Kubuntu Natty Narwhal review - KDElicious!

Laptop-mode-tools ishould not be installed under *buntu anymore.
Most of the features have been rolled into ACPI scripts.

There were a number of issues I reported on with laptop-mode-tools, ACPI and desktop power handling (KDE and Gnome) that all conflicted causing various settings to not work, or not get reset correctly when changing power states.

Power handling is now unified and working (and almost complete and covers the major power drains) with the ACPI packages AND does not conflict with the power settings of KDE/Gnome since 10.10 or 10.04 (I can't remember which).

Cheers, Nick

 

tlu, I am currently trying it in vbox and admit that it is rather polished. As a matter of interest
are you using the traditional desktop or the default, and which do you prefer for 'getting things done'.
I am not sure yet whether I want folder view widgets, although they look 'nice'.

 

I'm not tlu, but here's my 2 cents.

As i understand it, everything is a widget, and the desktop can be set as folder view, or something else.
You can also set each virtual desktop with its own set of widgets, or a different layout altogether.

Personally, i have the first desktop set as Desktop, and the wallpaper with the globe - which is actually Marble - and make it follow the sun. You can also add Luna for good measure. It's pretty cool to look at when shutting down, and it's never in the way of anything as i normally open something fullscreen here.
The second and third are folder view desktops, the least used (i use Dolphin more), and last i have a calculator, notes, blackboard, unit converter, dictionary, in a newspaper layout. I actually use it a lot, specially for notes, calculator and unit conversion (when shopping for instance).

To launch programs or to open a folder, i normally use Krunner or Lancelot, as they are the quickest and most efficient for me.
My habits changed since moving to KDE.

Hope this gives you a perspective.

 

Thanks Pedro,

I am enjoying it !

 

Is there no 'clear recent documents' in Kubuntu ? In Ubuntu there is panel>places>recent documents.

 

There's an app in the repos called sweeper. It will will clear recent docs as well as clipboard, konqueror history etc.

 

With Lancelot, you'd go to Documents, and right click on recent - clear documents history. It's probably the same with the default menu.

 

I must have been fast asleep. It's of course in Kickoff. Duh !

 

Another conundrum, when I r/click a video or audio file and select properties, dolphin doesn't
give me the salient details, like video width/height, bit rate etc. Only for mpeg I get width and height but that's it, besides size of file nothing else. In Ubuntu I get all this info from properties.
As I am new to Kubuntu, I am sure that can be set somewhere, the question is where ?

 

In the Information Tab you can click Settings ("Einstellungen" in my German version) where you can select what's displayed.

EDIT: More comprehensive is what Krusader shows. I prefer Krusader over Dolphin anyway.

 

There are services that do that job, but idk how well they work.
They add a context menu item, to show you that info.
Settings - Configure Dolphin - Services - Download New Services...

Not the same thing as seeing them in properties, but it's a good workaround imo.

 

I will try that Pedro, the information configurations in Properties don't cater for the details mentioned above for video and audio.

BTW. Is there a script like nautilus-gksu which adds an 'Open as administrator' context menu entry, or would I need to add it via something equivalent to nautilus actions ? (If there is such a package in Kubuntu).

 

I've got three really nice scripts (wallpaper changer, hash checker, and a gedit python plugin) geared towards Gnome/Nautilus that I use very frequently. It would take a lot for me to lay them aside. I downloaded Kubuntu 11.04 yesterday and I'm mulling over whether it would be a waste of time to install it since I've never liked KDE-centric distros. Knowing me I probably will try it...but not today.

My advice to those Gnome-ers who are considering switching to KDE is to not give up on Unity/Gnome 3 so easily. They're really not that bad and will improve over time.

Later...

Bob

 

Ocky, you may try this or this solution (I tried the second one which works well). Or you can use Krusader which has that built-in functionality.

 

Thank you, tlu. I saw that script and will try it There was another one but it didn't support kdesudo/sudo (only kdesu/gksu) and wanted to mess with sudoers file. I see that is your first link.
Have also installed Krusader, I suppose you just run Krusader as root if you want to edit/delete files owned by root ?
Doing everything in Vbox so no problems in case I mess up.

 

agree unity was not that bad need some time to improve by the way we have new good gnome options like Scientific linux and LMDE

 

Thanks for that. It feels like Unity is a dirty word here. But what's LMDE, Mack_Dude? A little play on words....

Later...

Bob

 

Linux Mint Debian Edition. Very Nice Trespasser, you may be inclined to give it a closer look. Mrk has reviewed it a while ago. http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-mint-debian.html

 

No, I actually meant that you can add a button "Edit a file as root" to the Krusader toolbar. (You can see what it does in Settings-> User Actions-> Start ActionMan ->Samples. I think I had to replace kwrite with kate.)

But it's true that there is also an entry in the KDE menu (System) for the Krusader root mode - and yes, if desired, in the Krusader toolbar, too.

 

OK, that script works well. and Krusader is really nice, so thank you for
pointing me there.
One question, how do you start root mode krusader in 'normal' krusader. I get a message that
kdesudo path is not configured (but changing kdesu path to kdesudo in the configuration doesn't work).
Editing files in root mode does work well in 'normal' krusader. I also changed editor to kate as the internal editor only works in krusader root mode here in Vbox.

 

You're welcome, Ocky! Krusader is IMHO the most powerful and configurable file manager.

In Settings-> Dependencies I simply added

/usr/bin/kdesudo

as the kdesu path.

 

Yes, I did that, and now all of a sudden it works. (after I had dinner and then started Vbox
again).

 

Great. This is just the ticket - better than anything I have seen so far. Thanks.

http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/AudioVideoinfo-qt?content=107335

 

When i tried it, to be sure of the instructions i was giving you, i found another one, getMediaInfo.
I didn't write it because i don't know if it's a good one, or which is better. Just FYI in case you want to compare.

 

Mint?! .

Thanks for the suggestion, Ocky, but I think I'll tuff it out and hang loyal with Ubuntu. It's the first distro I tried after I got DSL back in 2005 (dialup prior) and the one I've stayed with since.

.

Later...

Bob