My friends, I do not currently use KDE. However, I am seriously considering using it. I just installed the latest Ubuntu (11.10) and the Unity interface offers even less control than the previous Unity (and that's an accomplishment!). I don't want to be forced to have things that are not customizable.

So, here are my questions.

1. Will the applications I use in Ubuntu now (under Ugly Unity) work in KDE?
2. Will I be able to customize the interface to my liking?
3. Are there more than two themes for the UI in KDE?
4. How difficult will it be to migrate? i.e. Will I have to do some kind of nasty reinstall? I understand it's going to be a little more complex than a simple checkbox, but I am fairly linux saavy (old-school Unix, to be more exact).

Any information will be greatly appreciated. I am just so very tired of having to do things "their" way, especially when it's so ugly and user-hostile.

xmanmonk wrote:<snip..>
So, here are my questions.

1. Will the applications I use in Ubuntu now (under Ugly Unity) work in KDE?
2. Will I be able to customize the interface to my liking?
3. Are there more than two themes for the UI in KDE?
4. How difficult will it be to migrate?

1. Yes, likely.
2. In KDE yes, in Unity - depends on your likes and dislikes.
3. Yes
4. Easier than falling of a horse. Are you using netbook or a PC? For either of the two it should be possible to toggle between Unity and KDE. I assume you are using kubuntu, rather than gnome based ubuntu - the latter is NOT KDE based.

OldAl.

Just install KDE (or Kubuntu desktop) and give it a try, you can have as much desktops installed as you want. It'll be also possible to switch between them.

I am NOT currently using Kubuntu, but I am going to try it now. This Unity **** has just frustrated the poop out of me! It's like these people gathered all their old customers into a room and shot them each in the foot, and they're now inviting new users in. I'll let y'all know how it goes. Looking forward to something that works for a change...

Moved to Workspace.

Have fun with it, don't hesitate to ask if there's anything you wonder. I can already post a small FAQ:

Q: What's this transparent window?
A: It's the Folder View widget. In Plasma Workspaces everything is a widget, which allows for very useful setups. However, if you want a more traditional desktop, you can set it to contain icons by right clicking -> Desktop Settings (Unlock Widgets ->) -> Layout: Folder View.

Q: Why is it so slow?
A: This can be because Strigi is indexing your files for the first time. If you use older hardware you can also try to disable some desktop effects, in particular Blur, in System Settings -> Desktop Effects -> All Effects.

Hope you'll find KDE Software enjoyable.

OK, thanks for all the help. So far, it looks good. However, I'm having a problem deleting extraneous Activities. I have read all of the stuff on line about it, but nothing seems to be working. Clicking on the little square does nothing. Pressing Ctrl-L or Alt-R or Alt-D doesn't seem to be doing anything. Any ideas?

See this animation:

(From Plasma HowTo.) Unfortunately I haven't had time to update that page in a while, but in this case it's pretty much the same in newer versions.

Thanks, Hans. The problem was the little red Xs were not showing up. I logged out and back in, and now they are there. Probably some kind of bug there, but I'm not really going to be using that feature, so it's not a big deal for me anyway

I do have a couple more questions:

1. Is there a way to set my privileges on the system? i.e. Admin, or whatever?

2. I can't seem to add the trash can applet. I'm dragging it to the bar on the bottom or the desktop. and either way I get nothing. Any ideas? Thanks for all the help so far. I'm really loving this!

3. OK, I lied: 3 questions. Can I integrate gnome screensavers with KDE? So far, there are only two: blank screen and random (which randomly selects the blank screen every time!)

1. Is there a way to set my privileges on the system? i.e. Admin, or whatever?

What do you want to achieve? Running as root is probably possible but highly discouraged. For normal usage a normal user should be just fine (just make sure you're added to the necessary groups).

If you want to run an application with root privileges you can use

Code: Select all

kdesudo <application>

(or kdesu, but I think Kubuntu uses the former).

2. I can't seem to add the trash can applet. I'm dragging it to the bar on the bottom or the desktop. and either way I get nothing. Any ideas? Thanks for all the help so far. I'm really loving this!

You're trying to add it from the add widgets dialog, right? In that case your widgets should already be unlocked, so adding it to the desktop shouldn't be a problem. The panel is a bit more tricky (unfortunately), you have to add it between two widgets, so you can't e.g. drag it over the task manager.

Not sure how I can help you with this one. Does it work with other widgets? Does double-clicking instead of dragging work?

3. OK, I lied: 3 questions. Can I integrate gnome screensavers with KDE? So far, there are only two: blank screen and random (which randomly selects the blank screen every time!)

I'm not very familiar with this subject, but as far as I know GNOME uses its own screensaver implementation (gnome-screensaver) which is not compatible with KDE. You probably miss a package for the KDE screensavers. I'm not a Kubuntu user, but I think the package is simply called kscreensaver. KScreensaver also has support for xscreensaver, but you need to install additional packages for that (probably called something like kscreensaver-xsavers, xscreensaver etc.).

Don't get too attached to it though, the old screensavers will be replaced by a new implementation in future versions of KDE Plasma Workspaces.

1. OK, thanks for the response. As for privileges, I'm not looking to login as root. I just seem to be having problems launching certain apps unless I put a sudo in front of them and manually launch them from a command line. For example, I can't seem to run synaptic package manager unless I sudo it. I should have administrator rights, so is there a way to do that?

2. None of the applets will attach to the desktop or anywhere on the panel. Period. Any help will be greatly appreciated here.

3. I'll look for that. Anything would be better than just blanking the screen, although this is just eye candy -- not exactly mission critical to anything

Thanks!

1. kdesu and kdesudo works in simmilar to su and sudo, they require an argument, so "kdesudo synaptic" will do the trick. You should read some introductory course about user accounts, superuser rights and how do they work/switch, you seem to miss that a bit Here you have some explanations: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

2. Are you sure panel is unlocked? This seems strange. Try this: click on yellow blob icon on the right side of panel → add element → double click on desired one. It has to work, otherwise it's a bug and you should report it.

I'm back. I installed Mint KDE, and all is well. Thanks for all the help.

xmanmonk wrote:1. OK, thanks for the response. As for privileges, I'm not looking to login as root. I just seem to be having problems launching certain apps unless I put a sudo in front of them and manually launch them from a command line. For example, I can't seem to run synaptic package manager unless I sudo it. I should have administrator rights, so is there a way to do that?

Synaptic will always require proper identification as it can only be run as root. The same is true of any programme tinkering with the file system (gparted et al) and you have to call up systemsettings as root (kdesu systemsettings) if you want to make changes to the kdm set up.