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Ars Technica: Deep Inside KDE 3.2
binner writes "Ars Technica features an article 'Deep inside the K Desktop Environment 3.2' written by Datschge and Henrique Pinto. After introducing KDE and the project's structure the authors present some new applications of KDE 3.2. After that they explain the key KDE technologies KParts, DCOP, KIO, Kiosk and KXMLGUI and give examples for code reusage and an overview of efforts to integrate non-KDE applications. For developers Umbrello, Cervisia and Valgrind with KCachegrind are introduced and of course KDevelop 3.0. An examination of licenses precedes the positive conclusion."
This series of articles I wrote with a friend might also be of interest.
:-)
It outlines some practical nicities that are a result of the technologies like KIO slaves mentioned in the Ars Technica piece, including:
Managing web sites (handling content without an FTP application, web gallery creation)
Extending Konqueror with view profiles (replace FTP/Samba applications with Konq, and browse Google easily)
Using KPrinter in any app
Enjoy
I just read up on it from Ars, and it certainly looks interesting.
I'm currently using Fluxbox, but at the moment I'm emerging kde...should take a good long time to compile everything...but I'm going to give it a run-through and kick the tires a bit.
If I don't like it, there's always 'emerge -C kde'
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
fan of gnome who always stayed away from kde and then evanutally dropped gnome in favor of fluxbox. I have to admit, that I tried the 3.2 release an I'm hooked. I will still run flux on machines that just can't hand;e KDE's needs but KDE has come a *very* long way. My suggestion to others now is to run kde if their machines are fast and flux if it is slow (like my old p3 500).
I find a usability problem in kcalc (the calculator program). That is, I don't see an obvious way to compute the square root of a number. I know that the square root can be computed by raising a number to 0.5 but to many folks, this is not very obvious. I also know that one can use the INV function. Let the powers that be put a squre root button of the kcalc interface. I must say that kde3.2 has supprised me in that my text was "spell checked" as I was writing this text. It was a pleasant supprise indeed. Thanks to the KDE team though.
Cb..
>>> For commercial development of closed source software, the licensing fees for Trolltech are generally accepted and favored among KDE developers since this ensures support for KDE/Qt in both ways: either someone contributes code to the open source community, or he pays the developers of Qt, both which directly benefit KDE in the end.
The problem with the closed source software fees is that they are outrageous. Shareware developers need not apply, which happen to make the Windows platform what it is today. Shareware developers should not be underestimated in their importance.
To get a license for both Windows and Linux for QT you would have to pay 2500 USD minimum. Gee for that I can get a universal subscript to MSDN, which gives me an IDE, OS, Office, Windows, Windows Server, etc,etc. And what do I get from Trolltech? And SDK! Gee, yippee...
My point is that shareware developers are not against paying money. Contrary they would pay money, but reasonable amounts!
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
Shaded and animated menus are not activated unless you select in KPersonalizer the highest eye-candy level. And neither fish, cpu display, network monitor nor timezone applet are default in KDE, they must be your distribution's defaults.
"and as someone who will go on record as disliking Trolltech and their business model,"
But why did you dislike their business model in the first place? I mean they've bent over backwards for the OSS community and they've also produced some dam fine software. Want to write free software? QT is Free. Want to write closed source software? Pay for QT just like you do with your software tools in the win-32 world. Should Trolltech have busted their ass for the last 7 years for for Free just out of the goodness of their hearts? Why do you begrudge someone who wants to support OSS but also wants to be able to make a living? Do you just dislike any company who wants to market a product and make money? Geez.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
I'm with you, I love the underlying technologies of KDE. But I dislike the desktop implementations of them.
I always end up going back to Gnome because the interface is cleaner and more elegant. 2.6 is due out in March. I just run Gnome and run KDE apps inside Gnome when I need to. If I had to make a poor analogy, I would compare KDE to Windows and Gnome to MacOS--one has the wider support for technologies and applications, but the other actually feels like a GUI should.
