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Jan
2
10 Things I Love about KDE 4 RC2+
Filed Under 10 things, kde, kde4 | 26 Comments
My previous article, 10 things I hate about KDE 4 RC2, got a lot of unexpected attention. At Digg I was called a “damn fool”, “dumbass” (for some reason that guy thought I believed RC referred to Plasma) (?!) and an “idiot”. I apparently hurt developer feelings. The point of the article was to imitate complaints I expect to see if some things do not change. Had I read this post, I may not have even written it. I stand by my complaints about Release Candidate 2 (the openSUSE version), overall they were mainly minor. I will revisit that post once the release goes gold. I promised to follow up with 10 things I love about KDE 4 RC2+, so here goes.
10 things I love about KDE4 RC2+ (openSUSE flavor):
10. Oxygen Icons – Someone mentioned in a comment somewhere that I I could take the time to complain, but not take the time to mention how nice the Oxygen Icons look. Here you are! They do look nice. They aren’t cartoonish, they don’t look like Fisher-Price designed them (sup, XP). They look attractive and modern. I definitely prefer them to Tango, and it isn’t like Tango is bad. They present a nice face as the default icon set. A lot of work and thought has been put into them, and it shows. Great job, Oxygen-Icon team!
9. Look and Feel – Huge improvement here. The environment looks modern, subtly flashy (which couldn’t have been easy to pull off) and clean. I like the use of blacks throughout. I’m glad to see bright blue off of my screen. Little things like “Alt + F2″ are improved. First, it looks great. The Plasma box that opens is sharp looking. The added functionality, putting “application, location or search term” together is nice. The button to show system activity is helpful. A small area, but indicative of the work done. There is a consistency using it that I have not seen in an operating system (more on this below). It is a lot more attractive than Vista, to my eye. It looks fantastic and feels fast, and I’m using openSUSE’s somewhat dated packages. The more I use it, the more I like it.
8. Konqueror improvements – The over cluttered-looking Konqueror loved and bitched about endlessly is gone. We now have a snazzy looking default Konqueror, with helpful links on the opening page, seven icons on the bar by default. As I complained about before, some of the functionality I am used to is not there, more likely than not due to openSUSE providing an outdated kde-konqueror-addons package. It looks damn good. It has been solid as a web browser. I look forward to the release version. The recent Dolphin/Konqueror controversy is positive in a sense, showing the love and fanatical devotion we have for the swiss army knife on steroids that Konqueror is.
7. Koffice2 is amazing – This will get its own article, but Koffice2 looks and behaves beautifully. It fits in very nicely with the very attractive default desktop. I am looking forward to spending a lot of time with Koffice2. Excellent job here, developers. I already prefer it to OpenOffice. Much more about this topic soon.
6. Doing away with the desktop-is-file-manager idea – This is a bold step. It may feel odd at first, particularly for those of you addicted to stuffing your desktop full of icons. I like that it is a push in a new direction. The payoff might not show up entirely with the release of 4.0, but I expect to see big things here. Change is good.
5. Kickoff - Hold up, haters. It isn’t Kickoff itself that I love as much as the idea that it is there by default. It reminds me of the story (that I hope is true) of the French government doing away with phone books years ago to force people to use the internet. With the upcoming Raptor, Lancelot and other ideas moving forward, this choice again helps push us to the future. The more I use Kickoff the more I like it. I don’t find it to be the spawn of satan that a lot of you do. The familiar menu is still available if you prefer to kick it old school.
4. Composite effects – nicely done. Kwin’s Composite effects look great. Modern, not too much going on. I like that they are there but do not get up in your face. Tasteful default choices yet again. This area will be getting its own article soon. I want to spend more time with it and become more knowledgeable than I am. I like that “Ctrl + F8″ shows me my desktops. “Alt + Tab” is an attractive switcher. “Ctrl + F10″ show me all of my windows. This hands down beats Vista. It will be interesting to see how it will interact with Compiz-Fusion. Overall, I really like this and will have more to say very soon. Excellent job again, Developers.
3. Gwenview – Poorly named Gwenview is now cleaned up, as stated here, and now only gives you the image and a basic toolbar when opening an image. (Click link for nice screenshots) Images opened from Gwenview you get many more choices. This shows the level of detail and thought that went into creating KDE 4. It also brings me to my next point:
2. Consistency – I love this. It doesn’t jump right out at first, but settled in slowly for me. KTorrent looks like a KDE 4 app, because it is. KMail fits in perfectly. The games have been updated and look in place. I can’t imagine the work that went into achieving this, but it was time well spent. Going back to other desktops really magnifies the lack of consistency in them. The consistency is outstanding in KDE 4.
