The K Desktop Environment community came out earlier this year with their brand new KDE 4.0 release that marked significant advancements to this open-source desktop environment compared to its KDE 3.5.x code-base. Meanwhile, the GNOME community has been living in a 2.0 cycle for quite some time with no signs of a major overhaul, but their six-month release cycles just continue to deliver new refinements and minor improvements. The plans for GNOME 3.0 just put this release out when there is significant API/ABI breakage to GNOME 2.0 / GTK+ or a major rewrite. Well, in addition to announcing Stormy Peters joining GNOME, at GUADEC 2008 they have just announced plans for GNOME 3.0!

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This is a list of ten tips that may help you out in getting started with KDE 4.0. All of these I discovered since installing KDE 4.0 in Ubuntu.

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This should help those who have a hard time figuring out KDE4.

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KDE released a significantly revamped version of its Linux graphical interfaces software on Friday, incorporating several features that also appear in Windows Vista and Mac OS X.

Among new features in KDE 4.0 are an enhanced start menu called Kickoff, new ways of viewing widgets and applications, a revamped file browser, and a new look to some entertainment applications.

Unfortunately for KDE fans, the upgrade to version 4.0 comes at an awkward time, just a few months before Ubuntu’s planned release in April of its “Hardy Heron” version of Linux. This will be the second version of Ubuntu for which its backer, Canonical, offers long-term support.

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Tried installing KDE4 on my Ubuntu 7.10 using apt-get, took me around 20 minutes to finish the installation. Personally, I don’t like the Vista-ish look of it, tried to navigate around, but it doesn’t gave me a good reason to switch. I like a simple, minimalistic look, and KDE 4 is not that.

read more | source: ZDNet Asia

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The KDE development community officially announced the much-anticipated release of KDE 4.0 this morning. This new version of the open-source desktop environment represents a daring leap forward for the project and includes many radical deviations from the previous KDE 3.5.x series. Significant changes are present at virtually every level of the KDE desktop stack, from the underlying development architecture to the user interface.

KDE 4.0 introduces the Plasma desktop shell, which replaces the conventional panel and desktop with interactive widgets. KDE 4.0 also brings compositing support and advanced graphical effects to the KWin window manager. An aesthetically sophisticated new theme engine and icon set called Oxygen increases the visual consistency of the environment along with new vector-based artwork.

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Hooray! to KDE users.

read more | source: Ars Technica

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Wine allows users to run Windows programs natively under Linux without paying a dime. However, there’s a tiny problem: programs running in Wine don’t look so great. They don’t even try to fit into your native GNOME or KDE color scheme or use your preferred fonts. You could use a Windows theme, but themes make Wine run extremely slowly. Luckily, with a little configuration editing, it’s easy to make Wine applications look at lot more like the rest of the apps on your desktop.

read more | source: Linux.com

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Now that KDE 4.0.0 is tagged and out and that bit of worry and concern is behind him for the moment, Aaron J. Seigo takes a moment to talk about KDE 4.0. In particular, He addresses some of the common memes, in fairly random order, that he sees about KDE 3.5 and KDE 4.0.

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Very nice blog post, this will clear things up.

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There are two dominant software projects that provide Linux with a graphical user interface, but only one of them will get long-term support in Ubuntu’s next version of the open source operating system.

GNOME, the default user interface for Ubuntu, will receive the support, but KDE will not. The reason, according to Canonical, which sponsors Ubuntu and is trying to make a business of selling the support contracts, is simply that KDE is at an awkward transitional period between two versions, the old-line 3.5 and the imminent and significantly different 4.0.

read more | source: ZDNet Asia

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Amarok is the ultimate music management software, and for a casual music buff like me, it
’s the best you can get out there. What separates amaroK from the other popular players in the market are its features which are targeted to make music management and playback easy, and a pleasing experience. Here, I’ve highlighted some of the key features.

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Amarok is my personal favorite although it is not a Gnome apps. I like it’s interface and ease of use (from my experience). I don’t have a collection of mp3s on my pc so I use it to play music from the web, my personal favorite is SomaFM’s Groove Salad

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