:: KDE-4.5Beta2 ::

Hello there! Long time I don't show up, huh?

Today I am posting about kde-4.5Beta2, which was released this week. Why posting about a beta version of KDE? Well, this might help some people understand the evolution of this version (4.5) or some people, who are trying the beta, will be able to find out that (s)he isn't the only one suffering with some bug.

First impressions:

KDE-4.5 is getting nicer. I didn't spot all the new features, but some which called my attention:

1. Now you can set the calendar to show you special dates/holidays. Just configure it to show the dates of your location (Brazil in my case) and you are done;
2. New desktop effects;
3. New window decorations;

"Bah, only that?"

No, I believe there is more. I just didn't have time to mess around more deeply ;)

Problems found:

Yes, it has problems/bugs. Remember, IT IS A BETA VERSION. It is supposed to not be ready and stable. That said... a problem I found (and many other users also) is that plasma-desktop is not enjoying keeping the configurations you will do (or have done). You set up your wallpaper, place some widgets on the desktop... and when you restart KDE (or simply plasma-desktop) the default wallpaper is back and the widgets have been moved to "another dimension". Yes, another dimension because the widgets were not removed. They are somewhere you can touch them. I even tried removing the plasma-desktop config file, to no avail.

I found out there is a bug report open about this, and as far as I read, this problem is fixed on the SVN. So you can either download and compile the SVN version, or you wait for the next Beta (or perhaps a RC version).

I had a problem with kwalletmanager on my computer at home, when I first tried kde-4.5beta2. But I didn't have that when I installed it on my work PC. It might have something to do with my '.kde/' at home. On the second time I ran kde-4.5beta2 the problem was gone.

Well, I will report more as soon as I find more insteresting news (be them good or bad).

:: KDE-4.4.0 ::

OK, finalmente chegou a vez de eu falar do KDE-4.4.0. Lembram de tudo aquilo que eu falei sobre o Mac OS, no post anterior? Então...

Vamos primeiro aos pontos negativos:

1. Não é tão bem integrado quanto o Mac OS é. Culpa do KDE? Não necessariamente, visto que esse "problema de falta de padronização" é algo que afeta o SO (Linux) em si. E eu coloquei entre aspas justamente porque essa falta de padronização é algo que a galera nerd/geek, os árduos defensores do software livre, tanto gostam. Do que estamos falando? Freedom! (Liberdade). Sim, liberdade de escolha. "Ah, eu não gosto da cara do KDE", ok, usa Gnome, XFCE, Fluxbox, etc, etc. Não gosta do KOffice? Usa [Open|BR]Office, etc. Mas do ponto de vista do usuário final, o Joe user como eu digo, isso é um empecilho sim;
2. O sistema de busca do KDE melhorou muito, entretanto ainda fica devendo se comparado com o do Mac OS X ou do Windows Vista/7. Nesses dois últimos basta, por exemplo, estar com o gerenciador de arquivos (Finder no Mac, Windows Explorer no Windows) aberto, daí digitar uma string no campo de busca... e enquanto se está digitando ele já está procurando. No KDE não. O campo de busca também está ali no Dolphin (gerenciador de arquivos), só que ele só começa a procurar por alguma coisa após se pressionar ENTER (ou clicar no botão que inícia a busca). Mas já melhorou bastante. Ah sim, essa melhora no sistema de busca não é de agora, da versão 4.4.0, mas nela ele deu mais uma evoluidinha.
3. Está um pouco mais pesadinho. No momento estou rodando kopete (IM), amarok (music player), skype, duas janelas do Dolphin, Google Chrome (com 4 abas)... e o sistema como um todo está consumindo pouco menos de 1.2 GB de RAM :D (quanto será que o Windows 7 consumiria pra rodar tudo isso né)

Agora os pontos positivos:

1. Pra começo de conversa, eu acho o KDE-4 mais bonito que o Windows 7 e até mesmo que o Mac OS X. Sim, eu sei muito bem que o KDE-4 tem várias coisas inspiradas (copiadas?) no SO da Apple. Só que realmente eu acho o KDE-4 mais bonito. O gnome vem se inspirando no Mac OS X faz tempo, porém eu continuo achando que aquele, por usar GTK, deixa a desejar em termos de beleza. Mas tudo bem, gosto é gosto.
2. Gostei bastante de terem alterado o modo como a seleção de widgets é feita. Não se abre mais uma janela para os escolher. Agora aparece uma "barra" acima/abaixo da barra de tarefas, com a lista de widgets na horizontal. Sem falar que agora dá pra colocar uns widgets direto na barra de tarefas (ou no painel em que a barra está).
3. Sinceramente eu achei o KDE-4.4.0 mais rápido que o KDE-4.3.4 (último que eu havia testado), e está bem estável, pois não tive nenhum crash ou qualquer outro tipo de problema com ele.
4. Não preciso dizer que eu posso deletar arquivos direto sem mandar pra lixeira; que eu posso recortar (mover) arquivos/pastas; que eu posso acessar servidores 'smb' ou 'sftp' direto pelo gerenciador de arquivos.... não preciso né? :P

