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It may be a hassle over licensing QT3. I don't know. But the least they could do is say so and if the product is dead, admit it.

I still don't see anything on the Linux development horizon that holds a candle to Visual Studio. I still get more good code written faster in VS than in any Linux IDE.

Have you tried KDevelop? I'm used to Visual Studio, and found the transition to KDevelop smooth. I especially like that it makes heavy use of automake and autoconf, that it supports CVS, and isn't designed specifically to make KDE applications. The user interface is very similar to that of Visual Studio.

There is also KDE Studio, which looks similar. I haven't tried this though.

Well we have the nice easy to use desktop, now we need to come up with some easy to use development tools. While I'm a Linux user and have been for over 2 years now I never develop or help develop anything. I did on the other hand look into Borland's Kylix for the simple fact that it's rapid development just like VB and it has a nice pretty little IDE. On top of that they have Open Edition for amateur or hobbyist programmers. For something kind of like Access I think Data Architect from theKompany looks like a nice tool. Then again that's just me, I'm sure you can find a ton of tools and IDEs for Linux of you just looked.

From their page:

MP3 files are great, and that is why we support them, but Ogg doesn't have any nasty license restrictions, compresses 10% smaller on average with 50% better quality, and our tests show it consumes less CPU on the Zaurus by a third, so this should also extend the battery life.

(Emphasis mine.)

Offtopic, I know, but sometimes being offtopic is justified.

Responding to the sig in the above post: "begin happy.exe See Microsoft KB Article Q265230 for more info." (Note that two spaces are required after the word "begin".)

Once I sent someone at Microsoft an email message that had a period as the first character in the body. This has a special meaning to some email servers, apparently, because Microsoft sent me hundreds of identical email messages in response. I had to call my ISP to get it stopped.

On Topic: In a way, this is on topic, because my experience is that Open Source software is less quirky and weird than Microsoft software. So that is another reason to use Star Office and Red Hat or Mandrake.

Another on-topic comment: It looks like Rekall with PostgreSQL would solve any word processing database needs.

I have Quicken running just fine on my Mac OS X system. I guess the title should be "Personal Finance Software for Unix*? (*not including Mac OS X)". ;-)

Anyway, google found these...

Good summary page...
http://vip.hex.net/~cbbrowne/finances.html

Various packages...
http://www.moneydance.com/
http://cbb.sourceforge.net/
http://www.thekompany.com/products/kapital/

I asked myself the same question only a few weeks ago. I came to the conclusion that Kapital from theKompany was the best option. You'll probably need KDE and Linux or FreeBSD to run it.

Somewhat ironically, I'm using GnuCash until I can afford to buy it. :-/

Both Kapital and GnuCash claim to be able to import Quicken data files, which is a very handy feature.

Kapital is reviewed here.

Freshmeat also has a brief review that compares many Linux/Unix financial products.

If none of these seems sufficient, maybe Quicken runs under WINE. Has anybody tried doing so?

I asked myself the same question only a few weeks ago. I came to the conclusion that Kapital from theKompany was the best option. You'll probably need KDE and Linux or FreeBSD to run it.

Somewhat ironically, I'm using GnuCash until I can afford to buy it. :-/

Both Kapital and GnuCash claim to be able to import Quicken data files, which is a very handy feature.

Kapital is reviewed here.

Freshmeat also has a brief review that compares many Linux/Unix financial products.

If none of these seems sufficient, maybe Quicken runs under WINE. Has anybody tried doing so?

If you are looking for cheap, maintainable, stable software to replace your current Windows environment, then look into this :

Slackware Linux.
KDE.
OpenOffice (maybe StarOffice or Hancom Office or KOffice).
Mozilla (or maybe Netscape 6 or Opera).
The GIMP.
XMMS.
MPlayer.
GNUCash (or maybe Kapital).
Evolution.
NEdit.

Or if you need anything else, check out Freshmeat.

I think anyone considering a new handheld should very strongly consider the Sharp Zaurus. This unit is very powerfull and very open source. There is a strong and growing community out there and several projects going on including a palm emulator so you can run your old palm apps. All these projects of course are opensource and in alpha or beta stages but there are several full featured comercial applications out there. One such company 'theKompany' makes several comercial apps including a media player that plays mp3/ogg wich has been out since before the first portable ogg player. A Jabber client for connection to MSNM, AIM, ICQ, and yahoo messanger.

