For those of you who have not followed the comment thread on the ‘On Favouritism, Apologies, and Black Helicopters‘ story: I there promised to write an article about all the customisations I do on KDE to make it look and (more importantly) behave in my own preferred way; as a sort of Christmas present, so to speak (it is not like it is a fast news day today). Read on!The first thing you always have to go through when setting up a new Linux system is choosing which distribution you want to run. There are about 3256356958 different criteria on which this choice is based, but for me there is only one that counts: package management. Since I prefer apt/.deb over rpm (for the sole reason that I know all the cli commands for apt from the top of my head), Kubuntu is my distribution of choice. It comes with the latest KDE (3.5.5) and it comes with all the various desktop applications pre-installed. It requires no introduction, I suppose.
After the installation routine, the first thing I do is run an apt-get update, after which I delve into the process of installing the various non-free codecs and applications; this is a desktop system after all, and I need it to do stuff Stallman would not approve of, like watching DVDs and listening to .mp3s. This process would have been fairly painless were it not for the fact that Automatix relies on 100MB of GNOME dependencies, which I refuse to install on a KDE system. Hence, installing the non-free stuff has to be done manually.
During this process, one very important package is installed: Microsoft’s Core Fonts for the web. This package includes my favourite font: Trebuchet MS. Everything on my desktop, except the fixed-width font used in the terminal and text editors, will be written in this font. It’s very pleasing on the eyes, very smooth. I use medium sub-pixel hinting (RGB), which can be set in, surprise, KDE’s fonts dialog (under Appearance). Font sizes are all set to 10, except for the window title which is set to ‘9’ in order to reduce the size of the titlebars.
In that same Appearance dialog I set the window border to Plastik; conservative, but extremely functional and again, pleasing and smooth. I prefer the window title at the center, using non-shadowed text. At the buttons tab the first thing I do is move the close window button to the left, replacing the window menu icon (which is removed). The maximise button stays on the right (symmetry), while the minimise button is removed altogether (more on that later); so we get:
Next up is choosing an icon set. This is always a difficult thing to do, as I want colour, but not too much; I want them to look professional, but not boring; I want them to be descriptive, but not too descriptive, and so on. This time, I have settled on Vista Inspirat.
As for the style, I normally use Plastik, but this time I went for Polyester, which goes better with the Vista Inspirat icon theme, as it is a bit more shiny. This theme allows a whole slew of options, but most importantly, it allows for centered tabs, which I really like. In the effects tab, I set the menu translucency to 90%. As for the colour scheme, I generally tend to pick something blue.
Next up, the most important bit, the prime reason why I like KDE: the configure window behaviour dialog (right click on a window titlebar). I first set double-click titlebar to ‘minimise’ (hence I have no need for a minimise button) and make windows lower themselves upon right-clicking the titlebar; these are relics from my BeOS days (this is standard behaviour in BeOS). I also set all the window actions to ‘activate & raise’, as this prevents any accidental clicks in non-focused windows; other than that, when wanting to shift focus to another window, you do not have to find a widget/button-less section of the window in question (this is default in OS X and BeOS). I love how KDE lets me configure these very specific things.
Now it is time to move on to configuring the panels. Since I have fallen in love with global menubars (like in OS X) I move to such a layout in KDE as well. I put the K menu on the left side of that panel, meaning I can remove the K menu from the bottom panel; the same applies to the clock and the system tray. My most used applications get a launcher in the bottom panel. Both panels are set to be transparant (with only a slight colourisation for identification purposes).
This only rests me with the tedious task of uncluttering all the various toolbars in the applications I use. This is a lot of work, and I will not bore you with the how and why of what items are on my toolbars. I also sometimes prefer text alongside the icons, especially when only a few icons are present on a toolbar (to fill things up a bit).
I have probably done more things to personalise my KDE installation, but these are the major ones. Rests me to say two specific things about KDE and its applications; first, that Kopete truly is a fantastic instant messenger application, for the sole reason that its MSN support is much more up to date than many of its competitors, something of great value when 95% of your contact list uses MSN. Secondly, the process of creating mailing list rules in Kmail is very easy, something which cannot be said of many other email clients.
