How to Install KDE Plasma Netbook Edition in Ubuntu?

Plasma is actually a brand-name rather than a single app or a package which was invented by the Qt-written KDE desktop. To meet today's standards, since unlike in the past now the desktop environment developers have to take into consideration of the main three types of "desktops", one for the usual desktop users, another one for the notebook or netbooks and finally to meet yet another "big" trend these days, the Tablet PC screens.

The reason for such separate development is because, say that your current desktop is optimized for computers with a certain screen resolution (HD) then since most of the netbooks don't have HD or highest HD resolutions thus if they install the desktop then they'll have issues such as applications not "fitting" in their screen, etc.

Another benefit of designing a dedicated desktop is the ability to cut-out some of the unnecessary resources (smaller windows, etc) and optimizing it for certain CPU types, etc. 

Image via: KDE.org

So, if you have a nebook with a smaller resolution and size then although you can use the standard Qt/KDE desktop edition but as said if you do so not only you'll run into trouble trying to run apps and see their whole windows but also since that desktop is optimized for the usual Desktop/Laptop PCs, etc, so it'll put unnecessary strain on your Netbook thus resulting in a shorter battery life as well.

In that sense if you're a KDE geek ;-) who's not ready to let go of it without a fight, then your best solution is to install the beautiful, KDE plasma Netbook edition.

Another key thing about the KDE plasma edition is that it does not come with a lot of applications which also helps to save some of that HDD (may not be a huge concern, unless you have a faster but costly and smaller SSD) space as well.

But that being said, the KDE netbook version do come with a file manager, web browser, office suite, image viewer, painting application, excellent widgets support and many other applications by default nonetheless + you can easily install many more of other apps in the future as well.

So if you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 OR

since you have a somewhat "restricted" hardware features and hard disk space, you can install the KDE plasma netbook by even without having to install any graphical versions of the Ubuntu Linux. For that you'll have to first install the Ubuntu using the Minimal CD.

And then use the below command in your Terminal window (as said if you've already installed Ubuntu 11.04 using the standard LiveCD, then you can also use the below commands too).

sudo apt-get install kde-plasma-netbook

That's about it mate! :D.

KDE 4.6.5 is Available for Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal!

It was actually last month when the KDE 4.6.4 was released and after like 3-4 weeks the KDE team has updated the world famous Qt written KDE desktop to the version 4.6.5 yesterday. Although just like with the previous version this also does not bring any major features but only seems to carry the usual bug-fixes.

If you use KDE as your primary desktop and the version 4.6.x then it is recommended to do the upgrade which should do few "patches" and few language translation fixes as well. According to the Change-log page few bug fixes of apps such as Juk (a music player application for KDE), Sweeper related bugs (a utility to clean history and other "user traces"), KDE Pacman game related bug fixes, etc are included. Nothing major it seems though. 

These updates (according to KDE developers themselves) are a part of "strengthening" the KDE 4.6x series which was introduced around January (2011) that brought significant changes to the desktop and its applications.

The Plasma Netbook edition...

Starting with an optimized mobile version (which uses less system resources, etc), powerful Semantic backup capabilities using GUI (thanks to the NEPOMUK - a metadata handler across different networks/devices), better GTK+ theme compatibility in Qt-KDE environment, Oxy-Gen theme improvements and a powerful framework for handling Bluetooth devices are just a few to mention.

Anyhow, if you use Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal then you'll be glad to know that the Kubuntu team has also released pre-build packages simultaneously with this KDE release. If you haven't already added the PPA, then you can install or upgrade to KDE 4.6.5 version in Kubuntu 11.04 by using the below commands in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

Muon Suite 1.2 Beta 2 is Out (Qt Written Package Manager for Kubuntu 11.04 +)

Since I've written about Muon Suite before I won't be going into all the details all over again. Anyhow for those of you who are new to Muon (well we all are in a way, lol), it is a package manager GUI written using the Qt toolkit (owned by Nokia corporations) aimed at the Kubuntu/KDE Linux desktop.

It's actually becoming apparent that why Kubuntu team "invented" this package manager because the current package manager GUI when compared with the Ubuntu Software Center ... well it does lack few "user-friendliness" and like the Synaptic (although it's most certainly rich in features and the best option for the power users) the current package manager is not optimized for the touch-sensitive devices or the "future" in general.

So in hope for a more user-friendly package manager GUI they came up with the one called Muon. Soon after the initial announcement, they actually made available the 1.2 beta version few weeks ago for testing which you can install via their PPA channel.

The latest news is that few hours ago they've released the latest version of Muon, 1.2 Beta 2!. And according to the developer this won't give new features but seems to carry bug-fixes only. So if you've been using the older 1.2 Beta version, then it's advised to upgrade to this version.

If you have never installed it before, then you can install the Muon 1.2 beta 2 in Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by using the below command in your GNU/Linux Terminal window.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:echidnaman/qapt-experimental
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install muon

Videoporama - A Fully Featured Video/Image Slide Show Creator for GNU/Linux!

Videoporama is a very impressive video and image slide-show creator that is written in Qt. Although it's basically seems like a front-end since it uses the excellent MPlayer for video play-back, ffmpeg and MjpegTools for dealing with various types of audio and video formats... the rest assured, if you want something that lets you create hassle free video shows or image slides... then Videoporama is an elegant app.

This actually is a cross-platform Qt written application thus you can use it in Microsoft Windows as well.

Main features...

*. Comes preloaded with a lot of transition effects.

*. Add text to your images (overlays, etc).

*. If your does not have an audio file, then you can manually add one too!.

*. Pre-built presets for creating videos for iPhone/iPod or manual output settings.

*. Supports saving videos in mpg, avi, mp4 and webm + if you want you can save the recorded videos in full HD resolutions as well.

These are few of its main features to mention and if you want to install it in Ubuntu 10.10, then open your Terminal and enter the below command.

sudo apt-get install videoporama

If you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Nalwhal, then please use the this .deb package instead.