computer not in flux
I have finally configured my PC the way I want (at least for a while). It’s still based on Ubuntu Linux, but uses the KDE version. Gnome and KDE are the two big window managers for Linux; Gnome is more of a take on the Mac OS, while KDE will remind computer users of Windows.
I have found KDE to perform much better on my computer than Gnome using similar software. My computer is a 1.0GHz Pentium III with 256MB of RAM; Gnome seemed sluggish while KDE rocketed along at a pretty good clip, even with several instances of Firefox, the GIMP, and Web development software running; also, a Web server, a PHP processor, an SQL server, e-mail, an RSS aggregator, and the CD player were running.
The artwork produced by the KDE community is stunning, to say the least. KDE-Look is the main collection for such artwork. I downloaded a number of wallpapers, icon themes, and splash screens, none of which appear to harm the performance of my computer.
Just as with the Gnome version of Ubuntu, I have found replacements for all the devices and applications I used to use under Windows 2000. In many cases, I have come to like the KDE application better. amaroK is one such example; it can store information on your entire music collection in an SQL database for queuing in the amaroK playlist, and it can even download lyrics for the songs on your list. (Someone should write a guitar tablature plugin.) You can also save information about your favorite online streams (I plan on adding The Citizen Journalist Report tomorrow).
Ubuntu users can switch at will between Gnome and KDE, even though there are two separate installation CDs for the two window managers. Each of them is fairly large, and both of them together will not fit on a standard CD. However, Ubuntu updates are done over the network (similar to Debian, its parent distribution), so the files necessary to convert from one window manager to the other can easily be downloaded. I’ve cleaned all the Gnome files away, though, so I’m strictly using KDE now.
Perhaps tomorrow I’ll post a screenshot or two.
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