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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    KDE not ready for the desktop
From:       Gérard_Delafond <gerard () delafond ! org>
Date:       2003-11-21 1:03:16
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Hi !

As an old KDE user, I am sad to say KDE is NOT ready for the desktop.

Of course, KDE has many nice features : I love Konqueror, Kcontrol, Konsole, 
KMail, K3B, KStars, and many others.

But what does Joe Desktop User need ? the ability to send and receive faxes 
easily. and I must say KDE is in a sorry state about faxes.

What are the problems ?
First, you must install a fax server (hylafax or efax). 
I don't know where the programmers found so complicated settings. Especially 
for hylafax. When you make your configuration (text mode only :-( ), your are 
prompted for about one hundred silly questions. Anybody knows you cannot send 
faxes without ansqering to hundreds of questions.
Once you have answered to all these questions, you are prompted another time 
to configure the modem. And guess what ? It is the same questions. Of course, 
you have absolutely no help. When you give /dev/ttyS0, one tells you that /
dev/dev/ttyS0 is not found. So, you give ttyS0 alone. This time, it is 
accepted. Don't be happy, it won't work. Because ttyS0 is a link to tts/0. 
And symlinks do not work. And nobody tells it to you.

Now, your server is configured. 

Let's try to receive a fax. You must launch a command somewhere. The best is 
in a start file.

OK, the faxes come in. How will I read them ? Easy, just use kfax. Wrong ! The 
faxes can be read only by root !
What is the good way ? tell to hylafax to send a copy of the faxes to your 
Mail account. Of course, you need a configured postfix program. Everybody 
knows Joe User can configure and launch a postfix program. Then, you will 
read your faxes in KMail (in fact, you will only know you have a fax. To read 
it, you will click on the attachment)
One more detail : if your fax is upside-down, it must have several pages. If 
it has only one, the postscript viewer fails turning it the right way.

How will I be warned I have received a fax ? Easy, I just need to configure 
Korn. Just hope it won't forget its settings at every startup.

Well, let's suppose you can receive faxes. Probably you will want to send 
some.
Let's begin with the easy case : you want to send an existing document. You 
launch KPrinter, choose fax, click on configure, and then you give your name 
as the sender : "Mr Joe". Dummy ! It won't work. No space allowed in the 
sender field (of course, no indication, no warning, nothing to prevent you to 
write the wrong thing, you will discover your mistake reading your log file 
when the fax sending will fail).
OK, let's admit you managed to configure your system to send faxes with KDE 
system.
Now, you want to send a paper document. You open your scanner, you launch 
kooka, and you find no "send fax" button.
So, you scan your paper (which option should I choose ? lineart ?, gray ?, 
which resolution ?) then, click on Print, then choose Fax, and here you go...
The fax is horrible. If you choosed lineart, the fax is black and white, but  
the black is surrounded with a sort of blur. Impossible to read any thin 
detail.
It could be worse. You could have choosen "grey". Your fax would be like on a 
thin grid. With good eyes and imagination, you will perhaps be able to read 
some big titles.


You can see sending faxes with your KGX box seems a bit tricky.

What should be done to solve this ?
-Add a graphical frontend to configure the faxserver. This frontend should 
explain what the settings are for and take care you don't make mistakes in 
the syntax
-Add a system to warn the user when a fax arrives. This system should lead you 
to a place where you can read your faxes, with a viewer which works.
-Add some features to KOOKA to AUTOMATICALLY make copies or send faxes. With 
the good settings. And with 1 or 2 clicks, no more.

I think when KDE will be able to do what any computer running another system 
has been able to do for 10 years, KDE will be ready for the desktop (and 
probably be the best desktop environment) !

Hope my long speech will give some ideas to developers (I am sorry, I am very 
poor at programming)

Friendly

Gerard
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