28 December 2010
KDE Dolphin Dropbox Service.
This article I have just seen via the KDE Planet details a new service for allowing Dropbox browsing from Dolphin. Looks promising and I will try and install tomorrow and play.
21 December 2010
KDE & K16 ... Send Your Pitch
So the KDE team have thrown open a challenge. What do users and developers want from KDE and where should it head in the next 5 years. They are going to hold a meeting of users, visionaries and developers early next year called K16 and they have thrown open an invitation for users to "pitch" their ideas in a one page document which can be sent to k16@kde.org for the chance to attend and sell your idea to the project. The organising team and KDE e.V. will select 15 people to attend and even cover travel costs.
I think this is a GREAT idea and one that shows despite the criticisms from some voices in the media the project does care about what people want and is in fact not a developer centric project.
However, it is quite clear from some posts I have read and some of the comments in the announcement that some users are still bemoaning issues surrounding KDE 4 and the stability of the Software. In some case's I agree that while the project has transformed from a slightly poor 4.0 release, 4.5 and soon 4.6 have polished up rather nicely. I know that some feel that certain changes from the version 3 code have not been wise but at the end of the day KDE is still a mainly volunteer FOSS project and people will work on what interests them and inspires them. If there is a feature from 3 that is really important to you then file a request, get coding yourself or inspire someone to code it.
It's funny how comments like "-Make dolphin open instant and respond better." and "-a replacement for "ark" is desperately needed" make me smile. Opening Dolphin on my Thinkpad R61e takes less than a second. How much faster does it need to be? What distro is the culprit and may have modified it, bloated it?? I like KDE plain and simple so I run Arch.
I do think that while the project plans for the next 5 years they should also keep polishing and improving what they have. However, a meeting like this may well bring some great ideas to the project that may otherwise not been thought of.
Personally, I would like to see a decent WebKit based Browser that is capable of giving Firefox and Chrome a serious run for it's money. I would like to see Tag Cloud based options in Save and Open dialogs. I would like to see decent a decent Bluetooth stack that is complete. And I would love to see changes to the UI that would make using the desktop as much fun as using my Android phone. Plasma widgets of real value and slick UI's that break the 25 year old mould and bring seamless connectivity to the KDE desktop and the web.
I might even put a page together on that one!
I think this is a GREAT idea and one that shows despite the criticisms from some voices in the media the project does care about what people want and is in fact not a developer centric project.
However, it is quite clear from some posts I have read and some of the comments in the announcement that some users are still bemoaning issues surrounding KDE 4 and the stability of the Software. In some case's I agree that while the project has transformed from a slightly poor 4.0 release, 4.5 and soon 4.6 have polished up rather nicely. I know that some feel that certain changes from the version 3 code have not been wise but at the end of the day KDE is still a mainly volunteer FOSS project and people will work on what interests them and inspires them. If there is a feature from 3 that is really important to you then file a request, get coding yourself or inspire someone to code it.
It's funny how comments like "-Make dolphin open instant and respond better." and "-a replacement for "ark" is desperately needed" make me smile. Opening Dolphin on my Thinkpad R61e takes less than a second. How much faster does it need to be? What distro is the culprit and may have modified it, bloated it?? I like KDE plain and simple so I run Arch.
I do think that while the project plans for the next 5 years they should also keep polishing and improving what they have. However, a meeting like this may well bring some great ideas to the project that may otherwise not been thought of.
Personally, I would like to see a decent WebKit based Browser that is capable of giving Firefox and Chrome a serious run for it's money. I would like to see Tag Cloud based options in Save and Open dialogs. I would like to see decent a decent Bluetooth stack that is complete. And I would love to see changes to the UI that would make using the desktop as much fun as using my Android phone. Plasma widgets of real value and slick UI's that break the 25 year old mould and bring seamless connectivity to the KDE desktop and the web.
I might even put a page together on that one!
19 November 2010
New Toy
Life has been a little crazy of late. Work has been demanding as it always is in the later part of the year as some of our clients have their busiest times in the last few months in the run up to Christmas. This has left little time for much other than family time. However, I do have a new toy.
Last week I brought an Orange San Francisco mobile phone. I am a bit of a phone freak and have always been buying new ones and trying out the latest low end models. I am a funny phone user as I tend to use Pay as You Go models as my needs really have never warranted a contract.
At the start of the year I brought a Blackberry Pearl. I got it cheap with Orange and found having my mail and Twitter and Facebook and the internet a great use. In fact I was using it more for internet based activity than I was using it as a phone. However, the small screen and the fact it was slow and had a habit of rebooting and freezing led me to take note of some of the new low end Android phones that have been hitting the market.
I was about to find a Huawei Ideos which is the new low end Google phone which is reported to be going on sale for less than £100 and while searching came across the reviews for the San Francisco. I was immediately hooked and went and brought one.
The phone is basically a re-badged ZTE Blade running Android 2.1. It has a 3.2mp camera (no flash but with good light does quite well) 3g, wifi connectivity, bluetooth and Android. I can not say how much Android has impressed me and how it has made the phone genuinely useful. I started it up and entered my Google account details and within seconds I had my calendar, contacts and email all on the phone. Orange have hacked the phone slightly to add various applications (such as a push email client) and add their branding.
