[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: way out of date



On my Debian potato system every week or so I compile KDE 2.1-pre directly
from CVS HEAD following the KDE configuration recommendations as a
comparison with what Ivan is doing with detailed Debian package builds.

So my results won't be quite the same as Ivan's, but hopefully they are
close.  I use KDE for a general-purpose desktop.  Lots of xterms where I do
command-line work, lots of browsing of Linux articles with Konqueror.  But I
rarely use KDE for anything exotic.  So your mileage is bound to vary. 

For my use konqueror from 2.1-pre is not quite as stable as for 2.0.1.  For
example, there has been one konqueror crash (from an attempt at a particular
LT talkback of all things) in the last week as opposed to none (!) for
2.0.1. Also, I cannot get my choice of visited link color to change under
2.1 while this functionality was working fine for 2.0.1.  OTOH, I like the
new way konqueror displays its guesses at the URL you are typing in so I
wouldn't want to go back.

I have also gone out of my way to test noatun (usable, if you work around
the GUI bugs, and a reasonable replacement for kaiman without the ugly
default GUI's.  [although I believe if you really like the kaiman GUI's they
are available under noatun if you work at it]) Also, artsd (which is being
used by noatun to actually play the music) is vastly improved--- no more
dropouts when playing mpg's.  artsd alone makes 2.1 worth having.

kmidi (that is the one that processes the sound fonts in software to play
MIDI files) works (it didn't under 2.0.1, IIRC) and so does kmid (that is
the one that plays MIDI's using your soundcard functionality). I am using
the SBLive! card and the alsa driver for that card, and load the soundfonts
into the card using sfxload.  Even with the same soundfont and MIDI file,
kmid sounds *much* better than kmidi. kmidi may be taking some short cuts to
do the required calculations in software or it may by default not be
configured properly for my system. I haven't played with the kmidi
configuration in the slightes. I do know it is not a cpu-power limit since
my load only gets up to about 20 per cent when I am playing MIDI's with
kmidi.

So in summary, my opinion is for low-end non-exotic desktop use like mine
2.1-pre is a bit of a mixed bag, but completely acceptable and bound to get
better.  For sound playing with artsd, KDE 2.1-pre is a must.  kmidi now
works, but kmid is much better (at least for the SB live + alsa).  I am
looking forward to recompiling KDE 2.1 again tomorrow night (4 hours on my
athlon-600) to see how much it has improved since last weekend.

Alan

email: irwin@beluga.phys.uvic.ca
phone: 250-727-2902	FAX: 250-721-7715
snail-mail:
Dr. Alan W. Irwin
Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria, P.O. Box 3055,
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8W 3P6 
__________________________

Linux-powered astrophysics
__________________________

On Sat, 20 Jan 2001 nphyre@evernex.com wrote:

> 
> Just to confirm, are the 2.0.1 packages no longer being updated?
> 
> If so, how does the stability/functionality of 2.1 compare?  I'm having some 
> minor UI glitch issues with 2.0.1, and I believe it may also be contributing 
> to instability with VMware.
> 
> 
> 
> Gordon Morehouse
> nphyre@evernex.com
> www.evernex.com
> 
> 
> --  
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-kde-request@lists.debian.org
> with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
> 
> 



Reply to: