Yakuake

I realized I hadn’t posted about Yakuake, which have come to completely replace the standard Terminal on my computer. What is it? A drop-down terminal emulator based on KDE Konsole technology that smoothly rolls down from the top of your screen with the command of a key. It closes just as simply. It uses a tabbed interface and has configurable dimensions (width, height) and animation speed as well as it is skinnable.

Thumbnail:

Yakuake at getdeb: Link

amarokFS (Full Screen)

amarokFS is an Amarok script serving as a screensaver that display the song that is currently playing in Amarok, in a simple & clean style.

Thumbnails:

1600 x 1200 Wallpapers

This is another none Kubuntu related post. A while back I reinstalled my Kubuntu installation & I was going to use the Internet to store as much as I could – instead of burning CD’s – so I created a folder dedicated 1600 x 1200 wallpapers and decided to share it with the visitors of my weblog (not this blog). I have today added more wallpapers to this folder and thought there may be more that can enjoy these hence this post, linking to them. I want to bring attention to that the absolute credit shall go to the creators.

Displaying a few from the collection:

You find the whole collection here: Link
(the collection is updated irregularly so check back)

Musicovery : interactive webRadio

This is nothing Kubuntu-related but I thought I would inform you about this website since it is a personal favorite & I think it is cool:

Musicovery is the website and through it you discover new music based on your mood, this free webradio let you browse music styles and epochs.

Thumbnails:

Last.Fm + Kubuntu = True

This Last.Fm player lets you tune in to stations/the type of music of your choice. With Last.fm on your computer you can scrobble(?) your tracks, share your music taste, listen to personalised radio streams, and discover new music and people.

Requires a Last.Fm account.

Last.Fm Download Page: Link
(Note: The Last.Fm player is also available to install through “Add/Remove Programs” in your K-menu)

Last.Fm is a social music community that keeps track of what music you listen to, and then produces a large number of features personalised to you. You can use Last.fm to listen to music, find out about artists you may like, other people with similar music taste, gigs in your local area, charts and quilts for your personal site, as well as much more. Last.Fm is totally free to sign up and use.

Thumbnails:

Sweet Darkness Login Theme

Finding a Login Theme that one like that can be difficult but this one certainly do work for me. I am using this one & wanted to give it extra attention hence sharing it’s existence here. The theme is titled Sweet Darkness and is downloadable from Kde-Look.org, more precisely here: Link.

Available logos:
debian, fedora, gentoo, kubuntu, slackware, suse, tux, ubuntu

Thumbnail:

Hint:

If your Kubuntu Gutsy won’t let you change the login theme this is an alternative way that works:

1. Alt + F2, type in kdesu konqueror and hit Run.
2. Search your way to this path: /usr/share/apps/kdm/themes.
3. Backup the folder Kubuntu by renaming it to for example kubuntubackup.
4. Unzip the theme, name the folder Kubuntu and place it in /usr/share/apps/kdm/themes.

Howto: KDE4.1 on Kubuntu Gutsy

KDE4 is an entirely different desktop that is accessed through the Login Manager under sessions. It works very differently from Kubuntu Gutsy with a version of KDE3. (I had planned to post several captures over the many different areas of KDE4 but found that kde.org have an excellent visual guide right here: http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.0/guide.php.)

The most noticeable changes for users are the new icons, theme and sounds provided by the Oxygen Project. These represent a break from previous KDE icons and graphics, which had a cartoonish look. Instead Oxygen icons will opt for a more photo realistic style. The Oxygen Project builds on the freedesktop.org Icon Naming Specification and Icon Theme Specification, allowing consistency across applications. The Oxygen team will be using community help for better visuals in KDE 4, with both alternate icon sets and the winners of a wallpaper contest held by the Oxygen project being included in KDE 4.^[5] There will also be a new set of human interface guidelines for a more standardized layout.

Plasma is a rewrite of several core KDE applications, like the desktop drawing and most notably the widget engine. Plasma will allow for a more customizable desktop and more versatile widgets.

KWin, the KDE Window Manager from KDE 3, now provides its own compositing effects, similar to Compiz. Compositing is disabled by default in 4.0.

– Quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE_4

A note of observation ( I know that many of you have had this question, including myself):
I have been working on the KDE 4.1 desktop for a couple of days now and have not noticed any problem with applications (software) that I used in KDE 3. To mention a few of these: Amarok, Manslide, Mozilla Thunderbird, Indywiki, Flock, Songbird, Yakuake, FotoWall, Firefox, Last.Fm, Kitty, GIMP, Google Earth, ManDVD, Kirocker, LMMS.

Here is how to install KDE 4.1 on Kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (it it very simple, no big process):

1. Remove previous KDE 4 packages, they are not compatible:

• apt-get remove kdelibs5 kde4base-data kde4libs-data

2. Add deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubuntu gutsy main to your /etc/apt/sources.list. Open up a terminal, paste the folowing line and hit enter:

• sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list

Paste the following line at the bottom of the list:

• deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubuntu gutsy main

• Save

( if you do not have permission to the sources.list, paste the following command into a terminal: sudo chown yourusername /etc/apt/sources.list and then save it)

• Close.

3. Install kde4-core, note that PPAs aren’t authenticated so you will likely get a warning when installing, ignore the warning. Install through the Synapic Package Manager for example. Just enter a search for it and mark for installation and Apply.

4. Logout your session and select to login on the KDE4 session.

KubXtra

KubXtra is a script kommander utility to provide installation of packages in all simplicity, useful for the beginners on Kubuntu. The captures below are of all software available through version 7.10-11 of KubXtra.

Thumbnails:

Related Links
KubXtra at Softpedia: Link

KBW – Krazy Brain Word

In smoe lgnagaues, it dseon’t mttaer in waht oedrr the ltteres in a wrod are for uedntsrdnanig it. Tihs is bacesue the hamun mnid deos not raed erevy ltteer by iestlf but the wrod as a wlohe.
Kzary biarn wrod hples you tipyng scuh txet.
Hvae fun!
For more information, visit:
http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/personal/matt.davis/Cmabrigde/

With support for accentuated languages version 0.2 KBW twists the words with a mouse click creating crazy fun words for the brain.

Thumbnail:

Krazy Brain Word (KBW) at Opendesktop.org: Link

Indywiki – A visual browser for Wikipedia

The Indywiki logo:

Explore the online encyclopedia with (version 0.9.7) of Indywiki. Indywiki is an open source project that aims to explore different ways of visually browsing Wikipedia pages. Enter search term, images according to search term are listed with the option to click on an image and let it take you to the related article.

Thumbnail:

Related Links
Indywiki at Softpedia: Link
Screenshots: Link