1. Guts, courage and balls – To me, this is the biggest thing about KDE 4. Frankly, I was surprised to read that developers were “hurt” and “disillusioned” by my “10 things I hate” post. I’m sorry to hear that they have been beaten down by criticism. A _really_big_thing_ is happening here. A move to the future has been committed to and the first step is close to being achieved. KDE 4 is better than Vista. KDE 4 improves upon the outstanding 3 series. There will be more improvements down the road, but honestly things are in good shape as of my dated RC2 system. I commend the developers for the outstanding work done. I can’t wait to see the results of the final weeks of bug killing and squashing. From what I read, development is at a frantic pace. You guys have done something tremendous for which you should be proud.
The fact that the KDE team has pulled this off is inspiring. My stupid little top ten lists do not do justice to this accomplishment. Trying to narrow things I love to ten was not easy. I decided to focus on what was immediate. The big-picture changes are just too big to be dropped into a little list. Phonon, Solid, Decibal and all of the other big technologies didn’t even get on the list. They need their own articles to get the attention they deserve. The changes are so big and so interesting that it is easy to become overwhelmed trying to write about them. If that is true, imagine coding them!
So, to close, I apologize to anyone I offended with my first article. I meant in no way to take away from the work that has been done. I can’t wait to install the final release. I can’t wait to see the firestorm of controversy that will erupt on that day. We Linux users are passionate, and this passion, while seeming destructive at times, is the fuel that drives the improvements. The future is very bright for KDE. The future is now. Thanks again for all of the work put into a system that I can use for free.
Dec
26
10 Things I Hate About KDE4 RC2+
Filed Under kde4 | 38 Comments
KDE4 has a lot of hype. It is a significant change, reportedly a big jump forward. There is a lot of new technology and names: Plasma, Oxygen, Phonon, Okular, Solid and more . Depending on what you read, and where you read it, it is either the second coming of the DE Christ, or the first coming of the DE Anti-christ. I decided to live with KDE 4 RC2+ on OpenSuse for an entire month, Dec 11 – Jan 11th (the release date) and record my experiences. I’ll be publishing an article a day about KDE 4 through the release.
The desktop computer I had recently reviewed from Geeks.com (the Pentium 4 Geek kit) served as my test system. It has been solid. The OS is openSUSE 10.3, installed via 1Click. I’m updating RC2 daily. The hardware is reasonably modern, a Pentium 4 based system. I upped the RAM to 3 gigs from 1 gig. I was ready to go. Knowing how you haters are, I figured the best way to start this series is with link bait. I present you with:
10 things I hate about KDE 4 RC2+ (the openSuse flavor) !
10. Crashy and inconsistent. Dragging a widget to the Panel wrecks it, every single time. I get some garbled half-bar, end up having to log out and log back in only to find the widget did not go into the TBR. Key combos, like Cntl + F8 (to show all desktops) work some of the time, other times do things like CLOSE THE WORD PROCESSOR i AM USING WITHOUT WARNING, making me lose everything I have typed. Other times KDE4 will just crash without warning. I will say this, the quantity of crashes keeps diminishing with each update.
9. I’m stuck with a big, fat Panel. One of the first things I typically do when running a new system is resize the taskbar. I like my taskbars like Americans like their female celebrities, super thin. I can’t change the size of the taskbar (or for that matter get widgets to go into it) as far as I can tell. I’m a KDE freak. One of my complaints about the 3 series of KDE is that it lacks configuration options! Getting stuck with a huge Panel with no way to change it creates a small feeling of hostility, like I’m at the mercy of what someone thinks my computer should look like. This brings me to petty point eight:
8. Right clicking on the Panel does nothing. For some reason this makes me nuts. I wouldn’t even mind it if a box appeared telling me “nothing to see here!” Instead, I feel like I am locked out of something. It might not make sense, but do us Linux users make sense?
7. Space wasting translucent strip on top of the Panel. It might look nice, but it gets old very quickly.
6. Get your Dolphin out of my Konqueror, or let me do it. I have no problem with Dolphin. It seems to work well as a basic file browser. I thought I had read that Konqueror would use Dolphin as a file browser, but you could change this. I can’t see how to do it, and now I feel like I am using something neutered. Things that are part of my daily life, right clicking and choosing “Extract here” or the excellent “Move to” or “Copy to” are just gone. I’m hoping it is just an add-on package that isn’t ready or that I have overlooked, because if these things fall out of KDE 4 I see problems.
5. Desktop Icons from KDE 3 sessions get ugly and crazy. This might be a specific Opensuse issue. When I log into KDE 4, all of the desktop icons sit in a big pile in the middle of the desktop. If I spread them out, they get chopped and become ugly half-icons, some showing a translucent box around them. It is simple enough to close them, I don’t need desktop icons anyway, but it is still an annoyance and unpleasant to look at.
