Understanding, KDE 4 is fast !!!

I am using Kubuntu 9.04 – i386 as my default OS (KDE 4.2.3)…..

and I have Vista installed on my laptop too…..but do not use it….

(my notebook is Dell inspiron 1420 with intel G965 graphics)….

I have been using all the KDE 4 releases including betas and RCs on my default installation which were humbly provided by Ubuntu ninjas…..and always excited with every new release because of new features and greater speed……

(using KDE, since KDE 3.4.*)

I am happy with the speed and responsiveness of the system…..

Sooo, what’s the point???

Okk, here is the thing…

today I installed KDE windows binaries, just to play with them on windows and to check how the plasma stuff runs…..

Before running KDE on windows, I had the impression that there would be some performance loss on the alien environment…..

I must admit, I’ve never seen such lightning fast applications and environment (dolphin, okular, gwenview and plasma)…..browsing pretty big pdf files on Okular…..thumbnail generation in gwenview and dolphin….everything is just snappy…….

now after using it for half an hour, native windows applications seem to me like they are running on alien plateform….

the KDE is running amazingly fast on windows……:D

I feel that KDE is running 10 times faster (I didn’t run any benchmark……just stunned with the performance) on windows than on my jaunty……

what is wrong???

I think, the main culprit for this poor performance is INTEL graphics…..the stack is under architectural changes…..and will improve in coming driver releases…..but I do not think they can ever improve the performance at the scale I just felt on here…..

even with Nvidia performance is not very good on linux….

or may be the whole X thing is letting the linux graphics down (speed / responsiveness)….

Closing

Just wanted to thank to KDE developers and all the people related to the project….

You are doing marvelous job….

I wish INTEL linux graphics improve soon.

So, now I can say (without any hesitation or doubt) that

KDE 4 is really faaaaaaaaaasst !!!!!

My present KDE4 desktop…

Here we go..
this is Kubuntu-KDE4-remix on my Dell 1420 notebook..
In first screenshot you can see the plasma – Desktop shell of KDE4 desktop…
Here you can see some plasmoids,
going clockwise,
Sticky Note, Digital clock, Anolog clock, Coremoid, Device notifier, Picture frame, Twitter and Battery.
Apart from beauty, plasma is quite handy and very resource friendly.

Next screenshot is showing Dolphin (default File manager, replaces Konqueror), Kate (KDE advanced text editor) and Okular (document viewer for KDE4).

Here we can see System monitor (showing CPU Load, Physical memory, Load average and Swap memory), Gwenview (Image viewer), The Konqueror (they call it Swiss-knife) and SpeedCrunch (Simple calculator application).

In next screenshot, KmPlot (A mathematical function plotter), KGoldrunner (An arcade game) and Dragon player (Default video player for KDE4).

KDE4 is something, make you forget VISTA and even OSX.
and this is just the beginning.
KDE4 version you are looking at is KDE 4.0.3
In july KDE 4.1 is coming, based on Qt 4.4,
yes, you are right !!!
The goodness of webkit and phonon integration…
I just can’t wait…
By the way,
I’m using Kubuntu-KDE4 as my default OS.
don’t remember when I logged in Vista last time.

so Download the Live disk, try it…
and If it suits (condition is always TRUE), install it…
and one more thing, If you are afraid of partitions there is WUBI to take you out of trouble..
now you can install Linux distributions (atleast buntus’) as normal softwares in windows..
yes, no need to have extra partitions….

Vista is not good for multimedia…..

To check capability of GMA X3100 graphics core, I downloaded trailer of 10000 B.C..
The resolution of the video is 1920×800.

and I tried to play it on Vista (Vista Home Basic 32-bit),
Result: flickering playback, video was running in frames

I thought, I should have bought nVidia 8400GS card, which was an option with Dell 1420.

Googling told me that the card is much capable in doing this.
Then what went wrong???

I tried the video on Ubuntu 7.10 (I keep dualboot) and it was playing beautifully…
that means card and hardware was not the problem…

XP never had such problems, it was great for multimedia point of view.

I still could not believe that vista is unable to play a video.
so I reinstalled the vista and driver from intel website (latest).
but the result was same.

MediaPlayers I tried were VLC 0.8.6, The KMPlayer and QuickTime 7.

May be it was the problem of driver but i tried two versions of intel graphics driver.

What I concluded with all this was Vista is really lacking in the field where windows was strong.

All I say is – Best of luck, Microsoft !!!

Update:

After updation of recent INTEL graphics driver (last week of sep’08),

It seems to be working better.

Playback is smooth but _CPU_usage_ is still around double (than it’s on kubuntu 8.04 KDE4 remix).

My first laptop: Dell 1420

so i got my first laptop at 16th January 2008,
almost after one month when i called Dell first time.

Dell Inspiron 1420,
ruby red colour – Microsatin finish,
2GHz Intel Core2Duo T7250 800MHz FSB,
x3100 Intel graphics core,
2GB of 667MHz RAM,
160GB harddisk,
14.1″ – 1440×900 glossy screen,
2MP webcam,
8 in 1 cardReader.
bluetooth,
DVD writer,
WiFi,
100Mbit ethernet,
ExpressCard slot,
6 cell battery,
Windows Vista Home basic 32bit,
and other common stuff.

An average configuration…
cost was arround Rs. 44,000

I chosen Dell, because if you go for HP, Sony VAIO or Lenovo, the configuration I took would cost you more than Rs. 50,000 and I needed a machine as a replacement of desktop.
Not for business or for carrying around…

As first impression I found it a little heavy….
i didn’t check its weight but it seems heavier than it should have been..
but the body seems solid…since it’s made of magnesium alloy not any kind of plastic…
whatsoever, it’s pretty..

Vista Performance score I got was 3.5
CPU                             4.9
Memory                        4.8
Graphics                       3.5
Graphics productivity  3.5
HDD                             5.1

not that bad……isn’t it..
better then my friend’s VIAO.
He got 2.7 with almost same configuration (harddisk is 250GB)…

It has got pretty comfortable keyboard…

but, screen is not that good…..
it seems faded…
well, I knew it already…
still at WSXGA resolution it doesn’t affect that much….

As a opened the box, I played some default music present in vista.
Speakers are fine….good enough for a loptop computer…

…..rest in Part 2