On Sat, Nov 16, 2013 at 11:17 PM, Mark S Bilk <mark@...> wrote:
> If that's the way windows looked in 1995 or 2005, that's fine.
> I want things to look just fancy enough to be effective and
> NO MORE.

Back in the ancient days of yore, when graphics cards didn't do their
own processing and swap space was critically important to running more
than one program at a time, the idea behind the GUI was to improve the
user's access to the applications.

It is the applications that are important. Is my purpose to wander
through the customization lists and options? Or is it to read my
email, to use "The Tao Of Programming", in the way which astonishes
least?

In my opinion the KDE team more than a decade ago found a good balance
between bling and getting out of the way. In the years that have
passed, the system resources required to run more and more bling have
become trivial. Yet that balance exists not because of computing
resources, but because the more bling there is, the more of my mind is
taken up perceiving that bling, rather than doing what I am here to
do.

> I like KDE3/TDE because it doesn't distract or get in the way of
> perception and thinking.  TDE should cater to people who _think_.
> That's what Unix/Linux is _for_.  And KDE3/TDE may be the only DE
> left that does it.

Xfce is doing quite well in that regard. Yet there is something clunky
about it. Trinity still feels like it "gets out of the way" better for
me.

I run Xfce on two laptops for my kids, for disk space reasons. Using
the Thunar file manager makes me long for the effectiveness of
Konqueror.

I was reminded of this recently when I wanted to access files in a
different machine, and simply typed "fish://server/" in Konqueror and
it just worked. No games, no tweaks, no fiddles. Simple functionality.

> I use all 20 desktops, named Mail, Music, Website,
> Ruby, etc.

Yet the first thing I do is turn off such "Workspaces". I learned UNIX
with olvwm and multiple desktops, and it just doesn't fit how I use it
today.

I do have multiple tabs open in Konsole, each with a different
purpose, so maybe we're not quite so different after all. :^)

> If that's true, then "improving"/"modernizing" its UI could
> actually result in a loss of users.

As the KDE team did when abandoning KDE3, for example? :^)

> I apologize for my bluntness here.  I don't mean to tread on
> anyone's toes.  I'm 68 years old and don't have time anymore to
> sugar-coat things.  Linux is a superb adjunct to the human mind.
> It's vital for that to continue.
>
>   Mark

My first Linux was Debian in 1995, I started using KDE in 2000. It
does seem that the flash-bang-bling appeals to those who, politely
put, have the time to waste on it.

Many thanks to Pearson and the TDE team for keeping alive this
excellent balance between bling and simplicity. Time, I guess, to make
another donation.

Curt-