With the limited time I have had I have added the obligatory Facebook, Myspace and Twitter applications. All the official applications of the related site and all are brilliant, fast and well thought out applications. I have installed the Dropbox client and the Evernote clients and find that I am able to do almost all of what I can achieve with a PC.
Did I mention how impressed I am with Android?
Other stand out items that I have been impressed with are the ability to install a bar-code reader which can then be used to install applications and download images and themes? Seriously, install the bar-code reader application and start it up, point your camera at the screen with the applications bar-code on it and the camera will scan the code and the image or application is downloaded. Seriously user friendly. Then there is the Android Market. This makes searching and installing applications so easy that it takes no thought.
So far I have only found two issues with the phone in the week that I have had it. The first is that Orange have for some reason removed Google Talk. Why? I know not but this seems a little stupid. I found This article detailing how to install the application and with my trusty bar-code application had it downloaded and running in minutes.
The other slightly more annoying issue was that the wifi would drop connections when the phone went to sleep and not reconnect. This appears to be a major bug with the model is well documented over the internet. I found a great wiki on the ZTE Blade which recommended using and application call
Last week I brought an Orange San Francisco mobile phone. I am a bit of a phone freak and have always been buying new ones and trying out the latest low end models. I am a funny phone user as I tend to use Pay as You Go models as my needs really have never warranted a contract.
At the start of the year I brought a Blackberry Pearl. I got it cheap with Orange and found having my mail and Twitter and Facebook and the internet a great use. In fact I was using it more for internet based activity than I was using it as a phone. However, the small screen and the fact it was slow and had a habit of rebooting and freezing led me to take note of some of the new low end Android phones that have been hitting the market.
I was about to find a Huawei Ideos which is the new low end Google phone which is reported to be going on sale for less than £100 and while searching came across the reviews for the San Francisco. I was immediately hooked and went and brought one.
The phone is basically a re-badged ZTE Blade running Android 2.1. It has a 3.2mp camera (no flash but with good light does quite well) 3g, wifi connectivity, bluetooth and Android. I can not say how much Android has impressed me and how it has made the phone genuinely useful. I started it up and entered my Google account details and within seconds I had my calendar, contacts and email all on the phone. Orange have hacked the phone slightly to add various applications (such as a push email client) and add their branding.
With the limited time I have had I have added the obligatory Facebook, Myspace and Twitter applications. All the official applications of the related site and all are brilliant, fast and well thought out applications. I have installed the Dropbox client and the Evernote clients and find that I am able to do almost all of what I can achieve with a PC.
Did I mention how impressed I am with Android?
Other stand out items that I have been impressed with are the ability to install a bar-code reader which can then be used to install applications and download images and themes? Seriously, install the bar-code reader application and start it up, point your camera at the screen with the applications bar-code on it and the camera will scan the code and the image or application is downloaded. Seriously user friendly. Then there is the Android Market. This makes searching and installing applications so easy that it takes no thought.
So far I have only found two issues with the phone in the week that I have had it. The first is that Orange have for some reason removed Google Talk. Why? I know not but this seems a little stupid. I found This article detailing how to install the application and with my trusty bar-code application had it downloaded and running in minutes.
The other slightly more annoying issue was that the wifi would drop connections when the phone went to sleep and not reconnect. This appears to be a major bug with the model is well documented over the internet. I found a great wiki on the ZTE Blade which recommended using and application call
12 September 2010
KDE Articles
Having been caught up with real work this week I have only just really caught up with my RSS feeds. Within which this week I find a number of interesting articles on various elements of KDE.
The first two are Bruce Byfields 7 Things you can do in KDE but not in Windows 7 and KDE and the Expansion of the Desktop. Both articles offer some interesting and articulate advice regarding KDE's Virtual Desktops, Activities, KWin effects and more. It's nice to see Bruce standing up for a desktop that only a couple of years ago he was so critical of.
A Look At KDE Desktop Effects does just that and provides a nice step by step guide to using the "System Settings" to get the best from the effects offered by KWin.
Last, but not least is KDE SC 4.5 Desktop Activities Exposed which once again comes from an author who was critical of the KDE activity implementation but after play with it and reading further articles himself (see article for links) comes to the conclusion that they might not be so bad after all.
The first two are Bruce Byfields 7 Things you can do in KDE but not in Windows 7 and KDE and the Expansion of the Desktop. Both articles offer some interesting and articulate advice regarding KDE's Virtual Desktops, Activities, KWin effects and more. It's nice to see Bruce standing up for a desktop that only a couple of years ago he was so critical of.
A Look At KDE Desktop Effects does just that and provides a nice step by step guide to using the "System Settings" to get the best from the effects offered by KWin.
Last, but not least is KDE SC 4.5 Desktop Activities Exposed which once again comes from an author who was critical of the KDE activity implementation but after play with it and reading further articles himself (see article for links) comes to the conclusion that they might not be so bad after all.
RIP Sidux ... aptosid Is born!
A long time ago before I switched to Arch for my main distro I spent sometime running Sidux.
Sidux was a Debian based distro based and built on the Sid repositories which contain the unstable Debian branch code. Sidux was great. I could install a whole basic KDE desktop in about 5 minutes and then spend the rest of an evening setting it up and installing on the applications I wanted. It provided a rolling basis so that a quick drop to the shell meant I could stay bleeding edge with no reinstalls.
I read only recently that the project appeared to be suffering some issues and after heading over to the project page tonight (after reading that Mint Debian will only ship GNOME!?!?) I find that the project is now dead. RIP Sidux.
Their wikipedia page has been updated with some very minor details regarding what to do now but confirming that as of yesterday the project is dead.
However, what both the Sidux website and the above wikipedia article state is that the developers have started a new project to continue in Sidux's footsteps. The new project is called aptosid. The new site is quite limited but it is day one of a free software project! I will be watching with interest what happens to the project and if they can recapture the following they once had by providing the slickest Debian Sid experience to be found.
Sidux was a Debian based distro based and built on the Sid repositories which contain the unstable Debian branch code. Sidux was great. I could install a whole basic KDE desktop in about 5 minutes and then spend the rest of an evening setting it up and installing on the applications I wanted. It provided a rolling basis so that a quick drop to the shell meant I could stay bleeding edge with no reinstalls.
I read only recently that the project appeared to be suffering some issues and after heading over to the project page tonight (after reading that Mint Debian will only ship GNOME!?!?) I find that the project is now dead. RIP Sidux.
Their wikipedia page has been updated with some very minor details regarding what to do now but confirming that as of yesterday the project is dead.
However, what both the Sidux website and the above wikipedia article state is that the developers have started a new project to continue in Sidux's footsteps. The new project is called aptosid. The new site is quite limited but it is day one of a free software project! I will be watching with interest what happens to the project and if they can recapture the following they once had by providing the slickest Debian Sid experience to be found.
7 September 2010
KDE SC 4.5 3D Issues Or Not
I have read numerous posts and articles since KDE SC 4.5 was released last month bemoaning the abilities of graphics drivers, or lack of, in coping with the rendering requirements of KWin. For some reason members of the web press and some users seem to have ignored the advice of the both the KWin developers and the distribution developers. I suspect there are some "issues" with some of the open source drivers however, it's not right or fair to blame the KWin or it's developers.
Martin Gräßlin has an opinion post on his blog that details the checks that KWin performs when it hits issues with 3D and openGL rendering. They seem quite sensible to me.
I run Arch on a Thinkpad with a crumby Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller. I use the standard open source driver and when I upgraded I followed the advice from the Arch developers (posted on the KDE SC 4.5 release announcement) and added the following to my ~/.bash_profile :
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1
Once I had added that and re-enabled "Desktop Effects" in System Settings I have not suffered any problems. I'm not saying it's a magic "cure all" for all driver/card combinations but rather that perhaps following the advice of the developers is the best place to start when you have issues.
Martin Gräßlin has an opinion post on his blog that details the checks that KWin performs when it hits issues with 3D and openGL rendering. They seem quite sensible to me.
I run Arch on a Thinkpad with a crumby Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller. I use the standard open source driver and when I upgraded I followed the advice from the Arch developers (posted on the KDE SC 4.5 release announcement) and added the following to my ~/.bash_profile :
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1
Once I had added that and re-enabled "Desktop Effects" in System Settings I have not suffered any problems. I'm not saying it's a magic "cure all" for all driver/card combinations but rather that perhaps following the advice of the developers is the best place to start when you have issues.
5 September 2010
KDE SC 4.5 Activities
I have just read this great article which details various options within KDE SC 4.5 Plasma Desktop such as Activities and Folder View.
Very much worth a read.
Very much worth a read.
3 September 2010
Google Wave - Further Code To Be Outsourced
Google Wave was a great idea I felt. We adopted it at work for collaborative discussions and found it a better way to communicate than just IM and Email. Sadly, Google have decided not to continue developing the application.
However, as announced yesterday, Google are going to Open Source more of the Wave code and even bundle many of the elements into a complete solution.
I will be following this as Wave and Etherpad and co are really execllent tools with a lot of potential.
However, as announced yesterday, Google are going to Open Source more of the Wave code and even bundle many of the elements into a complete solution.
I will be following this as Wave and Etherpad and co are really execllent tools with a lot of potential.
1 September 2010
KDE SC 4.5.1 Is Available
KDE have released the first in their maintenance release's for the 4.5 version of the KDE SC.
This page details the contents.
Time for an upgrade.
This page details the contents.
Time for an upgrade.
Jack Wallen's KDE SC 4.5 Review
This is a link to a great review of the KDE SC 4.5. I have followed Jacks reviews of the KDE release's for some time and can say that he honestly hated the initial 4.0 release's and said so.
So it's nice to see the hard work of the KDE developers being reported in such a positive way.
So it's nice to see the hard work of the KDE developers being reported in such a positive way.
23 August 2010
Internet Exporer 7 Running On Vista In Protected Mode
I have just found the cause of an odd error that has been occurring for certain users of our web application.
A tester was reporting a JavaScript error when clicking on a link to open a new window to an external site. Looking at the script the code looked fine. I tracked the code down to the line reported in the error and found it was falling over on window.open().
After a small amount of research I ended up on the MSDN documentation site and found that apparently for IE7 running in protected mode on Vista (the default setting by all accounts), window.open() may not return a valid reference to the new window. So code that calls
var w = window.open() and then attempts to use w will fail as w will be null.
You can read more here.
Unhelpful is a word that springs to mind.
A tester was reporting a JavaScript error when clicking on a link to open a new window to an external site. Looking at the script the code looked fine. I tracked the code down to the line reported in the error and found it was falling over on window.open().
