Hi!!

I'm a long time KDE user and (retired) developer that has been invited to a big IT event in my country to give a talk about KDE, with the objective of showing all of it's features, beauty and awesomeness. My idea for the talk is to make it very demonstration oriented, show all the neat features that KDE 4.4 has, leaving the attendants stunned with what they are going to see. I won't use KDE 4.5 betas because if I use it instead of the latest stable release, there will be many features that the attendants to the talk won't be able to try inmediately after. Instead, I will have like a "Roadmap" section on the talk, talking about what is comming in the next version, and if possible, the future vision and ideas that the devs have of where the project is going.

The suggested name for the talk is "KDE 4: Breaking Paradigms"
Target audience: People that likes to break paradigms

With what I need help from you guys is, let me know what you consider something that I can't miss to show or talk about on my presentation. For now this is what I have in mind to showcase:

* Kwin effects:
- Desktop grid
- Present windows
- Cover switch
- Slide, fade and cube desktop switching effects
- thumbnail aside
- slide back of windows

* Tabbed windows

* Get Hot New Stuff

* Activities: can someone explain me the use of these and give also some examples of their use ? I think I have basic understanding of their purpose but it would help me to know the opinions of others that maybe use them on a daily basis.

* Nepomuk: I haven't tried it yet, last time I used it some years ago it would eat up all of my precious CPU cycles. Is there an exceptional use case that I should demonstrate?

* Plasma:
- Social features: I have seen some applets for this but I'm not use if at this point it goes more than an applet to log-in to opendesktop.org and the microblogging applet.
- The plasma container: dragging text the desktop to create a note or a picture to put in a frame, etc.
- cool applets like ?
- the netbook shell
- applets with the screensaver on (like leave a note)

* krunner and it's runners like calculator, search for contacts, control amarok (I have to figure this one out first), nepomuk integration, unit converter, etc

* Phonon applications, any cool demo to show here?
* Removable media manager and notifications.
* Applications like digikam, amarok, ktorrent, kontact, kopete with it's facebook and skype integration, blogilo, okular, krita, koffice, ksnapshot, rekonq, any other ??

* Experimental stuff like KDE on cellphones (I have seen some videos on youtube about this), or about a plasma media center I read sometime somewhere not so long ago.

The presentation would also include some of KDE's history, and platform components (plasma, phonon, solid, nepomuk, etc) and architecture, but not very technical.

Also as I said before, it would be good to talk about the new features that will come with KDE 4.5 or visionary stuff that devs want to do, or any other thing you think is worth mentioning.

Also another point that probably could arise from users from other desktop enviroments, is the resource usage, like RAM memory consumption. I have noticed that althought KDE 4 uses more RAM than it's predecessor, I think the increase is a small amount compared to all that we have gained feature/eye candy wise with the latest releases. Does anyone have some more detailed comparision that I could use as an argument in such case ?

When finished and if people likes it, I will put my presentation online I and if I have the time I'll translate it to English too so anyone can use it.

Many thanks in advance for your thoughts and insights on this.

Juancho

Activities:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=7671

Additional applications:

Choqok for Twitter and identi.ca
Quassel for irc: Make sure you talk about both the monolithic and the client/server versions. I just installed the client/server version on my Ubuntu server and it was REALLY easy.
Kontact - The PIM is for me one of the strong points of KDE.
The built in remote server/client is also a good point - you can remote control a Windows server as well

But I think the point that you should put on top of your presentation is the community. It is the most important part of the KDE ecosystem. People that spend countless hours contributing in various ways. And there is no charge for the end-user.

Just a few extra points. Good luck with your presentation.

Nepomuk - the CPU cycles problem was a bug that is now resolved. Nepomuk isn't too heavy on resources, but Strigi indexing is, so less powerful systems may have to disable it, or just pause it while doing any "heavy" work.

Activities - ask the experts Here are two blogs that will give you some ideas -

http://chani.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/t ... ctivities/
http://chani.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/t ... -desktops/

Note the dates - they may be relevant to some things.

Hi,

Oceanwatcher wrote:Activities:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=7671

Nice reading, thanks.

Oceanwatcher wrote:Additional applications:

Quassel for irc: Make sure you talk about both the monolithic and the client/server versions. I just installed the client/server version on my

Didn't knew that was possible, I'll look into that.

Oceanwatcher wrote:The built in remote server/client is also a good point - you can remote control a Windows server as well

Do you mean like windows terminal services ?

