Reminiscing About The KDE 3 Days? Now You Can Get One Step Closer With Crystal Icons!

Do you ever find yourself reminiscing about the KDE 3 good old days (How many of you remember Krusader)? Well, you don't have to wait anymore, at least in one aspect. It appears that U.K. based developer Viet Dang has been quietly working on bringing back an old favorite - the original Crystal icon set - from the days of KDE past. Renamed "Crystal Remix", it is apparently in good enough shape for an initial version 1 release.  And it took some work to get there.

Some of the icons from the revived
Crystal Remix icon collection

Apparently, the icon set was long gone from the KDE repositories and archives, so some initial digging around the world wide web was required to start piecemealing together a representation of that original set. As you can imagine, a lot of things have changed since then, so many of the icons were not relevant any longer. Further complicating things was the fact that there are many new applications in the Linux and KDE worlds since KDE 3. So new icons for some applications were in order. For these missing icons the author used Krita to get the job done. Additional work had to be done because the naming conventions for icons all changed during the migration to Plasma 5.

The original KDE 3 courtesy
of KDE.org

The icon sets is available for download via the Get New Stuff section in System Settings. It can also be found in the KDE store, where you can rate, leave a comment, or offer to help Viet with missing icons should you choose.

Being a version 1 release, it should be expected that some icons might be missing for applications that you use. Feel free to contribute, as it really would be neat to see this "iconic" icon set - sorry just had to say that - reach full maturity for those who feel that the flat material design concept, which is all the rage these days, just perhaps isn't their cup of tea. Or just want to get things done like it's 2003.

Crystal Remix icons as seen in Dolphin

Who knows? Maybe this can inspire someone to make a KDE 3 Look and Feel pack for Plasma...

Links

- Crystal Remix announcement page
- Crystal Remix icons in the KDE Store

Read more "Reminiscing About The KDE 3 Days? Now You Can Get One Step Closer With Crystal Icons!"

Kid3 Audio Tagger Released With New Features On Linux And Android

Kid3 is a versatile music audio tagger that works on multiple platforms. The application has seen a total of no less than four releases since the start of 2017, so it remains an active project. Improvements have been made across the board on all platforms, including Android (via downloadable .apk file).

If you are new to Kid3, here's the ReadMe file from the source code:

Kid3 - Efficient Audio Tagger With Kid3 you can:

• Edit ID3v1.1 tags - Edit all ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 frames
• Convert between ID3v1.1, ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 tags
• Edit tags in MP3, Ogg/Vorbis, Opus, DSF, FLAC, MPC, APE, MP4/AAC, MP2, Speex, TrueAudio, WavPack, WMA, WAV, AIFF files and tracker modules
• Edit tags of multiple files, e.g. the artist, album, year and genre of all files of an album typically have the same values and can be set together
• Generate tags from filenames
• Generate tags from the contents of tag fields
• Generate filenames from tags
• Rename directories from tags
• Generate playlist files
• Automatic case conversion and string translation
• Import and export album data
• Import from gnudb.org, TrackType.org, MusicBrainz, Discogs, Amazon 
• Kid3 uses Qt and runs under GNU/Linux (KDE or only Qt) and Windows

What's new?

Here are the major changes in version 3.6.0:

• Ratings can now be edited using Stars 
• Additionally, there is configurable mapping between the rating values and the number of stars, definable by the user 
• Further options include a maximum length for file names and the ability to show hidden files 
• Improved support for MP4 files 
• Bug fixes in the areas of folder directories on Windows
• The Android app has been updated to use Google's material Style

Photo courtesy of the project's homepage

The addition of the star rating system represents a modern and familiar way for users to quickly rate their media, and is a nice way to integrate sorting into the file manager, once dolphin regains those semantic abilities. In this case, a typical use case scenario would be for a user to sort files in dolphin that have, for example, an equal-to or higher than a 3-star rating in a particular genre, and use those search results to create a playlist.

While there are other ways to tag audio files on Linux, Kid3 is unique because that function is all it does. So it stands to reason it would be more robust, and likely a better way for those who want granular control over the tagging of their audio tracks. The ability to do so in bulk fashion, and with integration to online services baked-in, creates a one-stop shop for creating, editing, and managing your music tags across all major music file formats.

Installation instructions:

While not available yet as a Snap or Appimage, the download section of the project page has instructions for installing Kid3 on 'Buntu-based systems, openSuse, Arch, Gentoo, KaOS, Chakra, and Slackware. Debian packages have not yet been updated at the time of this writing.

For Ubuntu-based systems such as Kubuntu, KDE Neon, Linux Mint and the like, there is a PPA to stay up on the latest release.  The following commands will get you up and running:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ufleisch/kid3
sudo apt update
sudo apt install kid3

Of note, non KDE Plasma users can install Kid3 without any KDE dependencies by substituting kid3 for kid3-qt, as shown below:

sudo apt install kid3-qt

More detailed information regarding the project and this release  can be found on the project's Sourceforge page.