I have the 5000 series developer unit and I love it. It is far superior to any palm device Ive seen. The only drawback is is that noone has produced an SD card of more than 128M yet and with the CF slot taken up by and 802.11 device you realy want more memory with all the qpe apps out there.

Rekall might come close to your needs (depending on what those needs are).

Something like Visio: Kivio. It would really be nice to see the community get behind this and create some decent stencils though.
The stencils and resulting drawings are in an XML based format.
The tool is there, it just needs marketing.

I just looked at the pictures of the ogg vorbis player... and I have to say, I was quite shocked by this one.

I was shocked by the amazing similarity between the (software) ogg player's interface and Apple's iPod. First iPod ripoff or what?

I guess this silences those who said the iPod's interface was "teh suck."

Even though the player is payware, I'm sure it's worth it. It sure looks like it from the screenshots.

theKompany is a good company which has done a lot for the KDE /FS community. They have developed Aethera, Kamera, KDE Studio, Kivio, and Kugar, all of which are available under the GPL for free.

Support the companies that support Free Software. Buy something from theKompany.

Even though the player is payware, I'm sure it's worth it. It sure looks like it from the screenshots.

theKompany is a good company which has done a lot for the KDE /FS community. They have developed Aethera, Kamera, KDE Studio, Kivio, and Kugar, all of which are available under the GPL for free.

Support the companies that support Free Software. Buy something from theKompany.

You can find more details about the tckPlayer here - it can be bought as a single stand alone app or it can be bought in a package of 9 applications for (for Zaurus) for $74.95 (details are here)

screen shot of their player.

theKompany released their Ogg player for the Zaurus today. Oh, right, and it plays those legacy mp3s too ;-)

Another reason to get a Zaurus!

Monty
xiph.org

theKompany released their Ogg player for the Zaurus today. Oh, right, and it plays those legacy mp3s too ;-)

Another reason to get a Zaurus!

Monty
xiph.org

You have XPLC (shameless plug, that's the one I'm working on), CrystalSpace's SCF ("Shared Class Facility"), theKompany.com's Korelib, as well as others, including the previously mentioned Bamboo and Bonobo, but others like KDE's KPart/XPart, Mozilla's XPCOM and OpenOffice's UNO. You might even count Microsoft's .NET as well, if you want to.

Clemens Szyperski's book, Component Software - Beyond Object-Oriented Programming, is an excellent book on that subject.

The Kompany

Why does The Kompany's website look SO bad in Konqueror. The fonts are tiny and HARD to read. Worse yet is that they are fixed and cannot be increased in size by Konqueror's Increase Font Sizes button.

I expect this kind of thing when I go to Microsoft's site but, The Kompany?? Don't they make KDE and Konqueror? Have they seen their site through Konqueror?

The product that he's referring to is korelib

The interview says "We sell one product that is GPL", but doesn't mention which product, but a bit of Googling reveals that it's Korelib, and in principle there's a uri for the source: ftp://ftp.rygannon.com/pub/Korelib/releases/koreli b-0.0.1.tar.gz, though the server is very reluctant to let anyone in. I got the message "Sorry, rygannon.com already has 6 users logged on. Try again in 10 minutes.". A bit more Googling reveals that there are RPMs and debs (libkore0) available, and I can (on my Debian box) get the source with apt-get source libkore0.

TheKompany.com

TheKompany's URL

• Myth: KDE is more integrated than GNOME
  Reality: The oft-heard cry of the noisiest KDE advocates. No explanation is given - the reader is expected to simply grok the wholesomeness of KDE, and the lack of this mystical quality in GNOME. It's nonsense of course. Neither desktop is particularly "integrated" compared to Windows XP, and certainly not compared to any version of the Apple Mac. Whatever "integrated" really means.

