Version:           4.5 pre (using KDE 4.5.2) 
OS:                Linux

Kaddressbook turned from a very reliable fast little program into a buggy unusable component. I'm using KDE since 1997 and have used the kaddressbook/ kabc since it existed. 
My address data is carefully tagged. But there is no way anymore to filter my contacts according to tags. 
The names in the address book are carefully inserted, so there is the notion of first name and last name. And there is no way to sort the contacts according to last name and sorting on first name is confusing at best. Groups don't work
Personal contacts in 4.3 pointed to a standard vcard directory. If one edits the current "Personal contacts" to give some non standard (other than .local/share/contacts) directory for the vcard files, kaddressbook doesn't recognize the vcards in the directory, the addressbook remains empty. The only remedy is to create a new addressbook with vcard-folder
The search field doesn't search for tags or categories.
When opening kaddressbook, load goes up and it takes at least 8 seconds to load the address data. 
Typing in addresses in kmail had nearly instant completion in the past. Now it takes 5 seconds. Performance in general has gotten terrible.
Beforehand, there were several views one could select and even create. GONE, why?
Are there plans to get the former functionality back into kaddressbook and have the former UI features (including sorting)?  Is there work on performance improvements? What about an alternative to non-working akonadi?

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Use Kaddressbook

Actual Results:  
Severe Regression on Functionality and Usability


Running OpenSuse 11.2 with KDE 4.5.2. Having OpenSuse 11.3 with KDE 4.4.4 is not better