So, what are your favourite tweaks in KDE? What settings do you fiddle with in order to tweak KDE to your liking? And, more importantly, why?
And speaking on behalf of the entire OSNews crew: have some wonderful holidays, everyone!
If you would like to see your thoughts or experiences with technology published, please consider writing an article for OSNews.
but you are really doing a dis-service to osnews by making it your personal blog site.
Even though i agree with you on GNOME and KDE and i like Vista more than any of Linux distribution but still i don’t think your approach of presenting your views is right.
So Thom i think it is time to stop and let it go…please no more such useless articles.
Edited 2006-12-25 20:20
OSNews IS a tech blog. Get over it.
I have understood it this way:
OSNews.com: operating system (and tech) news
OSNews.com/staff: OSNews blogs
jobs.OSNews.com: Jobs Database
etc.
btw. your “Media Kit” even speaks about OSNews = “[…] Open Source enterprise computing […]”
http://netshelter.net/products/branded_network/osnews.com/
… normally it’s this way:
OS = operating system
OSS = open source software
Maybe someone from the OSNews.com staff can clarifying what’s the main motivation behind OSNews.com.
I though it was operating systems news and incidental tech news.
If you don’t want to read something written by him, its simple, just below the title it reads, “Written by …”. Check for his name and ignore.
Secondly its Christmas time, or the festive season, which ever you prefer, not exactly a lot of “OSNews” at the moment so this is an appropriate time for filler material.
Thirdly. You can count 11 articles not by Thom in between his last two.
Articles are meant to be personal opinions of some kind. So if you don’t like them you don’t have to read them.
Big kudos to Thom. It is very nice to see what other people have came up with their desktops.
He’s the managing editor of this site, he can write whatever he wants. Sure beats Thurrott or Dvorak (or anything written by Gartner).
I’m not going to stop visiting this site just because someone decides that they want to publish more articles on it. That’s the purpose of this site anyway isn’t it? If you don’t like it, then you don’t have to read his articles.
Its a good article, and it touches a bunch of things of general interest that people have been talking about lately – customizability, ease of use, difference in desktop look and feel between Linux, Vista, XP. OSX. Its only ‘personal’ in the sense that it is one particular set of preferences, but the approach and the choices and the reasons for them are of general interest, they are all basically about usability.
The empty desktop was interesting. Where do people keep current files and why? In Home?
Teaching a class last year, all the students reported they found the same problem with XP which they were all using, they would often save their files and not know where they had gone, and they had problems with My Documents too. It never occurred to them to save them on the desktop. which they thought was the place you put the icons for your applications. It was made worse because most of them turned out not to know how to make new folders….!
Whereas people who have been migrated from Mac to Linux seem automatically to use the desktop as their top level file location. How do you feel about that?
The desktop is pretty usable in OS X. OS X relies heavily on drag and drop, to the extent of being able to drag images right out of Safari to your desktop; you can even highlight text and drag it and it’ll create a text document. Safari also defaults to save files to your desktop. In my opinion, this makes sense as you will most likely be wanting/needed instant access to these files once they’re done downloading or once you’ve successfully copied them.
On the other hand, ost applications automatically default to the specified “media type” folder. If you’re working in iMovie or iDVD/Applications like that, the default save location will be the Movies folder. If you’re in iPhoto, the folder will be the Pictures folder. Microsoft Word, Documents. Most applications, besides instances like Safari where it makes sense, won’t just dump files onto the desktop.
The empty desktop was interesting. Where do people keep current files and why? In Home?
I absolutely hate a cluttered desktop. This is my default:
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8006/desktopjl4.png
In my opinion, the desktop is purely a canvas, it’s not a file repository. Everything I work with is saved to an appropriate sub-directory in my home directory.
I’ll admit I’m old school, but I only use drag and drop between windows when it’s appropriate, otherwise I prefer to save files to a directory. I rarely use the desktop as a dumping ground. I cringe when I use my corporate XP laptop with it’s plethora of desktop launchers etc.
Just my personal preference, though.
I also like an empty desktop, but I use gnome instead.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/donley/333721656/
Interesting that both proponents of an ’empty’ desktop have widgets on their desktop..!
