Slashdot Mirror

I'd like to see all Linux projects standardize on Qt as a their Gui toolkit. I understand why everyone has their own but the war is won and Qt won it.

War..Won!? All I see is healthy competition, and personally I run a whole host of Applications that I don't care what toolkit they are in. Having a look around there are some absolutely stellar QT applications http://calibre-ebook.com/, k3b http://www.k3b.org/ (although not in development for a while), MP3 Diags http://mp3diags.sourceforge.net/ and of course Clementine http://www.clementine-player.org/about. There are a few programs that can run either that I use Transmission http://www.transmissionbt.com/ and Avidemux http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/ . But the Bottom line is GTK+ seems as popular as ever, and still more popular than Qt.

What is most bizarre is this about this is LXDE is looking great, a Desktop we don't hear about often enough, and is looking like a desktop I would use...half this discussion is about lets be honest a license subtlety I don't care about.

Hmm, I could suggest a virtualdub clone or another amazing program if you still want to give linux a try.

KDE is broken in the latest Fedora release, which doesn't really surprise me given the fact that Red Hat has always had abyssmal support for KDE.

I think applications like Konqueror File Manager, K3B for burning CDs and DVDs, AmaroK for listening to music, Kaffeine for watching movies, etc are a must for a desktop computer. It's a shame that Red Hat doesn't put more resources into ensuring KDE is usable on their systems.

Anyway, I'll stick with ArkLinux, Kubuntu and openSUSE since KDE actually works on those distros.

Too bad Krita is KDE only though, so no help for windows users looking for a good free photo editing suite.

There is always a solution. Let met think... Why not telling them to use KDE if you think their applications are good ?

Price are very low : between 0 and a few dizains of euros. Anyway, much less than what it is worth.

I suggest this because it's not the first time I read "Yeah, this KDE application is exactly what I need, too bad that I don't use KDE". Maybe the fact that more and more applications like Amarok, , Basket(still beta but try it and you will love it), K3B, Kate (vim and emacs will soon surrender ;-), KPhotoAlbum, Kontact... just to name a few are very enjoyable and perfectly integrated could be a hint that this move may be wise.

After all : Apple's business plan, which is not to urge to port ASAP every brand new shiny feature to windows, seems to work too. Wouldn't it make sense to try the same : giving Linux/KDE the success it deserves instead of a asking to add more 2nd grade freeware to the windows platform which doesn't really need it ?

upgrade to faster connection, switch to kubuntu (free AND secure), or anything else equally secure.

If you need (unsecure) windows for anything, use vmware player (free), or wine (free), or if you need to play games with 3D acceleration then cedega (nonfree).

Remember about http://www.openoffice.org/ for office work, http://www.gimp.org/ for drawing, http://www.k3b.org/ for burning DVDs... and the list goes on and on.

ps: I've got some karma to burn, so here I'm whoring ;)

Mark Shuttleworth and now Linus Torvalds seem realize the value of KDE's superior architecture, on which which many must-have KDE apps. These apps don't have any gnome equivalents that are nearly as useful and feature-rich:

AmaroK music player -- The most feature-rich and polished music player on the Free Software platform.

K3b -- Best CD and DVD authoring program with intuitive wizards, on the fly transcoding between WAV, MP3, FLAC, and Ogg Vorbis, normalization of volume levels, CDDB, DVD Ripping and DivX/XviD encoding, Save/load projects, automatic hardware detection/calibration and much more.

DigiKam -- The most feature-rich application for digital photo management.

Wireless Assistant -- Most user-friendly app for connecting to wireless networks. Managed Networks Support, WEP Encryption Support, Per Network (AP) Configuration Profiles, Automatic (DHCP, both dhcpcd and dhclient) and manual configuration options, Connection status monitoring, etc

KDE Education -- Educational (Science, Literature, Geography, etc) programs for children. Could play a big role in whether school districts decide to use Free Software in their classrooms.

Konqueror File Manager -- Embeded image/PDF/music/video viewing (via KMPlayer [kde.org]) and a tree-view arrangement of the filesystem familiar to Windows users (Nautilus doesn't come anywhere close)

KDE Control Center -- Centralized location for desktop control. Controls _all_ common aspects of the KDE applications: language, power settings, special effects, icon and window themes, shadows, shortcuts, printers, privacy, etc. This is what makes KDE so well integrated -- all KDE apps respect changes made here, so they all have the same feel. SUSE has even made YAST a module of the KDE control center so users can access distro-specific settings from here. Compare this to the dismembered approach Red Hat (and other gnome distros) have been forced to adopt in the absence of a centralized gnome control center. (ie. a bunch of individial programs named redhat-config-**** that nobody can ever remember)

Seamless, transparent network file access on SMB, FTP, SSH and WebDav networks from _any_ KDE application.