Read more "Kid3 Audio Tagger Released With New Features On Linux And Android"

Netrunner OS Release 18.03 Idolon Is Out Based On Debian Testing

A bit late on this one. The Netrunner OS team announced a few weeks ago the release of Netrunner OS 18.03 - Codenamed Idolon. Based on Debian Testing to stay fairly bleeding-edge in it's package selection, at least by Debian standards, the team has also included an updated list of default packages for various user tasks. One of the things that makes this distribution stand out is their willingness to break from KDE Applications when the team feels it's warranted.

For example, you'll find some GTK+ applications around - namely, Thunderbird for email,  GMusicBrowser as a secondary audio player, and Synaptic package manager instead of Muon. The rest is pretty straight forward for a KDE distribution.

From the release announcement:

"Compared to the previous 17.10 release, 18.03 comes with the following updates:

• KDE Plasma 5.12.2
• KDE Frameworks 5.42
• KDE Applications 17.08.3
• Qt 5.9.2
• Linux Kernel 4.14
• Firefox Quantum 58.0.1
• Thunderbird 52.6.0
• LibreOffice 6.0.2"

The theming is uniquely Netrunner, which is casual yet refined looking. My recollection of past releases brings to mind some pretty bold visuals - none of those remain here. There are also several noob-friendly touches sprinkled around, such as the "My Computer" and "Network" icons on the desktop to give users coming a certain paid-for operating system a more familiar look and experience. Additionally, I really like the ReadMe file on the desktop as well. Clicking it will take you to a troubleshooting webpage outlining tips to get you un-stuck should you find yourself in that position. Probably something all releases should do but most do not, and represents some thought given to a user's initial experience with Netrunner.

Netrunner OS comes in two flavors, just because it can. Netrunner Rolling, and Netrunner OS. As mentioned, Netrunner OS is based on Debian Testing, whilst Netrunner Rolling is a rolling distribution based on Manjaro Linux. This announcement is for the former, though other than the base framework the rest is very similar on both releases.  It's just a personal preference as to which version one should install.

Netrunner OS releases installation media on a six month interval basis, with the 18.03 .iso release being freshly-minted this month. The download comes in at a beefy 2.2Gb in size.

A popular distribution

It's worth a final note to say that Netrunner OS currently holds the number 5 position on our monthly "Top 5 KDE Distribution List", so it appears to be quite popular. 

If you run Netrunner, let us know what you think about it!

Links:

- Netrunner 18.03 – Idolon released
- Netrunner on DistroWatch 

• 

  Netrunner OS 18.03

• 

  Netrunner OS Website

• 

  Netrunner OS full-screen launcher

• 

  About Netrunner OS dialogue box

Read more "Netrunner OS Release 18.03 Idolon Is Out Based On Debian Testing"

Easily Install A Unity-Like Theme On KDE Plasma Via United Look And Feel Pack

In the wake of Canonical dropping Unity like a hot potato as it moves on in life after kissing and making up with Gnome, some users out there are looking for ways to not disrupt their computing lives. Some, including me, have been surprised at the blow-back from the decision to move back to Gnome, indicating just how popular the sometimes-maligned desktop actually was. And in the minds of many continues to be. Honestly, and in a nutshell, Unity continues to have a lot of fans.

Those looking to continue on with the Canonical-developed Unity Desktop have a few options out there. Users looking to keep using Unity on their PCs can of course do so by installing from the normal Ubuntu repositories, at least for a little while longer. In addition, as some of you may know, there are the obligatory forks of Unity 7 and 8, respectively.

On the KDE Plasma side of things, and in a stunning display of just how versatile Plasma and Qt actually are, a Unity-like desktop experience had emerged several months ago. As a result, Unity refugees can ease into KDE Plasma while continuing on with the look and workflow they are accustomed to. Thus, Unity users not wanting to move to Gnome 3 can now install a Unity theme on any system running KDE Plasma with just a few clicks.

Called simply United, the experience is delivered via a KDE 'Look and Feel Pack'. If you're not familiar with Look and Feel Packs, or are confused with how they differ from standard Plasma themes, your not alone. Basically, a L&FP includes the ability for the author to include any definable items from the KDE Store. Meaning, you can specify icons, wallpapers, color schemes, plasmoids (KDE's name for desktop widgets), and more as part of the pack. And this level of control and customization is exactly what allows things this United theme to emerge.

Recently United was updated and the author put together a nice video about it showing off some new elements and enhancements.

Installation:

By default, United adds quite a few elements to achieve the Ubuntu look. One that's not included, however, is the Ubuntu wallpaper. Completely optional, you can download and install the Ubuntu 17.04 wallpaper from the Open Desktop site. Links below.