After a small amount of research I ended up on the MSDN documentation site and found that apparently for IE7 running in protected mode on Vista (the default setting by all accounts), window.open() may not return a valid reference to the new window. So code that calls
var w = window.open() and then attempts to use w will fail as w will be null.
You can read more here.
Unhelpful is a word that springs to mind.
14 August 2010
KDE SC 4.5 Available Now
While I took a week off of life to have fun with the wife and son on our summer holiday, the KDE project released version 4.5 of the projects Software Compilation.
The KDE site has all the details but I am pacman -Syu as we speak.
The KDE site has all the details but I am pacman -Syu as we speak.
5 August 2010
KDE 4.5 SC Delayed For A Week
For those that have not heard, the KDE Release Team have decided to move the release date for the KDE 4.5 SC back a week. This is due to some last minute fix's made after the last RC3 release.
As is right and proper Aaron has a blog post up with the details.
As is right and proper Aaron has a blog post up with the details.
3 August 2010
Tips For Running An OSS Project From Damien Katz
2 August 2010
Why Open Source Software Can Get Itself A Bad Name
There is a LOT of good things about the Open Source Development model. However, the fact that is open can mean that anyone and everyone will be looking at not only the code that a project produces but the related files and issues etc.
I came across a blog in my feeds this morning which relates to what a developer read in release notes from the GIT project. Most people now know GIT is the excellent decentralised Source Control project start by Linus Torvolds. Over the last 5 years it has grown and become an excellent product which is both powerful and to me at least quite simple to use. It has been ported to Windows and I use it on both Windows and Linux without issue. However, the author of the blog, Tim Barcz, did have an issue. He installed a later release to see if the issue was resolved and found in the release notes the following :
“…All hopes to the contrary, Git for Windows is backed by only a handful of developers, in spite of being downloaded almost one hundred thousand times. You can expect developers to be enthusiastic to fix others' issues in such a situation only for so long. In short: Do not expect other people to fix your issues for you.”
This is not a good enough and is harmful to OSS development. My reaction is that if you code on a project then you should at least be respectful and polite to your users. It may be that there are misunderstandings and it may be that the user is trying to do things with you application that it is not intended to do. However, to promote your project, even one started by Mr Grumpy himself, you take time to discuss issue and problems with your users and you aim to keep them informed of solutions and decisions the project takes.
In short OSS projects should treat their users like paying clients when it comes to communications.
The other main problem with the entry in the release notes is that you should not neglect one platform for another if you or your project decide to support multiple platforms. It may be you favour Linux over Windows but if you have chosen to port to Windows you should support it equally. By making your project available to everyone you may find more people opt for your chosen platform on the basis of your application.
I came across a blog in my feeds this morning which relates to what a developer read in release notes from the GIT project. Most people now know GIT is the excellent decentralised Source Control project start by Linus Torvolds. Over the last 5 years it has grown and become an excellent product which is both powerful and to me at least quite simple to use. It has been ported to Windows and I use it on both Windows and Linux without issue. However, the author of the blog, Tim Barcz, did have an issue. He installed a later release to see if the issue was resolved and found in the release notes the following :
“…All hopes to the contrary, Git for Windows is backed by only a handful of developers, in spite of being downloaded almost one hundred thousand times. You can expect developers to be enthusiastic to fix others' issues in such a situation only for so long. In short: Do not expect other people to fix your issues for you.”
This is not a good enough and is harmful to OSS development. My reaction is that if you code on a project then you should at least be respectful and polite to your users. It may be that there are misunderstandings and it may be that the user is trying to do things with you application that it is not intended to do. However, to promote your project, even one started by Mr Grumpy himself, you take time to discuss issue and problems with your users and you aim to keep them informed of solutions and decisions the project takes.
In short OSS projects should treat their users like paying clients when it comes to communications.
The other main problem with the entry in the release notes is that you should not neglect one platform for another if you or your project decide to support multiple platforms. It may be you favour Linux over Windows but if you have chosen to port to Windows you should support it equally. By making your project available to everyone you may find more people opt for your chosen platform on the basis of your application.
1 August 2010
KDE 4.5 Screenshot Tour
I came across this screen shot tour of the new KDE SC 4.5 based on Beta 2. It highlights some of the new things that will be appearing in version 4.5 when it is released on Wednesday.
31 July 2010
KDE - New Developer Projects
I have just read this post from Lydia Pintscher who has been trying to find projects within the KDE community that are in need of some love and which would provide a great way to get started in contributing to the KDE community.
There are a few varied idea, although any part of the community could do with more developers, technical writers or even people happy to help on the forums.
Why not join the mailing lists and get contributing.
There are a few varied idea, although any part of the community could do with more developers, technical writers or even people happy to help on the forums.
Why not join the mailing lists and get contributing.
19 July 2010
10 July 2010
KDE Desktop Tricks
This is a great blog on achieving various things within KDE SC 4.
The article covers everything from changing Icons and Themes to sorting issues with your panels.
The article covers everything from changing Icons and Themes to sorting issues with your panels.
8 July 2010
IDE's vs Vim
This is an interesting article on why a developer has stopped using IDE's in favour of VIM.
I have to say I agree with his point of view.
I have to say I agree with his point of view.
30 June 2010
29 June 2010
.Net vs Java (and Open Source)
This is a link to a very funny video promoting the use of Java for cross platform development.
I don't know who made it but it had me in stitch's!
I don't know who made it but it had me in stitch's!