Kaffeine -- The most polished FOSS movie player.

MythTV -- The most advanced analog and digital TV viewer/recorder in the Free Software world (built using QT).

Baghira -- A native QT style that faithfully imitates OS X eyecandy, aimed at new users coming from the Mac world.

Klik -- Gives non-expert access to bleeding edge versions of apps without requiring any compilation or permanent installation.

KDE and QT also make up a technically superior platform for developers, drastically lowering the learning curve for programmers new to FOSS development. KDE apps can be built from the ground up using the best development tools in the Free Software world (which also happen to be built on QT/KDE):

Kdevelop for syntax highliting, application templates, and project organization.

QT designer for GUI development

Quanta -- Rich web development environment for PHP, CSS, DocBook, HTML, XML, etc with advanced context sensitive autocompletion, internal preview and more.

Good news all round, it would seem. :)

Indeed, here are some must-have KDE apps that are certainly going to help SuSE's popularity as a desktop operating system :
AmaroK music player -- Intuitive, powerful, good-looking music player. Supports transfers to/from iPods and many audio formats.

K3b -- Best CD and DVD authoring program with intuitive wizards, on the fly transcoding between WAV, MP3, FLAC, and Ogg Vorbis, normalization of volume levels, CDDB, DVD Ripping and DivX/XviD encoding, Save/load projects, automatic hardware detection/calibration and much more.

DigiKam -- The most feature-rich application for digital photo management.

Wireless Assistant -- Most user-friendly app for connecting to wireless networks. Managed Networks Support, WEP Encryption Support, Per Network (AP) Configuration Profiles, Automatic (DHCP, both dhcpcd and dhclient) and manual configuration options, Connection status monitoring, etc

KDE Education -- Educational (Science, Literature, Geography, etc) programs for children. Could play a big role in whether school districts decide to use Free Software in their classrooms.

Konqueror File Manager -- Embeded image/PDF/music/video viewing (via KMPlayer [kde.org]) and a tree-view arrangement of the filesystem familiar to Windows users (Nautilus doesn't come anywhere close)

KDE Control Center -- Centralized location for desktop control. Controls _all_ common aspects of the KDE applications: language, power settings, special effects, icon and window themes, shadows, shortcuts, printers, privacy, etc. This is what makes KDE so well integrated -- all KDE apps respect changes made here, so they all have the same feel. SUSE has even made YAST a module of the KDE control center so users can access distro-specific settings from here. Compare this to the dismembered approach Red Hat (and other gnome distros) have been forced to adopt in the absence of a centralized gnome control center. (ie. a bunch of individial programs named redhat-config-**** that nobody can ever remember)

Seamless, transparent network file access on SMB, FTP, SSH and WebDav networks from _any_ KDE application.

Kaffeine -- The most polished FOSS movie player.

MythTV -- The most advanced analog and digital TV viewer/recorder in the Free Software world (built using QT).

Baghira -- A native QT style that faithfully imitates OS X eyecandy, aimed at new users coming from the Mac world.

Klik -- Gives non-expert access to bleeding edge versions of apps without requiring any compilation or permanent installation.

KDE and QT also make up a technically superior platform for developers, drastically lowering the learning curve for programmers new to FOSS development. KDE apps can be built from the ground up using the best development tools in the Free Software world (which also happen to be built on QT/KDE):

Kdevelop for syntax highliting, application templates, and project organization.

QT designer for GUI development

Quanta -- Rich web development environment for PHP, CSS, DocBook, HTML, XML, etc with advanced context sensitive autocompletion, internal preview and more.

BKSys environment for a complete replacement of the autotool chain (libtool

The real issue is who is going to pay for the next generation of KDE development if SuSE isn't going to pay.

Mandrake, Kubuntu/Mark Shuttleworth, Trolltech seem realize the value of KDE's superior architecture, on which many must-have KDE apps have been built. These apps don't have any gnome equivalents that are nearly as useful and feature-rich:

AmaroK music player -- Steve Jobs' nightmare, the single greatest threat to Itunes on the Free Software platform.