Bom, pra que ficar gastando saliva ou pensando em como tirar as melhores screenshots se os caras fizeram uns videozinhos né:

Acho que os vídeos falam por si só né:

E como eu disse no post de adeus ao Mac OS, foi por causa dele (e da mudança de emprego/cidade) que eu demorei tanto para passar do KDE-4.3.4 para o 4.4.0. Assim sendo, deixei o pessoal do Bluewhite64 (a distribuição de Linux que eu uso) na mão, esperando pelos pacotes. Já está tudo pronto, agora. Só estou fazendo mais uns testes antes de realmente mandar pro repositório para que outros usuários testem também.

Bom, chega por hoje. Está quente, os mosquitos querem me fazer de janta e eu não estou afim de colaborar.

T+

:: KDE-4.3.2 is out ::

Another quick post just to advertise we have KDE-4.3.2 on Bluewhite64-13.0 repository. Yes, I should have talked about this when we released the packages, but you know... busy life comes in the way too often ;)

Oh, we released it on Tuesday (2009/10/06) and today I already uploaded two new packages (kdebase and kdelibs needed some patches, which came from upstream).

OK, that's it for now. Enjoy this new KDE which is working nicely for me.

:: KDE-4.3.0 ::

Inglês:

OK, after some waiting... KDE-4.3.0 is here. Plenty of bugfixes (2 of those reported by me: microblogger not posting messages and kget annoying the users when starting a download), improvements, better performance, etc.

arny (the main devel for Bluewhite64) asked me to release kde-4.3.0 packages for the bluewhite64-current also. So I created a VM with that version of the distro and compiled everything there. So now I have two sets of KDE packages: one for Bluewhite64-12.2 and another for Bluewhite64-current. Both of them are on the repository (http://data.linux64packages.net:8080/).

So, welcome to the new KDE version ;)

English

Feito, após um pouco de espera... o KDE-4.3.0 está aí. Cheio de correções de bugs (2 deles reportados por mim: o microblogger não estava enviado posts e o kget incomodando os usuários na hora de iniciar um download), melhorias (inclusive em performance), etc.

O arny (principal desenvolvedor do Bluewhite64) me pediu para liberar pacotes do kde-4.3.0 para o Bluewhite64-current também. Então eu criei uma VM com essa versão da distro e compililei tudo de novo. Então agora eu tenho dois "jogos" de pacotes do KDE: um para o Bluewhite64-12.2 e outro para Bluewhite64-current. Ambos já estão no repositório (http://data.linux64packages.net:8080/)

Bem vindos à nova versão do KDE ;)

:: KDE-4.2.2 is there :P ::

Yup, just a quick post to let you all know that I uploaded the KDE-4.2.2 binary packages to Bluewhite64's repository.

Have fun with it and please let me know if you find anything wrong.

May the Force be with you!

:: KDE-4.2.2 is here ::

OOOOOOK dokey! KDE-4.2.2 was released today, and today I compiled and packed the binaries for Bluewhite64-12.2. I should have done that before, but I was a little busy with other stuffs.

I will test it a bit more tonight, then I will upload to BW64's repository. The great news so far (I haven't tested it, just loaded it, tried one or two applications) is that it compiled much faster than previous versions: 90min 2.220sec

I remember KDE-4.1.2 taking more than 130min. GO KDE! hehehehe

Well, that's it for now.

Positivo Mobo 1050 running Slackware-12.2 and KDE-4.2.1

OK, como eu prometi, aqui vai um video (bem mal feito) do meu Positivo Mobo 1050 rodando Slackware-12.2 e KDE-4.2.1 ;)



Curtiram? Não?

[English version]

OK, as I promissed on my last post (yes, it was in portuguese), here goes a video (badly done) showing my netbook Positivo Mobo 1050 running Slackware-12.2 and KDE-4.2.1

Enjoyed? No?

