I've been watching the reactions to the new KDE and have been grateful that the PCLinuxOS folks have decided to stick with KDE 3.5.x for now. Shifting files and control around without overwhelming benefit is a Bad Idea. Sadly, it seems many places are doing the Pet Idea thing of "I/We will do it Right This Time" without regard for their users.

I've never really understood the appeal of the transparent or translucent windows or the shower animations. Aren't we supposed to have fast, snappy computers now? So why slow them down to put on a show so we have to wait to do what what we want to do? That's one reason I went with PCLinuxOS instead of Kubuntu a couple years ago: I didn't have switch off as many annoying "kewl" misfeatures to get a tolerable desktop. I think it's "We'll attract attention with these kewl features" without the realization that if a person actually uses the product for longer than a review, the feature becomes an annoyance.

nancylebov nailed it. "Choose previous format" is the right answer to being able to show off the fancy schmancy new gimmicks - and then let users get back to something they like. While I haven't dealt with User Interface design in a big way, what little I have done has taught me that "You have to get it right the FIRST time, because all change will be resisted." (Unless there is an obviously overwhelming benefit - rare.) And that if there's any doubt about something, make it an option despite the work/pain/nuisance that an option is over a hard-coded setting.