For me, the desktop is my temporary storage space. The files/folders there are expendable, but I have easy access to them at all times (by minimizing all windows / ‘show desktop’).
indeed, but as you might notice, the one I use, gkrellm, uses the minimum amout of screenspace for the maximum info that I need
So do you have any purpose for all that empty space then??
“The empty desktop was interesting. Where do people keep current files and why? In Home?”
Yes, that’s what your home directory is for. I too do not have ANY icons or files whatsoever on the Desktop since I find that utterly pointless and cumbersome. I tend do have most windows maximized (or close to maximized) so I hardly ever see the desktop. This is also why I don’t have a wallpaper. Frankly, I see no point in that either. What am I gonna do, sit around all day with an empty screen and look at how awesome my wallpaper is? Pointless.
The empty desktop was interesting. Where do people keep current files and why? In Home?
The files I’m working on are kept on my desktop; you can see the “KDE article” folder in the screenshot. I do this on any OS.
In fact, I don’t really care for what operating system I am using when doing day-to-day tasks (mailing, browsing), it’s when you need to do specific stuff that the OS becomes relevant; i.e. writing a report for university where you have 15 different scientific articles open, 10 websites, 3 word processor documents, and a spreadsheet.
‘The files I’m working on are kept on my desktop; you can see the “KDE article” folder in the screenshot. I do this on any OS.’
Same here. Files I’m working on are on the desktop, their number varies between 0 and about 50, depending on how often I get to clean up my desktop – very much like my real desk
Cleaning up means that about every second file goes straight to the trashcan since it was only of temporary use – again very much like my real desk.
I’d never put application icons on my desktop, though.
I either need them regularly, in this case they’re in the toolbar, or I need them only from time to time, in this case I may very well use the standard menu.
“…where you have 15 different scientific articles open, 10 websites, 3 word processor documents, and a spreadsheet.”
Oh yes, I know that problem
Are you using virtual desktops? I am ’cause I hate having more than two windows open on one desktop at the same time. On the other hand some guys seem to handle 10+ windows on one desktop just fine…
Are you using virtual desktops?
No, I don’t. They annoy the hell out of me (counterintuitive, but that’s just me). I’ve only been able to use virtual desktops when using Compiz/Beryl/whatever-it’s-called-today, since there they are given presence by wrapping them around a cube, but my desktop machine has an Ati Radeon 9000 128MB, and that doesn’t work well with either Xgl or AIGLX.
BeOS is really good in handling multiple windows because of the window behaviour (as listed in the article) and Apple solves this problem pretty well with Expose. Windows and GNOME simply suck butt in this respect as they neither have Expose nor BeOS’ window behaviour (the Rolodex in Vista is fairly pointless).
You really do have too much time on your hands.
The article made it clear in the blurb that it is not strictly a news article, but you read it anyway, and then criticised it.
I for one, like these kinds of articles, they are OS related and interesting. Good work Thom.
The days are already starting to get longer, if just by a little bit.
It’s a green Christmas here in Montreal…a bit sad, but they are predicting snow later this week.
As far as customizing KDE goes, right now I’m testing out Beryl, and so changed my setup a bit. I moved the panel to the top, made it smaller. I also changed the stock KDE menu to Kickoff (which seems more stable than kbfx).
For KDE style, as always, I have Lipstik with the gradients reversed. Since I use the Emerald Theme Manager, I don’t use Plastik but rather the Sky window decoration, which is pretty close.
Again, happy holidays to everyone, and see you in the next year!
It’s a green Christmas here in Montreal…a bit sad, but they are predicting snow later this week.
Wow. I had gotten used to the mild winters in Toronto. Grateful for them, frankly. And I wasn’t even surprised with the funky weather Vancouver has been getting, because, hey, they have it coming after all that annoying smugness.
But a green Christmas in Montreal??? Zut Alors! There’s something wrong here.
Since you’re running Beryl, just check out the Xgl snow plugin. That’s about as close to snow as I personally want to get this winter. That, and my tacky firelog DVD, it’s Chrismas digital style.
Joyeux Noël, et Bon Année.
Thanks…yeah, I’m already testing Snow for Beryl (with all sorts of transparent PNG images, actually…)
BTW, it’s not only a green Xmas in Montreal, but in Trois-Rivières and Quebec as well…that’s even more surprising/worrying.
