How To Enable Global Menu And Title Bar Button Options In KDE 4.10's KWin

As one might already be aware of, with the release earlier today of KDE SC 4.10, many new features were introduced in all areas of KDE. Workspaces was no exception, and some new features came down via KWin that are worth mentioning. They are the Global Menu and Menu Button. Basically, these are alternatives to the 'standard' application menu view, whereby the menu is laid out horizontally across the top of the application. If you are using Firefox to read this, just look up and you'll likely see what I mean.

The first alternative, Global Menu, basically un-docks the menu from the application, opting instead to have the menu appear on hover in the top-middle of the screen. This frees up real estate for the application and the application's window that would otherwise take up room, even when not in use.

Global Menu In KDE 4.10 Shown For Quassel

 

The next alternative we will look at is the Menu Button. This basically collapses and condenses the entire menu into a button, shown in the left-hand corner is the application where typically the "File" menu option would be. Clicking the button reveals the first menu layer, and so forth. Nice, neat, tiny, and tidy. 

Dolphin Shown Using The Menu Button Menubar Style

Try It Out

• If you have upgraded your Kubuntu, Ubuntu, NetrunnerOS, or Mint installation to KDE 4.10, then trying these menubars in KWin is simple:
• Open System Settings > Application Appearance > Style. Make sure 'Oxygen' is the style selected (support for other styles will be coming in future releases)
• Click the Fine Tuning Tab and use the dropdown list by Menubar Style
• Pick one and try it out!

Menubar Options In KDE's System Settings

KDE has always been known for options. It's good to see that trend continue here, in carrying on the configure until your heart's content nature of KDE. 

What view do you prefer?

Note: Martin Gräßlin's original post can be found here.

KDE 4.10 Officially Released And Available For Kubuntu

After months of testing and three release candidates, KDE Software Compilation 4.10 has been unleashed to the general public. In typical Kubuntu fashion, the update is already available for users of both the LTS and current releases, as well as the Raring development release. Numerous changes, improvements, and refinements abound in this, one of the last few point releases leading up to KDE SC 5.0. Changes, improvements, new features, and fixes abound in this release and include, but are not limited to:

• Qt Quick in Plasma Workspaces -- Qt Quick is continuing to make its way into the Plasma Workspaces. Plasma Quick, KDE's extensions on top of QtQuick allow deeper integration with the system and more powerful apps and Plasma components. Plasma Containments can now be written in QtQuick. Various Plasma widgets have been rewritten in QtQuick, notably the system tray, pager, notifications, lock & logout, weather and weather station, comic strip and calculator plasmoids. Many performance, quality and usability improvements make Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces easier to use.
• New Screen Locker -- A new screen locking mechanism based on QtQuick brings more flexibility and security to Plasma Desktop.
• Animated Wallpapers -- Thanks to a new QtQuick-based wallpaper engine, animated wallpapers are now much easier to create.
• Improved Zooming in Okular -- A technique called tiled rendering allows Okular to zoom in much further while reducing memory consumption. Okular Active, the touch-friendly version of the powerful document reader is now part of KDE SC.
• Faster indexing -- Improvements in the Nepomuk semantic engine allow faster indexing of files. The new Tags kioslave allows users to browse their files by tags in any KDE-powered application.
• Color Correction -- Gwenview, KDE's smart image viewer and Plasma's window manager now support color correction and can be adjusted to the color profile of different monitors, allowing for more natural representation of photos and graphics.
• Notifications -- Plasma's notifications are now rendered using QtQuick, notifications themselves, especially concerning power management have been cleaned up.
• New Print Manager -- Setup of printers and monitoring jobs was improved thanks to a new implementation of the Print Manager.
• Kate, KDE's Advanced Text Editor received multiple improvements regarding user feedback. It is now extensible using Python plugins.
• KTouch -- KDE's touch-typing learning utility has been rewritten and features a cleaner, more elegant user interface.
• libkdegames improvements -- Many parts of libkdegames have been rewritten, porting instructions for 3rd party developers are available.
• KSudoku now allows printing puzzles.
• KJumpingCube has seen a large number of improvements making the game more enjoyable. 

KDE 4.10

For many users, the improvements in Nepomuk will be the highlight of this release. According to the official release announcement the was a lot of work done in this area that was sponsored by Blue Systems, so the work they are doing since bringing on board select Kubuntu developers is already being felt in this and other areas. Which is great to see.

