Linux for your taste (sorry Naw :D) (14 Viewers)

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Wings

Banter era connoiseur
Contributor
Jul 15, 2002
21,657
Martin what's the exciting thing about KDE? The way I understand it is it is a GUI - alternative to GDE or? What are the major differences?
As for my GUI am looking at a combination of sorts - I plan use screenlets to monitor my computer (memory usage, CPU activity, Network activity, temps etc), weather, calendar, clock etc. I'll ideally combine these with an OSX bar thingy (i've never used OSX) which I think is a practical way to hold all the applications I use most. Am now working on fonts, codecs, widgets & ofcourse checking out software.
On the hardware side my mouse has started behaving although I need to optimize it, my keyboard multimedia keys have to be configured. Am trying to sort out my iriver mp3 player. Am having fun at the moment although I can't wait for my graphic card to be sorted so that I can setup my main system as soon as possible.
 

Martin

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2000
56,913
Martin what's the exciting thing about KDE? The way I understand it is it is a GUI - alternative to GDE or? What are the major differences?
Briefly, KDE and GNOME call themselves "desktop environments". They set out to deliver a desktop with all the common applications people use, which are all somewhat integrated so that you can use them together. Among the two, KDE is much bigger, has way more applications and has way more momentum as well. Some people are religious about this and insist on using "only KDE applications" because they run KDE, and Gnome applications (which run just as well) look "out of place in KDE" they say.

KDE was the first one, Europe centric. In fact it means Kool Desktop Environment (ah, those witty germans :p ). But it uses the QT toolkit, which was originally under a non-GPL license. Which was a level of evilness some people couldn't stomach and so Gnome was started, GPL from the beginning. Gnome is more Americas centric, one of the main guys is Brazilian (Miguel de Icaza, now at Novell). It's now been years since QT became GPL, so the license problem is a complete non-issue now.

Anyway, whichever "desktop" you use you can run any applications anyway.

KDE apps of note:
Konqueror
Kate :cool2:
Konsole
Kopete
KOffice (full office suite competitor to OpenOffice)
Kontact (email, calendar etc)
Amarok :star:
K3b (cd/dvd burning)
Gwenview (image viewer)
Krita (image editor competitor to the gimp)
Okular (pdf viewer)

Apps built with QT but not KDE-integrated:
Scribus (desktop publishing)

Gnome apps of note:
Epiphany (web browser, "very low weight Firefox")
gnome-terminal (equivalent to konsole)
evolution (email, contacts etc, equiv to kontact)
totem (media player)
rhythmbox (crappy mp3 player)
gthumb (image viewer)
xchat (irc client)
abiword (word processor)
gnumeric (spreadsheet)

Apps built with GTK but not Gnome-integrated:
Inkscape (vector image editor)
the gimp
OpenOffice

GTK is the equivalent to QT, the library used to write graphical apps. The difference between integrated and non-integrated apps is that the integrated ones use some KDE/Gnome specific features that make them "fit" more into KDE/Gnome. But generally an app looks and behaves almost the same whether it's just QT or using KDE specific stuff.


Btw among the two QT has wahaaaay better cross platform support and KDE4 is gonna be released also on Windows and Mac for the first time.
 

Wings

Banter era connoiseur
Contributor
Jul 15, 2002
21,657
Briefly, KDE and GNOME call themselves "desktop environments". They set out to deliver a desktop with all the common applications people use, which are all somewhat integrated so that you can use them together. Among the two, KDE is much bigger, has way more applications and has way more momentum as well. Some people are religious about this and insist on using "only KDE applications" because they run KDE, and Gnome applications (which run just as well) look "out of place in KDE" they say.

KDE was the first one, Europe centric. In fact it means Kool Desktop Environment (ah, those witty germans :p ). But it uses the QT toolkit, which was originally under a non-GPL license. Which was a level of evilness some people couldn't stomach and so Gnome was started, GPL from the beginning. Gnome is more Americas centric, one of the main guys is Brazilian (Miguel de Icaza, now at Novell). It's now been years since QT became GPL, so the license problem is a complete non-issue now.

Anyway, whichever "desktop" you use you can run any applications anyway.