:: Linux - KDE-4.2.1 ::

OK then, KDE-4.2.1 was released today and Bluewhite64 Linux already has the binary packages. Just visit our site and choose the Packages link.

I had some small problems compiling all the stuff, but it was all my fault *LOL*

Other than that, still wait my netbook buy to get to its end. A happy ending I so hope.

:: Linux - Amarok-2.0-rc1 - Part 2 ::

Yeah, right! I thought my amarok+mysql install was clean, nice and dandy. But I was proven wrong. Of course it couldn't be that neat. Mysql-5.1.28rc is (or will be) the "new frontier". So when I was trying to access my photos on gallery2 (yes I have one of those running at home) it just didn't work. Gallery2 wasn't able to connect to mysql. So I tinkered here, there... no good. I restarted Apache (which was running since last morning)... ok I TRIED to restart it. It complained about some mysql libraries. Of course, dumb ass! The apache and php I have installed were compiled against the old mysql.

So I thought "Damn! I have two options: 1- Keep the old version of amarok; 2- use the new mysql and amarok, but then I would have to recompile apache and php" So no, I took another route ;) I decided to try that "embeding/patching" approach the amarok guys describe on that site (last post), but to use it with mysql-5.0.67 (the version I had before messing with amarok). So I just set some stuff here, other there; used the same mysql.SlackBuild script I used yesterday... and crossed my fingers.

OK, mysql compiled nicely, without any problems. Now I had a new mysql-5.0.67 package. Then I jumped to compiling amarok. As I expected, it didn't complain about mysql embeded, compiled nicely... and another package done. Now I had the old mysql (a bit changed) and the new amarok installed. I tested amarok and it was OK (so far). Then it was time to test my gallery2, which also worked.

So... there you go! I will test Amarok a bit more, when I get the time. If I find anything bad, I will let you (and the amarok guys) know ;)

See ya!

:: Linux - Amarok 2.0rc1 ::

OK, today I remembered to try a new svn version of Amarok. Why trying the svn version? Well, because I don't want to run another "old" KDE app (that is, related to QT3). K3B is quite enough for me. And since amarok shouldn't damage anything (an unstable version of k3b can waste cd/dvds)... why not?

So I downloaded it and went to the compile stage. But then I got a "nice" surprise. Now (I was running amarok-1.86) needs a so called mysql embeded. Crap! I had mysql installed, but that wouldn't suffice. So I had to download mysql-5.1.28rc, than apply a patch from Amarok (as it seems) and then build it. For more instructions, please read here.

So after some time tinkering with the build script referenced on the link above, I created my mysql.SlackBuild script and had it compiled, packaged and installed. Then it was amarok's time. So now I have both installed, just still couldn't test amarok.

As I said to some guys on #amarok, I just hope the stable version of mysql-5.1.x (perhaps 5.2.x?) will be released before amarok ehehehehehee

:: Linux - KDE-4.1.3 ::

OK, better later than never, right? The post is late as was the packages making. Anyway, last week I got KDE 4.1.3 packages done for Bluewhite64. If you'd like to test it, please go here -> http://data.linux64packages.net:8080/bluewhite64-current/kde-4.1.3/ <-

It took me longer to release these packages because I was a bit dumb by then *LOL*. Thing is I had messed with my system in order to install an application (don't remember the name) which required QT-3. Even by telling it to use '--with-qt-dir=/usr/lib/qt-3.3.8b' the damn thing wouldn't compile. So I had to create some symlinks.... and the thing is I forgot to remove those symlinks. Result? Well, kdebindings-4.1.3 wasn't enjoying those symlinks, thus giving me a "nice" headache. I finally found the reason of my headache (my stupidity). I removed the symlinks, put everything back to normal and voila, kdebindings-4.1.3 was compiled, thus allowing me to release the whole set of packages.

And as a bonus (or loads of bonuses), this time I released the kde-l10n set of packages too. So if you are not a lover of the English language, you can choose another. Hopefully your "mother language" will be there :)

Please let me know if everything is OK or not.

On another note, today I was trying to compile pinentry against QT-4, but that wasn't possible so far. Why recompiling that? Well, pinentry, on BW64 (and Slackware too) has the "pinentry-qt" program, which, as far as I understand, is used by KMail and Dolphin (or Konqueror on KDE-3.x.x) to work with encrypted files (or to sign messages/files/etc). But pinentry LOVES qt-3 :( So that's one of the reasons I have to keep qt-3.3.8b installed on my system.

My computer just finished compiling, packaging and installing k3b-1.95 (from SVN). Let's see if that will be one less app to require qt-3 from me ;)

I'll let you know when I have more news .