I have only noticed polyester because you have pointed it out. My kde settings were similar, except I made all the buttons like MacOS. I forgot how to do it (I have a mac now), but I cant stand the way that the default button changes locations every time in Windows and KDE. I like it on the right, everytime.
Its a pity that not every KDE app respects that setting though.
“During this process, one very important package is installed: Microsoft’s Core Fonts for the web. This package includes my favourite font: Trebuchet MS. Everything on my desktop, except the fixed-width font used in the terminal and text editors, will be written in this font. It’s very pleasing on the eyes, very smooth. I use medium sub-pixel hinting (RGB), which can be set in, surprise, KDE’s fonts dialog (under Appearance). Font sizes are all set to 10, except for the window title which is set to ‘9’ in order to reduce the size of the titlebars.”
This is why I like FOSS. It’s not about having to reinvent the wheel each time you need to do something. Like it or hate it, the GPL lets you develope easily with other GPL software because the license lends itself to that. I’m not talking down MS here, but the truth is their EULA and software license is meant to create scarity which gives value to their product. GPL is about sharing and that’s anti-thesis to MS’s business model. For good or bad, that’s the way it is.
Myself, I’m not so interested in the business aspects of software. It’s kind of hard to describe, but to me, developing computer technology is like watching evolution in action. And right now, IMO, computers can be compared to prenatal life, and when AI comes into existance, it will be like a birth of a new life form.
That’s why I like FOSS, it’s not political, it’s because I see it as a catalyst for developement. In the paragraph you quoted, although it’s a shame you have to enter a grey area (for what ever reason)to use those fonts from MS, you demonstrate that it’s better to use what’s there instead of reinventing the wheel.
And that has what to do with the quoted text?
My guess is, that the OP refers to the EULA for the Microsoft Core Fonts [1], esp. the following section:
Reproduction and Distribution. You may reproduce and distribute an unlimited number of copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT; provided that each copy shall be a true and complete copy, including all copyright and trademark notices, and shall be accompanied by a copy of this EULA. Copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT may not be distributed for profit either on a standalone basis or included as part of your own product.
(emphasis mine).
While other sections of the EULA only limit the right to create derivative works (which is a pitty, but somehow understandable from MS point of view), the cited section is different. It makes it de facto impossible to include the Core Fonts for example in Linux/BSD/whatever distribtions (given one lives in a country, where EULAS are enforceable), since the typical licenses of this distributions allow a commercial reuse of the software.
Don’t get me wrong: MS is entitled to use whatever EULA / license for their products (incl. their fonts) they see fit. But I somehow wonder why the GPL is so often criticised as anti-commercial (despite having no sections to regulate the comercial useage of code), when in contrast many MS licenses (yes, I know, not all, but still many) make clear distinctions between commerical and noncommercial useage.
I hope the OP agrees with my analysis of his motivations, although I would like to point out, that I fail to see the “grey area” he mentioned, since the way you (Thom) used the fonts would be compatible with the EULA.
[1]http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fontpack/eula.htm
EDIT: Forgot to include the link to the EULA
Edited 2006-12-25 22:00
Have you ever tried Thunderbird’s filters? They seem pretty decent to me. But I have never used Kontact, is it somehow much better in the way it implements filters?
gmail.com filter system is decent.
Have you ever tried Thunderbird’s filters? They seem pretty decent to me. But I have never used Kontact, is it somehow much better in the way it implements filters?
Thunderbird does NOT have a “create filter from mail” feature that actually works; you’ll have to manually enter the filter conditions, while i.e. Kmail, Outlook, and Evolution do that for you (“Create filter on mailing list ID/subject/to/from”). Thunderbird REALLY sucks in this regard.
Edited 2006-12-25 21:33
Ummm yes it does, and it works quite well.
“Thunderbird REALLY sucks in this regard.”
Another REALLY annoying thing about Thunderbird is that when you’re using IMAP and have multiple folders on the server Thunderbird only check mail in the main inbox, never in any other folders, leaving you to do it manually.
Not my experience with the latest version… what version did you last try?
