KDE has such a rich ecosystem of applications that I am constantly discovering new ones. The best of these applications are simple and exhaustively thorough, with every feature you can imagine for a task. Occasionally, I like to cruise the KDE sites to find new ones. My latest discovery is Tellico, an app for cataloging…
Continue reading →
Plasma me, Plasma you, a-ha, there was nothing we could do. But wait! Yes we can. Let us glimpse back upon Year 2017, and try to figure out which Linux distribution delivered the best overall user experience whilst adorned with the Plasma desktop environment. Continuing what we did with Gnome, we will now focus on the…
Continue reading →
Following in the best of traditions, it is that time of the year, when we wrap up the previous twelve months of hard work, software scrutiny, pain, tears, joy, and hope, all mixed and blended inside one big, scalding cauldron that we call Linux. We shall commence with the Gnome desktop environment. If you look…
Continue reading →
Kdenlive has become one of the main free software tools for audio-visual editing. Although complaints about earlier versions continue to dog its reputation — especially about syncing — the latest releases soon make clear that Kdenlive is now a mature and reliable tool. However, one thing it lacks is a general overview that helps new…
Continue reading →
The word best used to describe Linux is variety. That, or fragmentation. Whichever part of the desktop system you choose, from the environment to the text editor to the underlying software packaging mechanism, there’s always a huge number of options. Alas, plenty != choice. In fact, most of the subsystems are incompatible with one another,…
Continue reading →
Just a few short days ago, the KDE team released Plasma 5.11, the latest edition of this desktop environment, plied with a range of bug fixes as well as some new features. Reason enough to celebrate, but even more so when you consider the fact that Plasma has been slowly, steadily – and consistently –…
Continue reading →
KWave has been developed since 1998, yet few have heard of it. I only recently heard of it myself from writer and podcaster Marcel Gagné while I was setting up to do how-to-videos. Part of the reason for its obscurity might be that, despite its name, it only recently become an official KDE project in…
Continue reading →
Qt desktops are many and varied. So one may ask, all right, if you have to choose one, which one? Well, the answer is both complicated and philosophical. First, because taste is subjective, and my immediate answer would be Plasma, hands down. The way it is realized in Kubuntu 17.04 is just awesome. The best…
Continue reading →
Purism, the company that has delivered free laptops, is now hoping to do the same for phones. As I write, the fundraising campaign is just over halfway to its goal, with 27 days to go. You might imagine that, with Purism’s past record, its efforts would be applauded, but instead, dozens of self-appointed pundits are…
Continue reading →
As a whole, the Linux desktop isn’t the most polished family of products in the universe. Due to the chaotic nature of software products, there’s a nonlinear correlation between quality and the amount of effort required to achieve it, and there just isn’t enough human power to fix it all. It’s easy to get to…
Continue reading →
The quest for the ultimate desktop environment continues. In the last few months, we have looked at a range of Qt-based desktops, starting with Ze Papa, Plasma, and then looked at several other new and not so new players, the bold and the beautiful, the less successful and the more rad. The list covers the…
Continue reading →
The menu crisis has been slow in coming — so slowly that few people are aware of it. Bit by bit, they have become accustomed to the inconvenience and distraction of the menu on the computer desktop, and learned to endure it. Yet the fact that KDE’s Plasma 5 desktop offers three choices of menu…
Continue reading →