KAddressBook 4.4 - important features have been removed

[schrodinger's cat]

Well, I decided to take a look at KDE 4.4, so I backed up my installation of Helena KDE 4.3.5 and then updated my system to KDE 4.4.1. After spending 10 minutes with KAddressBook 4.4, I wiped the partition and reinstalled 4.3.5. I don't know what purpose was served by almost completely gutting KAddressBook's functionality, but no professional person I know would consider the new implementation to be even marginally usable in a business environment.

Among the changes in KAddressBook 4.4 that I noticed in my very brief examination are these "improvements":

No categories, so no way to identify different types of contacts.
No filters, so no way to isolate different types of contacts.
No views, so no way to create customized contact lists.
No search function as far as I could tell.
Import options limited to vCard, CSV, LDIF, LDAP, and GMX.
Can not edit a contact by selecting it and hitting "Enter".
Limited selection of columns available for main contact list.
Panel for listing address books is a complete waste of space.

A deal breaker for me is that, without views, I could not create a list with separate columns for Given Name and Family Name, and thus would not be able to sort by last name unless I individually edited every contact to change the display name from "John Smith" to "Smith John". I would have to edit over 600 contacts one at a time to do this. Nor could I have separate columns for home phone, business phone, and mobile phone. Instead, all the phone numbers for each contact on the list are lumped on top of each other in one column, with no label to tell which number is which.

For me, KDE has taken a major step backwards with this new stripped down address book. I have already switched from Dolphin to Krusader as my file manager because of the regressions in Dolphin which set back the cause of accessibility several decades (no keyboard shortcuts for nested directories). I'm beginning to wonder if all KDE developers are 20 year old students working out of their dorm rooms who have never held a real job, or suffered from any infirmity.

Perhaps I am wrong about KAddressBook 4.4 and I just didn't look hard enough to discover the missing options. If so, I would be delighted if someone can enlighten me. However, if the above is accurate, and if I am going to have to switch to the current offering of KAddressBook 4.4 when Mint 10 comes out, and I can't find a viable alternative, then I will be saying goodbye to KDE, which now seems to want to cater more to the zealous video gamer than the business person. Wiggly windows instead of productivity? Not for me, thanks.

[bobcollard]

No offense, I just hope you sent the same thing along to KDE as you posted here. If not, here is their Forum URL:
http://forum.kde.org/index.php?sid=92f2 ... 33767ed114

[schrodinger's cat]

No offense, I just hope you sent the same thing along to KDE as you posted here. If not, here is their Forum URL:
http://forum.kde.org/index.php?sid=92f2 ... 33767ed114

Bob, I wanted to post my experience in this forum so that other Mint users who might be contemplating upgrading to KDE 4.4 would be made aware that they would suffer a severe reduction in usability in what is in all likelihood one of their most important applications. In retrospect, I may have been a little flippant in my choice of wording for the subject of the post, so I have edited the title.

I also hope that posts like this might catch the attention of Mint KDE-CE developers who are working on the next version, which I assume would be based on KDE 4.4. The Mint KDE devs (namely Boo) have always been exemplary in their efforts to avoid introducing regressions in the distribution (their handling of network manager is an excellent example), and I hope they will consider retaining the current KAddressBook if the features that have been stripped out in the 4.4 version are not restored by the time Mint 9 KDE is released.

As far as the KDE forums are concerned, this issue, among others, has been discussed there, as well as on bug report sites. Here is one response to such a posting:

"KAddressBook works perfectly as it is intended to do. You must understand that it is expected that KDE4 is being used by ordinary users, not companies. There are Enterprise distros for them. In reality the missing things are an inconvenience. They are not things that you can't live without."

Now, this is a very interesting statement. If KDE4 is truly only intended for the "ordinary user" (whatever that is), and KDE3 is no longer available, then KDE has effectively removed themselves from consideration as a viable workplace desktop. This seems a bit contrary to all the efforts by Linux supporters to convince people that Linux is every bit the equal to that "other" system. And to brush off the removal of features which many users find invaluable in their daily work as just "an inconvenience" is every bit as arrogant as Microsoft and Apple have often been accused of being.