Maybe I’m not following what you’re referring to properly, but have you tried right clicking on the folder, selecting properties, and enabling “Check this folder for new messages”? With that, when tbird checks for new messages in your INBOX, the additional folder get checked as well.
My work makes heavy usage of IMAP bboards, and the above works decently for it.
Kmail, which Kontact uses for mail has mail filters and pop filters.
It uses pop filters to filter mail based on the mail headers, so you can screen out obvious spam and delete, and download and sort desired mail, based on the headers, bypassing the more processor intensive spam filter engines. So you don’t even need to download the obvious spam, it is deleted on the server.
The Kmail filters can also use regular expressions. One thing I use this for is if an e-mail header TO or COPY contains more than four addresses with my ISP’s domain, it is trashed.
I haven’t used KDE for years so I’ll have to ask…
Are the window buttons configurable by the user in a “button location” setting, or does the theme dictate whether they appear on the right or left of the window; and in what order?
Edited 2006-12-25 21:27
Are the window buttons configurable by the user in a “button location” setting, or does the theme dictate whether they appear on the right or left of the window; and in what order?
You can decide where the go, on a per-button basis.
I keep KDE pretty basic, widget style and Window decoration is Keramik, icons standard, fonts are 6, colours are KDE default and the various wallpapers for the 6 virtual desktops are created by me.
The menu effect is set to translucent at 60%, as well as the panel/taskbar so it doesn’t feel as intrusive compared to the Windows taskbar, K menu bottom-left, clock bottom-right.
Transparent windows I prefer, but it’s not stable enough yet so I had to turn it off again. 🙁
Oh yeah, Konsole is transparent as well, and without window decorations, I just like it better this way.
I’d post the link to a screenshot, except Deviantart decided to crap out on payed accounts. *grumbles great timing*
Simple tweaks here, too. Just listing the changes:
style: Keramik
decoration: Crystal along with some sweet Vista buttons for the windows
titlebar height: 16
one transparent toolbar at the bottom with
# menu button
# about 10 application icons
# 10 virtual desktops
#enough space for 2 apps to be listed at the same time
-no clock (a real one is standing right next to me)
-no device icons (I have one “my pc”-icon)
My console has zero transparency so does everything else except my toolbar.
Was finally able to post a screenshot: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/45341000/
btw, it would be nice to be able to reply to our own comments after the edit time has expired, new feature suggestion?
Edited 2006-12-25 23:42
“Was finally able to post a screenshot: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/45341000/ “
Erm… excuse me… are you really able to read the text of the KDE menu if you have text inside the Konsole? Seems to be unreadable… except this and the (ugly) Keramik theme (especially window title lines) it looks usable.
“btw, it would be nice to be able to reply to our own comments after the edit time has expired, new feature suggestion? “
It would also be nice to have the (pre)…(/pre) HTML tags available, if one wants to post (source) text lines or something like a tabular.
are you really able to read the text of the KDE menu if you have text inside the Konsole?
Actually, I am. Looking at the shot is a bit different from seeing it live, but I see your point. With a lot of text behind the menu it makes it harder to read, but usually that’s not the case when I need the menu.
(ugly) Keramik theme (especially window title lines)
At first sight I wasn’t impressed with Keramik either, but it grew on me after spending some time changing styles, colours, etc.. Somehow I find it flashy yet simple enough as to not make it annoying after a while.
I set my panel to the top of the screen, and reduce it to the smallest size. The kmenu is at the far left of the panel, followed by a taskbar and then a system tray/clock. Very space efficient. I use the default theme (I think it’s Plastik?), and have gtk programs configured so that they use whatever fonts and theme KDE programs use. [As a side note, I use a lot of gtk apps (Seamonkey, gAIM, VLC) and wish that they supported KDE’s global menus…this is the only thing keeping me from using them in KDE.] Titlebar buttons include minimize on the left, close on the right. Contrary to the article, I don’t see a need for a maximize button with today’s high resolutions, and in the rare instances that I _do_ maximize, I just double click the titlebar. The default KMenu on a generic FreeBSD ports install is quite cluttered, so I take out redundant programs (do I really need three notepads?) and rename what’s left to something descriptive (this is a personal choice, the phrase “Music Player” instead of “amaroK” makes me sleep better at night and probably slows global warming as well). I keep a Konsole running, white text on dark blue and with many tabs open to vi so that I can switch between files with the keyboard. Here’s a screenshot from awhile back, not much to brag about, but you get the idea:
http://joekiser.theunixplace.com/20060501.png
so I take out redundant programs (do I really need three notepads?)