Installing the Ubuntu 17.04 wallpaper

As for the Look and Feel Pack itself, open System Settings and click on Workspace Themes. From there, you can press the 'Get New Looks' button, shown on the bottom-right-hand side. Next, search for 'United'. Once found, install it. Then, once back in your Workspace Themes window, you'll see United. Choose it. Make sure the check box in the lower-left that says 'Use desktop layout from theme' is checked. Finally, hit apply. After a few seconds you'll be enshrouded in an Ubuntu-like experience. Feel free to continue tweaking from there, should you desire, by downloading new icon packs, etc. Otherwise your desktop transformation is now complete.

United download page accessed
from KDE Plasma's System Settings

The inclusion of plasmoids, like this one
named "USwitch" add to the Unity experience

The author has given care as to the widgets used, and where they are placed, in order to mimic Unity's look and function. While not a 100% perfect recreation, Unity users should feel right at home in KDE Plasma through the addition of this pack. If you find it useful, make sure to give it a thumbs-up over on the KDE store. And, as always, happy computing.

Using Plasma's Application Dashboard launcher
to emulate Unity's full-screen app launcher

Links:

- Ubuntu 17.04 wallpaper
- Plane icon theme for Ubuntu  
- United Look and Feel Pack 
 

Read more "Easily Install A Unity-Like Theme On KDE Plasma Via United Look And Feel Pack"

The Case For Making A KDE Neon "Maximum Plasma" Edition

Having been a KDE user since 2010, and a Neon user since it's inception, I've grown to appreciate how sparse Neon is after install. Like a fresh canvas or a newly-plowed field, Neon lets you do things they way you want to do them. Firefox is there and a few others necessary to function a little beyond the command line. But really, there's no other assumptions made as to what you should do with your newly-minted Neon system, or the tools you should use to go about doing it.

This is why the Neon team likes to say Neon is not a distribution. And they have a point, in a technical sense at least. Users are used to distributions making a lot of decisions for them. And this usually involves throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at them. Among the 100's of distros out there, many are separated only by a few application decisions. Chromium instead of Firefox? Sure. Gnome Media Player instead of VLC? We can do that for you, Madam. Fork almost every main computer function and put your own name on it? Well, if it works for Linux Mint, it will likely be OK for you as well.

On the other hand, we keep a running monthly list here on K*Digest! about the top 5 pure KDE Plasma distributions out there at any given time, so do be sure to check it out for further examples.  

Plasma 5.12 in all it's customized glory

Neon is different, of course. Only want to use Neon for work? Fine. Install Calligra or Libre Office and an email client and go. Want to user it for video production? KDEnlive is there - or Openshot. Hey, we don't judge, go for it. Using Neon to make a sexy gaming rig? All of the games available from Ubuntu, KDE, Steam, PlayDeb, and more are available. Haver at it. That's what makes Neon so good for knowledgeable users - the ability to mold and shape into whatever use-cases you'll ever run into, without the bloat of having so many applications already installed and those assumptions made for you. A totally blank canvas.

Another thing the Neon devs do an outstanding job of is making up-to-date KDE applications available to it's loyal users. Whether it's Calligra Office Suite, KMyMoney, Kaffeine video player, or KDE  PIM, the latest and greatest that the KDE Community has to offer is made available to you, with only a few "apt" commands, or firing-up Discover (or the recently-updated Muon Package Manager).   

And that brings me to the point of this article.

The need for a "Maximum Plasma" edition

Call it what you want (and name suggestions are certainly welcome!)

- Maximum Plasma Edition 
- All-In Edition
- Much Too Much Plasma On My Hands Edition
- Everything and the Kitchen Sink Edition

A candidate for a Maximum Plasma Edition Wallpaper?

Whatever the nomenclature used, I would like to suggest the friendly developers over at KDE Neon make periodic releases of KDE Neon that showcase every application they've released within the Neon repositories. And honestly - I bet even most Neon users don't know this - it's quite a lot. Don't believe me? Fire up Muon Package Manager, Synaptic, or whatever graphical package manager you use. Then filter packages by source, selecting KDE Neon as the source shown. That's a lot of packages, I must say.

Using Muon to filter KDE Neon packages

Now I will note that for the purposes of clarity, it wouldn't have to be the Neon team that brought forth a release like this. Chakra Linux, for example, might be a good fit. It could be any other distribution out there. I'm using Neon here for arguement's sake that the Neon team would be the most likely to do such a thing. And to me makes a lot of sense. Anyone else who would be excited to do this, feel free! You see, in this (for now imaginary) distribution, it's all about Plasma discovery, after all.

My thought   process goes something like this:

"Well, Calligra Words seems like it could be a great word processor, and might handle my different file formats really great. I'd much rather use a KDE application than not, so let's give it a try. We could always install Libre Office if it doesn't quite cut it."

The potential here is that we just gained a Calligra fan! Get enough of those, and cause and effect kick in and - guess what? - we get more Calligra contributors! It's an exponential win-win. Another example could be that a Plasma user who has used Quicken for money management for years maybe has known that a KDE app like KMyMoney existed, but who has time to install and play? Well, in my mind, a user who could just fire-up KMyMoney and read from a tool tip about how easy it is to import a Quicken file with just a few mouse clicks, might just do exactly that! Again, #winning.

