Compared to the previous implementation, System Settings now has two operational modes, one being the current icon-based view since KDE 4 (and also seen in Kubuntu prior to KDE 4), and a second view, named “Classic”, which reimplements the old KControl look and feel. The latter change is probably very welcome to anyone who found System Settings less useful than the old KControl. The current view used can be changed in the configuration options. In addition, upon hovering an icon or module that show if there are any sub-modules associated.

Screenshots are better than words so here goes (click for larger pictures):

What’s more is that by searching you get a nice “highlighted effect” to indicate the match (clearly visible in this icon view screenshot):

Lastly, the about screen:

The best about this new System Settings implementation is that it was born thanks to the KDE Community Forums. A thread posted on January 29th about a KControl port was what started the collaboration between bcooksley (one of the forum admins) and msoeken (Kourse mentor on the forums). And that is the – remarkable – result: input from the community that was converted into actual code which ended up in KDE’s SVN. The two worlds are closer now.