K3b -- Best CD and DVD authoring program with intuitive wizards, on the fly transcoding between WAV, MP3, FLAC, and Ogg Vorbis, normalization of volume levels, CDDB, DVD Ripping and DivX/XviD encoding, Save/load projects, automatic hardware detection/calibration and much more.

DigiKam -- The most feature-rich application for digital photo management.

Wireless Assistant -- Most user-friendly app for connecting to wireless networks. Managed Networks Support, WEP Encryption Support, Per Network (AP) Configuration Profiles, Automatic (DHCP, both dhcpcd and dhclient) and manual configuration options, Connection status monitoring, etc

KDE Education -- Educational (Science, Literature, Geography, etc) programs for children. Could play a big role in whether school districts decide to use Free Software in their classrooms.

Konqueror File Manager -- Embeded image/PDF/music/video viewing (via KMPlayer) and a tree-view arrangement of the filesystem familiar to Windows users (Nautilus doesn't come anywhere close)

KDE Control Center -- Centralized location for desktop control. Controls _all_ common aspects of the KDE applications: language, power settings, special effects, icon and window themes, shadows, shortcuts, printers, privacy, etc. This is what makes KDE so well integrated -- all KDE apps respect changes made here, so they all have the same feel. SUSE has even made YAST a module of the KDE control center so users can access distro-specific settings from here. Compare this to the dismembered approach Red Hat (and other gnome distros) have been forced to adopt in the absence of a centralized gnome control center. (ie. a bunch of individial programs named redhat-config-**** that nobody can ever remember)

Seamless, transparent network file access on SMB, FTP, SSH and WebDav networks from _any_ KDE application.

Kaffeine -- The most polished FOSS movie player.

MythTV -- The most advanced analog and digital TV viewer/recorder in the Free Software world (built using QT).

Baghira -- A native QT style that faithfully imitates OS X eyecandy, aimed at new users coming from the Mac world.

Klik -- Gives non-expert access to bleeding edge versions of apps without requiring any compilation or permanent installation.

KDE and QT also make up a technically superior platform for developers, drastically lowering the learning curve for programmers new to FOSS development. KDE apps can be built from the ground up using the best development tools in the Free Software world (which also happen to be built on QT/KDE):

Kdevelop for syntax highlighting, application templates, and project organization.

QT designer for GUI development

Quanta -- Rich web development environment for PHP, CSS, DocBook, HTML, XML, etc with advanced con

Some more must-have KDE/QT desktop applications:

K3b -- Best CD and DVD authoring program with intuitive wizards, on the fly transcoding between WAV, MP3, FLAC, and Ogg Vorbis, normalization of volume levels, CDDB, DVD Ripping and DivX/XviD encoding, Save/load projects, automatic hardware detection/calibration and much more.

Klik -- Gives non-expert access to bleeding edge versions of apps without requiring any compilation or permanent installation.

KDE Control Center -- Centralized location for desktop control. Controls _all_ common aspects of the KDE applications: language, power settings, special effects, icon and window themes, shadows, shortcuts, printers, privacy, etc. This is what makes KDE so well integrated -- all KDE apps respect changes made here, so they all have the same feel. SUSE has even made YAST a module of the KDE control center so users can access distro-specific settings from here. Compare this to the dismembered approach Red Hat (and other gnome distros) have been forced to adopt in the absence of a centralized gnome control center. (ie. a bunch of individial programs named redhat-config-**** that nobody can ever remember)

Wireless Assistant -- Most user-friendly app for connecting to wireless networks. Managed Networks Support, WEP Encryption Support, Per Network (AP) Configuration Profiles, Automatic (DHCP, both dhcpcd and dhclient) and manual configuration options, Connection status monitoring, etc

MythTV -- The most advanced analog and digital TV viewer/recorder in the Free Software world (built using QT).

KDE Education -- Educational (Science, Literature, Geography, etc) programs for children. Could play a big role in whether school districts decide to use Free Software in their classrooms.

Quanta -- Rich web development environment for PHP, CSS, DocBook, HTML, XML, etc with advanced context sensitive autocompletion, internal preview and more.

Cervisia -- User-friendly GUI frontend for CVS.

Try k3b http://www.k3b.org/ and stop moaning. In case you got problems with k3b and still think you lack your "zealot hacker" skills to burn a CD, I think you got more problems using computers than just burning.