Oceanwatcher wrote:But I think the point that you should put on top of your presentation is the community. It is the most important part of the KDE ecosystem. People that spend countless hours contributing in various ways. And there is no charge for the end-user.

Yes, talking about the community is very important too, both a the user and developer levels.

Thanks for your input.

annew wrote:Nepomuk - the CPU cycles problem was a bug that is now resolved. Nepomuk isn't too heavy on resources, but Strigi indexing is, so less powerful systems may have to disable it, or just pause it while doing any "heavy" work.

Ok, I'll play with it tonight and see how it goes

annew wrote:Activities - ask the experts Here are two blogs that will give you some ideas -

http://chani.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/t ... ctivities/
http://chani.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/t ... -desktops/

Note the dates - they may be relevant to some things.

Good readings too, I like the path activities are taking.

Thanks for your input anne.

mazter wrote:* Activities: can someone explain me the use of these and give also some examples of their use ? I think I have basic understanding of their purpose but it would help me to know the opinions of others that maybe use them on a daily basis.

Some examples here: http://hanschen.org/2009/11/17/how-do-y ... ctivities/
You're allowed to use the screenshots if you want.

* Nepomuk: I haven't tried it yet, last time I used it some years ago it would eat up all of my precious CPU cycles. Is there an exceptional use case that I should demonstrate?

If you have Nepomuk and Strigi enabled now, you can show Search in Dolphin and the timeline:/ KIO slave (type timeline:/ in the location bar).

- cool applets like ?

Some suggestions:
- Blackboard
- Dictionary
- Folder View
- RSSNOW/News
- Pastebin
- Webslice

Maybe some third-party widgets, such as
- Smooth Tasks, show that everything is a widget, even the task manager

* krunner and it's runners like calculator, search for contacts, control amarok (I have to figure this one out first), nepomuk integration, unit converter, etc

Clicking on [?] will show you the syntax of all enabled runners.

* Phonon applications, any cool demo to show here?

Not sure what to show here, as far as I understand Phonon makes it easier for developers - users shouldn't be aware of it that much.

* Applications like digikam, amarok, ktorrent, kontact, kopete with it's facebook and skype integration, blogilo, okular, krita, koffice, ksnapshot, rekonq, any other ??

- Dolphin for file management
- Maybe System Settings
- Maybe some game and/or educational application? There are some excellent ones out there

Some other comments:

How much time do you have? It sounds like you want to show a lot, but remember that it can easily get overwhelming for the audience. What kind of audience are we talking about - do they know about KDE from before, do they know what an operative system is etc.?

If the majority of the audience are "normal" computer users, you could show that KDE Software also runs on other operative systems such as Windows.

Finally, there are some templates for slides that you can use here: http://www.kde.org/kdeslides/

Hans wrote:Some examples here: http://hanschen.org/2009/11/17/how-do-y ... ctivities/
You're allowed to use the screenshots if you want.

Thanks for that, that really opened my eyes about the dimensions of what can be done with activites.

Hans wrote:

* Phonon applications, any cool demo to show here?

Not sure what to show here, as far as I understand Phonon makes it easier for developers - users shouldn't be aware of it that much.

What I meant, I remember that when KDE 4.0 just camed out there was a demo somewhere about switching phonon backends and the sound of a music player wouldn't stop, you would hear a small "gitch" when the change was done.

Hans wrote:- Maybe some game and/or educational application? There are some excellent ones out there

Good idea too.

Hans wrote:Some other comments:

How much time do you have? It sounds like you want to show a lot, but remember that it can easily get overwhelming for the audience.

An hour and a half. Yeah, probably I wan to show more than I can, I'm just trying to get my ideas clear and get some input on how to give a really nice talk.

Hans wrote:What kind of audience are we talking about - do they know about KDE from before, do they know what an operative system is etc.?

Probably many types. This event gathers people from diffents areas, it isn't just technology. There could be free software lovers, IT guys, as gamers, bloggers, people that like astronomy, etc. Maybe the people interested on the talk will be the ones that already know what KDE is, or those that the description of the talk called their attention, I tried to make it sound as attractive as possible

Hans wrote:If the majority of the audience are "normal" computer users, you could show that KDE Software also runs on other operative systems such as Windows.

Excellent idea too, I had thought of this before but totally forgot it.

Hans wrote:Finally, there are some templates for slides that you can use here: http://www.kde.org/kdeslides/

Yes, I know about them, I have used them in some other talks before in prior versions of this event in the past.

