mintCast 204 – Mint 17 KDE & Xfce

204] Download

News:

  • Qiana ‘v2’ ISO respins issued by Mint team (linuxmint.com)
  • Is the KDE desktop stagnant? Jack Wallen thinks so (techrepublic.com)
  • Where is the KDE desktop going? (dot.kde.org)
  • Intuit beats a patent troll in a case that could have farther reaching consequences (arstechnica.com)
  • The latest top 500 super-computer list is out and Linux dominates (linux.com)
  • Don’t forget to download your UbuntuOne files before July 31st (softpedia.com)

Main Topic: Mint 17 KDE & Xfce

  • Mint 17 KDE (KDE)
  • Mint 17 Xfce (Xfce)

Website:

Tip:

Pre-Show Music:

Podcast Announcements:

More Information:

Hosts: Rob, Scott, Joe
Live Stream every other Monday 7:00 p.m. or Sunday 2:00 p.m.(Central): mintcast.org/livestream

Contact Us:

More Linux Mint info: website, blog, forums, community

Credits:

Podcast Entry and exit music provided by Mark Blasco (podcastthemes.com). The podcast bumpers were provided by Oscar.


9 Replies to “mintCast 204 – Mint 17 KDE & Xfce”

  1. David Nash

    Regarding use of logo: Dyson Cleaners were prohibited from using the DC09 and DC10 designations in case some poor unsuspecting housewife purchased a jumbo jet by mistake (paraphrased). See Wikipedia, “There are no Dyson models DC09 or DC10, as these numbers are associated with the DC-9 and DC-10 aircraft produced by McDonnell Douglas. DC13 omitted due to superstition surrounding the number 13.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dyson_products If that case is valid don’t put a bet on the Mint logo not having been infringed!

  2. Kerry

    Hi guys,
    Left a couple of comments previously when you covered GNU Hurd and also a couple of weeks ago about Linux certification via EDX (www.edx.org). Still listening to your show via the podcast and it’s always interesting to hear your topics and I especially like to get a round-up of the news as I’m too lazy to look most of this stuff up!

    Anyway I thought I’d first add a couple of comments about the KDE desktop having used Mint KDE since easter of last year. Initially I liked KDE and it has some interesting features but also some annoyances. the major annoyance is that I could never get a good understanding of of how the Plasma desktop worked. I often found it difficult to find things in the launcher menu and I have no idea what activities were supposed to be used for until you explained it in the last podcast. I also liked the animated ‘bouncing cursor’ which I found a useful indication something was happening i.e. an application is starting rather than starting but crashed. Also the Dolphin file explorer has a useful feature; pressing ‘F4’ would bring up a commandline prompt to the present directory in Dolphin. I’m not aware if this feature exists in any other file browser.

    The most annoying thing though I found about KDE is how difficult it is to create a link or a ‘shortcut’ to a program on the ‘desktop’ although ‘desktop’ in KDE means something different to ‘desktop’ in Gnome. I also have to agree that KDE feels dated. The ‘shiny button’ look is going out of fashion I think. You just have to look at the styling of Android, Windows and to a certain extent the Cinnamon desktop. I have now switched to Mint 17 Cinnamon with an ‘Android’ theme and I find the desktop is a lot more responsive than Mint KDE and it’s much easier to create desktop links! KDE I believe was a good desktop several years ago but it’s not been left behind because its styling is dated and it’s too complicated to use.

    One final suggestion for Joe when he talked about his screen blanking problem. I had a similar problem on my desktop when running Mint 14 KDE. Despite switching all the screen savers off the monitors would still blank. I found the solution was to manually switch off the DPMS (energy star) for the monitors with the command ‘xset -dpms’. To switch back on use ‘xset +dpms’. ‘xset -q’ will display all current preferences for the display.

    Keep up the good work and look forward to the next mintcast.

    • Kerry

      Oops: ‘but it’s not been left behind because its styling is dated and it’s too complicated to use.’ should be:
      but it’s been left behind because its styling is dated and it’s too complicated to use.

  3. Joe Jackson

    This episode is impossible to listen to with the gentleman from Germany yelling into the mic while everyone else was whispering. I gave up on adjusting the volume every 10 seconds.

  4. richardquirk

    Free soft drinks at the Google Glass event? Did sound a bit like Joe drank the kool-aid. Being in the UK they ought to have offered everyone a nice cup of tea anyway 😉

  5. Bill_MI

    Hi guys, I have a disturbing finding and a tip to go with it.

    Did you know Linux Mint forums has a search about as useful as a mint-flavored suppository? It’s set to exclude search terms of 4 characters or less. Included in the words you cannot search for are mate, caja, nemo, menu, xfce, kde, mdm and wine. Since it’s ok to w-h-i-n-e, I will, and suggest disabling search altogether under these circumstances. I know the forums are operated on a shoestring budget but there has to be a better solution than its current, time-wasting, form. Perhaps explaining why search is limited is a great opportunity for a donation button.

    Have you guessed the tip? Use another search engine! In most search boxes you can qualify the site to search by adding…
    site:forums.linuxmint.com
    Now, you can search far more effectively and find what you’re looking for.

    Keep up the good work!

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