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KDE 3.x Installation On Solaris Discussed
Jim Hall writes " A recent Sun-hosted article looks at installing and running KDE 3.x on Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS) -based workstations. Author Corey Liu tries to shy away from the debate over GNOME vs. KDE, and focuses on how KDE is installed on Sun workstations and the Solaris OS.
Both GNOME and KDE are available at freeware Web sites for users of the Solaris OS. While Sun recently began to favor GNOME as the default desktop environment on the Solaris OS, some people still enjoy using KDE."
Author Corey Liu tries to shy away from the debate over GNOME vs. KDE
That won't stop us.
why? if sun can't handle their own servers getting /.ed then i think they need to retool their product toward the people they are trying to sell toward.
... I must say for one thing, that was probably one of the worst articles I've ever seen... A monkey could figure out how to stick the Solaris Companion CD in the drive and install KDE.
That aside, I would personally recommend not installing the sun provided KDE, but rather, the packages assembled by Stefan Teleman, available through ftp.kde.org. This is version 3.1.4, whereas the Sun provided version is 3.1.1a.
At work I still use AfterStep. Why? There's nothing there to fidget with instead of working. Today I'm working from home because I busted my knee and I've got Mac OS X. I haven't gotten anything done but surf, mess with iTunes and other BS junk like that.
Oh well, a coworker is still on TWM from back when it was the only choice. He's using it because everything else is bloaty. Then again, he personally owns something like 300 computers, many of which are VAX.
Installing GNOME on Solaris: Slow and Painful.
Installing KDE on Solaris: Slow but not so Painful.
This coming from someone who's successfully installed
KDE on Solaris but has yet to successfully install
GNOME on Solaris.
Oh, Mosfet had a different opinion about RedHat. Many developers were very angry about RedHat that never supported KDE properly.
6 57 505181&w=2
."
Bero left RedHat because of their cripple KDe policy.
http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-core-devel&m=103294
"Hi,
Effective immediately, I've left Red Hat (mostly in mutual agreement - I
don't want to work on crippling KDE, and they don't want an employee who
admits RH 8.0's KDE is crippleware). If anyone needs/wants to contact me, please use the addresses
bero@berolinux.org or bero@kde.org.
For any RH specific KDE issues, please contact Than Ngo
KDE 3.x comes shipped with Solaris 8 or 9 on the Software Companion CD. I highly recommend installing all of this software, and you'll get a fully functional compiled version of KDE that is provided by Sun and supported by Sun. There is also a readme under your /opt/sfw folder that is placed there by the installer and tells you how to add KDE to your desktop selection at the Solaris login screen.
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
Sorry, but you're only pseudo-correct. Qt has mutiple licenses, one of those is the GPL. The whole GPL, with all of its requirements, restrictions, and benefits. No more, no less.
;-) also give developers the option of not using the GPL: you can buy a licence that will let you do closed source development! Of course, like most closed source devel tools, doing this costs the developer money.
Like any GPL source, you can sell it comercially as long as you abide by the GPL. Many OSS packages are GPL, and we use them without complaint. Not only that, those nice folks at Trolltech
That's pretty much it. The developer is free to choose. Now, its not BSD or LGPL licenced, but that's the way it is. I can't figure why people scream about this (memory of the old licence situation maybe) and not about the kernel or GNU tools, those don't even give you the choice of paying for the closed option.
On the other hand, I can understand some folks being grumpy on the Windows licencing situation. But we're talking about KDE a _X11/Linux_ desktop, so I don't get where the angst comes from.
They'll think I've lost control again and leave it all to evolution. -- Supreme Being, Time Bandits
I've been using the two together since kde 1.1, and it always works just fine. Now and again you might have to tweak a header file or Makefile, but usually the core and 95% of the apps work right out of the box. (Sometimes the early betas just won't build, but I can live with that.)
I'll never understand why Sun went with GNOME over KDE, cos, in terms of stability at least, that's *always* sucked on Solaris. The only shame is that you can't, at least without *major* patching, build KDE with Forte.
Well written software requires very little effort to port from Unix to Unix. It's very rare I find anything written primarily for Linux that won't build on Solaris.
This makes it very frustrating when (usually linux) people can't see further than their own OS and fail to write portable code. It's not much more work really, and people will love you for it.
Pick your favourite and launch it. Then launch the other inside the former. (Gnome -- launch "Gnome panel" KDE, just see if you can start a 'session' within Gnome.) While there will be some non-compatibilities, you can arrange things to where you have what you want on each. Both desktops are excellent and the best of each is certainly the best one can do.
