[vox] kde3 -> xfce (was: is the Linux desktop OS dead?)

[David Rosenstrauch]

On 11/23/2009 04:54 PM, Bob Scofield wrote:
> My big beef right now is that I want to freeze my system at KDE 3.5, but 
> things keep going and I cannot download photos with Digikam with a USB cable 
> unless I use KDE 4.x.

FYI ...

I was in this predicament recently as well.  I've not been pleased with 
kde4, as a whole bunch of features I love and/or rely on from kde3 are 
missing.  (Not to mention how bloated it is.)  But my beloved kde3 is 
clearly a dead end at this point (it can't even be built against current 
library versions these days) which was leaving me tearing my hair out.

My solution turned out to be ... Xfce.  It took a little bit of tweaking 
(though honestly not much) but my desktop is now back to exactly how I 
liked it with kde3.  Plus it's even more lightweight than kde3 was.

There's still a few apps I'm using from KDE4 - konqueror file manager 
(because with all the kio_slave plugins there's nothing nearly as good), 
knetworkmanager, and kalarm.  But everything else has an excellent Xfce 
replacement.  (Including Xfce Terminal as a replacement for Konsole.)

So from one former kde lover to another, you might want to give Xfce a 
shot.  (Obligatory screen shot here: 
http://www.darose.net/DaroseDesktop2009-11.png).

HTH,

DR