4. Right click opens both the file and a dialog in Dolphin. I’m sure this will change upon final release, but man, I really hate this.
3. Why do I want to “Zoom out” and “Zoom in”? I’m given these choices from the little wrench in the upper corner of the screen, but I don’t know why I would want to do that, or what purpose it serves.
2. Blurry fonts. Fonts are blurry in Ocular and KWord, which I am using to write this. I feel like I need glasses.
1. Upcoming Firestorm. This is the real reason I wrote this. It is only recently that I have seen recommendations that people hold off until KDE 4.1 to really use series 4. Unfortunately, the expectations are so high that when people do use it for the first time anger might be the first emotion they feel. That is a shame. I can see countless posts like this all over the internet. I hope people get some sense of perspective about the huge amount of effort that has gone into KDE 4.
I’m impressed with KDE 4, this post aside. It has become usable very quickly. It will take months for some of the radical changes to bear fruit. Complaints will be listened to and addressed. Change isn’t easy, and for those of us who love KDE, this is a big change. I had a hard time coming up with ten things I hate about KDE 4. Tomorrow I will give you ten things I love about it, it will be much easier to write.
Dec
10
 
One of the great things about Linux is how well it runs on older hardware. The combination of overcapacity in processors and the failure of the resource hog Vista has created a sweet spot. You can get a powerful processor that may be a generation or two back (but still overkill for daily usage) at a great price. You can also help the environment. I thought it would be interesting to review a system that may not be the latest and greatest, but still provided a big bang for the buck. Geeks.com has a great selection of desktop computers, and they provided a bare bones kit to review: Pentium 4 3.4GHz Bare bones Kit w/Foxconn MB 1GB DDR2 CD.
Update: The kit is now out of stock 
Here is a replacement link.
I’m sure most of you have built a computer before. If you haven’t, give it a try. This kit is an easy starting point. It comes with everything you need, sans a hard drive and video card. Included:
- Case
- ATX adapter cable
- Motherboard
- CPU
- DDR2 RAM
- Heat sink and fan
- CD-ROM drive
- Floppy drive
- Wireless keyboard & mouse
My initial impression was very positive. I was very impressed with the motherboard, FoxConn 925XE7AA-8EKRS2 Socket 775 ATX. I used to manage a computer store, and have sold countless motherboards. One of the biggest stumbling blocks to upgrading is a lot of times functionality is pulled from a board. I would find the perfect board but then hit the wall of only one IDE slot. There would be onboard video that you can’t disable. You would only have two slots for RAM. Inexpensive meant giving something up. Isn’t it better to go with a solid, older board with full functionality?
This Foxconn is a monster. It has three IDE slots, four serial ATA slots. Silicon Image 3114 RAID controller. No onboard video to waste resources. Three PCI slots, three PCI-E x1 slots and one PCI-E x16, so a fair amount of room to upgrade. It is a solid board. It comes with the most cables I have seen in a motherboard box. 3 IDE cables. 8 SATA data cables, 1 floppy cable, 4 2-port SATA power adapter cables, 1 4 port USB extension and 1 Firewire extension. This motherboard will hold up to 4 gigs of RAM. The included 1 gig of Kingston RAM is a nice touch.
Installation was simple and took about an hour. I put the processor and memory in, put in the I/O shield and attached the motherboard, connected all the cables. I dropped in the CD Rom and hard drive and connected them. I threw in a video card, Nvidia 8400 (not part of the kit), double checked everything and closed the case. It powered right up. I installed OpenSuse 10.3 to get it up and running.
This is a fast machine. So fast that it sometimes finishes a task before I even start it (kidding). If you run Linux, you will be more than happy with the performance. I have an Athlon64 system with 3 gigs of ram that occasionally runs Vista. The speed of Linux + this hardware blows it out of the water. That is like comparing apples to anvils (thanks Garry!), but helps illustrate my point. 1/3 the ram and a comparable processor running like greased lightning compared to Vista. If you miss spyware and viruses (viii?) I’m sure this machine would run XP well. OpenSuse 10.3 is very fast on this system.
The wireless mouse and keyboard (Kensington Wireless Mouse and Keyboard for Mac and PC) are very nice. I hadn’t used wireless before with Linux, I was pleasantly surprised to plug them in and have them work immediately. The mouse has some weight to it. It feels substantial, unlike the lightness of a cheap mouse. The keyboard is built well. It may not have the power and fury of the old IBM Model M, but the keys are responsive and it feels spacious. There are a lot of extra buttons that I don’t mess with too much. Surprisingly, the two scrolls on the keyboard worked right out of the box with OpenSuse. The other extra buttons all seem to work as well, this comes as a shock to me. I guess I need to get with the times.