See ya

:: Linux - KVirc 3.4.2 - Part 2 ::

OK, since Douglas's presentation was good enough to make me jump into the "patching land", I wrote/created a small patch that can make your life much easier if you want to compile kvirc-3.4.2 on Bluewhite64 against QT-4 (like I did). So, just use kvirc-x86_64-libs.diff.gz and be happy. How to use that? Decompress kvirc-3.4.2.tar.(gz or bz2) and do this:

cd kvirc-3.4.2
zcat PATH-TO-THE-PATCH/kvirc-x86_64-libs.diff.gz | patch -p2
sh ./autogen.sh
./configure (use the options you like best)
make
make install (you need to be root for this last one)

Isn't that easier than the weird explanation I gave on the other post? ;)

:: Linux - KDE 4.1.2 ::

OK dokey, here I am, still alive, yes! ;)

Don't worry people, everything is alright on my side of the globe. I've just been quite busy. Oh sure, I forgot to tell you that my son is already born. Yep, most of my being busy has to do with family. The kid is great, he is a beutiful baby and, for now, looks like his father *LOL*. But don't worry, he will be better as time goes by ;)

On the geek/nerd part of my life, KDE 4.1.2 was released on October 3 and on that same day we had packages for Bluewhite64. Indeed, thanks to Coruscant for the quick compiling and packaging hehehehe

But then today I decided to check on KDE-4 dependencies and I found out most of them had newer versions. So I downloaded them and recompiled the whole dependecy tree. After that, yes, a new compiling of KDE 4.1.2 (so it would match/use the new stuff). Right now I have already uploaded all the deps to BW64 repository and I am already re-uploading the KDE 4.1.2 packages.

For those who care to know, Coruscant took 71min to compile and package the deps, against 131min for KDE.

OK, I am tired and need some rest. See ya!

:: Linux - Timing KDE 4.1.1 compile ::

OK, as promised to psychicist and to you guys, here goes the result of my "experiment". First I compiled KDE 4.1.1 using 'make -j4' and it took 136m3.569s (136 minutes and 3.569 seconds); then I tried 'make -j8' and it took 126m16.009s (126 minutes and 16.009 seconds).

Now, you tell me. What's best, '-j4' or '-j8'? ;)

Ok, enough geek talking for today ;)

Ah, sure! I promised the URL for you to download KDE 4.1.1 packages for Bluewhite64, right? There you go: http://data.linux64packages.net:8080/bluewhite64-12.1/kde-4.1.1/kde/

Have fun!

:: Linux - KDE 4.1.1 ::

Oops, I did it again!

No, I am no fan of Britney Spears *LOL* OK, I admit some years ago i thought she was hot, but not anymore :P

This post is about KDE 4.1.1. It was released yesterday and since yesterday I have the packages for Bluewhite64. Yep, I did it. Right now I am uploading the packages to BW64's repository. As soon as everything is on the server I will let you know (and post the direct link).

Since I had some small problems while compiling kdewebdev (because of tidy), I couldn't time the compile process correctly, and since me and psychicist want to know if there is a difference from compiling stuff using 'make -j4' or 'make -j8', I am recompiling everything ;). Right now I am running the compile with a 'make -j4'. After that I will compile everything again with 'make -j8'. Yes, call me crazy, nerd, geek or whatever, but we do have to find that out ;)

Anyway, that's what Quadcore CPUs are made for, right? :) Not for people who only use M$ Office, play solitaire, use MSN and read their email with that crappy M$ Outlook.

Go Open Source!

:: Linux - KDE-4.1 is out, and I did my part ::

That's it! KDE 4.1 was released on July 29 and since that very day I am running it. Only today I had time to post. Another good reason to post is to celebrate the fact that I am giving back a little to the free software community. How? Well, I got KDE 4.1 source codes (and the dependecy softwares), compiled everything, created the packages for Bluewhite64 Linux and... waited. After talking to arny, the maintainer of the distribution, he gave me access to upload the packages to his server. So, if you want to test my packages, check here.

Call me silly, but I am happy for being able to help a little bit.

:: Linux - KDE 4.1 beta 2 ::

Yesterday I was thinking of posting about my experience with KDE 4.x, but given the workload I forgot about it. Today I read bart's blog... and he posted about the whole mess surrounding KDE 4.x. So, here go my impressions about the subject.

