browser.  More on this later.

The system tools are (again, not a surprise) all GTK based and appear in the 
menus in both environments.  There are a few KDE applications that even 
appear under the Gnome environment in the default install.  Most of these 
however have been relegated to the "More <type> Applications" submenus.  In 
most cases this isn't too crazy since they've dumped most of the Gnome apps 
in there too, aparently trying to keep the number of apps in the top level 
menus to a minimum.

Under KDE in general some KDE applications are used as the default.  
Specifically Konq is the default file browser, Konsole the default console, 
KControl is in the menus and so on.

I was also able to download and install a couple of 3rd party KDE apps and run 
them generally without problems.  I noticed a couple of glitches with system 
tray docking of KDE applications under Gnome and that 3rd party KDE apps do 
not show up in the menus after installation.  I presume that this is because 
they're using the XDG-style desktop files that are currently used in KDE in 
HEAD.

Also after in stalling the KDE packages (though the installation tool had some 
problems recognizing the CD, so I had to do this manually) several KDE apps 
appeared at the top level in the menus.

KDE applications have been ousted in a few notable cases.  OpenOffice is the 
default office suite, Mozilla the default browser and Evolution the default 
groupware application.  OpenOffice doesn't surprise me; most distros do the 
same regardless of desktop slant.  Prior to KDE 3.2 when Kontact arrive, I'm 
really not too surprised by the use of Evolution; given Redhat's focus on the 
corporate market it's certainly arguable that Evolution is more of what 
they're looking for than the current collection of KDE PIM applications.  The 
one of these that I think we may have a chance to change is getting Konqueror 
in there.  Sadly the panel application links aren't updated based on this 
preference, but I think that could be considered to be a bug and I'll see 
what they think of it.

As I mentioned there's a "preferred applications" chooser.  I'll talk to the 
Redhat guys about expanding that a bit and including more situations where 
they've used Gnome applications at the exclusion of KDE apps.  Specifically 
I'd like to see i.e. KMail, KWrite / KEdit, and possibly a couple others in 
there.  I don't know what they'll think of it, but I would even like to see 
"themes" where one can select a group of KDE apps to be the default.  We'll 
see.

Basically it's not as evil as it's been made out to be.  While I'm not exactly 
planning on switching from my distro of choice anytime in the near future 
there's been more made of this than it's worth.  And in terms of "identity" 
to be honest, Gnome is much more compromised and away from its defaults in 
the beta than KDE is, though it's clear that Redhat is not trying to 
establish any desktop identity other than their own; I don't expect this to 
change.

- -Scott

- -- 
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer 
shelf life.
- --Frank Zappa
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