KDE Plasma Version 5.22.80 - Removal of Cube Animation.

[shadowmonk]

KDE Plasma Version: 5.22.80, KDE Frameworks Version: 5.84.0. Desktop Cube Effect has been removed. https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-..._requests/1075 Does anyone know if Compiz is still being developed, & is it compatible with Kubuntu?

[claydoh]

Compiz hasn't seen a release in two years or more. Not sure if it can even work with current Plasma, though the old packages are still available even on the current Kubuntu release. I have no idea how or if one can replace Kwin with another window manager very easily.

Are you actually running Plasma 5.22.80. ie Plasma 5.23-alpha-ish? Just wondering, as 5.23 is available via official PPA for Kubuntu 21.10.

It would take a fair bit of work, but KwinFT ( a fork of Kwin) still has the cube.

[shadowmonk]

No, I'm not running it. But there seem to be quite a few who are, & they're not happy that the Cube Effect has gone - https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=438883#c12 I have used the Cube Effect for along time, & disappointed to see it go. IMO it was one of the outstanding features of KDE. I suspect it will go the way of many of the features of Plasma 4, which a lot of people were also angry about.

[claydoh]

I think that there extremely few if any people actually running a pre-pre-release of Plasma from June. They would use the previous stable release. Or live without.

How popular a thing is is impossible to actually determine, and unfortunately the numbers of people complaining is not as large as one might think, though of course a very loud and ticked off one.
I wonder if they should have just left it all in there, and when it breaks even more, people will just complain about how unstable and crappy KDE is. I will wager that far more people will gripe about that than are complaining about it being removed.

Yes, it sure stinks to heaven that they removed a few less used, buggy-ish items that were only going to get worse as things progress. It has been stated, promised even, that these will come back, especially as they had already implemented some infrastructure that allows for them be re-written (if I understand it correctly).

It also sucks that there aren't more volunteers who work on KDE things who are able to, or desire to work on this sort of thing to bring it back faster.

It completely sucks that I have to come across as a Plasma fanboi every time something like this happens, when I truly don't like it occurring at all.

I shudda kept me mouf shut, tbh, but the Plasma 5.22.80 confused and intrigued me

[chimak111]

From the link in the first post in this thread:

With the ongoing scene redesign, these effect need to be rewritten. However, given that they are not used widely based on support information from various bug reports, their huge code size and our available man power being sparse, the most reasonable thing is to drop them (for now), unfortunately.

Part of the reaction in the bug listed in post #3 is to "... they are not used widely based on support information from various bug reports, ..." That "reason" would have been better off omitted but since it's out there, I wonder how that particular opinion was reached!

[claydoh]

I don't think it is opinion - "based on support information from various bug reports" might mean that few people reporting bugs via KDE's crash handler (DrKonqui) are using the cube, based on metric sent via the tool -- probably the only reliable metric available, as well as the general lack of comments/discussion around this often buggy (in my own experiences) effect.

Or the overall lack of any recent bug reports related to the cube, perhaps?



But work is already happening on some of the removed bits:
https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdepla...ge_requests/91

The code for the Cube is from 2008, so I imagine it is pretty crusty.

[chimak111]

I don't think it is opinion - "based on support information from various bug reports" might mean that few people reporting bugs via KDE's crash handler (DrKonqui) are using the cube, based on metric sent via the tool -- probably the only reliable metric available, as well as the general lack of comments/discussion around this often buggy (in my own experiences) effect.

Or the overall lack of any recent bug reports related to the cube, perhaps?



But work is already happening on some of the removed bits:
https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdepla...ge_requests/91

The code for the Cube is from 2008, so I imagine it is pretty crusty.

Thanks for clarifying!

Indeed, the output of qdbus org.kde.KWin /KWin supportInformation at least in 20.04, has this at the top

KWin Support Information:
The following information should be used when requesting support on e.g. https://forum.kde.org.
It provides information about the currently running instance, which options are used,
what OpenGL driver and which effects are running.
Please post the information provided underneath this introductory text to a paste bin service
like https://paste.kde.org instead of pasting into support threads.

and, on my Kubuntu 20.04, ends with sections on Loaded Effects, Currently Active Effects, and Special Effects.

[oshunluvr]

Funny how we change over the years. Back when KDE4 was new and I was new to Kubuntu, I loved the cube and multiple desktops. FF to today and I don't use multiple desktops any more so the cube effect is useless. I never really adopted Activities either. I guess I'm just mono-threaded at this age, LOL

[Snowhog]

Eye Candy is good for 'drawing people' in, but functionality is what keeps people from leaving!