Monday 11 February 2013

KDE is awesome because it can be other DEs


KDE 4.10 was released a few days ago so I decided to tell people why KDE is my favorite desktop environment (DE). I was a Gnome 2 user. I loved Gnome 2.32, the last Gnome 2 release I used, it was fast configurable and generally pretty bad ass. These are the same reasons I like KDE except KDE is better because :
  • It doesn't need compiz for fancy effects they're built in. 
  • It's the fastest desktop for gaming, even faster than xfce and lxde. 
  • You can basically make any of the other desktops using KDE. 
  • It is generally more polished than any of the other environments eg. you don't need to use the extra plugins like in Gnome3 but even if you want to they are built in to the menus in KDE. There's no need to go to a random website to download them.
In my personal setup, I have an activity for regular KDE setup, a Gnome2 like activity and a Unity like activity. I even installed the app menu runner for krunner because I like Unity's HUD but that's the only thing that I use that isn't included in KDE from Kubuntu to get all the setups seen below.

KDE 4 Default:



Gnome 2:


Unity:



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17 comments:

  1. Unknown11 February 2013 at 18:19

    Make Windowmaker!

    Nice post by the way, I look forward to messing with KDE4.10

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  2. Unknown11 February 2013 at 19:44

    How did you implant the file menus into the panel?

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    Replies
    1. ShaneQful11 February 2013 at 19:46

      Everything on the panels are widgets so just add the menu widget to the panel. Go to add widgets, search for menu & then drag it onto the panel where you want it.

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    2. Anonymous11 February 2013 at 21:01

      What you're looking for is:

      System Settings -> Application Appareance -> Style ->Oxygen -> Fine Tuning-> Menubar Style

      Delete
    3. PrinceDhampir12 February 2013 at 04:30

      I couldn't find the menu bar in the widgets nor the Menubar Style option in Fine Tunning in KDE 4.10, do I have to install anything beside KDE?.

      Delete
    4. Unknown12 February 2013 at 08:56

      I could find the widget "Window Menu". Maybe you have to install it, depending on your distribution.

      Delete
    5. ShaneQful12 February 2013 at 19:19

      @Christof Kaufmann just search for menu in the widget search box. I'm running kubuntu 12.04 with KDE12.10 from the backports. It was including for me by default maybe it isn't in your distro but I'm sure you can get it form the get more widgets dialog.

      Delete
  3. Unknown12 February 2013 at 08:54

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Will Stephenson12 February 2013 at 09:44

    @Prince Dhampir: you may not have appmenu-qt installed. If it's not present, the UI to enable the alternate menu bar placement is hidden.

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    Replies
    1. PrinceDhampir14 February 2013 at 03:02

      Thanks I'm using Arch Linux. I Installed appmenu-qt it works for apps using qt, now I want to enable it for eclipse for example I found the package appmenu-gtk but i could not find the dependencies gtk2-ubuntu and gtk3-ubuntu.

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  5. Carlos Cámara12 February 2013 at 19:12

    Nice! I am also trying to achieve a unity-like deskop but I didn't fully succeed. What widget did you use for the Launcher? And for taskbar icons? I saw you can have taskbar icons, but didn't find the way to "stick" favorite applications.

    Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. ShaneQful12 February 2013 at 19:17

      So I used the icon only task manger widget to get the unity launcher. Unfortunately the way I pinned apps to it is a little clunky, you have to run the app,click on the launcher and then click the leave on launcher when not running. I also recommend turning off the separators in the icon only task manager as well as tweaking the other settings for it until you have it exactly the way you like to use it.

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  6. Unknown12 February 2013 at 20:37

    How do you get the icon tiles in "Unity mode"?

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous14 February 2013 at 02:53

      It's a feature from the "icon-tasks" Plasmoid. Most distros either ship it by defualt (instead of the task manager KDE comes with) or provide it in their repos. Just change the first option (called "Style") in its settings to "Use Indicators & Colored Background"

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  7. K-Ghidorah21 February 2013 at 03:16

    How are you able to alter the desktop for the different activities? Would I be able to use two separate themes in two separate activities as well?

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  8. dacresni16 August 2013 at 04:43

    is it just me or has the global menu option of KDE disappeared? I'm using kde 4.10.

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    Replies
    1. ShaneQful16 August 2013 at 17:59

      It's still there for me but I haven't updated in a while check which point release of 4.10.* you are on and check the announcements or bug tracker e.g. http://kde.org/announcements/announce-4.10.5.php, to see if they have removed it. Although I doubt they have.

      Delete

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