• Myth: KDE is easier to use
  Reality: Again, such nebulous arguments are never explained, and the reader is expected to simply understand the truth of the zealots statement. Both KDE and GNOME have user-interface irritations (indeed, all systems do) - but "ease of use" is not a simple thing to measure. KDE has never been subjected to detailed user testing, unlike GNOME [gnome.org], and the claims of user-friendliness are from crazed supporters and not average users. Furthermore, the KDE faithful rarely look beyond simple-minded copying of Windows, and forget that administering a desktop system is just as important as having widgets in the correct place on the toolbar. For example: What about application installation and removal? GNOME has the excellent RedCarpet [ximian.com] by Ximian [ximian.com], which makes the installation, removal and updating of applications trivial. KDE users are expected to fend for themselves with brutal command line driven systems. GNOME also has the excellent Ximian setup tools to handle various very tricky cross-platform and potentially risky system configuration operations - KDE offers none of this, only a few small half-assed Linux-only tools, which make no attempt at check-pointing to return to known working configurations.

• Myth: KDE is more popular
  Reality: In what sense? Arguably more people use KDE - but it is a close run thing. Most KDE zealots claim the results of online polls as proof of their superior userbase - which is, quite frankly, complete and utter nonsense. Online polls are the joke of the century; it doesn't even require a motivated script kiddie to render then worthless. A single post alerting the faithful on a zealot-ridden site can skew the result so much it makes American presidential elections look fair and well organised. Popularity is also difficult to measure when both GNOME and KDE are frequently installed on the same system. Indeed, the systems can co-exist and even run at the same time, except for certain applications such as panels. Many KDE users actually run GNOME applications for their superior features and stability, not realising that by doing so they are barely running KDE at all.

  One of the few solid measures of popularity is the adoption in commercial use - and here, GNOME is far ahead, with both Hewlett-Packard [hp.com] and Sun Microsystems [sun.com] committing to using GNOME as the desktop for their Unix systems. This also ties in with the previously mentioned ease of use - Sun's major contribution to the GNOME project is in the areas of user/developer documentation, testing, accessiblity and user-testing. Three of the less glamourous parts of desktop development. The arrival of the GNOME 2.x series will see these contributions reach fruitition and allow GNOME to make a quantum leap ahead of KDE in most of the basic computer/user issues.

• Myth: Konqueror is the best Linux browser
  Reality: Oh for a penny every time this lie is told in any KDE story! Konqueror [konqueror.org] is not a bad piece of software - its authors deserve praise for the work done in it. However, the sheer amount of orgasmic praise lavished by the KDE faithful is completely out of proportion to its actual quality. It is quite unreliable and even simple standards compliant pages can crash it quite comprehensively. It is also lax in its support of basic web standards compared to either Mozilla [mozilla.org] or Opera [opera.com]. It is also extremely slow - much slower than the latest incarnations of the GNOME Nautilus [eazel.com] filemanager/browser (a target of much KDE FUD during its development).
  .

• Myth: KDE applications are better/more advanced than GNOME ones due to the ease of developing in C++ using the Qt toolkit
  Reality: Easily the most common wail heard by KDE developers, and yet it is easily disproved by looking at the actual applications for GNOME/GTK [gtk.org] and KDE/Qt [trolltech.com]. KDE applications often have larger version numbers than GNOME ones... an old trick played by commerical software developers. Most KDE apps seem to jump for 1.x releases long before they are ready - KOffice [koffice.org] being the best example. None of the components in Koffice are worthy of a 1.0 release, let alone 1.1 or 1.2.

  GNOME applications [gnome.org] wait longer and get more testing in their 0.x stages and despite shorter development phases mature more quickly and reach stable featureful release states more quickly. Some examples of this are the superb Evolution [ximian.com] (groupware/email), Gnumeric [gnome.org] (spreadsheet), Pan [rebelbase.com] (newsreader), The GIMP [gimp.org] (image manipulation), Abiword [abisource.com] (word processing), RedCarpet [ximian.com], X-Chat [xchat.org] (IRC client), XMMS [xmms.org] (media player), Galeon [sourceforge.net] (web browser), and for developers: Glade [gnome.org] and Anjuta [sourceforge.net]. All of these packages ooze quality, and far outclass the KDE counterparts. It is no understatement to say that GNOME is at least 18 months ahead of KDE in applications, and pulling still further ahead.