22 June 2010
Google Command Line Tool
This is a link to a post about a new command line program developed by Google to allow the user to hook up with various web services.
It looks quite interesting.
It looks quite interesting.
27 May 2010
Inovating Open Source Software
This is a great article over at info world about Open Source Software that is "doing it's own thing". Seven applications that are not based on existing products and which are developing new ideas and pushing software in new directions.
Nice to see the KDE SC social desktop stuff makes it in the list.
Nice to see the KDE SC social desktop stuff makes it in the list.
26 May 2010
Code Leaders and Beautiful Teams
I sometimes listen to presentations on technology subjects while I work. Especially when I am working on stuff that requires not too much thought!
Today I listened to Code Leaders and Beautiful Teams. This was a very funny and entertaining presentation and I found the presenter, Roy Osherove, gave some really simple advice which when you step back and think about it makes you wonder why you have never thought of it before.
Today I listened to Code Leaders and Beautiful Teams. This was a very funny and entertaining presentation and I found the presenter, Roy Osherove, gave some really simple advice which when you step back and think about it makes you wonder why you have never thought of it before.
24 May 2010
KDE 4.5 Activities
Chani has created a screen cast to show off the work on activities that will be included in the upcoming 4.5 release of the KDE SC.
Watch it here
Watch it here
19 May 2010
Linux Software Development.
I came across this article by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols regarding the the fact that Linux needs to do more for programmers and ISV's. He argues that Microsoft tends to do more for ISV's with better tools and resources.
Although I can see exactly where Steven is coming from I do not exactly agree. Now do not get me wrong I am not trying to start an argument but rather pass comment from what I feel is a fair position.
By day I work with the .Net framework and Visual Studio (2008). I can see the point that Steven makes regarding the tools and resources that Microsoft provide but I would argue that they have it quite easy. Microsoft are only targeting their own platform. They produce the OS, an SDK for that OS and a development platform that sits on top of that OS. Their tools while comprehensive are full of utilities to make life easy for developers and for novice coders.
Now take the Linux platform. At present there are over 300 Linux distro's on distrowatch. They may all share the Linux Kernel and there will be a lot of variations of other distro's but there will be a mass of differences between lots of them. Then you take the various languages and tool kits that are available compared to Microsoft's handful. Lastly you consider the difference in development methodology. Microsoft provide a limited set of tools to drive the adoption of their core business (the OS) and to tie people into their platform. Linux and OSS developers do it because they want to a lot of the time. The OSS community has spawned a business market and not, as in Microsoft's case, created a community from a business.
Non paid OSS developers will always choose the tools, languages and utilities they want to develop their software and they should have that right. However, ISV's should not feel that they are not catered for. Qt is a great tool kit that provides a level of abstraction that allows developers to create software that is truly platform independent and not only that provides a great IDE and a very detailed documentation package. Mono, love it or not, also provides a large framework that not only provides easy to use tools and documentation but provides an easy move into Linux development for companies that have previously been involved in Microsoft based development.
I don't think that while Linux is as fragmented as it is one company could stand up and provide for developers as Microsoft does. Instead of the LDN providing more comprehensive documentation and guides it should be the companies that provide the languages and frameworks that sit on top of Linux that should do more to push their capabilities and knowledge.
Although I can see exactly where Steven is coming from I do not exactly agree. Now do not get me wrong I am not trying to start an argument but rather pass comment from what I feel is a fair position.
By day I work with the .Net framework and Visual Studio (2008). I can see the point that Steven makes regarding the tools and resources that Microsoft provide but I would argue that they have it quite easy. Microsoft are only targeting their own platform. They produce the OS, an SDK for that OS and a development platform that sits on top of that OS. Their tools while comprehensive are full of utilities to make life easy for developers and for novice coders.
Now take the Linux platform. At present there are over 300 Linux distro's on distrowatch. They may all share the Linux Kernel and there will be a lot of variations of other distro's but there will be a mass of differences between lots of them. Then you take the various languages and tool kits that are available compared to Microsoft's handful. Lastly you consider the difference in development methodology. Microsoft provide a limited set of tools to drive the adoption of their core business (the OS) and to tie people into their platform. Linux and OSS developers do it because they want to a lot of the time. The OSS community has spawned a business market and not, as in Microsoft's case, created a community from a business.
Non paid OSS developers will always choose the tools, languages and utilities they want to develop their software and they should have that right. However, ISV's should not feel that they are not catered for. Qt is a great tool kit that provides a level of abstraction that allows developers to create software that is truly platform independent and not only that provides a great IDE and a very detailed documentation package. Mono, love it or not, also provides a large framework that not only provides easy to use tools and documentation but provides an easy move into Linux development for companies that have previously been involved in Microsoft based development.
I don't think that while Linux is as fragmented as it is one company could stand up and provide for developers as Microsoft does. Instead of the LDN providing more comprehensive documentation and guides it should be the companies that provide the languages and frameworks that sit on top of Linux that should do more to push their capabilities and knowledge.
17 May 2010
New KDE Focused Podcast.
This is a link to the new KDE focused podcast, KDE & The Masters Of The Universe.
Guillermo Amaral the host starts off by interviewing the one and only Aaron Seigo and has one question that makes Mr Seigo stop and think!
Guillermo Amaral the host starts off by interviewing the one and only Aaron Seigo and has one question that makes Mr Seigo stop and think!