no, but if one where to only include one notepad app, there would always be someone that would rant and rave on blogs and email list about the choice.
for a newbie, to much choice is bad as its confusing. for a guru to little choice is bad because one can not select ones tool of choice.
so its a compromise.
hell, there may be only one notepad in the default windows install. but there are 101 notepad replacements floating around on the net. some are just a variant one the windows one, some are huge beasts with 10000 syntax highlighting settings for different programing languages, on screen line numbers and more…
hmm, i even recall there being a issue some years ago about a editor called pine or something. it was part of a console mail program. and because of license issues the console editor nano was created. or just look at the eternal vi(m) vs emacs “debate”
all in all, there are no absolute truths when it comes to use choice, only compromises or heavy handed dictatorships.
and just like iraq and other places are proving, when one is used to having a dictator for so long, gaining the ability to choose may be very alien for some…
You do not have to use the other notepads, I like the options in KDE to me the easier it is to use and gives you plenty of options.
KDE is a superior desktop manager, it is almost to advanced for its time, hopefully people will see it abilities and advanced features as a plus not a negative.
You know that you don’t have to edit the menu by hand to get descriptions instead of names, right? kcontrol, panels, third tab: K Menu Menu item format lets you choose from name only, name (description), description only, description (name).
This is what I can get even on my poor 4 Mb integrated ATI RAGE PRO video chip on Celeron 500 MHz.
http://us.share.geocities.com/n_visnjic/PSLOS.png
nedvis, I get “page not available” from your link.
First link still not working but the others are.
Edited 2006-12-26 01:20
Same KDE 3.5.5 on PCBSD 1.2
http://www.geocities.com/n_visnjic/pcbsd/ssPCBSD3.jpg
and
http://www.geocities.com/n_visnjic/pcbsd/ssPCBSD4.jpg
Could you direct us to the wallpaper used in the first screenshot?
edit: this one http://www.geocities.com/n_visnjic/pcbsd/ssPCBSD3.jpg
Edited 2006-12-26 02:35
ghostdawg
I have verified the link :
http://us.share.geocities.com/n_visnjic/PSLOS.png
works fine on my Windows 2000 Firefox 2.o just fine
Thank you for your response : I’ll move file to another location and post new link.
http://nedvis.bravehost.com/ss/PSLOS.png
http://nedvis.bravehost.com/ss/ssPCBSD2.jpg
http://nedvis.bravehost.com/ss/ssPCBSD3.jpg
http://nedvis.bravehost.com/ss/ssPCBSD4.jpg
Niiiceee.. 🙂
I got a remote linking not allowed page at first though, re-entering the link from that page makes the site think it’s an internal link though. 😛
Sorry guys to bother you with this.
I just realized my geocities personal page has 4.5 megabytes per hour limit.
I then created new account with bravehost but then…
“remote linking of images not allowed” problem
Grrrrrrr!
I,m gonna create that annoying index.html and will repost link
sorry!
Will be back soon.
To get the screenshots without forcing me to edit WEB page index file you can right-click on link ( i posted before) and select option “save link as… / Save tagret ass…” to download picture files to your hard-disk.
Hi, zima , as you can find in small ( yellow) K-note in the same screenashot it’s a wallpaper from deviantart.com. The only thing I know about author is that he is from Chech Republic . Once I review my deviantart wallpaper colection I’ll find the way for you to download same picture.
Hi,zima.
“Could you direct us to the wallpaper used in the first screenshot?”
Guys name is Robet Mekis and his arts galery you can find here: http://robertmekis.deviantart.com/gallery/
The wallpapaer picture name/title is :
Liquid_Exferno_by_robertmekis.jpg
and is located here:
http://robertmekis.deviantart.com/gallery/?&offset=24
download link:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/31203304/?qo=31&q=by%3Arobe…
Finally an accurate link and valid WEB page:
http://nedvis.bravehost.com/ss/kdescreen.html
I like using kdesktop’s slideshow function to change the wallpaper at a regular interval. I set the time interval to two days. Two days is long enough to enjoy the wallpaper.