What problems do you have with CD/DVD burning? I use K3B and I like it better than any other CD burning software that I've used (even Nero).

• 
  as an aside, is it true as claimed that the standard linux distribution includes DVD burning software?

I was thinking the same... here is the official web site link
k3b.org

K3B, dvdbackup, and dvdshrink (ran under wine, 3.0b5) work awesome.

Some programs to help you:

Ardour - A program designed to record edit and mix multi-track audio. Now my use of audio recording/editing experience is strictly armature but this seems to be a pretty good Cool Edit/Adobe Audition like program when comparing feature lists of both(excluding the new additions by Adobe that allow you to work with video).

K3B - this is one of the best CD/DVD burning programs Iv seen on any platform.

Freeamp - a program similar to winamp and XMMS in look and feel.

amaroK - Another audio player, although this player does not shrink to a compact size that can be place out of the way. It does, however, shrink to an icon in your utility bar in KDE.

Of course you could put the files somewhere else - but then that is just a /tmp with a different name. (Alternatively do everything on the fly of course)

The Unix philosophy for ripping and burning is to have separate apps to handle those tasks, distinct from jukebox software. But, for 99% of the computer-using populace (ie, those who don't need a burner to be able to burn an ISO image to a CD), All three tasks are related: one would want to rip a few CDs, make a play list, and then burn it-- all in one app.

One app... you mean like K3B? I find this much easier to use than its closest Windows counterpart (Nero), due to its lack of clutter in the burning screens.

Looking at the screenshots I was thinking the same thing! K3B is probably the closest thing to Nero Linux has right now.

No problems so far, plus it works great with Linux using K3b. Luckily only cheap crappy computers comes with DVD-RW, so serves the suckers right!

...and praying that the new DVD urner (sic) drivers work

In this statement, you've revealed quite how little you know about Linux.

I installed Fedora Core 1 last November. I bought my new DVD Burner earlier this year. Did I need to worry about whether the drivers work? Nope. Did I need to install any drivers? Nope.

My new DVD Burner worked with Fedora Core 1 OUT OF THE BOX. Within 10 minutes, I was burning my first DVD. Within an hour, I was using a swish GUI to burn DVDs (K3b, Check It Out).

I'll agree that Linux isn't quite there yet in a number of areas. This is just one area where it excels.

I'm sure someone in the 'community', can answer your questions. You could post a question at Linuxquestions.org. Good Luck! I think you'll find k3b a great little program once we get your problem solved.

Lindows, Xandros and Mandrake meet your specifictations.

1 Lindows sells a DVD player for Linux for the very low cost of $5! For any distro.For writing CDs, use K3B

2 Linux has an online community, plus linux users arent that hard to find. Most have heard of linux.

3) Better wine will come in time. The most important apps already run well, the minor apps that use weird libraries will come soon

4) Most desktop distros use KDE these days, and KDE of course is very tweakable.

5) Yes, most commerical distros have simple language, with printed instruction manuals with lots of help

6. Most distros autodect windows/other os partitions these days, and KDE comes with a LILO configurator. Grub is a lot easier than lilo

7) Lindows has click and run, Xandros has Xandros Networks, Mandrake has RPMdrake (graphical) and urpmi (command line), Fedora has yum and Debian and Debian based Distros have synaptic (graphical) and apt-get (command line). Dependancies have been solved ages ago.

8) Both KDE and Gnome have a "tray", in gnome they call it "notification area", and they have standardized the tray so they can share each others icons See here

9) It depends on the distro. Some distros are lighter than others. But many legacy files are being removed (How many distros come with fvwm any more)

10. The other stuff is being solved too. Try Mandrake 9.2 and you will see that most of your points have been solved!

Have you tried Mandrake recently, or are you talking about some crap distro such as Debian.

Sharing files, just right click and share once you have set it up using Mandrake Control Center.

Burning a CD, say hello to K3b, the easiest Linux burning software.

Setting up a firewall is a job for your mouse in Mandrake as well.

Please stop spreading fud. Mandrake makes things easy, you are now on my foes list.

1) Go to Distro watch and select the Linuxen of your choice
2) Burn to disc (that if BSD actualy supports cd burners. Since it dosent boot into windows from and burn the iso.
3) Boot your new shiny operating system
4) In the partitioning setup, replace your freebsd partitions with Linux ones
5) Bask in the light of the magic world of linux, complete with cd burner support and with powerful apps such as K3b!