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Relevant presentation overviews here and here.

Here.

You can do exactly what you describe with this, this and this.

I would have thought that we linuxers had understood how to connect to the net through dialup by now...

Still, it's nice(?!) to see them take it seriously enough to release software for linux, even if it's been done several times before...

This isn't a troll, or at least it's not meant as one, but try as I might, I could never get into using Enlightenment. And from the fact that Gnome and KDE get the majority of the press/developers/software, I'm guessing I'm not alone in this impression.

Don't get me wrong: Enlightenment is certainly a powerful and capable windowing system, and there have been some fairly original looks/themes released for it, but, to me at least (he says, carefully circumventing the Troll under the bridge) it's not a GUI that a new user coming from the Windows/Mac/KDE/Gnome world can immediately begin using. Or configuring.

(This is where all the Slashdot/Linux "elite" begin to quote my thread for their 'RTFM', and 'How could it be any simpler than xxxx?' responses)

When I first began investigating Linux all those years ago, Enlightenment themes and screenshots were all the rage. KDE and Gnome were promising, but Enlightenment was how all the coolest geeks seemed to produce such cool eye candy-based desktops. But to a Linux newbie like me, coming from an Amiga/Dos/Windows background at the time, it was totally alien. It was just too much to have to begin learning Linux, and a totally different GUI like Enlightenment, both at the same time. So Enlightenment went goodbye after way too many wasted hours trying to become productive and look good doing it.

So flash ahead several years (last year, to be exact), and a much more Linux-savy version of Me decided to give Enlightenment shot again. I hadn't kept up with it, and had meanwhile become an avid KDE fan, but I wanted to try something different, and figured that Enlightenment had to have matured by this time, to a point wherein I could grasp it easier. I mean... KDE had came so far in this time.

So I boot it up after installing the latest version, and ,after booting, am faced with the identical look and feel of the last time I used it. Nothing (on the surface, at least) had changed! No icons... Just a couple of odd, pager-like boxes.

Now... I'm not expecting enlightenment to change their way and become KDE or Gnome or anything. But they've gotta realize that virtually any converts to their window manager will be coming from an environment such as KDE, Gnome, Windows, etc. It's a totally different methodology from that of Enlightenment. You'd think that one of the first things that you'd see on a default desktop would be a "how to get started" type of document.

Yeah, yeah... I know. RTFM. Yes, I also know that I can configure Enlightenment to look and interact like whatever I want it to, but I'd kind of expect "something" to push the new user in the right direction.

But other things were not impressive also. Fonts, in paricular, looked poor when compared to the more popular window managers around.

So flash foward to todays announcement here on Slashdot, and so I decide to take a look at Enlightenments page to see if anything's changed yet. I see this. Come on... For crying out loud, someone get Enlightenment a PR director. If the programmers hope to grow the userbase of their window manager, they really should make it a bit more accessible. If an "intro level" of usability isn't a possibility, then how about a simple "Introduction to Enlightenment" document, or walk through? Something to offer the new user a glimpse of the power of Enlightenment. And without requiring them to hunt it down, or surf out to a website.

At least make the default font's look better. This is a good example of both the default look of Enlightenment, and it's default fonts. Conversely, this is the default look of KDE. I'm not saying that KDE's superior (to me it is, but who cares), but the default look, which all of us have seen many times before, and consi

Yeah, and there is no duplication of effort in open source

I will have to wait for kde 3.4 for this feature. Vote for it!

The most wanted features
My most wanted feature :-)

I will have to wait for kde 3.4 for this feature. Vote for it!

The most wanted features
My most wanted feature :-)

it somewhat brings java down to the c++ like level, where memory losses and "forgotten" objects are quite common mistakes

No C or C++ program should have these problems anymore, thanks to Valgrind. Garbage collection is unnecessary if you use modern programming tools.

Highlights At A Glance

Some of the highlights in KDE 3.3 are listed below.