I'm talking nothing but Plasma applications here. If it's not Plasma, throw it out. Simple. A list that comes to mind but is not at all all-inclusve would go something like this:

• Falkon Web Browser
• Babe Music Player
• Calligra Office Suite
• Kaffine Video Player (the only KDE player updated to Plasma 5)
• KDE Partition Manager
• KBackup (Coming standard in Plasma 5.13, but still)
• KGet
• Full Kontact PIM Suite
• the Plasma-Widgets-Addons package
• KDE Games
• KMyMoney
• Konverstaion
• KTorrent
• DigiKam
• Krita
• Muon Package Manager
• Yakuake
• Kexi
• KFind
• KUser
• And others I can't think of at the moment

You get the idea. If it's a KDE application and built for Plasma 5, and in the Neon repositories, it should be there. This way, we get more users - and more users of the good kind; the curious kind. The kind more likely to possibly join the KDE Community and contribute one day. This, my friends, excites me. So much so that I really think this should exist. A hallmark distro (or non-distro, if you must) that showcases everything KDE and it's community have to offer at that point in time.  People can install it, fire it up in a VM, run a live session, whatever. More exposure. More people. More contributors and community members. More donators. More excitement from the press. More overall goodness.

Plasma All The Things^[TM].  Yea, that will work.

 

Read more "The Case For Making A KDE Neon "Maximum Plasma" Edition"

Yakuake Terminal Updated With Bug Fixes And New D-bus, Wayland Improvements

Yakuake, KDE Plasma's drop-down terminal that is based on Konsole technologies, received some updates and fixes, it was announced today. Being based on Konsole - Plasma's default terminal - means that it shares the same properties with it's sibling, including both settings and profiles. This is handy since color schemes, text sizes, and other settings stay common across both applications.

Once installed, Yakuake can be invoked by pressing <F12>. Pressing again will close the terminal, but not clear the session, which is nice if you need to get back to where you were instead of starting over.

 
Tagged as version 3.0.5, it is mainly a maintenance release that looks to improve Wayland and D-Bus support, along with a few other things. Though the Wayland fixes were not described in detail, with the D-Bus fixes we can see the following:

• Yakuake now installs a D-Bus service file. This allows calling its D-Bus methods even when Yakuake is not running yet- it will then be started implicitly
• Fixed a crash due to a missing bounds check in the 'sessionAtTab' D-Bus method
• Fixed a type marshalling issue with the 'addSession' D-Bus method that caused a noisy warning when using it via qdbus

Additional patches include icon and window tile fixes, and a qdbus error when invoked from that method was eradicated.

Yakuake in action, showing NeoFetch

It looks as though development work is coming along nicely, as this is the third release issued in the last 12 months. In it's 13th year since version 1, the Plasma drop-down terminal still seems to be going strong. I have to admit, once you get used to a quick <F12> anytime you need to get to a terminal, there's likely no going back. Having received a 92% score on the Open Desktop website, it's one of the more highly-rated applications.

Version 3.0.5 is already available in KDE Neon. It will also be the version shipping with Kubuntu 18.04, and should be arriving soon in a distro near you. Of course you can also install and compile for yourself for use on Plasma systems running KDE Frameworks 5.29 or higher.

Quick tip: If for some reason Yakuake is not available after a reboot, be sure to add it to your startup applications list in your system settings so it's always there for use.  It can be started from your applications menu as well.

Links: 

 

- Yakuake on KDE-Apps.com
- Yakuake homepage 

Read more "Yakuake Terminal Updated With Bug Fixes And New D-bus, Wayland Improvements"

KDE Announces Plasma 5.12.4 LTS Bugfix Release

Today The KDE Community announced the availability of Plasma 5.12.4, the latest bugfix release to the Plasma 5.12 long term support series. The release marks all the bugs squashed since the previous announcement for Plasma 5.12.3, and contains well over fifty fixes.

A customized Plasma 5.12 Desktop

Areas receiving some TLC this time around include:

• Breeze (Artwork, styles and assets for the Breeze visual style for the Plasma Desktop)
• Discover (KDE and Plasma resources management GUI)
• Plasma Addons (All kinds of addons to improve your Plasma experience)
• Info System (View information about your computer's hardware)
• KMenuEdit (Menu Editor for Plasma Workspaces)
• KWin (Easy to use, flexible composited Window Manger for Xorg windowing systems on Linux)
• Plasma Desktop (Plasma for the Desktop)
• Plasma Audio Volume Control (Plasma applet for audio volume management using PulseAudio)
• Plasma Workspace (Plasma Workspace: Various Components needed to run a Plasma based environment)

Highlights include fixing pixelated icon scaling for HiDPI screens, which had been a bug of note for a while now, so it's good to see that fixed. Also worth mentioning are all of the continued fixes for Plasma Discover, which just do not seem to be slowing down at all. And as I mentioned before, the speed of Discover's bug-fixing and new feature additions are rather impressive. Of course,continuing KWin, Desktop, and Workspace improvements are always a good thing to see.