I bind the win+esc shortcut to minimise the current window – according to the simple goms model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOMS, this is quicker than using the mouse to target the appropriate task on the taskbar and selecting minimise.
that Kopete truly is a fantastic instant messenger application, for the sole reason that its MSN support is much more up to date than many of its competitors,
That’s good to know. I’m a heavy msn user, and I personally use amsn 0.96, that has the only problem of a graphically terrible Tk-based UI (the file dialog is truly horrible, and file transfer does not support drag-and-drop), but I feel it is very fully featured. A programmer friend of mine, heavy MSN user on WinXP, recently got a Linux desktop at work and told me that amsn is even richer of features, in some cases, than Microsoft MSN (I don’t know if it’s true, I almost never used MSN from Microsoft clients
).
However I’m always looking for alternatives. Gaim support for MSN is too barebones: how sad, given how clean is the Gaim interface (IMHO one of the few GTK applications with an outstanding UI). I tried to use Kopete, and I liked it, but I had serious problems with file transfer and webcam. However it was about a year ago. Has the situation improved? Can you make a comparison between amsn and kopete?
well, it gets better every release, of course. maybe you should try the one which came with KDE 3.5.5, it’s much improved (0.12.3, afaik) over the previous version (0.11.x).
Here you’ll see not default icon theme that is Crystal Clear but Nuvola (my favorite BTW) and working HAL- detected my external 80GB USB hard drive.
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/6659/pcbsd13teaserdi6.png
one of the things i love about the configurable windowdecoration is the availability of a ‘always on top’ button. invaluable, imho. also you can set a certain shortcut to the ‘window fullscreen’ function, so you can always set any window fullscreen – like a konsole, konversation, amarok… really usefull. you have to set this in kcontrol, tough, in ‘region and accessability’ at ‘shortcuts’ (first tab, use the quickfilter to find the fullscreen capability).
also love the ‘active desktop borders’ which allow you to drag a window from one desktop to another if you set it to ‘only when dragging windows’. (configure kwin -> advanced).
set focus stealing prevention on ‘intelligent’ or ‘high’ and don’t get bothered by randomly popping up apps… and the magnetic borders make it easier to arrange your windows, esp if you put it on ‘only when overlapping’, imho.
man, i don’t understand how somebody can use a windowmanager like beryl – bare to the bone. ok, you can use it, of course. but i would feel so restrained, it’s way less efficient to use.
ppl complain about the configurability of KDE, well, i’d rather spend time to configure something ONCE and have a more efficient workflow everyday…
[quote] man, i don’t understand how somebody can use a windowmanager like beryl – bare to the bone. ok, you can use it, of course. but i would feel so restrained, it’s way less efficient to use. [/quote]
you just have to configure it properly. after that , its really great.
i am using kde + beryl , and its one really great desktop.
and no , i dont feel restrained.
well, can it give a shortcut to any arbitrary window? can it keep a window on-top (with a button on the windec)? has it focus steeling prevention? can you configure all mouseactions, have stuff like focus-follows-mouse, magnetic borders, fully configurable shortcuts (eg for fullscreen) etc? point is, beryl is very new, and mostly focused on beautiful GL effects. and it does those well, tough with a really horrendous interface. but it’s not very good at just being a windowmanager, imho.
well … i am a fellow kde fan, like you.
i read kde dot news , the planet kde , i read your comments all the time.
now , if we want other desktop users to be fair to us , we have to be fair to others !
shorcut to arbitrary window : shortcut to start an app ? kde does that.
keep on top with button : OOHHH YES IT CAN !!!
focus steeling prev. was being developed in svn but dropped. dunno why , maybe dev’s couldnt make it work properly.
i think so , i can configure all mouse actions.
yes it has focus follows mouse , i think ( since i dont use it, i use click to focus because i use the kde menu on top like macosX )
magnetic borders , also has it.
should have fully configurable shortcuts , if one doesnt work its a bug.
