KDE: worse than Win2k! A hassle to use! Documentation for dummies!

[KWTm]

I'm trying to like Linux. I'm trying to stick to Linux and not go back to Win2k. I'm trying to appreciate KDE, I really am. I like the screen saver and the volume control widgets and all that.

But I find that I have to click here and click there with the mouse, whereas with MS WIndows, believe it or not, there is far more support for keyboard shortcuts!

Case in point: I would like to start programs from the keyboard. In Win2k, I'm used to typing Alt-Esc to bring up the Start Menu, and then typing single letters to navigate the menu without touching the mouse. (I designed the Start Menu so that each entry started with a unique letter.)

But with KDE, when I bring up the K menu, I can't type a letter to jump to an entry. So I either click it with the house or use the cursor up/down keys, which is such a hassle compared to the lightning-quick key sequences of (say) Alt-Esc P V G to start GIMP (for example).

I'm trying to figure out how to replace the K program launch with IceWM, but I don't know how. This is because KDE documentation is geared to some dimwit who has just learned that, to use the computer, you have to plug it in. There's no technical documentation at all, and I feel like I've just migrated to Dumbed Down Windows.

Does anyone have a good menu-based program launcher to recommend? And how do I replace the default window manager in KDE?

Maybe KDE stands for Kan't Do Enything.
: (

[nite87]

try:

ALT-F2

then type in the command for the program you want.

[mrBen]

AFAIK KDE does have keyboard support - check the accesibility settings in the Control Center.

[mdwatts]

The 'Keyboard Shortcuts' in the KDE Control Center.

[KWTm]

Yes, I did see the keyboard shortcuts in the K Control Centre, etc.

First of all, sometimes they don't work. I don't know why --whether the focus has to be on some windor or other, or in rare circumstances they don't work, or whether some other program is intercepting and interpreting the keystrokes, or what. For example, I've set Alt-Esc to equal clicking on the K Menu (Start Applications) on the taskbar, and Alt-Space to bring up the window manipulation menu (Maximize, Minimize, etc.) Usually it works, but not always. For example, as I type this in with Mozilla 1.0.0 on my K Desktop, Alt-Space doesn't work but Alt-Esc does.

More importantly, the K Menu doesn't accept keyobard shortcuts to jump to various programs! In Win2k, I type Alt-Esc, then P (and it will jump to P-rograms and open the submenu) then I (and it will jump to the I-nternet submenu) then M (and it will jump to M-ozilla and open the program). How fast it is! I don't even have to look at the screen to start any of the four- or five-dozen programs contained in the Start Menu.

When I bring up the K Menu and type a letter, nothing happens. I have to use the cursor up/down keys. Even Home or End don't work. The submenus are difficult to navigate by mouse, because even if I brush by a submenu on the way to the one I want, submenus start popping up automatically!

Yes, you can assign a keyboard shortcut to specific programs, like Ctrl-Alt-M for Mozilla. But then you are limited to that single key combo --and what if I want to use Ctrl-Alt-(letter) for something else, or Meta-Shift-(letter), etc.? It doesn't have the flexibility of multiple submenus where you can use 4- or 5-key combinations. It limits the number of programs I can start this way.

As for Alt-F2 (which I've redefined to Ctrl-Alt-Space), I don't want to have to type in the entire program name, and that command line has no autocompletion ability.

While on this topic, does anyone else think that KDE doesn't work very well with non-KDE programs? I mean the user interface --if it's a non-KDE program, KDE gives it short shrift and basically the program looks like crap. Maybe it's the way the menu was set up, but once I enter KDE, it looks like I'm restricted to the KDE sub-world, and it takes a lot of struggling to even figure out how to run a non-KDE application.

If only there were more technical documentation! :(

[TonyB]

Try here:
http://www.xfce.org/

Very flexible, fast, build your own menus. KDE and Gnome for that matter are bloated IMHO...

hope this helps

[Raoul_Duke]

Maybe you could email the KDE developers and suggest this kind of shortcut-support. You never know, it might be planned for a future release, it might not :rolleyes:

[Oaki]

If you are trying to change from KDE to IceWM there is a config file that controls what you are using. It depends on the distro, but as far as i can remember it's either called .xinitrc or .xsession. These are usually located in your use directory, but some times they are not. I am running SuSE 8.0 pro and i had to dig up the file, which happend to be in some directory that was burried. Took me hours to find it. KDE in my opinion is very decent, I like navigating with the mouse to go through the menu, it's easier than going from keboard to mouse to keyboard again. I'm sure there is a way to get back the keyboard navigation, or maybe you should try out something like Gnome or one of the others that has been mentioned in this thread.