This release marks the second-to-last Plasma bugfix release in the 5.12 series. Plasma 5.12.5, to be released on May 1, will represent the last of the series. Afterwards, work will begin in earnest on putting together the 5.13 series, which will introduce many new features that have been introduced since 5.12 was initially released back in February of this year.

You can read more about the release from the announcement page, as well as the more detailed 5.12.4 release notes.

Read more "KDE Announces Plasma 5.12.4 LTS Bugfix Release"

Mozilla Releases Facebook Container Extension To Stop Liberal Data Collection

Today, Mozilla announced the availability of a new extension for Firefox aimed at helping users control how much data Facebook can collect about them. Named the "Facebook Container" extension, it is derived from another extension called "Firefox Multi-Account Containers".

Mozilla introduces the Facebook Container Extension

From the announcement:

"[this] extension helps you control more of your web activity from Facebook by isolating your identity into a separate container. This makes it harder for Facebook to track your activity on other websites via third-party cookies" 

It works by placing Facebook instances inside a blue-colored tab, and isolates it from other sites so you cannot be tracked across sites. Further security is achieved by the fact that attempting to interact with Facebook outside of the contained tab will open the interaction within the Facebook tab. Like say, for instance, clicking a "Like" or "Share" icon on another website. As Mozilla puts it:

"When you install this extension it will delete your Facebook cookies and log you out of Facebook. The next time you visit Facebook it will open in a new blue-colored browser tab (aka “container tab”). In that tab you can login to Facebook and use it like you normally would. If you click on a non-Facebook link or navigate to a non-Facebook website in the URL bar, these pages will load outside of the container"

If deleting your Facebook account isn't an option, it would be highly recommended to install this extension for viewing Facebook. Using that, along with a good anti-tracking and anti spying add-on such as the EFF's Privacy Badger, which works in any browser, will go a long way to helping you fight the good fight with regards to how you interact with the world wide web.

- Links

- Facebook Container Extension: Take control of how you’re being tracked
- EFF's Privacy Badger extension

Read more "Mozilla Releases Facebook Container Extension To Stop Liberal Data Collection"

Taking The PCManFM-Qt File Manager For A Spin In KDE Plasma

Being Linux and all, there is no shortage of file managers out there for dealing with files and folders on our computers. Long-standing KDE users will well remember Konqueror, which is still alive and kicking today, and once was the default file manager in the pre-KDE 4 days. On top of that, a plethora of options abound if one takes a glance at their software store of choice. Nowadays, we look to Dolphin for our file management tasks, and rightfully so. Dolphin is considered by many to be the best file manager around, with it's vast amount of settings, customization, and integration into the KDE Store.

File Management options abound in the Land of Tux

Today, however, I'm going to take a quick look at one such alternative option out there - PCManFM-Qt. PCManFM-Qt is the Qt port of PCManFM, the file manager of LXDE. From the website it adds: 

"In LXQt sessions it is in addition used to handle the desktop. Nevertheless it can be used independently of LXQt as well."

Since it's a Qt port of the file manager, and it's readily available in the repos for Debian-based systems, I couldn't help but give it a spin and see if there would be a reason to look at it as a viable option for those who may want an alternative to Dolphin or Konqueror.

This is, in fact, PCManFM-Qt, despite
there being no "Qt" designation on
the 'about' page

PCManFM-Qt

About PCManFM

PCManFM's claim to fame is it's speed. Touted as fast and light, it was developed to be a lightweight rival to other file managers. Mainly, GNOME Files, Dolphin and Thunar.

A few highlights from the project's webpage:

• Extremly fast and lightweight
• Can be started in one second on normal machine
• Tabbed browsing (Similar to Firefox)
• Built-in volume management (mount/umount/eject through HAL)
• Built-in file searching utility (GUI frontend for the UNIX find + grep command)
• Drag & Drop support
• Files can be dragged among tabs
• Load large directories in reasonable time
• File association support (Default application)
• Thumbnail for image files
• Bookmarks support
• Handles non-UTF-8 encoded filenames correctly
• Provides icon view, compact view, and detailed list view
• Standard compliant (Follows FreeDesktop.org)
• Clean and user-friendly interface

Testing the "lightweight" part compared to Dolphin, in KDE Plasma 5.12, we see the following memory usage:

- Dolphin           ~  23.4 Mb
- PCManFM-Qt ~ 14.4 Mb

While the latter clearly has less memory usage, that makes sense. It was both built that way and has less features out of the box than Dolphin. I will add, however, that using even the most modest PC today one would likely not notice any tangible difference between the two. It's simply not enough to matter, though one might understand that at one time anything using less resources would be welcome.