The case is reasonable. It has six expansion slots and plenty of space inside. There is a front panel USB port, but no front panel audio. The 300W power supply is sufficient, but a bit on the lower side. The case has plenty of holes for good ventilation, but lacks any fans. Considering the price point, there is nothing to complain about here. Unfortunately mine got bumped around in shipping, but was still usable.
With the included CD Rom and Floppy, you can throw a nice workable system together easily. If you are upgrading, you will probably transfer your CD/DVD burner to this system along with your power supply. The great thing about this path is you could install the motherboard/processor into your existing system, build a computer for your kid/parents/grandma/aunt/weird cousin with the supplied case, CD Rom and floppy.
I can easily recommend this kit. I’m very happy with it. You simply cannot beat the power you get for this price. The components are quality. You aren’t getting some cheapo motherboard, you are getting a great older generation model. The excellent wireless mouse and keyboard are an asset. If you are running an older system and looking for an easy and inexpensive upgrade, this does the trick. If you want to build a system that and are unconcerned with running the latest and greatest, look here. I don’t want to look like a slappy here, but I have had no problem with this system and it has run nonstop for a week. If I had a complaint I’d be more than happy to let you know. You can’t beat the price at $189.
Full specs available on the product page, Click here.Even though the system is out of stock, you can be notified when it returns though the link.
I’m going to use this system to revisit Sabayon Linux. I’ve been itching to see how Sabayon is doing since my last review.
Finally, I’d like to give a shout out to the Metro Detroit Linux User’s Group, they reassured me that this hardware was very powerful for everyday desktop usage.
Dec
4
BlogRovR, A New Spin on RSS
Filed Under Firefox, Firefox Add-on, internet tools, quick review | 6 Comments
Regularly I find some tool that changes the way I interact with the internet in a positive way. BlogRovR, a Firefox extention, is one of these tools. It was included as part of my Mandriva 2008 system. At first, I didn’t pay it much attention. It would pop out periodically from my browser and annoy me. I decided to check it out, and I am very happy I did. So what is BlogRovR?
Once you install the BlogRovR Add-on, you sign up for the service. Once you are signed up, you can choose from “blog bundles”, which are collections of topics and blogs. You can choose Business, Entertainment, Politics, Sports, Science and Technology and Thinkers. These bundles are prepopulated with subscriptions to blogs. For example, Thinkers includes gladwell.com and kottke.org. You can also import your own personal OPML file of feeds or simply add the URL or feed of a blog you like. Simple enough. You can also add a BlogRovR button, which gives you a link the the BlogRovR page, the option to subscribe to the site you are on, to twitter what you are doing and to get help.
Once this is done, as you surf the web the RovR tray will open when the blogs you have chosen have written about the page you are on. You can then click on a post and the post opens in a small window on the page you are on. The tray pops open, then slides into a small tab you can expand by clicking on a button, listing the number of posts about the page.
There are a few things I like about this immediately. I control the content, so I only hear from sites I’ve chosen. I like seeing what other sites are saying about what I am reading. I go to Mixx.com, and fifteen stories appear about the site. I’m sure the more I use this and the more sites I add the better my results will be. Currently, of the fifteen stories, eight are from TechCrunch and Mashable. Interestingly, I was able to read how Mixx is now the place for Digg refugees and how Digg is still the best, both from TechCrunch, right from the reader. It makes it easier to follow conversations on topics, a big selling point for me.
Another benefit to BlogRovR is the ability to add a button on my sites, enabling people to add me to their BlogRovR. This may become as valuable as anything else I place on the sites. Content that just sits on this site collecting cyberdust will now have new life, if people think enough of this site to add it. My review of the Google Browser Sync Add-on that no one cares about will suddenly pop up and become relevant at that moment (hopefully) someone is reading about it elsewhere. It is a way to keep my site on people’s minds as they browse the web. The only downside to this is I could stand to lose revenue (ha, I crack myself up, revenue) since only the story shows and not the carefully (lovingly?) chosen ads. I think the upside far outweighs any downside though. It is also useful to add my own sites and see if anyone else is talking about what I write.
I can see this catching on, particularly for power surfers. It is one way to stay up to date with what the sites you like are saying, without having to spend all day every day checking them. I easily recommend BlogRovR. It is easy enough to install, and if you do not like it, easy enough to remove. Give it a try, you may end up finding it indispensable.
Screenshot below shows BlogRovR in action. The tray is on the lower right side, the opened window on the upper left side.
