I installed KDE 4.0 on a spare partition earlier this year and lasted about two days. It was interesting in the same sense that taking apart a toaster is interesting: there were clever pieces everywhere, but I still could not make breakfast.

KDE 4.1 is different. I have been using it for ordinary work since the release and, for the first time, I am spending more time in applications than arranging the desktop around them. That sounds like faint praise. For a desktop, however, becoming boring enough to disappear is a real achievement.

The panel is finally manageable. I can resize it, move it, add launchers and arrange the system tray without feeling that I am negotiating with a prototype. Plasma still exposes some rough edges, especially when widgets make optimistic assumptions about available space, but the basic shell now holds together.

KWin’s compositing also behaves much better on my Intel machine. Effects are not the important part; being able to leave compositing enabled without wondering whether the next window resize will turn into a slide show is. The new cover switch is amusing for several minutes, while smoother painting remains useful all day.

Dolphin has improved enough that I no longer immediately start Konqueror for every file operation. The tree view, tabs and saner selection behavior remove many small annoyances. There are still missing conveniences from KDE 3.5, and anyone depending on a particular panel applet should check before moving. “Newer” is not a substitute for “contains the thing I need.”

What changed my mind is not one large feature. It is the accumulation of small repairs: configuration modules that work, widgets that remember where they belong, fewer painting glitches and applications that look like parts of the same system. KDE 4’s new architecture was always ambitious; 4.1 is where some of that ambition starts paying rent.

I would now choose 4.1 for a machine I use myself, with a KDE 3.5 session nearby for emergencies. I would not yet migrate a room full of people who regard a moved icon as a personal attack. Progress is real, but so are users.