It took me sometime to really go after KDE 4.0. I just "noticed" it was released when I read on a mailing list about Robby Workman making packages of it for Slackware Linux. Well, I downloaded those packages and installed on my Slackware 12.1. Well, well... it was a bit nice... but there were lots of stuff missing. And no, bart, I am still not talking about Amarok or K3B. One of the most important parts of KDE, at least for me, is Kontact (a Personal Information Manager, which has email client, personal organizer, etc, etc). That really shocked me, since Kontact is part of KDE3 (and I use KMail since what... KDE 1 or 2, can't remember). Plus... there were some bugs, I couldn't compile K3B and KVirc to work with QT4.x. CRAP!

Then I let time pass by. At least once a week I would check www.kde.org for news about KDE, since I had heard it would be a bit better when version 4.1 was out. So now KDE 4.1 is out. OK, the beta version, but it is already usable. OK, it should not be TRUSTED, since it is a beta version. Since nobody did the favor to compile KDE 4.1beta 2 for 64bits (at least not the packages for my distribution (Bluewhite64), which is an unofficial "Slackware for 64bits") I decided to do it myself. I got Robby Workman' SlackBuild scripts, did some editting and that's it. I compiled all the dependencies + the whole KDE thing, and now I have KDE 4.1 beta2 running on my Linux box.

Talking with people at #kde (irc.freenode.net) I found out there were people running k3b without problems. But then wait a minute. I had talked (over email) with one of k3b developers and he told me they still didn't have a stable release of the program which would work with QT 4.x. I had been checking www.k3b.org on the same days I was checking www.kde.org, and there were no news about that. Then the guys at #kde told me people were running the old (in fact current) version of k3b. The trick? Just keeping QT3 and kdelibs3 installed on their system. So I did the same. Kept those packages installed and tried k3b on KDE 4.1beta2 and that's it.. it works (yep, I did burn a CD and two DVDs already).

Then I tried compiling Amarok for KDE 4. Some guys told me it was crashy, with loads of bugs... and yes, it is, since it is a beta version too. But I got it to compile with minor problems (which I solved) and I have been listening to my MP3 without much problems (one crash here, another there... but it is bearable).

The really aching problems FOR ME:

1- Global shortcuts are not working, at least the ones I needed *LOL*;
2- Amarok's shortcuts don't work too. I hear this version (KDE 4.1 beta2) still has those issues, but I also hear some (if not all) those problems have been solved on the SVN version;
3- when I log out of KDE and go back to the console there are LOTS of lines printed out. Sometimes that even changes the characters on that session. Believe me, it is harder to read that than japanese or sindarin *LOL*
4- well, k3b is still not ready for it, but that's not KDE's fault;

I watched a lecture where Aaron Seigo said their plans for KDE 4 was so that the Desktop would be more usefull. He compaired what we have on our desktops nowadays (or by that time), Windows XP, KDE 3, Gnome, etc with what they (the KDE team) saw should be the future. The usual Desktop style is... HIDEN. Usually we just see our desktops when we turn on our computers and log in, right? After that we fire up our programs, start working/playing and we usually just go back to the desktop when we are about to turn the computer off. So, the desktop is really not that usefull. OK, I know there are plenty of people out there who LOOOOOVE to save their files on the Desktop. Bad, bad you! Such a nasty desktop you have *LOL*

So, how different is KDE4.1 from that description? Not that much different in my opinion. As I see, Compiz-Fusion's Desktop is more usefull. You can write stuff on the back of a window, you can do other fancy (and even usefull) stuff, etc. KDE 4.1 has some fancy stuff and that's it, as I see. Perhaps I haven't tried it that hard. Perhaps when I am more used to it I will see what Aaron promised. But so far...

However, despite all I wrote on this post, I am enjoying KDE 4. :D

Awaiting for your comments, bart.

:: KDE 3.5 ::

É negadinha, saiu o KDE 3.5. Baixei no trampo e em casa na semana passada. Estou usando sem problemas. Inclusive estou meio que migrando do Mozilla Firefox para o Konqueror, visto que esse último está bem leve (fora a integração dele com o KDE, óbvio).

Diz que o Kopete já está suportando webcam (para o protocolo do MSN). Porém ainda não catei tempo pra testar isso. Quem sabe hoje de noite. Vou importunar o Gambá para os testes hehehehe.

Ah... "se lembrei". Agora que vou de férias pra SM... seria uma ótima eu dar uma chegada no oftalmologista. Ver como andam os "zóio". Tenho a triste sensação de que vou precisar gastar troco com novas lentes. DAMN!

Mas fazer o que né!