I find it interesting that Mandrake that is supposed to be one of the major players that supports KDE doesn't have a package there. Nor can I find it in PLF's (Penguin Liberation Front) packages.
Anyone know what's up with this?
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
...I've found that most of the smaller tools, that are typically shareware in Windows, is GPL'd in Linux anyway.
At least when it comes to hobby projects that grew into a "shareware" size project, it's very convienient to grab some GPL code here and there - and then you don't have much choice but to GPL it all, if you want others to use and enjoy it.
Shareware makes Windows what it is today? Huh? If I look at my programs they're usually either a) Free (as in beer, not speech) or b) Full-blown commercial. What's shareware? Mirc and a few other, not much.
Unless you count those that are "trial" or "evaluation" versions, but they are typically what I'd consider full-blown commercial, stuff like e.g. Paint Shop Pro doesn't strike me as standard "shareware". That'd be more like Mastersplitter or some such tool someone whipped up on a slow day.
If anything, it is the lack of shareware that makes Linux what it is. Somewhere around there's this tool that'll do what you want, or reasonably close, and it's free. And you can tinker with it until it *does* what you want.
What I really miss on Linux is the juggernaughts... when you *know* GIMP etc. just won't cut it, but there is no real powertool available, no matter what you're willing to pay.
In addition, you can take the "the market knows best" position. Trolltech is a business, trying to maximize profits. Issuing shareware licences would cost them basicly nothing. Since any company would want free profit, why aren't they offering one? Either Trolltech is irrational, or there simply is no interest, no volume.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I'm a Gnome user, but I decided to give KDE 3.1.5 a try about a month ago. I wanted to like it, but I felt the interface was too ornate. I eventually gave up without giving KDE a truly earnest go of it, but I will probably give 3.2 a try on another box. The main reason I gave up was because I had to repeatedly minimize and maximize Konqueror to get the main scroll bar on the right to reappear. It would disappear whenever I opened a new page. Still, I was impressed with Konqueror's quickness.
In a nutshell, I like Gnome because of its simple interface. I use the default theme in 2.4.2.
Personally, I find apps that have options not available in the GUI to be personally offensive. Text files are not intuitive, they are generally poorly documented, and are a poor way to configure a program.
If a feature is only available through modifying configuration files, I consider it incomplete.
The problem is this: lets say I want to change a setting. I can
a) search through the menus - hopefully I will find it before my third attempt or
b) use a programmer style configuration. This involves
- determining if it is in a text file or is a command line option
- determining which text file it is in
- determining what the name of the command/flag/whatever is
- determining the form of its parameters
- determining what its operational limits are
where in a GUI system, that is all handled out front. The worst part is one of getting help. Where do I look for help on a config parameter? I can't just point and wait for the tooltip, or pop-open a context sensitive help system. I have to find where the developer has hidden the documentation.
If its not available in some intuitive, context-documented options screen, then its not finished. I do not work for my applications - they work for me.
IMHO, more focus on framework is needed. Make a configuration file system where for each option you simply describe a simple widget and its tooltip. Keep it super simple so developers would be encouraged to use it as it would be quick to describe a new variable. Then, just make all the little widgets appear in an "advanced options" menu. No layout, no struggling, just a giant scrollable list of widgets with pop-up documentation. That's what a modern config file should be. And make it work on a text file in the back-end so that power-users can do their thing.
atleast they got rid of noatun or whatever that crap that KDE media player was. Good god! was it awful. :)
You dont know the pain of being a kde user and having to run XMMS!
oh well i use itunes on OSX now
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
About installation ease of use, I guess.
I've read a lot about KDE and KOffice, enough to try and get it to work on my little Cube (mac). For a couple of weeks I've tried a number of approaches.
- First, install Yellowdog on my main machine. No Go, unless they'll get the Boot from Firewire Disk problem resolved. I'm not convinced I have the skills to install this on my main computer on the main hard-drive.