11 May 2010
KDE Global Menu.
I have just seen this article outlining a new global menu system developed by Aurelien Gateau.
The article does not provide much detail other then it is aimed for Netbooks and will be in the next Kubuntu release. Looks interesting but I was not aware this was something that many people would be interested in.
The article does not provide much detail other then it is aimed for Netbooks and will be in the next Kubuntu release. Looks interesting but I was not aware this was something that many people would be interested in.
7 May 2010
Visual Studio Styles
I have just come across this site, studiostyles.info which not only house's loads of Visual Studio styles but it also has a style builder available for you to create your own.
When I get some time I will have a play but I am very happy with my own style at the moment
When I get some time I will have a play but I am very happy with my own style at the moment
5 May 2010
KDE 4.4.3 "Cuality" Is Out!
KDE 4.4.3 is out. This is the monthly bugfix and translation release code name "Cuality".
The main highlights this month are :
* Numerous fixes in Konsole, KDE's terminal emulator, among them two possible crashers in session management
* Flash plugin support in KHTML has been enhanced to work with newest Youtube skins
* Case-sensitivity in renaming fixes in KIO, KDE's network-transparent I/O library
* Hiding the mouse cursor in some special cases in presentation mode and two possible crashers have been fixed
The full change log can be read here.
pacman here I come!
The main highlights this month are :
* Numerous fixes in Konsole, KDE's terminal emulator, among them two possible crashers in session management
* Flash plugin support in KHTML has been enhanced to work with newest Youtube skins
* Case-sensitivity in renaming fixes in KIO, KDE's network-transparent I/O library
* Hiding the mouse cursor in some special cases in presentation mode and two possible crashers have been fixed
The full change log can be read here.
pacman here I come!
29 April 2010
Crappy Programmers ... How to find them and then keep them.
The following two posts really made me laugh, in much the same way that Dilbert does.
How To Find Crappy Programmers
How To Keep Crappy Programmers
How To Find Crappy Programmers
How To Keep Crappy Programmers
27 April 2010
KDE Articles.
Found a couple of nice little KDE related articles covering 2 little mentioned parts of the SC.
How to Use KDE’s Clipboard and Klipper App covers Kipper the advanced system clipboard.
3 KDE Add-ons Worth Trying covers some little known KDE add ons.
How to Use KDE’s Clipboard and Klipper App covers Kipper the advanced system clipboard.
3 KDE Add-ons Worth Trying covers some little known KDE add ons.
23 April 2010
Qt Creator Colour Scheme
I am now using this colour scheme.
If I could be bothered I would sit and set up GVim's desert but I never seem to find time.
If I could be bothered I would sit and set up GVim's desert but I never seem to find time.
Arch Junior Developers
Just saw this over on the Arch site. The Arch development team are looking for interested people to perhaps join the team as a junior developer.
If you've been using Arch for a while and are looking to give something back it sounds like a great opportunity.
If you've been using Arch for a while and are looking to give something back it sounds like a great opportunity.
21 April 2010
jQuery Event Handling - Mixing Inline Events With jQuery events
I have been working with jQuery for the last couple of days attempting to get some dialog closing messages working within our application. One of the dialogs I was trying to work with had an embedded iframe which was loaded from an ASP.Net menu control. The menu control items fired an onclick event to load the iframe.
I created an event handler to attach to the menu items so that when clicked it checked for unsaved changes. If there where changes then display a confirm message box about leaving the page. It worked to a degree but the iframe was still loaded even if the bound jQuery event returned false.
I found the issue to be that mixing inline onclick events and jQuery events is not possible (or recommended), especially if one or more events can be cancelled.
So the solution was simple. I removed the inline onclick event and bound it with jQuery. As the url the iframe needed to load was dynamically created server side I even managed to get a HTML 5 new feature, custom non-visible data, in as well
I created an event handler to attach to the menu items so that when clicked it checked for unsaved changes. If there where changes then display a confirm message box about leaving the page. It worked to a degree but the iframe was still loaded even if the bound jQuery event returned false.
I found the issue to be that mixing inline onclick events and jQuery events is not possible (or recommended), especially if one or more events can be cancelled.
So the solution was simple. I removed the inline onclick event and bound it with jQuery. As the url the iframe needed to load was dynamically created server side I even managed to get a HTML 5 new feature, custom non-visible data, in as well
19 April 2010
KDE 4.4 Theme For Google
Just came across a link to a couple of scripts which can be used to theme the standard Google search page inline with the latest KDE 4.4 SC theme.
You need to run the following two scripts and might need to add a Firefox extension (I tried it in Chrome and it looked great) :
Part 1
Part 2
I should mention that it only really works for standard Google search pages. If you use the iGoogle setup the styling goes a bit "wrong".
Enjoy!
You need to run the following two scripts and might need to add a Firefox extension (I tried it in Chrome and it looked great) :
Part 1
Part 2
I should mention that it only really works for standard Google search pages. If you use the iGoogle setup the styling goes a bit "wrong".
Enjoy!
18 April 2010
Xp Users With No Sound
At Christmas just gone I had to rebuild Kermit (my work laptop) as I succumb to my first ever virus. So after the usual cycle of trying to remove it and finding that it was still there, I finally formatted the drive and reinstalled XP (yes, we are still an XP based outfit). It should be noted that I got my first ever virus after being made to use Symentec instead of AVG which I have used on my windows based machines forever (apparently quite successfully).