• New applications
  • Kolourpaint, an easy-to-use replacement for KPaint
  • KWordQuiz, KLatin and KTurtle expand the list of education packages for schools and families
  • Kimagemapeditor and klinkstatus make life easier for web designers
  • KSpell2, a new spellchecking library that fixes all of KSpell's shortcomings
  • KThemeManager, a new control center module to globally handle KDE visual themes
  • The Python bindings PyQT and PyKDE are now maintained with KDE in our CVS
• Integration of desktop components
  • Kontact is now integrated with Kolab, KDE's groupware solution, and Kpilot
  • Konqueror features better support for Instant Messenging contacts, with the capability to send files to IM contacts, and support for IM protocols (e.g. irc://)
  • KMail can display the online presence of IM contacts
  • Kopete can display a "now listening to" message from amaroK
  • Juk has support for burning audio CDs with K3B
• Many small desktop enhancements
  • Tab improvements in Konqueror, including scrollwheel switching
  • An RSS feed viewer sidebar in Konqueror
  • A searchbar for Konqueror, compatible with all keyword: searches
  • HTML composing, anti-spam/anti-virus wizards, automatic handling of mailing lists, improved support for cryptography and a handy quick search bar all make their way into KMail
  • Kopete gains support for file transfers with Jabber
  • Quanta Plus has a VPL (Visual Page Layout) mode to make editing even easier
  • aRts gains jack support, and aKode, a new multithreaded audio decoding/encoding library to replace mpeglib
  • KWin has new buttons to support its full features, including "always on top"
  • Over 7,000 bugs have been closed, and over 2,000 wishes have been fulfilled
  • Over 60,000 lines of code, documentation and other contributions have been committed to CVS

For a more detailed list of improvements since the KDE 3.2 release, please refer to the KDE 3.3 Feature Plan.

There is a script that the KDE folks wrote that will download all of the components and compile them for you: http://developer.kde.org/build/konstruct/

Guess I've got some downloading to do, eh? Which comes to a gripe - it's a real pain in the arse to download all the seperate files and install them. Sure would be nice if the KDE team wrote an "update" script that would check for updates and optionally download/install them.

Guess I've got some downloading to do, eh? Which comes to a gripe - it's a real pain in the arse to download all the seperate files and install them. Sure would be nice if the KDE team wrote an "update" script that would check for updates and optionally download/install them. PS. Anyone want a gmail invite? mail me.. [only one left!]

Korganizer uses iCal as well.

Gotta love the open-source reuse concept.

Not trying to be negative, but is the base system & kernel open sourced from Apple or didn't Apple take somebody else's work and lock it down? In other words I have the understanding that Apple took FreeBSD which is somebodyelses hard work and added their own stuff on top without releasing the stuff on top or how it interacts with the stuff provided by FreeBSD, or any changes they might have made to FreeBSD to make it better.

Apple bought a company called NeXT that had a proprietary BSD386 based OS running on the Mach Micro-Kernal. In the company was an employee who had done a large amount of the original work creating the Mach Micro-kernal. Apple took the NeXTStep / OpenStep operating system as the basis for its Mac OS X operating system. Apple ported it to the PowerPC Chip sets, fused it with knowledge gained from Apple's earlier Unix OSes A/UX and MkLinux and then re-synced the userland with FreeBSD 4.x (now they sync the userland to FreeBSD 5.x).

This might need more explaining. Unlike Linux where all each distribution has the same Linix kernal (sometimes compiled in different ways, but still the same kernal code), BSD branches do NOT have the same kernal. NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, DragonflyBSD and Darwin(Mac OS X) are each different kernal code bases. Sometimes they share components / code, but mostly they do not. The different branches are designed to provide the same working userland to users and applications. By "re-synced the userland to FreeBSD" Apple did little more then confirm their OS is compatible with FreeBSD and either updated their own /bin and/usr/bin applications to feature / function compatibility with FreeBSD or ported the FreeBSD apps over, whichever made the most sense. Again all work was done by Apple Engineers.

So what Apple did was not "take somebody else's work and lock it down" but rather take the work Apple Engineers and the Engineers of a second company Apple bought (and retained the employees of) and release the code for no cost onto the internet.

OpenDarwin.org

While this is certainly valid given the license of FreeBSD, strictly speaking that's just being a thief as far as I'm concerned.(Yes I know MS has done this too with it's Unix Services layer).

If someone gives something to you for free, it is not stealing. The only people who are allowed a moral objection to how you use the freely given object are the ones who gave it to you. Far from being upset at it, BSD users "shouted for joy" that Apple choose to base their new OS on BSD. Daemon News: Apple -- What's in it for BSD?

