KDE rumored to be focusing now on simplicity

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in linux on (#2SNV)
story imageKDE has always been full of tons of configuration options. And the KDE team has remained somewhat stalwart in defending that approach even as the Gnome3 project decided their mantra would be "simplify, simplify, simplify."

Suddenly, at least one journal is reporting the KDE developers are reconsidering that approach and deciding they'll simplify too.
KDE usability team lead Thomas Pfeiffer posted on the future roadmap of the KDE user interface and user experience on his blog. While he acknowledges that the great power and flexibility that comes with KDE Plasma and associated applications is the main reason behind its huge fanbase, in his opinion these are also the reasons why newbies get intimidated by the overwhelming number of features exposed at one place.
Developer Thomas Pfeiffer is behind the statement, having posted on his blog: "Anything that makes Linux interesting for technical users (shells, compilation, drivers, minute user settings) will be available; not as the default way of doing things, but at the user's discretion." In the design vision and principles section of the KDE HIG, we condensed and evolved this goal into a simple guiding principle: Simple by default, powerful when needed."

[Ed. note: I've got a bad feeling about this.]
Reply 5 comments

Something to do with balancing karma ... I guess (Score: 1)

by seriously@pipedot.org on 2014-09-20 22:27 (#2SP2)

[Ed. note: I've got a bad feeling about this.]
"The Lord giveth (uselessd) and the Lord taketh away (this)"

But let's be positive: the good thing is that they're not Gnome's developers. So maybe they can get it right ?

Agreed (Score: 2, Informative)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-09-21 14:32 (#2SQ3)

A bad feeling indeed. This cursed trend of "designers" making every feature hidden and nearly unavailable has got to stop. It's as if the standard system interface for everything has become a single button reading "Click Here, Citizen". It's despicable.

The thing that really worries me is that KDE people are responsible for OwnCloud, and OwnCloud is a TERRIBLY written piece of software, barely functional, slow, and buggy as a roach motel, at least historically.

Re: Agreed (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-09-22 15:25 (#2SS4)

Interesting - I hadn't realized who was behind Owncloud. That makes me look at it a bit more circumspect, though. Isn't the joke that the Gnome team is trying to reduce the entire interface down to one single button, and then disactivating the button by default because it confuses the users?

This is just a blog post, OK, but here's my warning to the devs at KDE: I use KDE because I like configurability and tweakability, and I'm more than intelligent enough to handle the system's supposed "complexity" all by myself. I'm a grown-up, in fact. Take away the tweakability and I stop using KDE, as simple as that. Concentrate your effort on promoting and creating better quality apps instead, and fix bugs, and reduce the resource requirements by making the code more efficient. Those are big challenges, obviously - not nearly as fun as pissing around with some widgets and color schemes in this endless masturbation cycle called UI development.

Re: Agreed (Score: 2, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-09-22 16:50 (#2SS7)

Yeah, I had second thoughts about my KDE fandom when I realized one of the main devs was behind OwnCloud (which I gave a fair shake and was wildly disappointed in).

Interesting about the GNOME story; I had actually been thinking of the bared down to the bone new interfaces of Microsoft and Google and Apple, where it doesn't look as if you can do a damn thing until you manage to stumble/click over the right mystery pixels. All the acreage of 1080 and higher resolutions (RETINA RETINA RETINA RETINA) and they can't spare a few millimeters for a god damn menu any more. GMail and Hotmail/whateveritscallednow are the worst, next to maybe "Metro".

Same reason I still love LibreOffice until they get around to sticking us in the back and aping the still-useless freaking ribbon interface, which I continue to work around on a daily basis.

Good riddance (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-09-22 11:13 (#2SR6)

It was way past time for that bloated slow POS (software) went to the GNOME graveyard. Goodbye KDE, we won't miss you.

I'm guessing that XFCE will be the next one to implode. Anyone care to bet?