Strip out any really bad incompatibilities and save the setup. You have four places to put panels alone and can ofcourse place them on top of one another. When using a platform under development this saves much of the trouble of trying to depend on one desktop alone. Ofcourse add xterm, aumix and any other applications and utilities not supplied by the desktops.
The Linux version of QT being pseudo-gpl'e is a very common misconception. Trolltech's marketing speak is a bit confusing in regards to this... You will notice that on their site, they state:
"Any software produced with QT under the GPL license, and any derivatives of this software, must also be released under the GPL."
Which is true of ANY GPL'ed software. (Although, software based on a GPL library, is still a gray issue.) You can still sell your software in any way you see fit. However, you are obligated to release the source code for your software, under the GPL... to the people you SELL your software to. (Which brings us to a big misconception people have with the GPL. You ONLY have to release source code to people who obtain a binary from you. Regardless if this is from a free download, or a purchased copy. )
But following that, they state:
"As before, any user who wishes to create proprietary or closed source software must first purchase a development license from Trolltech."
Which means that due to the fact that QT is duel licensed, you have the OPTION of purchasing a non GPL version of the QT library from Trolltech, if you wish your derivative to remain preparatory. (Because Trolltech owns the copyright to QT, they reserve the right to duel license, or even stop using the GPL all together for future versions of their software. Which is something you CAN'T do as a third party, who does not control the copyright.)
Luke
I run an Ultra/2 (512MB RAM) with dual 300mhz UltraSPARC procs, and most environments seem sluggish.
I have several X Terminals (mostly dated laptops) and I have found Fluxbox to be the best for thin clients as well as at the console. GNOME was responsive at the console, but on 100mbit, it felt like I was running a 386. Don't get me started with CDE, it should be banned.
I'll give KDE a shot, but I have come to the conclusion less is better. If KDE can be locked down as quickly as FB, and is responsive, it will be added to my users' list of available DE to choose from at logon.
Of course this comes from a person who doesn't really care for GNOME or KDE, no matter what OS or platform it runs on.
The license for QT is only free if you make free stuff.
>>>>>>>>>>
The Qt license is the GPL, which is "truly free." The GPL has restrictions, but they are to preserve freedom. I live in the United States, in a free society. Yet, I am restricted from stealing from my neighbor. Am I less free or more free than in a society that allows me to steal?
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Try here for instructions on how to use TrueType fonts in Solaris. It's basically the same as using any other font: throw them in a directly, make a 'fonts.dir', then xset +fp .
Anti-aliasing isn't in Xsun yet to my knowledge, though. They added Xrender support in one of the HW updates to Solaris 9 (4/03, maybe? I forget), but anti-aliasing for Xft isn't there yet, as they say vaguely here.
You can always use XFree86 on Solaris, though I've never tried it.
Ubi dubium, ibi libertas.
It's really a shame that Sun took so long to join the party. They do this stuff better than IBM does. For all the success they've achieved, IBM's integration of various open source tools on AIX is... well... as ugly as the rest of AIX. Sun got it right and very few people seem to know about it. When you install the Software Companion CD in its entirety, a Solaris 8 or 9 box looks and quacks like a familiar Linux machine. The whole GNU toolchain is there, GNOME and KDE are both loaded, and everything acts just the way you expect it to.
IBM could learn a few things here.
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Need to check your facts, last time I looked QT was not GPL you cant do anything you want..
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;
When was the last time you looked? Qt was GPL'ed more than three years ago, starting with version 2.2
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
I have been running KDE on Solaris for quite some time. I wrote the ARTS Solaris sound daemon so I could listen to my ogg files. Generally I have had few problems with KDE on Solaris. The only problems I have are missing features in Sun's X implementation (i.e. no RENDER) and the huge number of additional libraries I need to compile to get everything working. I've also come across a number of nasty bugs in GCC when building KDE, but GCC 3.3.1+ seems to work fairly well.
I think the only reason Sun chose Gnome over KDE was the QT licensing issue. Other than that, KDE on Solaris rocks. It's also fairly stable.
I don't know why Sun has stuck with that god-aweful CDE for so long. CDE just plain sucks.
I've never downloaded the pre-built binaries, though. I need to control where it gets installed since it's running in a corporate environment and I feel more comfortable having compiled it myself. As it is, I usually need to patch a few files anyway for our environment.
Since I made it available, we've had many engineers switch from CDE to KDE. We had one lone GNOME user, but he switched as well (Sun's GNOME was too slow compared with KDE).
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