I also understand however, that Apple has given some changes back to the KDE community for the web browser, locking up other changes however behind a proprietary license. In other words it looks to me like Apple is trying to garner some favor while stealing the "open source" community blind.

Every single piece of OpenSource software Apple has used (irrespective of the license it was released under and the requirement, or NOT, to release the code) they have release the code to. The code is available either through the Darwin OS , one of the other Apple Open Source Projects, or by giving the code back to the original developers. In addition to that Apple has also released code that was never before opensource, with projects such as OpenPlay , Darwin Streaming Server and

Wouldn't you know it? I wrote a vcard to ldif converter this weekend to move my wife's address book from kaddressbook to Mozilla. If only I had waited one more week.

- The X-protocol is very heavy on bandwidth usage, if you're using more than let's say five stations, you will need to use NX (or a GigaBit LAN)

- Remember that with thin clients, all your applications are running on the server. So you will need loads of RAM on the server. For 15 clients, 2 GB RAM is a must.

- Take a look at kiosktool to force limitations on what your users can do on the system

- Consider using squid as proxy server, to speed up access to often requested pages and to lower bandwidth usage of your internet connection.

KDE now provides a "Kiosk mode" that is designed to make this kind of locked-down desktop easy to achieve on any distribution with KDE. Here's a recent article on the subject, and here's the project homepage, and here's the KDE guide for sysadmins, which has lots of information useful to KDE server admins.

KDE now provides a "Kiosk mode" that is designed to make this kind of locked-down desktop easy to achieve on any distribution with KDE. Here's a recent article on the subject, and here's the project homepage, and here's the KDE guide for sysadmins, which has lots of information useful to KDE server admins.

KDE now provides a "Kiosk mode" that is designed to make this kind of locked-down desktop easy to achieve on any distribution with KDE. Here's a recent article on the subject, and here's the project homepage, and here's the KDE guide for sysadmins, which has lots of information useful to KDE server admins.

ever hear of lclint and other Free tools?

http://lclint.cs.virginia.edu/
http://valgrind.kde.org/

"I have a solitary Windows machine at home for gaming. Lots of nice hardware to play great games."

Dude, you can do it!

Minesweeper
Hearts
Solitaire
Maj-jongg

You can learn to type just as well by spending 5 bucks on a Mavis Beacon CD.

In Slashdot style, I should point out there are Free typing-tutor programs. KTouch for just one.

BTW, KConfigEditor which is a KDE application has support for GConf and makes a better job of editting GConf entries than gconf-editor. IIRC, it was also the first to support actual searching of entries in GConf. Even though I use GNOME I started using KConfigEditor. Especially that it has the idea of "backup and propagation scripts", which allow me to edit one master configuration and send the propagation scripts to my users to have those propagated. Pretty cool stuff.

Juk is a quite good clone of itunes for KDE (not the shopping stuff, just a library manager)

You can transfer files to your ipod with gtkpod

Better prefer to launch a proprietary software with a windows emulator.

Avoid the ID3 tags !

GNOME 2.8 is going to be a really great release.

last time i tried gnome it was bloated, why not go for something different and do windowmaker?
also, try konqueror for webbrowsing (if you haven't already)... it's fast

KDE would love your help! Read this to get orientated, pick an app that seems to need work and then contact Lauri or the ke-doc-english mailing list to find out how to get started. We definitely need and appreciate your help!

• a brand-new KDE-3.3 code-named "aKademy" together with
• a first-time ever release of FreeNX Server and FreeNX Client (using NX/NoMachine technology)
• as well as a Scribus-1.2 "aKademy Release"

• a brand-new KDE-3.3 code-named "aKademy" together with
• a first-time ever release of FreeNX Server and FreeNX Client (using NX/NoMachine technology)
• as well as a Scribus-1.2 "aKademy Release"

Here is an overview of what's goin' on at aKademy. You may say, these KDE-ers are crazy, trying to organize a full 9-day event, but here are the schedules:

DevConf -- the Developers' and Contributors' Conference:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-devconf.php

Tutorials -- Fifteen One-Day Tutorials for IT Professionals with world class instructors:
http://conference2004.kde.org/tutorials.php