Using PCManFM-Qt:

One of the first things I noticed when firing up the application for the first time, was how tiny the default icons were, and how I already missed Dolphin's slider to increase their size right from the GUI. No such luck in PCManFM. One has to go into the settings to adjust that. Easy enough, but not as nice or convenient as Dolphin.

The icons by default are a wee-bit tiny

A quick adjustment in the settings had them scaled larger and to a more easily readable state, although I would have still liked the option to make them bigger. They cap out at 96 DPI, if memory serves correctly.  On the plus side of things, I noticed the following:

• Simple, clean interface
• Lots of options for what terminal the application will use if you invoke the terminal from the menu
• Integrated archiving capabilities with lots of compression application options
• Tabs are nice
• All the main file management functions are there and work
• Drag and drop
• Right-click context menu with basic options
• Standard keyboard shortcuts
• Allow for different context views on Places Panel
• Good built-in search capabilities

The icon size selector in settings,
however no slider on the main GUI

Standard, yet basic, right-click
context menu options

PCManFM-Qt plays nicely with several terminal emulators

Selecting Konsole as the default terminal
should you need to use it

What I missed:

• The first thing I miss when comparing to Dolphin, as noted above, is the slider to adjust icon size
• There is nothing in the "about" section that indicates you are running the Qt version
• No split-screen
• It does offer multiple tabs for easy copy and paste procedures
• However Dolphin has those as well, and additionally the ability to also create a new window 
• It does not look like there is a viable option for doing root operations outside of dropping to a terminal
• Even though it is an option in the settings
• LXQT-sudo or GTK-sudo are recommended packages, which is of no use to Plasma users
• KDESudo is depreciated (I believe), I did not try to install it and see if it would work
• Dolphin has noticeably more right-click options out of the box, and even more available from the KDE Store
• The easy ability to drag folders onto the 'Places' section and pin them there, which is a hallmark of Dolphin

One unique thing about PCManFM-Qt 

One of the really unique things that this application touts is it's inclusion if an application manager / launcher that's baked into it. You'll notice an 'Applications' entry on the left panel, and clicking it takes you to an Applications View where you can launch apps directly from the file manager. And while that sounded great at first, due to it's rather uniqueness in the file manager world, I got a weird result on my test system, as you can see from the second screenshot below:

On the left, you'll discover the Applications View,
which act like a launcher for all of your
installed apps

On my KDE Neon system, however, I
ended up with several duplicate entries

All of those duped entries kind of makes the launcher functionality useless. I'm not sure why that is, or if it behaves differently on an LXQT-based set-up. Perhaps they are a result of using Snaps or Flatpaks for certain things. That's my best guess anyway.

Takeaway:

While it may be great for it's intended desktop environment, the fact that this application has a Qt interface does not make it a candidate to replace Dolphin in my opinion. And I can't think of a use-case where one would benefit from running it in KDE Plasma. While it is fast and does everything you need for basic file management tasks, what is unique about it either doesn't work properly in Plasma, or doesn't make enough of a difference to warrant a scenario whereby one would recommend it.

To be honest, that's probably more of a statement about how good Dolphin is than anything explicitly wrong with PCManFM-Qt, which mainly does what it sets out to do. For Plasma users, however, a switch to Konqueror is likely to be a better experience if one needs an alternative for their use.

Read more "Taking The PCManFM-Qt File Manager For A Spin In KDE Plasma"

Plasma Media Center Has Gone Silent And It's a Shame

While browsing the state of various KDE projects recently, it came to light that the once promising Plasma Media Center has seemingly went silent for a little while now. A little while as in a few years. And that's a bit of a shame, really. For a few reasons that I will touch on briefly.

I had occasion to try PMC recently, and - at least as packaged in Ubuntu > Universe, or KDE Neon, it's not usable at all. There's some dependencies missing, or something's not right. All of the features released as part of PMC 1.1 do not seem to be working.  There's no menu available on the home screen. Therefore, there's no settings available either. Actually, this is what it now looks like, run for the first time:

No menu, no options, just 3 singular - and tiny -
icons for Music, Pictures, and Videos

And since there's no menu, there's also no way to exit the application. You have to alt > tab and close from the task manager.  According to the PMC 1.1 release notes, from 2013, it is supposed to look more like a traditional media center with a 10-foot interface, like this:

Plasma Media Center 1.1

So again, I can only assume there's some KDE 4 libs missing here, that are keeping PMC from looking or functioning properly. Case in point: No video thumbnails. Also, it appears that the default paths for media are coded in, and there's no way to change those.

Plasma Media Center's Video Screen
As shown on KDE User Edition. Sadly,
thumbnails do not work

In it's current form, running in Plasma 5, PMC sadly is not usable. I can only assume that a few things happened here - again, these are just assumptions:

• The original developers moved on
• Plasma 5 happened
• Kodi took off and gained a large community 
• Thus slowing demand for another open source solution
• No one stepped up to pick up the project

 

Why should I care?

