No - that is the problem!! I loved KDE 3.5.x and have become quite slick with
it. KDE 4 is different. I don't like it. If I have to, in effect, change
DE, and go through the learning curve again, there is no reason why it would
have to be to KDE 4.
This is a very valid point that seems to be lost on some devs. Other
than the logo, not much is the same between KDE 3 and 4. I will
contend that moving to KDE 4 would be no different that moving to any
other DE. You will notice that I've never pressured you to move to KDE
4, I have only pressured you to tell me what is problematic in KDE 4.
I do that for the simple reason that I help improve KDE 4, and to
bring it up to par with KDE 3. I do not think that any other desktop
has the ambition to be what KDE 3 was.
When the time comes that I cannot sensibly go on using
KDE 3, I shall chose where I go next on the basis of what the options are
looking like at the time.
That is wise, and you might enjoy Gnome Shell, that will become Gnome
3. It is very different from KDE 3, but a lot of people really love
it.
I can see little liklihood that that choice will
be KDE 4. I may even switch to a window manager without a DE, and chose
other ways of working, if that is the only way that I can avoid the glitz
that is now all the rage.
You will have to better define "glitz". Assuming that you mean
composting, then if your intention is to avoid the glitz, you can do
that in KDE 4. In fact, I think that even XFCE comes with composting
support and integration.
How things look is very important to me. I have problems with my eyes, and
how a thing looks can influence whether I can work on a thing for one minute,
ten minutes or an hour.
Then you will have to adjust the default settings of any DE, KDE is
not exception here.
I have no problem with other people liking and wanting to use KDE 4. I have a
problem with their, in some cases, not allowing me the freedom _not_ to use
it. And I personally shall mourn the passing of KDE 3.
Like I said, I am not pressuring you to use KDE 4. I just want to know
what doesn't work for you. And now I know, or I think that I do: you
don't like composting. Would you like me to send to you a KDE config
with composting disabled, that you can enable via CLI before logging
in the first time?