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Posts in KDE
Though most people think of KDE as a desktop environment for Linux, the KDE applications are actually also available on Windows, thanks to the KDE On Windows project. In addition to giving Windows users a bunch of useful applications, this would be an ideal intermediate step for large Windows to Linux migrations.
When a large migration to Linux is performed, often in branches of various governments, users are usually switched to using Firefox and OpenOffice before they have Linux installed on their computer. This allows them to become familiar with the applications they will be using, so that the transition is not as big of a jump. With KDE On Windows, though, this approach could be extended. KDE applications could slowly be introduced to the users until they were essentially using KDE. Then, they could be transitioned to Linux almost without noticing it, apart from a few interface changes.
It will be interesting to see if, as KDE On Windows matures, this approach is attempted in any major transitions. At least in theory, this would create an extreamly smooth transition, as long as the Linux dsitribution was KDE-based.
Brilliant Brainstorms #53 – Convert The Wallpaper
Brilliant Brainstorms is a (usually) weekly summary of some of the best/most interesting brainstorms from the Ubuntu Brainstorm site as well as various other Brainstorm-style sites.
KDE, K Desktop Environment and the KDE Logo are trademarks of KDE e.V..
Similarly to how Nautilus works, Dolphin displays links to some folders in the left sidebar. These links usually point to things like your home folder, your documents folder, and your pictures folder, but why not change these links automatically based on what folders you commonly visit?
Brilliant Brainstorms #52 – Less Pretty
Brilliant Brainstorms is a (usually) weekly summary of some of the best/most interesting brainstorms from the Ubuntu Brainstorm site as well as various other Brainstorm-style sites.
KDE, K Desktop Environment and the KDE Logo are trademarks of KDE e.V..
Desktop effects, can be both very cool and very useful, but when they get in the way of what you are trying to work on, they are simply annoying. To help solve this problem, there are already ways of easily enabling and disabling desktop effects, but you have to do it manually. Why not automatically turn them off when an incompatible application is running and re-enable them when it closes?
KDE 4 is quite beautiful and there are tons of themes available for it, but why not make it easier to make more? An application that allows users to fairly easily create their own plasma themes would rapidly expand the number of themes out there and, hopefully, introduce some more true works of art.
Yesterday the KDE project launched their own version of Ubuntu Brainstorm, creatively called KDE Brainstorm. This new section of the forums allows users to vote and comment on ideas, just as Ubuntu Brainstorm does.
The KDE Brainstorm section is definitely not as polished as Ubuntu Brainstorm, but I am really glad to see it. From the first day, Ubuntu Brainstorm has seemed like a great idea to me, but it has not been adopted as widely as I was hoping. Now, though, the KDE project, a very large open-source project, is adopting the idea.
The system does not appear to be based on Ubuntu Brainstorm. Instead it is probably just a voting plugin for the forums, but the exact implementation is not the big deal. There is plenty of time to perfect the software, the point is that the idea is cool and I am glad to see more projects adopting it.
If some good ideas start coming out of KDE Brainstorm, I might even include some of them in the weekly Brillaint Brainstorms post.
As I was playing around with OpenSuse 11 Beta 2 KDE 4, I discovered some ways not to use KDE 4’s desktop.
“TrashCan.Org”
“Look what I found in the trash”
“Look what I am putting back in the trash”
“Tux got mail”
“Firefox merchandise gone wrong”
“Tux got stuck in a terminal” or “Tux hate GUI, love terminal”
“Big Files”
“Throwing away your files”
And finally, a great way to use the new KDE 4 desktop:
Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Don’t take them too seriously. They are just for fun.
A Better UMPC Linux Could Create New Hardware Choices
With all the enthusiasm around the Eee PC, we have already seen some customized distros for the Eee PC, but Linpus has something even more interesting to offer, according to Linux Devices. Linpus has just introduced a new Linux distro called Linpus Linux Lite, which is designed specifically for Eee-like devices. So what makes it so special? Two things. First, it incorporates an interesting balance between full Linux distro and Eee-like interface. Second, it is aimed at companies wanting to join the UMPC market.
