Installed KDE4

I downloaded the latest packages of KDE4 (instructions can be found from Kubuntu page).

First impressions: somewhat works. On first attempt it ended up corrupting the settings file so that the desktop was empty on the next boot. I fixed it by removing .kde4 from home directory and starting the KDE4 desktop again.

Now the reverse-wow-effect. On Mac, the first impression is that wow, how easy this is to use. With KDE4, there are also desktop effects etc. on the desktop (which are by the way slower on GeForce 8800GTX high end graphics card with 768 MB video memory than similar things on Leopard with integrated Intel GMA950 low spec accelerator which uses system memory as video RAM), but first impression was that oh, how I can do something (if I can) and oh, what did it do now, did it crash? KDE4 certainly feels more like Windows Vista (I have tried it once in a computer store, and first impression was that I was disappointed and unimpressed) than Leopard (which impresses me still after using it now for a month or so). Paradigms are more redmondian than Appleish. The amount of originality is also pretty low, I did not see anything special new. Not so nice.

The hard-to use thing kind of culminated to the fact, that I did not figure out how to add application shortcut icons to the panel and I also did not figure out how to add programs to the favorites in the start menu (which is tiny box on the left bottom corner of my 30 inch monitor at resolution 2560×1600 - I even needed to scroll the menu in order to find something on a monitor size of 30 inches, perfectly understandable on a mobile device because of small screen and ease of use because of touch screen, but on a 30 inch desktop - what a waste).

With lack of workarounds for the usability problems, it did not take long before the Gnome desktop was booted back. Even though it is not as shiny as the Leopard on my Mac, it at least works for me and does basic stuff I need frequently.

KDE4 was not complete disappointment, it does basic things, it is free software and it is not extremely bad either, but because there are alternatives that suit me better, I am going to be using them.