I have switched from OpenOffice to LibreOffice. I was interested to see what all the fuss was about and from what I have read I see that the most interesting developments will happen on LibreOffice and OpenOffice will be left as an Oracle application.
So far I have been very impressed. It is fast and everything seems good. I run Arch linux and installed the standard packages. The only issue I found was with spell checking. The standard spell checking packages would not work for me so I have installed hunspell (pacman -S hunspell-foo where foo is your language).
I can only recommend switching.
20 March 2011
6 March 2011
KDE 4.6.1 Is Out
KDE has announced the release of KDE SC 4.6.1, the first set of fixes and updates for the 4.6 release. Here are the full details.
27 January 2011
KDE 4.6 Is Out!
23 January 2011
Arch Reinstall Gotchas 101
I have used Arch Linux for some time now (3+ years from memory) coming to it from a Debian/Slackware background. I love it it allows me to run a bang up to date KDE desktop on a rolling release basis. For those that would like a more honest review then Kevin Bush did a great review over at Linux Journal very recently.
In the time I have run it I have only installed it twice before and now I am only installing again because I got a shiny new 500gb laptop drive for Gonzo (my Thinkpad!) at Christmas.
One of Arch's many benefits is the documentation and forums. When you install Arch you only install a base system and can then go and build your system your way. No desktop, not many services and only a terminal to log in with.
People have been known to moan abut this approach but I like it. In one evening I had a full KDE desktop (I use the standard Arch Packages for day to day use) up and running. However, I did hit a couple of gotchas which I thought I would document here in case they help anyone else :
Now I am back up and running I can look forward to a few nights setting all my preferences, data and look and feel up. Then I can forget about installing and get on with using.
In the time I have run it I have only installed it twice before and now I am only installing again because I got a shiny new 500gb laptop drive for Gonzo (my Thinkpad!) at Christmas.
One of Arch's many benefits is the documentation and forums. When you install Arch you only install a base system and can then go and build your system your way. No desktop, not many services and only a terminal to log in with.
People have been known to moan abut this approach but I like it. In one evening I had a full KDE desktop (I use the standard Arch Packages for day to day use) up and running. However, I did hit a couple of gotchas which I thought I would document here in case they help anyone else :
NetworkManager has not improved since my last attempt to get networking working with it. I recommend Wicd all the way.
- KDE would not shut down. I spent some time investigating this but ended up on this thread on the forums which helped me to pin it down to the Phonon backend that was being used (Xine). I updated to use the gstreamer backend and all was well.
Getting Dropbox working without installing lots of gnome libraries. For this I found this article which did the job perfectly in about 6 steps. Once done, reboot and on next start up the Dropbox installer will guide you through the rest.
Now I am back up and running I can look forward to a few nights setting all my preferences, data and look and feel up. Then I can forget about installing and get on with using.
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
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