In the hast of having to rebuild the laptop back to working order ASAP (and we are talking XP, Sp's, Visual Studio and SQL Server plus all of the odds and sods you have installed to do your job) I installed SP3 for XP without installing SP1 or 2 first.
Later on it dawned on me that I had not installed the sound driver. At this point I didn't think I would have any issue, I attempted to install the driver and after the first few failed attempts I started Googling like mad.
Having not really had the time to fix the issue I finally decided to crack it today. Long story short ... I ended up having to uninstall SP3 and then install SP1 and SP2 and finally SP3 for XP. Once I had uninstalled SP3 I installed the sound drivers and everything finally worked. A day of uninstalling and re-installing SPs is a little painful but at least I now have sound.
In the hast of having to rebuild the laptop back to working order ASAP (and we are talking XP, Sp's, Visual Studio and SQL Server plus all of the odds and sods you have installed to do your job) I installed SP3 for XP without installing SP1 or 2 first.
Later on it dawned on me that I had not installed the sound driver. At this point I didn't think I would have any issue, I attempted to install the driver and after the first few failed attempts I started Googling like mad.
Having not really had the time to fix the issue I finally decided to crack it today. Long story short ... I ended up having to uninstall SP3 and then install SP1 and SP2 and finally SP3 for XP. Once I had uninstalled SP3 I installed the sound drivers and everything finally worked. A day of uninstalling and re-installing SPs is a little painful but at least I now have sound.
8 April 2010
KDE 4.4 Positive Spin
This is a nice, short, article on the Linux Journal website about the latest KDE SC release.
It's interesting to see that even now, 2 years down the line people are still bringing up the KDE 4.0 release. Perhaps it's me but I don't (either as a user or developer) feel that KDE 4.0 was labelled a "Complete" or "User ready" release. I feel that distros where far to quick to package it all up and release it to the users. Kubuntu took what I consider to be the correct path by offering both KDE 3.5 and 4.0 in their next available release. I have been reading some articles recently stating that they may do the same with GNOME 3.0. The approach they took allowed those users who wanted to try the new desktop to do so while vanilla users could carry on with 3.5 until they opted to upgrade.
I do agree that with the author in the article above that we really need to push the message to users that may have left KDE since the 4.0 release. KDE 4.4 is a GREAT release which many 3.5 users, I think, will find not only usable but a great step forward.
It's interesting to see that even now, 2 years down the line people are still bringing up the KDE 4.0 release. Perhaps it's me but I don't (either as a user or developer) feel that KDE 4.0 was labelled a "Complete" or "User ready" release. I feel that distros where far to quick to package it all up and release it to the users. Kubuntu took what I consider to be the correct path by offering both KDE 3.5 and 4.0 in their next available release. I have been reading some articles recently stating that they may do the same with GNOME 3.0. The approach they took allowed those users who wanted to try the new desktop to do so while vanilla users could carry on with 3.5 until they opted to upgrade.
I do agree that with the author in the article above that we really need to push the message to users that may have left KDE since the 4.0 release. KDE 4.4 is a GREAT release which many 3.5 users, I think, will find not only usable but a great step forward.
7 April 2010
Visual Studio Fun & Games
Further to my previous post I have found the following issues.
So much pain for something so simple.
- Settings - Once you have got your Visual Studio instal back to how you want it with SP1 you will have lost all of your settings. I recommend you Export them prior to altering your install
- Add-ins - You will probably find most of your add-ins do not work as expected. I found it easiest to uninstall all of them and re-install them.
So much pain for something so simple.
Updating An Existing Visual Studio Installation.
When I installed my current install of Visual Studio 2008 I only installed C# and VC++ as I never have a need for VB.Net and we (as in the company never use it).
That is until one of our developer's created a new tool which had a reliance on it. No problem... in goes the Visual Studio 2008 disk and we'll add it. Only it isn't that simple. Although Visual Studio run itself in to maintenance mode it would not allow VB.Net to install. It came up with the following error :
A selected drive is no longer valid. Please review your installation path settings before continuing with setup.
After a little googling I found that you need to install Visual Studio SP1 before amending your installation. So you need to uninstal SP 1, add or remove the required components and then reinstall SP 1.
Seems a little like too much hard work for a software amendment to me.
That is until one of our developer's created a new tool which had a reliance on it. No problem... in goes the Visual Studio 2008 disk and we'll add it. Only it isn't that simple. Although Visual Studio run itself in to maintenance mode it would not allow VB.Net to install. It came up with the following error :
A selected drive is no longer valid. Please review your installation path settings before continuing with setup.
After a little googling I found that you need to install Visual Studio SP1 before amending your installation. So you need to uninstal SP 1, add or remove the required components and then reinstall SP 1.
Seems a little like too much hard work for a software amendment to me.
1 April 2010
Visual Studio 2008 Free Spell Checker
Ever since I have moved into developing web applications I have always tried to have a spell checker installed to check page text and comments/strings etc.
ComponentOne used to provide a nice free version which did the trick but since I had to rebuild kermit (my main work laptop) I found that they have started charging for it. So I started to have a quick look for a good free spell checker and I have settled on
ASP.NET/HTML Spell Checker for VS 2008.
It works based on Word dictionary integration and allows for custom words and exceptions and so does everything I need. Further details on where to grab it and how it works can be found here.