  It's not only in the area of user applications that GNOME is lightyears ahead. With the forthcoming 2.x a number of impressive behind the scenes technology will finally mature: component technology (bonobo [gnome.org]), media (Gstreamer [gstreamer.net]), internationalisation (pango [pango.org]). As a developement platform, GNOME 2.x is, conservatively, 2-3 years ahead of KDE. And what's more, because it is not tied to a lowest common denominator cross-platform bloat-fest like the Qt toolkit, the lead (as with applications) can only increase further.

  Yet despite all this, we are still regularly fed the lie that Qt and C++ makes application and desktop development easier. Judge for yourself.

• Myth: KDE is faster and takes less memory than GNOME
  Reality: KDE is written in C++. While this is not necessarily a problem, it can be when Visual Basic reject programmers (which the KDE project is overrun with) do not know enough to avoid important pitfalls that plague C++ software projects. Stupid use of autoincrementing operators and iteration with C++ objects, and masses of unnecessary allocations and deallocations of memory, are two of the most common. KDE suffers badly from both problems.

  Perhaps the most cretinous of all problems is blaming the extremely slow startup times of KDE apps on GCC. The GNOME 1.x releases were hardly svelt (2.x fixes many of these issues), but GNOME is a fashion cat-walk superwaif when compared to KDE's 500lb fat-momma cheese-burger scoffing trailer trash. One need only look at the recent fuss over ugly KDE hacks (such as prelinking) to see the problem inherent in the poor KDE architecture and basic design flaws.

• Myth: GNOME development is slower. KDE releases faster.
  Reality: Fundamental misunderstanding. KDE releases as one big lump of code due to its use of C++ and the many problems this causes with libraries. The project bumps the version number of the entire KDE system for the smallest modifications. GNOME, on the other hand is componentized and each component releases on a (almost) separate schedule, bumping it's own version number but not the main GNOME version (1.4, for example). Occasional releases of the entire GNOME system happen, and that's when the GNOME version number is bumped (currently it is at 1.4). To see this in action, use RedCarpet and you will see regular updates to GNOME components. GNOME development is not slower, it is in fact faster and more advanced. Lamers and newbies, however, fail to understand the advantages of this method and just see KDE 1.1.1 followed a few weeks later by KDE 1.1.2. Wow! KDE roolz.

• Myth: TrollTech is a friend of Free software.
  Reality: TO BE WROTE -- IDEAS Qt started out as non-Free. KDE developers knew this violated the GPL, didn't care, stole others' GPL code by porting it to link (in violation of the license) with Qt and are therefore untrustworthy. KDE core developers work for TrollTech. Expensive per developer licensing for writing closed-source with Qt. Trolltech only moved towards the GPL because of the success of GNOME. Labyrinthine licensing nightmare. Gradual migration of features into Qt (and so into TrollTech's IP portfolio), allowing easy porting of apps to the revenue generating Windows world (see TheKompany for a perfect example), thereby making KDE irrelevant.

• Myth: Most good GNOME apps are actually GTK applications.
  Reality: TO BE WROTE -- IDEAS Most KDE apps, such as those from The Kompany [thekompany.com] are actually Qt apps because they want to port to the more lucrative Windows/Qt market.

  Myth: KDE is more than attractive - GNOME/GTK is ugly
  Reality: Mosfet liquid theme is an ugly and unstable hack. GNOME GTk icons are of a far higher quality than the cartoonish and confusing KDE ones. Qt is basically a Windows-look on a Unix platform.

This troll was reposted from the Troll Library without permission of the original author. If you object to this post, or if you wish to add your troll to the Troll Library, please reply to this message.

kdevelop
KDE Studio Gold
or just search through
apps.kde.com

• HancomEasyDB 2.0 == Rekall
• HancomEnvision 2.0 == Kivio
• HancomWebBuilder 2.0 == Quanta
• HancomQuicksilver 2.0 == Aethera

• HancomEasyDB 2.0 == Rekall
• HancomEnvision 2.0 == Kivio
• HancomWebBuilder 2.0 == Quanta
• HancomQuicksilver 2.0 == Aethera

• HancomEasyDB 2.0 == Rekall
• HancomEnvision 2.0 == Kivio
• HancomWebBuilder 2.0 == Quanta
• HancomQuicksilver 2.0 == Aethera

