tomhudson's Journal: KMail2 is a real mess. Then again, so is KDE in general.

I put up with the quirks of kmail over the years because it was what I was using (in other words, inertia). However, with the death of the desktop that I was going to convert to BSD, I decided to update my laptop to the latest opensuse.

The first attempt (an in-place upgrade) left me with a machine that wouldn't even boot linux ... soooooo ... did a clean install (/home was a separate partition) of opensuse 12.1. First impression is NOT good.

Suffice it to say that importing emails is a mess - tons of errors, and of course, all the various accounts information is lost. Worse, WT* are all these new processes? Just for a stupid PIM???? Are you people INSANE??????? Have you never heard that the more separate parts to something, the more likely it is to break? Not all of us want to be required to run "a desktop cpu-sucking indexer", and over a dozen different daemons just to be able to read our email.

And of course neither pine nor elm included "just in case" ...

Going to BSD is never a solution

[jawtheshark]

...at least not for the desktop, as the DEs are the same on BSD as on Linux. You will never find solace on BSD as a desktop user.

Re:

[Qzukk]

You won't find solace on linux either

Qz@linux:~$ apt-cache show solace
W: Unable to locate package solace
E: No packages found

Re:

[tomhudson]

I'm just hoping that all the customizations that every linux distro throws in to differentiate themselves haven't ended up in the BSDs as well - otherwise, it's back to Windows ... which will feel really strange, since I almost never use it, don't like it, but at least when I reboot, my dual-monitor setup is automatically detected, and everything is as I left it in terms of things like left-handed mouse, font sizes, etc. ... and when I click shutdown, it actually does something instead of me having to hit c

Re:

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Really. Go get yourself Linux Mint. Great desktop.

The new one rocks from the word "go".

I add an OSX-style dock. 'Cos it's my kink. And Guake. 'Cos I can F-12 a terminal at any time.

I had two little thinkpads with WinXP and Win7 on them. They hurt to use! They are both Mint now, for several months. I'd never turn back.

Re:

[tomhudson]

It's been bothering me since 4 am, and the more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to just walk away from the whole mess. I'm done with linux distro-hopping - after 15 years, I want something that's going to work for more than a few months before it breaks something else.

What doesn't work? For the first time ever, my dvd is not recognized, wireless doesn't work, my linux-supported printer STILL isn't, multiple-desktop support vanished on reboot (I don't mean it just went to a single screen - the se

Re:

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Windows always kills me on installs. Always a driver in a LATER SP or hardware too new/old for the media at hand.

Balk - and I know you will :-) - but that is the problem with general-purpose computing devices. It's the problem Apple has aimed at for years with MacBooks, and now with iOS devices.

If you REALLY want hardware conformity, a good desktop experience with few problems, and a POSIX layer? Get a macbook. What can I say? You'll be MUCH happier than you'd be with Win7/Cygwin.

Re:

[tomhudson]

For sure, next time I'm in the market, I'll be considering a bite from the Apple. It's just that when I tried to use one, I found it got in my way ... still, I suspect that with a bit of "gettin' used to" ...

Re:

[gmhowell]

It depends on how it 'got in your way'. The other trick is that it's a bit tricky to give it a longer term test drive without stepping up and laying down the price of admission.

That said, I also had one of those Walnut Creek distro collections, and have been rather happy with my Mac for a few years now.

gmail

[stoolpigeon]

I haven't opened evolution, kmail, thunderbird or any others like them (on purpose) in forever.

Re:

[tomhudson]

I see mail as being one of those "privacy" things - so while I *do* have a gmail account, I checked it yesterday for the first time in a month ... I may have to run a copy of a webmail program on my server (how messed up is THAT???) :-)

Re:

[stoolpigeon]

I think of email as my least secure means of communication. If I have to use email and it has to be private - then I go with PGP. But that doesn't happen very often. I trust google as much (maybe more - though that still isn't saying a lot) than I do an ISP delivering my mail via POP or whatever. No matter what, somebody has their grubby fingers all over it.

I sympathize with your OS and software struggles. Fortunately, for me, my standards are lower than yours so it's pretty easy for me to be happy when it

Re:

[tomhudson]

I'm just tired of every upgrade losing something. This is the *3rd* time that Kmail has failed to "make the migration" to a new version (fortunately I *do* keep mail archives, but still ... this time it also lost my 15 accounts).

And having to remove crapware such as desktop search (except this time, it's so firmly embedded in the system that removing it removes various desktops).

And dual monitor support lagging behind what was available "auto-magically" under Win98. And half the DEs not doing proper D

Re:

[stoolpigeon]

I hear you. But like Jaws said, for every pain I feel on linux, I feel some other on Windows. We all just have to find what presents the most acceptable platform to each of us. I don't bother recommending Linux on the desktop to others any more. It takes a certain personality to enjoy it I think. And a certain amount of technical skill, which you obviously have - so no one is better qualified to determine what you need than you are.

Best of luck with MS.