ComponentOne used to provide a nice free version which did the trick but since I had to rebuild kermit (my main work laptop) I found that they have started charging for it. So I started to have a quick look for a good free spell checker and I have settled on
ASP.NET/HTML Spell Checker for VS 2008.
It works based on Word dictionary integration and allows for custom words and exceptions and so does everything I need. Further details on where to grab it and how it works can be found here.
KDE Approach Kim Kardashian To Promote The Next SC
Kim Kardashian has been approached to help market the next release of the KDE SC. This is great news and just what the project needs to lift it's profile.
31 March 2010
Oh Look ... SCO Where Wrong ... Now There Is A Surprise!
This is a link to the news that Novell have, once again, been confirmed as owners of the Unix copyrights. Therefore, the cheap and plain wrong accusations made by SCO regarding Linux and code contained within the kernel have been proved to be as valid as a glass hammer.
So anyone want to buy SCO for $1??
So anyone want to buy SCO for $1??
30 March 2010
KDE SC 4.4.2, "Colibri", Released.
10 March 2010
New IDE UI
This is a link to a project that has been looking at designing a better IDE. The video is well worth a look.
Almost makes me want to work in Java!
Almost makes me want to work in Java!
3 March 2010
KDE 4.4.1 Released
27 February 2010
11 February 2010
Arch KDE SC 4.4 Upgrade For KDevelop Users
Further to other fun and games with the Arch KDE SC 4.4 upgrade I hit upon a problem tonight with a virtual box I use that has the following repository in the /etc/pacman.conf file :
[dstr-repo]
Server = http://dimon.homeftp.org/repo/i686
This is the repository that I use at present for KDevelop4. It seems there was a clash with certain files.
In order to get KDE SC 4.4 to upgrade I found I had to resort to pacman -Syuf which got it working.
[dstr-repo]
Server = http://dimon.homeftp.org/repo/i686
This is the repository that I use at present for KDevelop4. It seems there was a clash with certain files.
In order to get KDE SC 4.4 to upgrade I found I had to resort to pacman -Syuf which got it working.
10 February 2010
Arch Upgrade To KDE SC 4.4
So the hero's over at the Arch website had already flagged the fact that the upgrade to KDE SC 4.4 was not going to be a simple pacman -Syu. In fact I found I had to jump through a couple more hopes than those listed in their post (above) and so thought I would share how I got to -Syu to KDE SC 4.4.
The following commands should be run as root (or sudo if you have it installed):
$ pacman -Sy --asdeps qt
$ pacman -Su
$ pacman -Sy kdepim-runtime
$ pacman -Sy kdepimlibs
$ pacman -Syu
That got my upgrade underway. Hopefully this might help others. If you are still stuck let me know the errors you are experiencing and I will try and provide some help.
The following commands should be run as root (or sudo if you have it installed):
$ pacman -Sy --asdeps qt
$ pacman -Su
$ pacman -Sy kdepim-runtime
$ pacman -Sy kdepimlibs
$ pacman -Syu
That got my upgrade underway. Hopefully this might help others. If you are still stuck let me know the errors you are experiencing and I will try and provide some help.
KDE 4.4 Is Released!
KDE Software Compilation 4.4 has been released.
Codenamed "Caikaku" you can read the official release notification here.
There is also a Visual Guide. which covers this software compilation further.
Not only another great release by everyone involved in the KDE community but also a shiny new web site just in time for release of 4.4 which looks great.
For further info you can check out the following KDE related places on the internet :
Update/Install and enjoy.
Codenamed "Caikaku" you can read the official release notification here.
There is also a Visual Guide. which covers this software compilation further.
Not only another great release by everyone involved in the KDE community but also a shiny new web site just in time for release of 4.4 which looks great.
For further info you can check out the following KDE related places on the internet :
Update/Install and enjoy.
1 February 2010
Google Drops Old Browsers
This is a link to a post from Google announcing that they are dropping support for older browsers.
This is a very bold but brilliant move which hopefully will cause other leading web sites/applications to follow.
21 January 2010
Linux Kernel - Who Is Developing The Kernel
Interesting little article here summarising another story about the breakdown in % of who develops the Linux Kernel:
- 18% code contributed by volunteers with no corporate affiliation
- 7% unclassified contributors (I’m not sure who this would be?)
- 75% from paid developers
- Red Hat with 12%,
- Intel with 8%
- IBM and Novell with 6% each
- Oracle 3%
I read the figures that large serious development house's want Linux to succeed in all areas of IT and that they are willing to put in serious effort to develop it.
20 January 2010
New Blackberry (And Ms Stobs Rated Software!)
Life has been mad since the beginning of December. The end of the year is always busy at work as 3 high profile clients all undertake major work.
I have finally brought a new bike, a Suzuki Marauder no less, and now have had to buy a new phone. Being tight and being that it was on offer I brought a Blackberry Pearl 8120. Apart from the camera it is by far the best phone I have owned for a while. I will post more about it when I get time.
However, I did notice the latest brilliant post by Verity Stobs on rated software for your smart phone!
I have finally brought a new bike, a Suzuki Marauder no less, and now have had to buy a new phone. Being tight and being that it was on offer I brought a Blackberry Pearl 8120. Apart from the camera it is by far the best phone I have owned for a while. I will post more about it when I get time.
However, I did notice the latest brilliant post by Verity Stobs on rated software for your smart phone!
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