• HancomEasyDB 2.0 == Rekall
• HancomEnvision 2.0 == Kivio
• HancomWebBuilder 2.0 == Quanta
• HancomQuicksilver 2.0 == Aethera

• HancomEasyDB 2.0 == Rekall
• HancomEnvision 2.0 == Kivio
• HancomWebBuilder 2.0 == Quanta
• HancomQuicksilver 2.0 == Aethera

You raise some very good points but I think that you are looking too specifically at the OS, and not seeing the broad picture. Indeed, you are right, people want money, that is why we work. However, who is to say that commercial, even (eghad!) closed-source projects will never make it to linux? Oh, wait, they already have..
The notion of other applications -- ones that people pay for -- is what (IMHO) drives many of we "linux zealots" to say Windbloze sucks! Use Linux, it r0x0r5!
Stay with me, you'll soon understand...

If we get people to migrate to linux, and by people I mean a LOT of people (like half the desktop market share) then the people that develop games, the people that develop office apps, screensavers, etc etc etc and insert your own windows-like app -- will develop these apps for linux.

That is what drives us. That is why we want the global domination. Not for status, but for the recognition that, yes, Veronica there IS another OS, and YES there ARE apps for it and most importanly, There are companies that pay hackers to develop apps for it
The kernel will forever be free, because linux is the kernel. And anything else will stay free because of the GPL, but new apps don't have to adapt to the GPL if they don't want to.

--
Evan

Hancom is about to release their Linux/Win32/MacOS X office package very soon. It's all build with Qt meaning it will blend in very well with the KDE environment (cut and paste, etc...).

Given the cross platform nature of it, it is also very likely you'll see it stocked on shelves where as pure linux apps tend to be neglected by retailers due to their low sales. Hancom Word is a very mature application and is quite popular in Asia. The pro package a will contain applications from theKompany who contributes to open source(especially with their very usefull PyQt). Even tho it isn't open source it should be a good thing for linux in general.

I don't think anyone here has mentioned Korelib. Korelib is a The Kompany project and currently supports: Linux, FreeBSD, BeOS, AtheOS, and Win32.
It has a signal/slot mechanlism that is similar to what's in Qt, is supports scriping via Python, and supports plugins.

1) The great RMS (trying to stay on topic here) would disagree with your entire post, say "screw the proprietary developers", and kick your ass for not calling it GNU/linux.

2) If a commercial company is too cheap to shell out $$$ for a license from Trolltech, exactly how is it supposed to expect customers to pay for its software?

3) Small commercial software companies, if they have an eye on being profitable, are going to develop for the largest market out there. Right now that means ponying up $$$ for MSVC++ and an MSDN subscription, and not developing for a fragmented desktop. If/when a linux desktop becomes a major consumer platform, said commercial company will develop for that platform, regardless of cost of entry, because that's where the money is.

4) You seem to think that linux is all about doing work for free. "Linux" is an amalgam of many different parts, driven by many different motivations. Some of them, such as your small-time commercial developers, are in it for the money, and that won't change. (I have to agree about XFree86 though. Those guys work hard and their main reward is idjits screaming "X sucks")

5) You seem to be convinced that "commercial software is really important for the future of linux". I flat-out disagree and note that free software is what got Linux where it is today; can you back your statement up?

6) As long as you're trying to drum up small company support, there are already companies developing for KDE. Have you purchased one of their products yet?

You can create an LGPL library on top of a GPL library. You can also create BSD or X-style licensed programs as well. The KDE libraries are indeed LGPL, and see the license to mosfet's Pixie.

This means your second statement is false. You can buy a Qt license and develop closed-source KDE apps. Want an example? Try Kapital, from TheKompany.

reKall from theKompany is supposed to do this. I don't think it is actually complete yet but looks promising!

http://www.thekompany.com/products/rekall/

it currently supports mysql, postgresql, and xbase but is supposed to get support from more with the coming port to QT3.

It has has an integrated python debugger for scripting! sweet...

Whats more - it already supports lots of languages (not only English, german, french and latin-1 languages but korean, japanese, chinese and in the post 2.0 version - Hebrew, Arabic and other BiDi supported languages), as well as lots more software then Gobe offers or star office.

