Ok, a picture speaks a thousand words, and also makes typing a detailed blog post a lot easier. Let’s take a good look at what’s new with KDE 4.2 (well, actually, the entire 4.x series – everything looks cool). If you haven’t tried out KDE yet, or are cautious about entering the 4.x series, or are simply interested in seeing how Linux compares to your pathetic operating system, here’s what to look through.

Starting in no particular order at all, let’s take a look at switching applications. Ever since KWin had built-in compositing, the desktop-effects have become better, more integrated, and in general not a hacky decal like compiz-fusion. Switching applications gives options for flip switching (like Vista), cover switching (like Mac), box switch (like normal alt-tab except with more detail), and of course present windows (again like Mac). The animation is smooth, fast, and most importantly, acts as an asset instead of just plain eye-candy. As we can see here, I can clearly see the file names, icons of programs, and full screenshots as well as quick overviews (on top) of what applications I’m filtering through. In terms of eye-candy, it’s plentiful, offering a glossy reflection as well as my desktop wallpaper in the background. All the applications are shown real-time, which means that I can watch videos whilst alt-tabbing (just because I can)…and of course, the alt-shift-tab to move the other way (I cannot believe how many people don’t use that option) is ready for use. Here’s a picture (click for high-res) for the image happy:

The next thing I’ll quickly spin over is present windows. Like the Mac (Yes, Windows still hasn’t caught on yet), KDE on Linux makes use of screen edges. Meaning that I can shove my cursor into various corners/edges of my screen to activate effects. Right now, I have my top left corner set to activate present windows, and like the name suggests, it make my windows fly around and arrange themselves in a very pretty manner, all showing content real-time, and coupled with their name and icon overlayed with a dimming effect when you over over them. Awesome, and very useful if I want to see what exactly I’m doing with 50 windows open at the same time. Here’s a picture (click for high-res):

…and how can I talk about present windows without mentioning the desktop grid? Similar to present windows, my top right corner zooms out to give an overview of what’s going on in all 4 desktops (or however many you have). Unlike the Mac’s version of this, I can actually see what’s going on in them, which is a lot more useful than … well, three huge gradiented silver boxes “representing” desktops. Again, with dimmer effects with mouse hovering. Animation is smooth as ever, and very useful when heavily multitasking. Here’s another pic (click for high-res):

Of course, there’s also the trademark Linux desktop cube effect. How can we miss that? I have this set to my bottom right coner. In essence, it does the exact same thing as the desktop grid, but which I choose to flip through my desktops depends on my mood and whether or not my mouse is closer to which screen area. Heh, talk about effects overdose. Again, a picture (click for high-res):

Here’s another one of those which you can’t go without mentioning. Wobbly windows. Wobbly, you hear? Actually, the screenshot below shows two effects, transparency when I move (and resize) windows, which is really useful (not to mention pretty), as well a nice springy wobbly feel when I move the window around. For those who haven’t had the privelidge of experiencing wobbliness, it’s a bit like moving a jelly on an air-hocky board. A very wobbly jelly. I’m sorry, what a horrible analogy. Perhaps searching videos of it on youtube would be better? Here’s a decent screenshot I managed to get of it showing some of the window distortion. Again, it isn’t distracting, and doesn’t lag – so what’s the harm in a little extra eye-candy? Ok, I take that back, I sometimes randomly waste seconds wiggling windows around because it looks cool. Anyways, picture time (click for high-res):

Now, apart from the desktop effects, we’ve also got a schamcy looking start menu thing. It’s been oxygenized, and looks quite nice:

and of course, there’s always Lancelot for those who feel the default menu stinks in terms of usability. (Yes, Lancelot is now part of the default pack of plasmoids.) Picture:

There’s also KRunner, which does pretty much everything from search your computer (yes! now with indexing for super fast searching!), act as a calculator, and open up applications, which has been beefed up. Shown here is what happens after I type “open” into the command box. It automagically finds all my files with the word Open in it, as well as the OpenOffice applications, and gives a suggestion on how to complete the word. Pretty neat, no? Picture:

Almost coming to the end of my screenshots is the new Notifications. They look pretty, blend in, stack on top of one another, give useful options on how to react. Also shown is the systray, which as you can see has an arrow to expand to show your hidden icons (yes, you can choose which to hide!). Tada! Picture:

Probably as a make-shift ending note, the plasmoids that come with KDE have been improved too. Here is an example:

…and that’s it! Well, not really. There are plenty more available either can’t be taken with screenshots or I’ve simply missed it. Konqueror’s been beefed up, Kate as a Vi input-mode (yay for Vim supporters like me!), Gwenview has awesome image editing options, there is file indexing, new plasmoids (yes, I can play basketball on my desktop), Oxygen default theme looks a lot prettier than before, and KMail looks as though it’s just gone through a series of development epiphanies. Oooh.

What are you waiting for? Check out KDE!