Last call for ….

I haven’t posted anything in a while on this blog, and now I made the decision that this will not change: it is unlikely that this blog will be updated anytime soon. The reason is actually twofold:

Job

I’m working full time as an Open Source/Linux consultant these days – and after work I do not really have the time nor the energy to invest even more time into Open Source (besides the Fedora packaging).

Company’s Blog

I was successful in convincing enough people in our company to start a blog – and I blog there since then, so when I get home I usually already have blogged about whatever comes to my mind.

That means effectively that you will not receive any more new posts here. It hurts my heart and kills kittens, but you can remove the blogfeed. @planets where I might still be listed at: please remove this blog feed as well.

However, if you *do* want to keep up with my thoughts: credativ’s company blog is working quite nice these days. Btw., in case you don’t know, credativ is an Open Source/Linux company and the one behind the Open Source Support Center (OSSC) and the Open Source Support Card (yeah, “catchy” names, I know). They are focussed on Open Source support (Linux-Support, PostgreSQL-Support, etc.) and have offices in DE, UK, US, etc. So the general topics are pretty close to this blog. If you look close you will recognize my style: short italic introduction, eye catcher on the upper right side, special headline markings for Howtos and Short Tips, and so on. Also, the categories are quite the same, and it is actually available in German and English. Also, I am not the only person writing there – one very active PostgreSQL developer keeps blogging there, if I want it or not.

However – it is a company blog, so you will (!) find information regarding the company itself, or newest marketing things. You are warned!

So this is it: the last post. Thanks everyone for wonderful years full of blogging, discussions, news, Howtos and good tips. So long, and thanks for the fish!

Proof of concept: Google Gadgets on Plasma

KDE 4′s Plasma cannot only handle it’s own native widgets, but also foreign ones. The Plasma developers have shown that it is technically possible to load Google Gadgets natively within Plasma.

Plasma is KDE 4′s way to handle widgets – not only embedded on the desktop/wallpaper (like Superkaramba did within KDE 3), but also in panels and even in other plasma enabled applications like the coming Amarok. So Plasma widgets can be extremely useful and handy. And since the Plasma team didn’t want to exclude developers, the widgets can be written in C++, javascript and ruby (yet).

Plasma can not only use native widgets, but also Superkaramba plugins and Mac OS X dashboard widgets. Additionally, with the integration of WebKit into Plasma, HTML/CSS/JavaScript constructs can also be loaded as kind of a plugin.

Now this list was extended by a new set of widgets: the Google Gadgets. The following screenshot shows that Google Gadgets can be run on Plasma:

As the title says, this is a proof of concept right now: it shows that it can be done. Nothing less, but also nothing more. The next task is now to integrate it with the GUI and for example to fetch new Gadgets right from the Google page. Currently it looks like this is a candidate (nothing written in stone yet of course) for KDE 4.2. Maybe the technical capability will be available with KDE 4.1 already so that experienced – and brave – users can give it a first try.

In any way this proof of concept shows again that Plasma can host all kinds of things – so even if new things turn up in the future Plasma might be able to host them. Technically that shows that Plasma is ready for future developments for example in case a new competitor turns up in the widget area. From a user point of view this brings a large range of widgets to the users.

From an administrator/security point of view the fact that Plasma is the host makes it easier to keep an eye on the widgets: Plasma is part of KDE, and therefore it can be configured – and stripped down if necessary – with the help of Kiosk. So administrators can simply disable certain for example Google widgets for security reasons with a simple commando at runtime, just like they can do it every where else in KDE.

Thanks to the Plasma developers for providing me with the necessary infos and image. And thanks the guys at Google for doing much of this integration work! Some infos are also available at google groups.

Improvements in KDE’s Folderview

One of the most interesting new features in KDE 4.1 is the new Folderview plasmoid. With the release of KDE 4.1 Beta 2 several small improvements.

Folderview is an awesome plasmoid which makes it possible to show the content of a folder on a screen. It also is the first step to say good bye to the traditional way of storing links and folder on the desktop itself. The idea is that files inside the folder “Desktop” are not shown right on the desktop but that in general files from any folder or place can be shown in “containers” on the desktop.
Everyone who ever had to manage – and especially backup – larger computer setups will recognize the abilities of folderview with relieve!

With the first introduction of Folderview the basic functions where there, but several smaller aspects were missing. These have now been fixed in a recent KDE 4 version: it is now possible to simply drag&drop elements between two Folderview plasmoids and the plasmoid itself shows which folder content is displayed.

This screenshot shows the dialog shown when I dragged a folder from the Desktop Folderview plasmoid to the Home Folderview plasmoid. Note the white lines saying “Desktop” and “Home” in the left upper corner of the Folderview plasmoids.

Of course there are still some small bugs – it would help for example to still see which folder I’m dragging while the dialog comes up. Additionally, the configuration dialog to have a Folderview Plasmoid as a full background to simulate the classical desktop experience will have to wait for KDE 4.2 due to feature freezes. But that is a question of time and bug fixing, not a fundamental flaw.

Speaking about KDE 4, as it looks like some of the bugs I run into when testing KDE 4.1 Beta are now fixed in my KDE4Daily virtual image. Ctrl is working now properly, but as it looks like ti was a bug in Qt anyway. The resolution problem is still strange – Aaron mentioned that the effects look more like a bug in kwin and not in Plasma since the windows also behave strange. Ah, the joys of bug hunting.

But anyway, KDE 4.1 is really coming into shape, and I can’t wait to have it working properly here!

Short Tip: Use composition effects in KDE 4 without fancy graphic cards

There is an easy way of enabling KWin’s composition capabilities even if you don’t have the possibility to run OpenGL. In fact, you can even activate composition within a virtual machine like VirtualBox.

Just right-click on a window title bar, choose “Configure Window Behaviour…”, click on “Desktop Effects”, mark the check box “Desktop Effects”, click on advanced options, and choose the “Compositing Type” XRender. Afterwards, most simple effects will just work, but effects like the cover flow window switcher, which require heavier OpenGL, might not work.

You can see more screenshots at Ivo Anjo’s blog post about it. Thanks for the hint, Ivo

The Power of Plasma theming – a gallery of 23 themes [Update]

One of the most often mentioned concerns at the KDE booth at LinuxTag was the question if Plasma would force the user to have a black panel. While we did have a second machine showing another theme to resolve all doubts it showed that not all users now yet the power of Plasma theming.

KDE is well known for the possibilities to configure it just like you want. And Plasma is no exclusion of this rule. Instead, the theming is well documented and there are already many user themes available at kde-look.org.

However, the shots shown below were made with the KDE 4.1 development version, and not all Plasma themes were created or tested for that version. Please keep this in mind and be tolerant regarding smaller issues. Additionally, I picked almost all themes which were offered via the GetHotNewStuff dialog, so there are themes of all types of quality.

But the gallery does indeed give quite a good impression of how flexible Plasma theming really is: it doesn’t matter if you want to include reflections, different colors, decorated borders or different backgrounds – everything is possible.

Update:
I forgot to stress that the shots were made using KDE4Daily in VirtualBox – there was no way to enable funky effects like transparency. Some themes do not look like they should because they are made with such composition effects in mind. So keep that in mind when judging my screen shots of themes like Glassified!