Version: (using KDE 4.2.0) OS: Linux Installed from: SuSE RPMs Display quality in KDE 4.2 Plasma desktop sessions served via Xvnc is extremely poor. Text under desktop/folder icons is invisible as is most panel text. Gradient background effects cause background to be dithered at much lower than normal desktop resolution. Placing cursor over desktop/folder icons causes dithered gradient background on icon but gradient icon background does not stop once the icon is moved off the icon to a different one. Changing Xvnc color modes between 8, 16, and 24 bits has little effect on the problem. Have tested multiple versions of Xvnc servers; RealVNC 4.1.2, TightVNC 1.3.9, and x11vnc 0.9.6 (displaying the real desktop at display 0) all exibit the same problems. Remote displays served over NX (NX 3.2.0 & Free-NX 0.7.3) have similar but slightly less severe problems.
See also http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=532306, there is a screenshot there.
this is primarily a problem with the vnc server. you can also elect to use themes with fewer gradients, etc. c.f. http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2009/03/plasma-and-vnc.html