KDE apps of note:
Konqueror
Kate :cool2:
Konsole
Kopete
KOffice (full office suite competitor to OpenOffice)
Kontact (email, calendar etc)
Amarok :star:
K3b (cd/dvd burning)
Gwenview (image viewer)
Krita (image editor competitor to the gimp)
Okular (pdf viewer)

Apps built with QT but not KDE-integrated:
Scribus (desktop publishing)

Gnome apps of note:
Epiphany (web browser, "very low weight Firefox")
gnome-terminal (equivalent to konsole)
evolution (email, contacts etc, equiv to kontact)
totem (media player)
rhythmbox (crappy mp3 player)
gthumb (image viewer)
xchat (irc client)
abiword (word processor)
gnumeric (spreadsheet)

Apps built with GTK but not Gnome-integrated:
Inkscape (vector image editor)
the gimp
OpenOffice

GTK is the equivalent to QT, the library used to write graphical apps. The difference between integrated and non-integrated apps is that the integrated ones use some KDE/Gnome specific features that make them "fit" more into KDE/Gnome. But generally an app looks and behaves almost the same whether it's just QT or using KDE specific stuff.


Btw among the two QT has wahaaaay better cross platform support and KDE4 is gonna be released also on Windows and Mac for the first time.
Thank you now I get a better picture. So in essence if I've installed Ubuntu I can also run KDE on it & choose when to use Gnome or KDE or?
 

Martin

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2000
56,913
Thank you now I get a better picture. So in essence if I've installed Ubuntu I can also run KDE on it & choose when to use Gnome or KDE or?
Ubuntu has the Gnome desktop, so that's what you have in your screenshot. Kubuntu is the flavor of Ubuntu that has the KDE desktop. You can have both just by installing the kubuntu-desktop package, which will drag in everything from the KDE desktop. Now you have both. Then you log out of the desktop, go to "Selection Session" and choose KDE. Voila, KDE desktop.

Like I said, you can use any application regardless. Btw the default KDE desktop is a little drab, I tend to change it around quite a bit. This is one thing that Gnome is better at, a better default setup. But KDE is waaaay more powerful and configurable. :)
 

Martin

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2000
56,913
Life is too short :p One more thing 32 or 64 bit? Pros & cons?
Not a big difference. I'm running 64bit ubuntu and the only thing I've stumbled into in months of use is that there are 32bit binary codecs that don't work with a 64bit mplayer. Even for that there's a workaround, but I don't care enough to do it.

Go 32bit if you have <4GB of RAM, it's easier. But big difference? No, marginal.
 

Wings

Banter era connoiseur
Contributor
Jul 15, 2002
21,657
I have 2GB RAM at the moment but I saw a fantastic bargain for the same type of RAM for SEK 640 for matched 2GB so I think I will go with 64 bit & upgrade the RAM in a couple of months.
 

V

Senior Member
Jun 8, 2005
20,110
  • V

    V

Hey, just to get on your good side again; I'm running PCLOS2007, at work, off my USB stick. Pendrive Linux is the coolest thing since sliced bred. I'm gonna be such a show off from now on.

Look, proof :D
 

V

Senior Member
Jun 8, 2005
20,110
  • V

    V

BTW, it runs MUCH smoother than a LiveCD does and it does the same thing. Great stuff, this can be great for saving valueable data from broken Windows PCs.

The edit: scratch that, it runs like a HDD install. :D

The edit #2: amarOk starts in less than 3 seconds, FF in less than 4 and the GIMP! in about 7,8! These are great numbers. The responsibility and functionality of the system is amazing, I'm really, really, impressed.
 

Martin

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2000
56,913
BTW, it runs MUCH smoother than a LiveCD does and it does the same thing. Great stuff, this can be great for saving valueable data from broken Windows PCs.

The edit: scratch that, it runs like a HDD install. :D

The edit #2: amarOk starts in less than 3 seconds, FF in less than 4 and the GIMP! in about 7,8! These are great numbers. The responsibility and functionality of the system is amazing, I'm really, really, impressed.
Mandriva has a flavor of their distro that they sell on 4gb usb sticks. That's a really cool idea.
 

V

Senior Member
Jun 8, 2005
20,110
  • V

    V

And when I was on Mandriva, some time back, you all made fun of me. :disagree:

Seriously, Mandriva is a great user friendly distro with some really intuitive ideas. PCLOS is a Mandriva knock-off and that's why I love it. :D
 

Martin

Senior Member
Dec 31, 2000
56,913
I haven't tried Mandriva in years (actually that was before the merger with Conectiva, it was still called Mandrake) so I don't know what it's like. I'm just saying it's a great idea to sell these 4gb usb sticks, perfect for a demo or rescue situation, not to mention when you encounter a hostile environment and you have to boot off the stick to get anything done.
 

V

Senior Member
Jun 8, 2005
20,110
  • V

    V

Great idea indeed. You get an excellent rescue media and still lots of storage space left on the stick(probably around 3.3GB). And it's probably a bargain to buy.
 

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