Thanks !!

I think the key issue is that KDE is changing the way people interact with devices. In the 1970s Xerox developed a system in which you created a window and then ran an application in it. The application could be a clock or a database or a graphics program.

Then in the 1980s commercial companies invented the desktop paradigm in which the computer was seen as an analogue of a desktop. KDE was originally intended to provide Linux which such an analogue.

But KDE has moved away from that model back to making the interface a window within which the user creates other windows in which things happen. There is a desktop folder for those who still want a desktop interface but that is now optional.

Such a view makes it much easier to conceive of a common interface for a mobile phone, a pad, a netbook, a laptop or a computer which each person can customise with the windows which they want on each particular interface.

Yes there are some groundbreaking programs within the KDE software collection but I think the philosophy that underpins them is the really groundbreaking aspect of KDE.

Hans wrote:Some examples here: http://hanschen.org/2009/11/17/how-do-y ... ctivities/
You're allowed to use the screenshots if you want.

Hi Hans,

I noticed that in your screenshots you have activities without a panel and others with it. How you manage to do that? If I add or remove a panel from any activity it will be added or removed from all activies.

Other couple of questions:

I have been trying to use the OpenDesktop widgets with no luck. I add one to the desktop, configure it with my user name and password from opendesktop.org and nothing happens. I click again on the configuration options of the widget and the user name and password are empty. I tried with the Open Collaboration Services Provider Management in advanced options from System Settings too, the "Testing Login..." button will say it could authenticate but it still will forget the credentials and the open desktop widget won't do anything.

Also, the knowledge base widget configuration dialog only has an option to register with open desktop, not to log in, so how is this one used ?

The other question is, how does the sharing of applets over the network works ? I published a notes applet on my desktop pc but now how can I use it from my laptop ? or how is this supposed to work ?

I'm KDE 4.4.2 btw

Ok I found this for the sharing of widgets over the network:

viewtopic.php?f=67&t=85953

mazter wrote:

Hans wrote:Some examples here: http://hanschen.org/2009/11/17/how-do-y ... ctivities/
You're allowed to use the screenshots if you want.

Hi Hans,

I noticed that in your screenshots you have activities without a panel and others with it. How you manage to do that? If I add or remove a panel from any activity it will be added or removed from all activies.

If you look at this screenshot, you'll see that I have two activities next to each other. This is because I use a dual screen setup, i.e. I have two monitors.

Prior to 4.5 the activities on the two monitors switch independently, so if I switch the activity on the left screen nothing happens on the right. This is how I use activities - the activity on the right screen always stay the same, while I switch the left activity.

Since only the left activity changes, I only posted screenshots from that screen. The panel you see in this screenshot is auto-hidden and only shows up when I move my mouse there.

EDIT: By the way, you can edit your posts by clicking on . This is often preferred to posting multiple posts right after each other.

Hans wrote:If you look at this screenshot, you'll see that I have two activities next to each other. This is because I use a dual screen setup, i.e. I have two monitors.

Prior to 4.5 the activities on the two monitors switch independently, so if I switch the activity on the left screen nothing happens on the right. This is how I use activities - the activity on the right screen always stay the same, while I switch the left activity.

Ok, but this doesn't clearify my doubt, you seem to have two activities with different panels, and in 4.4 I can't do that, all activities share the same panels. Or is this a feature only available with dual screen setups ?

Hans wrote:EDIT: By the way, you can edit your posts by clicking on . This is often preferred to posting multiple posts right after each other.

I'm aware of that feature, but I deliberately didn't use this time. I usually edit my posts when soon after I post them I find some mistake that needs to be fixed, but when some time has passed by (even if it is short), I prefer to do a new reply because there can be people that already read my answer and if I edit it to add new content to it, probably they will miss it. This won't happen with a new reply instead of an edit.

mazter wrote:Ok, but this doesn't clearify my doubt, you seem to have two activities with different panels, and in 4.4 I can't do that, all activities share the same panels. Or is this a feature only available with dual screen setups ?

The thing with dual screens is that you have two activities, one on each screen. So yes, I have two different panels on the left and right screens. However, they don't change when I switch activity on either screen.

Hans wrote:The thing with dual screens is that you have two activities, one on each screen. So yes, I have two different panels on the left and right screens. However, they don't change when I switch activity on either screen.

Ahh ok, I think I have it clear now.

Is this something that on the future will be possible to do with single screen setups? it would be great to be able to have independent panels on each activity as it happens with dual monitors.