CodeMarathon -- the 5++ day, 24 hours Coding Marathon and Hackfest of KDE enthusiasts:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-marathon.ph

AccessForum -- the First Unix Accessibility Forum:
http://accessibility.kde.org/forum/program.php

UsabLab -- the Usability Forum with integrated Usability Lab:
http://conference2004.kde.org/usabilityforum/usabi lity_akademy.html

UserConf -- the KDE and Linux Users' and Administrators' Conference:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-userconf.php

Here is an overview of what's goin' on at aKademy. You may say, these KDE-ers are crazy, trying to organize a full 9-day event, but here are the schedules:

DevConf -- the Developers' and Contributors' Conference:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-devconf.php

Tutorials -- Fifteen One-Day Tutorials for IT Professionals with world class instructors:
http://conference2004.kde.org/tutorials.php

CodeMarathon -- the 5++ day, 24 hours Coding Marathon and Hackfest of KDE enthusiasts:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-marathon.ph

AccessForum -- the First Unix Accessibility Forum:
http://accessibility.kde.org/forum/program.php

UsabLab -- the Usability Forum with integrated Usability Lab:
http://conference2004.kde.org/usabilityforum/usabi lity_akademy.html

UserConf -- the KDE and Linux Users' and Administrators' Conference:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-userconf.php

Here is an overview of what's goin' on at aKademy. You may say, these KDE-ers are crazy, trying to organize a full 9-day event, but here are the schedules:

DevConf -- the Developers' and Contributors' Conference:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-devconf.php

Tutorials -- Fifteen One-Day Tutorials for IT Professionals with world class instructors:
http://conference2004.kde.org/tutorials.php

CodeMarathon -- the 5++ day, 24 hours Coding Marathon and Hackfest of KDE enthusiasts:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-marathon.ph

AccessForum -- the First Unix Accessibility Forum:
http://accessibility.kde.org/forum/program.php

UsabLab -- the Usability Forum with integrated Usability Lab:
http://conference2004.kde.org/usabilityforum/usabi lity_akademy.html

UserConf -- the KDE and Linux Users' and Administrators' Conference:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-userconf.php

Here is an overview of what's goin' on at aKademy. You may say, these KDE-ers are crazy, trying to organize a full 9-day event, but here are the schedules:

DevConf -- the Developers' and Contributors' Conference:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-devconf.php

Tutorials -- Fifteen One-Day Tutorials for IT Professionals with world class instructors:
http://conference2004.kde.org/tutorials.php

CodeMarathon -- the 5++ day, 24 hours Coding Marathon and Hackfest of KDE enthusiasts:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-marathon.ph

AccessForum -- the First Unix Accessibility Forum:
http://accessibility.kde.org/forum/program.php

UsabLab -- the Usability Forum with integrated Usability Lab:
http://conference2004.kde.org/usabilityforum/usabi lity_akademy.html

UserConf -- the KDE and Linux Users' and Administrators' Conference:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-userconf.php

Here is an overview of what's goin' on at aKademy. You may say, these KDE-ers are crazy, trying to organize a full 9-day event, but here are the schedules:

DevConf -- the Developers' and Contributors' Conference:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-devconf.php

Tutorials -- Fifteen One-Day Tutorials for IT Professionals with world class instructors:
http://conference2004.kde.org/tutorials.php

CodeMarathon -- the 5++ day, 24 hours Coding Marathon and Hackfest of KDE enthusiasts:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-marathon.ph

AccessForum -- the First Unix Accessibility Forum:
http://accessibility.kde.org/forum/program.php

UsabLab -- the Usability Forum with integrated Usability Lab:
http://conference2004.kde.org/usabilityforum/usabi lity_akademy.html

UserConf -- the KDE and Linux Users' and Administrators' Conference:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-userconf.php

Here is an overview of what's goin' on at aKademy. You may say, these KDE-ers are crazy, trying to organize a full 9-day event, but here are the schedules:

DevConf -- the Developers' and Contributors' Conference:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-devconf.php

Tutorials -- Fifteen One-Day Tutorials for IT Professionals with world class instructors:
http://conference2004.kde.org/tutorials.php

CodeMarathon -- the 5++ day, 24 hours Coding Marathon and Hackfest of KDE enthusiasts:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-marathon.ph

