I created an entire account just for this one topic. I installed KDE on my grandparents’ laptop. Why? They needed Windows 7. And Windows 7 has met its EOL. So, I installed the most ‘customizable’ Linux distro on their PC and tweaked it to look like Windows 7 (tutorial by a youtuber LagLife). It looks amazing. Almost indistinguishable. However, the problem of usability remained the same - the names. Text Editor - KEdit, Contacts - Kontact, Calendar - Kalendar, Terminal/Console - Konsole, and bla bla…
Is it this hard to add an optional toggle for using Generic Names for all KDE Apps? Why not call KEdit just ‘Text Editor’ or dare I say, ‘Notepad’ or ‘Notes’. KEdit could refer to coding software, maybe it’s a word processor - who knows?
I’ve read arguments on people saying that making the app names generic would make it harder to find help on them, which, I agree. The distro may ship with the K names by default. But why not add a toggle for those who are willing to make the sacrifice?
Personally, too, I’d love to use KDE. The stupid K Names are the only ones I use Linux Mint instead.
TL;DR: Please add an optional toggle for using generic names for all apps at system level system-wide.
I fail to see why you get those folks the most configurable DE out there when there are entire win7/win10 setups for mint available. And if you really MUST have kde for them, like Duha said, simply rename the apps.
I think for the grandparents who are used to Windows 7 the names of the apps starting with K is going to be one of the smallest usability problems. Comparing to the differences of USING every of those apps and the whole OS, really.
It’s like if they used to drive a Volkswagen automatic, but you’ve replaced it with a stick shift Honda, and now trying to solve a “problem” with the unusual logo on the starting key. The logo on the key, if you think about it, is not really a problem, comparing to how the gears and the wipers are now turned on.
Just as an illustration of this - below is an example of some of my Favorites from the Application Launcher, with “Description only” set as recommended above:
Some third-party applications don’t have very concise descriptions, but the KDE ones perfectly fit the expressed need - even down to labeling KWrite as “Text Editor” and Kate as “Advanced Text Editor”.
The desktop file specification actually has three relevant fields: Name, GenericName, and Comment
Name is supposed to be the actual name of the Application.
GenericName is what OP wants
Comment is supposed to be a longer description suitable for things like tooltips.
We’re (apparently) using GenericName for “Description Only” and for “Description (Name)”, but “Name (Description)” uses Comment as description. Comment is also used as a fallback if there is no GenericName in the .desktop file.
Some applications apparently do not set a GenericName – Steam is one of them, it only has Name and Comment at least in the version that Fedora ships. This is allowed, GenericName is not a required key. This should generally be a trivial change though, it’s only adding one line to a text file (plus translations).