From what I read in this "review" looks like Gobe got tons of things to catch up before it will be even equal to Hancom Office or star office, so unless you trully want a BeOS version - I can't find a reason to buy it..

Of course if you are in the market for a Python GUI, you should also check out PyQT in addition to wxPython. A nice tutorial for PyQT by Boudewijn Rempt can also be found here. -willryu

Which front-end are you using for your MySQL-PgSQL Databases?
I am interesting from hearing about your experience.
I have tested:
- MS Access through MyODBC
- StarOfficce through MyODBC or UnixODBC (it is missing native support connection to MySQL but it is in StarOffice TODO list, maybe in forthcoming StarOffice 6.0? :)
- Rekall: it is still in Beta but seems really awesome
Do you know any other alternative which one it is your prefered? i would like hearing about you

Well, I have to say, Visio is really the tool you are looking for. Visio Network Edition to be exact(although i think the normal version will do, but VNE includes a incredibly large amount of stencils)
On the free software side of things, there is KIVIO which aims to be a Visio clone for X.
I can't tell you how far it has gotten, but it looks decent, and if there would be(i just don't know if the formats are compatible) a way to import stencils from visio it might just do0 the job.
Nevertheless, if you have a really large network to draw, my suggestions is to go with visio.
It is very capable and extremely easy to use.

Just don't forget to export the files to pdf or ps(maybe also html, but last i checked the html output of visio wasn't too fantastic)
As for standard symbols, check out some of cisco CCO's network maps.
You'll find a example of pretty much every way of connecting network equipment there, generally with nice example maps.
DO I sound like a Cisco Borg?;-)
The way these maps are structured and also the set of symbols is pretty much the standard(IMHO this is the way to draw network maps, but then again i could be wrong).
Before you start i suggest you think what kind of map you want(how much detail, just logical or real topology, do you want to use generic or product specific - generally i would say, go with generic symbols)
Another way to go would be to use on of the expensive NMS packages(cisco works, HP Openview) with which you can draw very nice network maps(actually that's just a effect of managaing via this products, maybe there already exists one of this products at your company
One problem might be to export this maps(i can't tell, have'nt used one of these packages extensively) and the map formats are proprietary.

For normal "drawing" of maps, Visio is definitely the best choice

Kivio is python scriptable, contains built in stencils and more can designed or purchased. (From whom?)

theKompany sells the additional stencil sets. You can buy them at https://www.thekompany.com/products/order/stencils .php3. Prices average about nine or ten bucks. Not to bad.

Kapital (from thekompany.com) can be a good Linux alternative - although it's closed source and costs around $30, but from what I tried so far - it's pretty good. There is a demo on their web site.

GnuCash seems to be good also (although not slick looking as Kapital - I like Kapital look), but if you're going to install the RPMs by yourself, prepare for some nightmares...

Kivio is python scriptable, contains built in stencils and more can designed or purchased. (From whom?)

The Kompany

They wrote Kivio - that's how they hope to make some cash out of it.

It is interest to note in the Hancom WebSite that the Hancom 2.0 is using:

Quata as HancomWebBuilder 2.0

Kivio as HancomEnvision 2.0

Rekall as HancomEasyDB 2.0

Aethera as HancomQuicksilver 2.0

A little look up into the Kompany page talks about the patnership.

Anyways, just watch out for not buy the same app twice.

On the commercial side, KDE Studio Gold from the Kompany looks to be even better, and they also have Blackadder for Python and Ruby development if you need that. And language legends Borland are in the process of bringing over most of their modern packages including Delphi (confusingly renamed Kylix), Java and C++. Right now, Kylix is available, with C++ Builder and JBuilder coming in the next few months. Again, as long as you stay away from OS specific API calls (that does for Linux and Windows), you can reuse all objects and source with a simple recompile aimed at either Windows or Linux.

--
Evan

I'm a big evolution supporter. Have always liked it. I like the fact that the entirety of the program is GPL'ed (Unlike certain products from certain nameless others.

But it's a little bit discouraging when you install the binaries through red-carpet, rm -rf your existing ~/evolution directory, run oaf-slay, start evolution and then find that it crashed consistently if you try to open the 'Welcome to Evolution' email.

I'll go file a bug report now... - James
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