technofile: KDE interface for Linux needs better help files | Linux Today

technofile: KDE interface for Linux needs better help files

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Dec 12, 1999

Most current versions of Linux come with the KDE graphical
interface. KDE is the slickest and in some ways most advanced
desktop environment for Linux, but it scores a Big Zero in one
area: Documentation.

“Figuring out how the KDE desktop is supposed to work can be
very frustrating. Figuring out how individual KDE programs are
supposed to work can be impossible. I’m making that distinction
because refugees from Windows probably have a hard time
understanding what KDE really is.”

“Let me explain. The K Desktop Environment is not an essential
part of the Linux operating system. It’s an optional extra; Linux
never needs any part of KDE to work. This is also true of the other
graphical environments for Linux. KDE provides a desktop and the
things that go along with a desktop — icons, a launch menu, a
taskbar, a system tray and so on. KDE also supplies a way for
programs to communicate with each other, so that clicking on the
icon of a text file within one KDE program might launch a word
processor that is itself another KDE program. (In fact, KDE works
so well that part of this requirement isn’t even necessary; the
word processor that automatically opens up the text doesn’t have to
be a KDE program. And of course we’re not just talking about word
processors here. There are hundreds of KDE programs of all
kinds.)”

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Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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