certain things, like volume control applets, are too bulky and awkward. but some theme changes fix that - the default kde widgets are like OS X widgets on twinkies. the system monitor applet doesn't work on freebsd. the distinction between panel applets and system tray applets isn't clear. i'll continue to use gkrellm cause it's great. the menu alteration is a litle hard to get to, and disses non-kde apps too much - xmms, for instance, isn't so easy to replace.
overall, it's very impressive and smooth. occasionally it feels over-standardized, like OS X before Apple realized a volume widget on the menubar is unavoidable. but you can still use your fave apps (ok, the virtual sound devices on freebsd help to solve arts/esound competition), and most importantly to me, it can be configured, with a lot of smart little tweaks (e.g. no desktop icons) to keep everything i like about windowmaker while adding a few more, new advantages.
we're looking forward to korganizer; it's like outlook netfolders (?) scheduling without worms (and that corresponding feeling of walking down a dark alley with a short skirt and no knickers). we're also looking forward to vimpart support in kmail; it's just no fun to give up powerful editing. right now it seems to dump out on the temporary filename. kmail looks almost ready to coexist with mutt - sort of a holy grail for us - and do the one thing we really like (albeit with some rule maintenance), which is keep sent mail in the same folder as the saved mail. combine that with threading and you've got useful e-mail, since you can see the whole conversation. the sent-mail folder is actually one of the worst ideas in e-mail.
this may be a permanent change, since we get the desktop-user-type conveniences with no real obstacles to old-fashioned window-manager-type usage.