AccessForum -- the First Unix Accessibility Forum:
http://accessibility.kde.org/forum/program.php

UsabLab -- the Usability Forum with integrated Usability Lab:
http://conference2004.kde.org/usabilityforum/usabi lity_akademy.html

UserConf -- the KDE and Linux Users' and Administrators' Conference:
http://conference2004.kde.org/sched-userconf.php

There's a lot more information about what will be going on at the KDE wiki at http://wiki.kde.org. There are plenty of opportunities to contribute, too - even if you're not a programmer or 'power user'. Take a look, for example at KDE Community World Summit under "Coding Marathon" for a list of teams that will be present.

As an example, I'm on the documentation team, and we've got plenty planned. Check out KDE Documentation @ aKademy for more details.

OK, that's enough advertising for one comment...

PhilRod

There's a lot more information about what will be going on at the KDE wiki at http://wiki.kde.org. There are plenty of opportunities to contribute, too - even if you're not a programmer or 'power user'. Take a look, for example at KDE Community World Summit under "Coding Marathon" for a list of teams that will be present.

As an example, I'm on the documentation team, and we've got plenty planned. Check out KDE Documentation @ aKademy for more details.

OK, that's enough advertising for one comment...

PhilRod

There's a lot more information about what will be going on at the KDE wiki at http://wiki.kde.org. There are plenty of opportunities to contribute, too - even if you're not a programmer or 'power user'. Take a look, for example at KDE Community World Summit under "Coding Marathon" for a list of teams that will be present.

As an example, I'm on the documentation team, and we've got plenty planned. Check out KDE Documentation @ aKademy for more details.

OK, that's enough advertising for one comment...

PhilRod

Through incredible luck (as opposed to planning) the last weekend of aKademy coincides with the first annual Software Freedom Day on August 28th, so the KDE people are throwing a big party! Anyone know if they plan to hand out Knoppix discs in the Stuttgart area as well?

I think it will never happen. Novell buying Trolltech means QT automatically released under BSD. Nor Novell nor Trolltech wants that.

I kan't attend the konferenke, but I kertainly am looking forward to the simultaneous release of KDE 3.3. It promises to be great, with lots of bugfixes and new features, like groupware support for kontakt.

I kan't attend the konferenke, but I kertainly am looking forward to the simultaneous release of KDE 3.3. It promises to be great, with lots of bugfixes and new features, like groupware support for kontakt.

Try Ruby with the Korundum bindings - example code is here.

Here's hoping KDE is actually better after the http://conference2004.kde.org/hackfest.php !

That sounds like a good lotta fun! I wonder how many of the core dev. will be coding away ?

Trolltech and the KDE E.v have announced a supplemental agreement to the KDE Free Qt Foundation. Might this fortell some maneuvers behind an upcomping Trolltech corporate purchase or merger? OTOH, perhaps this is only to reassert the agreement given Qt4's reengineered library structure (the new library will have core and utility classes split out from GUI classes), but some of the language could be interpreted as relieving fears of a would-be Trolltech corporate suitor. Stay tuned. It should be a very exciting summer/early fall for KDE and Trolltech.

It's for anyone who wishes to attend. From the conference website:

Who is it for?

The event is of high interest for

* all active KDE contributors: programmers, artists, documentation writers, translators, promotors and other supporters,
* most KDE power users,
* as well the general public interested in Linux and Unix desktop systems.

All of them will find many very interesting topics covered here. They are all invited to come, attend and participate in our discussions and work.

I can't attend the conference, but I certainly am looking forward to the simultaneous release of KDE 3.3. It promises to be great, with lots of bugfixes and new features, like groupware support for kontact.

I can't attend the conference, but I certainly am looking forward to the simultaneous release of KDE 3.3. It promises to be great, with lots of bugfixes and new features, like groupware support for kontact.

However KDE is cluttered

and there is no central document that KDE developers can refer to in order to achieve proper usability.

Every option you give a user is a choice he has to make. Sometimes he doesn't want to make a choice, he just wants to get stuff done.

I find that most Gnome applications tend to follow the HIG and the result is a more consistent desktop.

Many say the same about KDE but my personal opinion is that Gnome is despite being different than XP and will need a bit more getting used is the more usable Linux desktop around.

dever