i use beryl because its nice , its new , and its very usuable ( of course i have to configure it to death , and change almost every option , but then again , the same to kde )
my kde + beryl is beautifull ( really , beautifull , i even like it better than macosX desktop )
Yagami, i’d love to be fair, but last time i used beryl, i still missed most of these features. (btw, the shortcut is not for starting, but for the window itself. in kwin, look at rmb -> advanced -> windowshortcut).
the special windowsettings in kwin are very advanced, no wm does have that – but i could live without them, i don’t use them often… if beryl now works with multiple desktops and the kicker (didn’t, as well, last time, i was unable to only see the apps on the current desktop in my taskbar), i’ll give it a shot again.
well , to be fair to you , i am using latest svn ( i update almost daily )
and beryl has been improving alot since some time now
kwin , of course , its great
almost as good as enlightenment 16 
( i really like the multi desktop/ virtual desktop concept of enlightenment )
give the latest beryl svn a shot … spend some time working with it. its nice , and it can turn you kde desktop really beautifull
~
KDE has succeeded Gnome for all around ease of configuration changes and all around ease of use. The look and feel of the KDE desktop is one word awesome. At one point in time it was to clunky but it has been refined to the point where it is perfect. I use to be a Gnome advocate, now with the advent of KDE I have switched one of the reasons why I will continue to use Fedora because it has both desktops available instead of being like Ubuntu making you install one or the other that you do not have.
I think a lot of end users would switch to if they gave the latest releases of KDE a try, SuSE has a slick KDE interface which is nice to.
i still think Gnome looks better, esp on for example ubuntu.
“KDE has succeeded Gnome for all around ease of configuration changes …”
Southern.Pride, don’t you became a troll/framer? KDE has different desktop goal than GNOME has. I really think that both worlds are perfect for different users, don’t you think so?
I cannot compare the spatial explore of nautilus with tabs of Konqueror, even for you are more useful the tabs and for me probably the spatial view.
My brother has KUbuntu and me Ubuntu, both uses different desktops and both believes in “configurability” different meanings. If you look on “change wallpaper” in GNOME, you will not see “slideshow” option or gradients in all options (even they were in GNOME 1!) because GNOME strides to show minimalist options to the user.
Is hard to say that OK button has no sense because is redundant (in the line of Apply, OK, Cancel, because OK is ussualy implemented as press of Apply+Cancel). That is one thing that GNOME HIG say about.
I love KDE and I recommend it over the Windows users, which wants a “as close as possible” desktop when they switch to Linux, and probably that is the way, but I really believe that GNOME in therms of a new desktop has a different (and for me easier) than KDE.
I think that is better to think that KDE get the Windows users as GNOME has to, because free software is it all about, and not state that one desktop is better than another (KDE vs GNOME).
I basically set my desktop up to act like XFCE4- a taskbar on top, a centered panel on the bottom with icons for my most-used programs. I’ve tried transparency (such as can be found in kwin, or the fake kind) and I’ve tried transparent/hiding panels but they have yet to grow on me… Mostly because all of the things I’ve mentioned have tended to slow the system down, or make it unstable.
Some time later I realized I wasn’t really using KDE’s functions or interconnectivity for anything that XFCE couldn’t do, so I switched to Xubuntu.
Now my biggest problem seems to be getting all the different toolkits to look like each other (and with Xine, you just… can’t; the font is compiled in. When I get a chance I’m going to look seriously into switching to mplayer), and the way XFCE4 occasionally forgets to launch the desktop or the panels. As mentioned before in various comments I’ve made, I do still use some KDE programs like filelight, k3b and kolourpaint. I do try to avoid GTK+1 programs, though.
For text, before I found the improved font rendering package for Linux, I went through one of those ‘1000 fonts!!!’ pages and found a couple ones that render well with libfreetype.
I currently use “Bastardus Sans” for nearly everything, except title bars because I prefer them to be bold, and Bastardus Sans unfortunately doesn’t come in bold, or italic. It has an advantage of being well hinted, slightly unusual (some letters don’t ‘close’), yet thin, so my desktop fonts don’t look clunky.
It’ll even be more surprising when everyone from the USA and Mexico start crossing the Canadian border because of global warming.
Sorry but your tweaks are really ugly. Did you ever seen vista?