"Thanks to the work sponsored by Blue Systems, the KDE cross-application semantic search and storage backend has seen over 240 bugs fixed and a significant number of other improvements. Chief among these is the new indexer, which makes indexing faster and more robust. A nice feature is that it first quickly indexes the basic information of new files (name and mimetype) so the files are available at once, and then delays full data extraction until the system is idle (or connected to AC!), so it doesn't interfere with the user's workflow. In addition, it is now far simpler to write extractors for new file formats."

"The introduction of the Tags KIO slave allows users to browse their files by tags from any KDE application."

"Nepomuk Cleaner is a simple new tool for managing semantic storage. It is useful for cleaning up legacy, invalid or duplicate data. Running the Cleaner after upgrading can provide a significant speed improvement. More information on this and other changes in the KDE search technologies can be found in Vishesh Handa's blog"

240 bugs is an impressive number, to be sure. KDE's schematic desktop simply has to shine if KDE is to continue to gain market share.

Another thorny area for many users to get some love in this release is the often-maligned KMail. Better search, indexing, account setting import, and many other bug fixes and improvements abound. 

Other new features abound in KWin regarding menus and new display and behaviour options that are configurable (see Martin Gräßlin's blog, and specifically this post for further information).


Finally, an obvious change one will immediately notice is the new, seemingly lighter and crisper Air Theme and default wallpaper.  There are many more highlights to this release than are listed here. For a detailed look at what's new, check out the official release announcement from KDE.org.

There are a lot more changes here than could realistically be listed. Needless to say, this is an important release and a vital stepping stone towards making KDE the most stable, functional, configurable, and beautiful DE out there. 

Getting IT

If you are running Kubuntu's development release, Raring Ringtail, SC 4.10 will come as part of your normal system updates. For 12.04 LTS and 12.10 users, you simply need to enable the backports PPA.

ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

With GetDeb and PlayDeb Back Online Should Kubuntu Have A Service Like This?

With the recently announced resurrection of both GetDeb and PlayDeb services, I couldn't help but wonder if the greater Kubuntu community would benefit from a service like this. For the uninitiated, GetDeb and PlayDeb are Ubuntu repositories that aim to "provide the latest open source and freeware applications for the current Ubuntu Linux release, in an easy to install manner". Additionally, these services provide a great way to browse releases and obtain software in a manner that users of that other operating system are very used to: Installing software with a mouse click. 

This service offers a great way for users to browse and install software they may not be aware of. Furthermore, the versions present in these services are often newer than the ones in the standard repositories. The downside, at least for the GetDeb website, is that the applications are geared towards Ubuntu and *not* Kubuntu. Meaning, you will not find Kubuntu / Qt apps there. Of course, that doesn't stop someone from installing these apps anyway, as they should work just fine in Kubuntu. It's just that we in KDE-land often tend to prefer KDE apps when possible.

"But we already have Muon Software Center"

Yes, Kubuntu ships with Muon. It's a great app! However, it is limited to the software sources that it has access to (and rightfully so). But utilizing the GetDeb and/or PlayDeb services, you install the repositories for the respected services. This gives the added benefit of having the ability to install these applications via Muon Software Center or Muon Discover, in addition to installing directly from Get / Play.Deb websites. This way, however you install the application(s), they will stay current automagically via the Muon Updater as part of the normal system updates.

The Case For A Kubuntu-Flavored GetDeb

Let us examine the options that exist today for a new Kubuntu / NetRunner / Linux Mint KDE user looking to install a program not in the standard repositories today. There are a few options:

• Search Google
• Pretty hit-or-miss, often outdated information
• Search Launchpad
• New users may be unaware of Launchpad's vast repositories
• New users may be unaware of how to add / remove / manage repositories
• KDE-apps.org
• Usually no Kubuntu version available, forcing a user to compile and often landing in dependency hell
• Many users are not aware of kde-apps.org
• Limited user base = limited testing and stability
• The app's website
• Same as above: If no official repository exists, the user may be left to compile

Plus, all of the above assumes that the user knows what application they want to install. There is no easy way to browse and read about all of the great software out there not in the standard repos.

Having a GetKDEDeb.org (sample name for discussion's sake) would allow a great way to both expose and distribute both newer upstream versions of software and new applications that are deemed good enough to include but at that time are not available via standard channels.

