KDE Releases Improved Desktop and Applications Dedicated to Uwe Thiem

July 29, 2008. The KDE Community today released KDE 4.1.0. This release is the second feature release of the KDE 4 series, sporting new applications and newly developed features on top of the Pillars of KDE4. KDE 4.1 is the first KDE4 release to contain the Personal Information Management suite KDE-PIM with its E-Mail client KMail, the planner KOrganizer, Akregator, the RSS feed reader, KNode, the newsgroup reader and many more components integrated into the Kontact shell. Furthermore, the new desktop shell Plasma, introduced in KDE 4.0, has matured to the point where it can replace the KDE 3 shell for most casual users. Like with our previous release much time has been devoted to improving the framework and underlying libraries on which KDE is built. Continue Reading >>

In the Change Log section, we can also find some important description of package selected (in the current version), see the image above.

It’s Wonderful to see our software packages are in stable state, as we know bug fixes and additional features usually come into the core of those packages. And how lucky i am, choosing this Linux distribution that always keep building the last stable packages to their users (and without taking time to get them from repositories ), and finally using them in our daily computer life. The world looks more beautiful because this power of Free/Open Source Movement. I’m always impressed of all their works!

Now, I’m getting OOo 2.4.1.5-2.2 tonight..

Can’t wait they get to be available in the repository .. . Continue Reading »

I found the way how to get Firefox 3.0 for openSUSE 10.3, so I thought about adding the repository to YaST Software Repositories, and bingo!!.. I had it, it’s beta version though, but it’s stable enough for me. Even its integration to KDE 4.0.4 was not good enough, but I feel it’s faster than Firefox 2.0.4, and of course lots of smart and usable features. I’m satisfied very much.

But, something’s strange for me. One day, I just wanted to update some packages manually from YaST Software Management when the network on my university was possible enough to get them without having trouble –This place has limited access to download materials from Internet , so maybe you’ll find some outdated posts in this blog. When I went to Filter section, and chose Repositories, then hint Firefox 3 Beta Repositoy, I found Firefox 3 Beta has changed its version, it’s said “Available Version: 3.0-2.3 (newer)“, and the list was identified with blue color.. Wooow!! It’s stable version!.. No time to wait, I got it updated and taraaaaa..!! I have the stable version of Firefox 3!.. But wait! When I read this news, it’s said that Firefox 3 RC 1 had been released..

Oh God, it’s still in Release Candidate 1, it’s not stable version yet (as a newbie, I’m impatient enough to have a stable version of the software runs in my machine as soon as it’s available in the branch). So, is Firefox 3.0-X.Y (in my case is 3.0-2.3) another name of Firefox 3.0 RC 1 on openSUSE?

Otherwise, It was amazing, It’d told me that openSUSE Developers are great people, they had been working so hard, smart and fast in providing a mature Linux distribution. OpenSUSE Developer had built these Firefox 3.0-X.Y packages and placed them in repository in the same day when this FF 3.0 RC 1’s announced. Good work people!!.. We owe you for this wonderful work!!..

In addition, I found the change log of the version of any softwares installed in openSUSE machine by chance. It answered my question in last post, and so I found my mistake on how defining the release note..

So, time to update your Firefox, bro.. It’s very much worth to try..

By the way, which version it’s said a stable version especially on openSUSE?.. Is it in 3.1-P.Q or still in 3.0-X.Y numbering?

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Update: Firefox 3.0-7.2 is in branch of mozilla:/beta today.

Although I don’t know whether it’s another name of its RC2 or not, but it’s ready to be downloaded..

For that problem, the electronic dictionary makes good solution. Once you install it in your laptop (or even in your sweety IPhone), you can translate many words and find another meaning (depends on how many dictionary you have installed) from another different dictionaries.

I’m talking about StarDict (I used it once). Now, because I’m using KDE 4.04 (on openSUSE 10.3), so QStarDict is my choice. It’s not just looks better in its system tray but it has “Speak word” feature’s already worked (it uses “festival –tts” that it’s already installed) than StarDict has (using WyabdcRealPeopleTTS and OtdRealPeopleTTS that my machine hasn’t got them both yet). It really suits its desktop envirenment, KDE 4.0.

The Features

QStardict window is simply devided in 3 sections, the Search Box (in the top-right), Translation Box (bellow the Search Box), and Word list Box that consists of the prediction of the word given in the Search Box, located in the left side of the window. It’s written using Qt 4.4.0 , so the image, its rendering will be integrated well with KDE 4.0.4, including its appearance in System Tray. That’s another reason why I choose this software than others.

So, what kind of features that will make it to be the-one of your computer should has?

1. Instant Search

Say, you want to know what QStarDict can tell about Linux. So, the first letter you should fill in the Search Box is “L”..
You can see (when you type “L”) it tells us (in Translation Box) what the “L” is about.

Then when you type “i” (now it’s “Li”), it’s translated again what the meaning of “Li” is.

So, this feature tells us the translation of the word given (in the Search Box), and they’re translated each time the letters are typed in, without pressing the Enter key. Of course how much translation we will see depends on the databases in its dictionaries.

And when the dictionaries don’t have its translation, it will tell “the word X is not found”.

Of course, when the word “Linux” appears in that Search Box, it’ll tell what it is about.

Don’t you know, It really helps us when we do not familiar about a word, and try to put them (sequentially) to find out.

If you find this feature is not enable by default, try go to Menu Settings, then Configure QStarDict, choose Global Settings tab, then mark the Instant search option. Press OK to proceed.

2. Lots of Dictionaries

Because it’s built from StarDict (but written in Qt4), so we can have many dictionaries listed here.

3. Scan Selection and Speak Word

it looks like this..

When you grab any word in every places in your desktop, QStarDict will try to translate it. And when you need to know how it’s pronounced, just hit Speak Word button..

4. Well Personalized!

We can make some customisation about how it is appeared in our desktop, the font type, its size and its color. Customize them until this software suits your personality.

And it has good user experience in System Tray, it looks green when this Scan Selection feature is enabled, otherwise it looks gray.

I will continue this topic in next post, how to install it in to your machine, which is the feature that it should have had, etc.

Ok, see you then..