[bobcollard]

While I understand your concerns, we are not talking about Linux in general, not just one of it's contributors, KDE, which I am at odds with anyway. That's why I wanted you to take it to them. I am sure that if there are users of that applet here they are aware of the problems. Thanks for your reply.

[DrHu]

Now, this is a very interesting statement. If KDE4 is truly only intended for the "ordinary user" (whatever that is), and KDE3 is no longer available, then KDE has effectively removed themselves from consideration as a viable workplace desktop. This seems a bit contrary to all the efforts by Linux supporters to convince people that Linux is every bit the equal to that "other" system.

...then KDE has effectively removed themselves from consideration as a viable workplace desktop
I doubt that
http://www.kde.org/

Of course, nobody likes to lose features they depend on, but KDE is not stepping back from KDE 4x development, they bit the bullet and the path ahead is to take KDE 4x further
--you might even say Microsoft has some of those features included in win7
http://osdir.com/ml/kdepim-bugs/2010-03/msg00261.html
http://old.nabble.com/Problems-with-KAd ... 60762.html

[rec9140]

I will preface this with:

I am a VEHEMENT ANTI KDE 4.x zealot! Unfortunately I prefer KDE over every thing else for a lot of reasons, but after reading this post and some of the links on the KDE forums site I am about ready to get on a plane(s) and bang some heads, literally!

The sermon/rant on KDE4.x is best left for another post... so... I grab'd a KrapUbunutu Alpha the last one I could find and threw it into a VMWare Server VM to see what you outlined....

NONE of the below is an endorsement of/for KDE 4, simply trying to see if the posts requests can be met in other ways...

As I am an ardent KMail user, but address books are not my thing, I either know your email address in my built in memory device (brain) or your out of luck, I don't email you.

Among the changes in KAddressBook 4.4 that I noticed in my very brief examination are these "improvements":

No categories, so no way to identify different types of contacts.
No filters, so no way to isolate different types of contacts.

can you not just create new address books or folders in books to accomplish these?

No views, so no way to create customized contact lists.

I am not sure I understand this "views" option in 3.5.10 to try to replicate...more info?

No search function as far as I could tell.

kadd_search.png

Import options limited to vCard, CSV, LDIF, LDAP, and GMX.

What else is there? Seems to support every thing contact wise that exists or widely used?

If you expecting it to import something from say some other w based program like ACT! etc.. I think you will find that will meet with resistance in the Linux community, and I for one, agree. You may consider that stupid/dumb/rude/shortsighted etc...but I see no need to quarter the enemy by importing their sludge, and most of that stuff can EXPORT out to vCard and CSV at a minimum.

Can not edit a contact by selecting it and hitting "Enter".

I cant do that on KMint Elyssa... more info?

Panel for listing address books is a complete waste of space.

Probably if you only use one address book, true, but I think the idea is that you separate things out in to multiple books....then the panel makes sense....

A deal breaker for me is that, without views, I could not create a list with separate columns for Given Name and Family Name, and thus would not be able to sort by last name unless I individually edited every contact to change the display name from "John Smith" to "Smith John". I would have to edit over 600 contacts one at a time to do this.

There is an area under the name called Display which has a dropped down, which unfortunately KSnapshot would not take a pix of with the menu down where you can display how the names are shown, As you entered ie: Tom Smith, Smith Tom or Smith, Tom etc... does that not accomplish what you want/need?

For me, KDE has taken a major step backwards with this new stripped down address book. I have already switched from Dolphin to Krusader as my file manager because of

Don't even get me started on that !@$&*!*$^!*&^!&(*@^$!*@& dolphin..

KONQI RULES! And dolphins are tuna bait!

I'm beginning to wonder if all KDE developers are 20 year old students working out of their dorm rooms who have never held a real job, or suffered from any infirmity.

BING! ! BING! DING! DING! WINNER!

then I will be saying goodbye to KDE, which now seems to want to cater more to the zealous video gamer than the business person. Wiggly windows instead of productivity? Not for me, thanks.

I am afraid I too will have to look at the LXDE verion of Mint to see if it will meet my needs, but alas then my programs are all gone.... KMail, Konqueror (don't even waste the typing about those programs from a certain foundation, I can NOT STAND THEM! Some one put some water on the fire!)

[bobcollard]

Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

[rec9140]

Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

When it comes to KDE 4.x and plasma, and dolphin... the venom comes out....