Well, there are a few reasons that come to mind as to why PMC should exist and thrive.

- Firstly, KDE's "Plasma Everywhere" approach lends itself well to this use case. Moving from a traditional desktop / laptop to a media center PC or laptop connected via HDMI cable is a common thing. The concept of using a 10-foot interface has exploded, with the likes of Kodi, Plex, Emby, and even the long-standing and still highly-active MythTV - which has been happily running on Linux for over a decade and moving Linux into the living room and out or the office. In short, the reasons for PMC's existence were and are solid. In some ways, for normal and traditional users, it was perhaps even a bit ahead of it's time.
    

MythTV has been happily running on Linux -
both on the front-end and / or back - end for years

-  Secondly, with many Plasma apps also having Android equivalents, it only makes sense for Plasma to move onto as many devices as possible. The Babe Music Player developers know this already, and offer both a traditional music player along with an Android equivalent. Same with KDE's Marble Maps and others. This also falls conveniently in line with KDE's Usability and Productivity initiative.

"Your Music, Photos, and Videos everywhere, on any device, all from the KDE Community" has a nice ring to it. Yes?

- Lastly, Plasma now has the tools for any front-end GUI work to be done via the flexible and portable Kirigami Framework. To me, this would seem like an ideal use for someone looking to get into using Kirigami for app development. And, with the benefits of much of the heavy-lifting for the 'under-the-hood' parts already done.

As for me, I would love to set up a MythTV back-end feeding my TV, Music, Videos all to my TV, happily showing-off Plasma. All which Plasma Media Center could do, and more, with a little effort and a new community around it. What do you think?

Links:

- Plasma Media Center
- PMC 1.1 Release Announcement
- PMC Future Plans 

Read more "Plasma Media Center Has Gone Silent And It's a Shame"

Showerthoughts Plasmoid: Putting Reddit Posts On Your Desktop

The Showerthoughts Plasmoid is a nifty little app to get a post from a Reddit "subreddit" onto your Plasma desktop. It simply allows you to select one or more subreddits in the Plasmoid's settings, seprated by a comma, and off you go. It's called Showerthoughts Plasmoid due to the Subreddit /r/Showerthought's popularity, as well as from the original inspiration for the author making the Plasmoid.

According to the author, the Plasmoid was inspired by a Reddit post in /r/Linux, where a creative user posted a script for showing a Showerthoughts post every time he fired up a terminal. Thus, the idea for making the Plasmoid was born.

Here I am running 2 instances of the
Plasmoid at once: One for /r/Showerthoughts
and one for /r/KDE

There are thousands of subreddits, and any can be used here. The ones I'm using here are for example's sake. Feel free to explore Reddit and find some that interest you. Some others I occasionally view are /r/linuxmasterrace, /r/linux, /r/kubuntu, /r/nottheonion (very funny real-life stories), and /r/explainlikeimfive. You get the idea - there's a group for literally almost anything, and you can even create your own.

 

Using the Showerthoughts Plasmoid 

Once installed, there are a few quick and simple options to go over, and that's it. On the General tab, simply select the subreddit(s) desired to be shown, and whether they should contain just the post title, post image, or both. One thing to note here is that while you can have multiple subreddits defined in the settings, only one quote will be shown at at time. You can refresh as often as you like to change it and this works as long as you are comfortable only seeing one post from one subreddit at a time. As shown in the image above, I got around this simply by having two instances of the Plasmoid running at once.  All in all it doesn't look bad in my humble opinion.

You can also apply filters on the posts shown as well, by selecting options from the drop-down selectors.

There's quite a selection here, as you can select from the following filters:

• Top
• New
• Hot
• Rising
• Controversial 

And from the following timeframes:

• Last hour
• Day
• Week 
• Month
• Year
• Always

Since I'm at my computer most days, I have mine set to show the top posts of the day, but it's also fun on occasion to change it up a bit as well.

On the Advanced tab, we can set things like text colors, NSFW filter, and mouse actions. I like the text color selection a lot, and wish it was standard on any Plasmoid, since having different theme colors and Plasmoid text colors can really wreck a customized desktop look. Props to the author for adding it per a user's request.

Left-clicking will refresh the display, while middle-clicking will open the original link in your browser, in case you want to comment or read others' comments - often an entertaining endeavor in it's own right.

Getting the Showerthoughts Plasmoid

The Plasmoid can be installed directly from the Add New Widgets dialog within KDE Plasma, or downloaded from the KDE Store.

Links: 

- Showerthoughts plasmoid in the KDE Store
- Get a random /r/showerthoughts post as your shell greeting
- What are subreddits?

Read more "Showerthoughts Plasmoid: Putting Reddit Posts On Your Desktop"

KDE Package Manager Muon 5.8.0 Released

A few days ago a new version of KDE Plasma's package manager Muon was released. Mainly a bug-fix release, the new release does add a new feature. For those not familiar with Muon, it is a KDE Plasma 'Package Manager' for Debian (apt)-based systems, akin to GTK's long-standing Synaptic package manager.