I have often seen an application on kde-apps.org or qt-apps.org and wanted to try them out, however for whatever reason compiling failed and installation was not successful.  Another potential user unexposed to a developer's beloved project.

As Usual, It Comes Down To Demand And Manpower

Of course, nothing is stopping me or you or anyone else from doing this. It comes down to if there is really a need for such a thing, and of course the big question: What person or team would manage it? Would it gt enough funding and donations to survive?

What do you think? Should something like this exist? Or is it overkill in a world of often understaffed projects already?

Installing The Versatile And Attractive Daisy Launcher In Kubuntu

Over on our Google Plus Community I was asked a few times about an application launcher that I'm rather fond of. As a result, it tends to get featured often in various screen shots that I post for #showyourlinuxdesktopfriday as well as various other miscellaneous screen shots. The plasmoid launcher is called Daisy, it it's pretty cool at what it does. From the author's website:

"Daisy is a  free open-source widget for Plasma/KDE released under the GNU General Public License version 3.

Main features:

• Three types of roles: circular dock, media controller and linear dock;
• Can dock in any screen position and be used in Horizontal or Vertical mode (linear dock role);
• Configuration tools to access all configurable options;
• Launchers can be edited with a simple right-click;
• Hybrid launchers to launch applications and control running tasks;
• Plugins to provide information and execute several tasks;
• Various backgrounds available."

Since you asked, here is an easy way to install and use Daisy from your user account. If you would like to install Daisy system-wide, please refer to this guide for the few changes you would need to make to the process outlined below.

• Download the source code archive
• Make sure the packages kdelibs5-dev and kdebase-workspace-dev are installed on your system. Also install the packages build-essential, checkinstall, and cmake, if they are not already installed. These are necessary in order to compile Daisy
• Browse to where you downloaded Daisy using the Dolphin file manager (~/Downloads by default)
• Right click on the downloaded Daisy zipped archive and select 'Extract', then select 'Extract Here, Autodetect Sub Folder'. 
• Enter the newly extracted folder
• Press <shift>+<F4> to open a terminal in your current directory
• Enter each of the following commands, one at a time in the terminal:
• mkdir build
• cd build
• cmake ../ -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix`
• make
• sudo make install
• kbuildsycoca4

If all goes accordingly, you will now be able to use the pretty cool and versatile Daisy on your system by simply adding the Daisy plasmoid to your desktop. If you enjoy Daisy, consider making a small donation to the author.

The three display options in Daisy: Linear Dock, Circular Dock, and Media Controller

Daisy's many configuration and customization options

Linear Dock

Circular Dock

Media Player

Another view of Daisy in circular format on a Kubuntu desktop

New Wallpaper Coming For KDE 4.10 And Kubuntu 13.04

Today over on the #kubuntu-devel channel in IRC, it was announced that a new wallpaper for the upcoming KDE 4.10 has been released. Based on the feedback we had been getting from the KDE Community, this will be a welcome change from Ariya, which had been shipping as the default wallpaper for the last few releases.

The new wallpaper brings a lot more color to the table, which was the biggest complaint we heard regarding Ariya. No more grey and grey-blue here. The new wallpaper, while predominantly KDE-esque blue, brings aquamarine and shades of purple to the mix as well. The result is a pleasantly bright and much more energetic feeling wallpaper.

Although most people change the default wallpaper as one of the first things they do upon a new Kubuntu install in order to start the cherished process of personalizing one's computing experience, it simply can not be argued that good first impressions are important. Let's just chalk it up to human nature. Another thought that came to mind when thinking about the new wallpaper is that it goes much better with the overall look of a Ubuntu-type wallpaper, although this is not orange and any resemblance to Ubuntu's sense of style is certainly not intended.

So KDE 4.10 is bringing new Themes, icons, and a new wallpaper. I have to say so far I like the new direction. Kudos for the KDE Artwork Team for stepping up their game. 

So without further ado, here's the new wallpaper:

New Wallpaper Coming For KDE 4.10 And Kubuntu 13.04

Kubuntu 13.04 With The New Look

Like it? Like the old one better? Please share your thoughts on the new visuals in the comments below.

Here's a link to the full-size image, in case you want to get a jump on making your desktop look like you're running KDE 4.10 already (i.e. you impatient types): http://ubuntuone.com/3W0R4FhzKMC8aECIj3QD1O