<snip>
> Regarding my earlier comments on whether anyone has tried KDE4 recemtly, I
> downloaded a KDE 4.9 testing LiveCD with OpenSUSE 12.1.  While the boot
> sequence was slow and the default graphics are as bad as I remembered, the
> killer was that the entire virtual machine locked up as soon as I clicked
> the Kicker menu icon.  I think I'll wait until OpenSUSE officially
> releases a LiveCD with KDE 4.9 before trying again. :-)
>
> Tim

Quick update.  I burned the image to a CD, which resolved the crashing
issue.  While I note that KDE4 has drastically improved since the early
days, it still is not something that I would choose to use over TDE/XFCE. 
Even after "reverting" to folder view and other KDE3-esque settings, I
found myself not only using many more mouse clicks than under TDE but also
it seemed like I did not have full control of the environment.  Setting a
screen saver?  Not intuitive (actually I was not able to find the control
at all within a reasonable time).  Opening a terminal?  All the lines were
cut in half.  Run a custom command?  Could not find a way to launch the
minicli from a menu.  Press the power button (e.g. to power off)?  The
screen corrupts itself.

In short, I think KDE4 needs a lot more work to be useful for people like
me who want to hybrid an old-school terminal and modern GUI experience.

Tim