Read more "KDE Package Manager Muon 5.8.0 Released"

5 Awesome Things You Can Do With KDE Connect And Probably Did Not Know About

KDE Connect, Plasma's built-in way to interact with your Android phone from your Plasma desktop and vice-versa, has seen some awesome improvements lately. New features and polish abound. However that is not what this post is about. For those new to KDE Plasma and / or KDE Connect, I will supply links at the bottom for you to get better antiquated. It really is one of the true standout applications that ship with Plasma these days.

For the rest of this article, I will assume you have a basic understanding of what KDE Connect is and what it does. If you need to go read up a little and get caught up, that's OK. We'll wait.

Check out KDE Connect in your system settings
to get an idea of all you can do with this invaluable tool,
provided you have an Android phone

Read more "5 Awesome Things You Can Do With KDE Connect And Probably Did Not Know About"

KDE Plasma Voted Best Desktop Environment By Linux Journal Poll

We told you earlier about a poll running over at Linux Journal. Well now, those results have come in. And while close, they're fairly concise.

Voters selected KDE Plasma by a 15 point margin over the 2nd place finisher. That position, not surprisingly, came in the form of Gnome. A nice win, to be sure!

Despite what you read about seemingly daily on the
web these days, KDE is more than alive and well

I'll just list one positive takeaway and one negative here, and leave the rest up to you to draw others on your own.

The Positive

 

Obviously, winning a poll in a hotly-contested contest is a good thing. Out of 3,796 votes, KDE Plasma won by getting ~1,300 votes. That is around 530 more than Gnome. The big thing here to think about is that ALL of the top distributions out there run Gnome or some variant. Fedora: check. Ubuntu: check. PopOS: check. Solus: check. Elementary: check.

In some ways, it's a minor miracle that Plasma both survives and thrives in an age where top distributions do not ever seem to want to feature Plasma, except as a "me-too" community edition. There are exceptions to this, of course, but my point remains valid.

There's quite the discussion going on over at OMG Ubuntu! in the comments section from a recent article about a problem that Gnome is having that apparently won't be fixed by the time Ubuntu 18.04 ships. There's apparently a large contingent (yours truly included) who wished Canonical had decided to ship KDE Plasma instead of moving back to Gnome. You can read for yourself if you desire.

The Not So Positive

 

One thing the poll did achieve, at least for me, is to remind me just how fragmented us Linux user's are when it comes to favorite desktops. I mean, a 15 percentage point win is  pretty close in the big picture. I'd imagine, if the poll were a true scientific one, the results would have been ever closer.

Secondly, the results just tend to serve as a reminder of just how fragmented we as Linux desktop users remain to this day. Every few years a new Desktop is released along with dozens of new distributions to try to win you over. And there have been plenty of discussion on the past about how it serves to be both a blessing and a curse. As far as communities, promotion, and labor distribution goes for those willing and able to help out, I'd say it's more of a curse overall. There's simply too many projects and too few resources. And that ratio does not seem to be improving much.

What Did We Learn?

Overall though, a win is a win. And there's likely no need to read too much into it beyond what it is: A nice win for KDE via a very unscientific and informal survey on the web. Don't look now, there's a new desktop environment headed your way soon. The more things change...

Links: 

- Best Desktop Environment



 

Read more "KDE Plasma Voted Best Desktop Environment By Linux Journal Poll"

KDE Plasma Eye Candy Screenshots Of The Week - Biweekly Edition

"There's nothing wrong with a little bragging - a little "boo-ya!" - if you will, in showing your KDE Plasma desktop for #showyourdesktopfriday" - Anon.

Stock Plasma is pretty nice. But you already know what that looks like. In fact, you might be staring at it every time you minimize all of your applications to the tray. And that's great. But some of us just need to itch our creative side a bit. In light of that, our goal here is to inspire, as well as to give some serious artistic cred to those who like to really personalize their personal computer.

Also, it's Friday. Time to lighten up a little bit, kick back, clear your mind (and your desk), and have a little fun. So in that vein may I present the Top 5 KDE Plasma Screenshots of the Week, Biweekly Edition. The goal is for this to become a biweekly listing of Plasma desktops that simply stand out in one way or another.

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That Was Fast: As Of Today Kraft Is Out Of KDE

Last month, we reviewed KDE's Kraft, an application designed to help small businesses with document creation and management. This was because a new beta  release was announced, and the new beta was based on  KDE Frameworks 5. It was all good news.


"I am very happy to announce the first public beta version of Kraft V. 0.80, the first Kraft version that is based on KDE Frameworks 5 and Qt 5.x."
 
Well, it seems that less than two months later, the marriage is over.

Read more "That Was Fast: As Of Today Kraft Is Out Of KDE"