- Next: installing the OS X "native" alpha, which indeed installed nicely but managed to do exactly nothing.
- Finally I've tried the X11/fink route which was very entertaining (if you're into that kind of mind-numbing fun) but in the end - despite following lots of advice I didn't really get from faq/help/manuals/fora, it managed to do just the same: nothing.
Now why would I share this with a bunch of geeks who can do this with their eyes closed?
Not to be humiliated by you, I'm already quite used to "you're stoopid, zat's ze problem" comments.
But to make you aware that a no-nonsense/no command line/no "first install this, then that, then go through the manuals, then ask help" installer should be highest priority in every project that tries to bridge the gap between superhuman users and regular users.
Of course I'm stupid. But I'm also quite adept on my own platform, I've been using it for the last 20 years (god, I'm old).
Let's wrap this up and tell you what I'm now considering, and please remember that I'm not a regular patient. I'm one of those people who still wants to use something even after being told he's actually too stupid to even install it. The normal reaction - I think - would be to feel better about ones own OS and think less of the one that doesn't want to be friends with you.
My next options are:
- waiting a couple of months until I can safely install Yellowdog on a Tangerine iBook I still have here, but which is still needed as backup machine for me and my wife in case our computers blow up.
- waiting a couple of months until the "native" darwin version of KOffice is out. I think they take installation ease of use very seriously. Although ultimately useless, the installation process was painless. That at least is pleasantly reassuring.
What I'm not going to do: tinker and tinker until I get KOffice to work under the X11/Fink setup. It's just too much of a hassle. There's no joy, and in the end I already have everything I really *need* to enjoy my computer. Curiosity can kill some other cat.
Rant over, have a nice day!
I think, therefore I am...I think.
i've been using kde3.2 for a while...
..
Today this rather wonderful dialog popped up just after I clicked to send an email in Kmail...
Attachments?
Often its the little things that really make the difference.
nick
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
I can't recall a killer app that provided the same (or even slightly better) functionality as a popular pre-existing one.
Google?
I find that yes/no is the normal order in English, no/yes isn't as natural...
I run it on my 300Mhz P2-laptop and it's fast enough. I also tried it on my 1GHz P3 laptop, and it ran REALLY fast.
On my laptop, full-blown KDE-desktop with Kopete and Konsole uses about 50 megs of RAM (well, that's an estimate. Running CLI-only showed about 5 megs of RAM being used, adding Xfree, KDE and Konsole in to the mix, bumbed that figure to about 58megs. So I would say that KDE might be using under 50 megs of RAM, rest being used by Xfree Konsole and Kopete. I don't consider that to be that much)
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
I would love to see some of the lower-level KDE features made available to gnome through some kind of thunk layer. For example, blending gnome-vfs modules into the KIO subsystem, or blending KIO slaves into the Gnome VFS subsystem would be very very useful to me.
;)
With fuse_kio, you can mount any KIO slave directoy on the file system, making them available to GNOME applications as well as GNU command line programs and any other *nix app.
Theming integration is also cool. Right now there is a gtk theme that uses the current KDE theme engine to draw the widgets. I would love to see a QT theme that uses the current GTK engine to draw widgets. Then a program like KDevelop might actually fit into my desktop.
The KDE people have done their part of the job (bringing Qt/KDE styles to GTK/GNOME), we're just waiting for the GNOME people's answer
"Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
Then you'll love what is, for me, one of the killer features of KDE 3.2: prevention of focus stealing.
Go to "Desktop", "Window Behaviour", "Advanced" and at the bottom there's an option "Focus stealing prevention level". I've set mine to 'high' and I love it. Never again will a popup in another application, window, or desktop mess with what I'm typing. This is especially important for me because I have to deal with a flaky mail server all the time, and at least once while I was typing this short message, it popped up a window saying "... the server may have gone down or there may be a network problem".
Now I have a beef with the Mozilla/Thunderbird developers for such a stupid UI and way of dealing with transient network issues, but that's another topic.
What application does rc.conf configure?