With the Eee’s default interface, you are limited to basic tasks with very little ability to customize. On the other hand, that limited interface is very good for the small screen and a full distro may be too complex for many tasks. Imagine you want to use your UMPC on the road in the basic interface and than come back to your desk and connect it to an external monitor and use a full Linux desktop. Right now you would have to reboot into a different OS, but with the Linpus Linux Lite distro, all you have to do is press a button and you can switch from an Eee-like interface into a full KDE 3.5 desktop. (See this picture.)
Perhaps the most interesting part of this distro is just that it is a pre-baked UMPC Linux. This potentially makes launching a new UMPC a lot easier. No matter how customizable Linux is, not having to make your own distro to use on your hardware is a big deal. With a pre-baked UMPC Linux like this, the Eee could be getting some competition soon.
Often when a new distribution of piece of software comes out in the Linux community, the feature list looks something like this:
- Updated package blablabla to 1.4.00.10
- Fixed bug in <name of other package>
- Added support for random hardware x through qjidjf 2.3.00.1
Ok, its not quite that bad, but it could be a lot better. If Linux is going to attract general users, it needs to start advertising the “cool” features, not the under-the-hood tweaks.
KDE 4 did this really well. The release announcement, while also talking about some developer-oriented features, is mostly about the over-the-hood changes, the changes the users care about.
Although it seems like a small thing, advertising features that users care about is an important step to spreading open-source software and Linux.
Yesterday I said that after I played with KDE 4 I would write an article about it. Now that I have downloaded and installed both the OpenSUSE CD with KDE 4 and the Kubuntu CD with KDE 4, I have decided that I cannot write anything that resembles a review of it. That is not because there is some horrible problem with KDE 4, though.
A Linux distro is made of many parts and the desktop enviroment is only one of them. Without the other parts, KDE is nothing but code. Right now, KDE 4 has been put onto a couple distros in a few hours with a remaster. That is useful for playing with some of the features, but I don’t feel like I can judge KDE 4, a project that took so much developer effort, when very little time has been spent making sure it is well integrated with the other software that makes up a distro. I am not criticising anyone or anything, I just don’t want to review KDE 4 until a major distro has released a stable, supported version of their distro with KDE 4.
KDE 4 is finally here! The KDE team announced the release of the final version of KDE 4. KDE 4 incorporates many major changes over KDE 3.5 and has received so much attention in the Linux community that it is almost hard to believe it is really here. After numerous delays, though, KDE 4 really is here.
While I am writing this, another computer is working away installing the OpenSUSE KDE 4 Live CD, so I can try it out. While I was waiting for the install to finish, I noticed that the CNet blog Underexposed covered the launch of KDE 4. It is great that KDE is getting some attention from the mainstream tech media, but the title of the post amused me. This is the title:
“KDE 4 gives Linux some Mac, Windows flavor”
I am sure that is intended to be a compliment, but I suspect not everyone would view it that way. Don’t take that as a criticism of the post itself, I just think it underscores the different perspectives of the technology world.
I was really glad to see that KDE got mainstream tech coverage. The work the developers put in certainly merits the attention it is getting. Although Linux gets nowhere near the amount of coverage that Windows and Mac do, that is slowly changing through huge announcements like this one, companies making deals to distribute Linux on their computers, and other news worthy events.
Although I have not used KDE 4 yet myself, I do plan to do some coverage of the new features/art/etc. soon. Instead of a review, though, I am going to do a comparison of KDE 4 and GNOME to see which one *I* want to run on my desktop in the future. That will be published later tonight or (more likely) on Saturday.
It appears that Canonical and the Kubuntu team have decided that, due to the delayed release of KDE 4, the upcoming release of Kubuntu, 8.04, will not be a long term support (LTS) release, as it would usually be. Periodically, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and other Ubuntu variants maintained by Canonical release a LTS release, which means that the release will be supported for 3 years on the desktop and 5 years on the server. Because KDE 4 will be released shortly before Kubuntu 8.04 is released, Kubuntu and Canonical are not comfortable giving the LTS tag to a release that incorporates KDE 4 this soon after its release. On the other hand, considering the amount of excitement around KDE 4, it seems like a mistake to not include KDE 4. The current solution, according to this announcement on the KDE mailing list, is to release two versions of Kubuntu 8.04, one with KDE 3.5 and the other with KDE 4. Apparently, neither will have the LTS release, though. Although this break from the standard schedule may cause some problems, considering the situation, I think the Kubuntu development team made the right choice.