LWN: Comments on "Matthias Ettrich: The KDE-Man! (EFYtimes)"

Matthias Ettrich: The KDE-Man! (EFYtimes)

oak — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:09:13 +0000

I haven't really used Windows for over 10 years (even at work), so I'm 
basing this on Wikipedia article on WinMerge:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinMerge

The main things the Linux alternatives seem to be missing are being able 
to edit the files being diffed&merged and handling of multiple files.  Are 
these the features you're missing from Meld or KDiff3?


> Remote desktop in windows has this nifty feature where you can bring 
your local resources with you to the remote. Just check a box on the 
connect dialog and once connected \\tsclient\C in explorer will show you 
your C drive... Can do in X?

Not in X, but otherwise it shouldn't be a problem as that's something 
needed in LTSP setups.  I believe It should work out of the box on 
Edubuntu:
http://www.edubuntu.org/UsingEdubuntu

...as it's handbook:
http://doc.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/edubuntu/handbook/C/custom...

says this:
------------
LOCALDEV  
This parameter enables local devices support, like CD's and USB sticks. 
Users plugging them in should see them on the desktop, after they've been 
added to the fuse group on the server. You can do this by going to: 
System->Administration->Users and Groups selecting the user, clicking 
on "Properties", the going into the "User Privileges" tab, and making sure 
the "Allow use of FUSE filesystems..." box is checked. The default is: Y.
------------

TortoiseSVN and KDE

gek — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:02:03 +0000

> Does KDE for example provide the hooks to implement an SVN client
> with deep hooks into the file management system, such as what
> Tortoise provides?

You mean like kdesvn? Check the screenshots to see if this is what you have in mind.

Also, I have a question for you: how do you move/rename a file to a different directory than its current one, using TortoiseSVN?
TortoiseSVN is a great tool, I use it in my windows work laptop as well, but not perfect.

Matthias Ettrich: The KDE-Man! (EFYtimes)

dale77 — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 08:24:43 +0000

Does linux software have to be a perfect clone? No, but I am used to "missing something" in my
linux experience of various applications. I can't ever recall having "more" on linux than the
functionality available on windows, at least in an area that mattered to me.

Here I am talking about the utility of particular apps. I do appreciate the usefulness of the
linux platform in general as an alternative to windows. But wouldn't it be great if linux was
leading the way, as opposed to playing catch-up to the windows lead.

Linux is great for my interest as a hobby, and certainly provides the opportunity for skilled
people to build a better app using the source from the community. Has that opportunity been
realized yet?

Matthias Ettrich: The KDE-Man! (EFYtimes)

job — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:28:44 +0000

Does "as good as" necessarily mean "a perfect clone of"?

You should use whatever software is most practical for you. But if you want to use Linux, you
should learn your UNIX environment to take advantage of that. If you use Linux as a cheap
Windows clone you will miss out on its advantages.

You run software arbitrarily on remote computers as default behaviour in X. MS Windows is
limited to one desktop per computer because it has its roots in a single user system
("personal" computer) while X has been networked from the start. If you want to connect to a
running X desktop you use proxy software.

Remote file system access is integrated in all common Linux desktop environments. The
underlying system for access to both remote file systems and applications is normally SSH, but
this is not a normal user would need to know. Remember, there is no special LAN treatment
here. Remote applications and files are truly arbitrary as this designed for IP from the
start.

This design is older than than MS Windows and I must say I prefer it in (almost) every way. It
is not perfect as some things show their age (such as the X proxies which has almost fell in
disuse, also the "resources" system which is very useful but hardly used anymore), and stuff
like local printers and sound is unnecessarily difficult.

Editors is another story, because they are mostly a matter of taste. A good editor for MS
Windows is actually one thing I miss the most in that environment. (Of course, Emacs people is
independent of their operating system, as usual. But not everybody wants that.) If you like
Notepad++ I think you should like the default editor in KDE, called Kate. It is interesting
you mention winmerge which I've always found to be a poor substitute for kdiff3.

As you can see the Linux world is different and you should not always look for equivalents of
older software you liked in other operating systems. Then you miss out on the more powerful
software in Linux. Most free software originate in the Linux world so I am sure you will not
be left out. But changing environment is not something you do overnight so you must give
yourself time to learn and adapt.

Matthias Ettrich: The KDE-Man! (EFYtimes)

aseigo — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:43:42 +0000

well, of course you wouldn't really want to compare notepad++ to kedit, but rather notepad++
to kate.

otherwise, i agree that there are features on windows you won't find in the Free software
desktops. the reverse, however, is equally true.

Matthias Ettrich: The KDE-Man! (EFYtimes)

alecs1 — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:17:55 +0000

I only partly agree. Indeed, the WinMerge seems to have no X11 good brother. 
About Notepad++, it is a Kate poor replacement on Windows for me. In fact I once wrote on my
blog about running Kate (KDE 4) on Windows, and now all my traffic (~5 views per day :) )
comes from google searching for "Kate on Windows".
The examples could continue for a lot of pages and would eventually come to the most
important: Photoshop and Visul Studio.

But I can say I usually miss KDE when I work on Windows, but not the other way around: I miss
the kwin features, I miss Kmail and a trustworthy open source password manager, KAddressBook,
the imenselly configurable Konqueror and the KControl for the shortcuts, for setting the
default application (Windows default app lies in the registry and is immensely buggy), Kate,
Amarok, etc.
So from my point of view this guy is right, the KDE desktop experience is orders of magnitude
better than the Windows one.

That remote desktop is indeed a very interesting idea. The winmerge thing I noted, if I'll
ever write a line for an open source project, that will sure address the poor Kompare/KDiff3
fellows.

Matthias Ettrich: The KDE-Man! (EFYtimes)

dale77 — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:57:26 +0000

Ah, leveraging guilty programmer complex eh?

This is of course the "open source" answer, but it doesn't change the fact that today, after
many years of open source development, windows seems to offer best of breed in some basic
programmer utilities. The communities around the linux versions of such utilities seem less
able to produce a superb app. Is community or platform the main reason for this? I'm just
talking from *my* experience here, maybe others are enthusiastic about particular apps they
use in preference to windows complements. My work environment forces me to use windows, but I
use linux at home generally, so I see both sides.

Does KDE for example provide the hooks to implement an SVN client with deep hooks into the
file management system, such as what Tortoise provides?

Could one implement the windows local resources on remote feature I described in linux, or
does the separation of concerns represented by KDE, samba and VNC(NX?) actually prevent this?

Matthias Ettrich: The KDE-Man! (EFYtimes)

halla — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:15:26 +0000

Then build it.

Matthias Ettrich: The KDE-Man! (EFYtimes)

epa — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:14:50 +0000

For example. Remote desktop in windows has this nifty feature where you can bring your local resources with you to the remote. Just check a box on the connect dialog and once connected \\tsclient\C in explorer will show you your C drive... Can do in X?

Interesting question. You could certainly hack something together with ssh and FUSE. But there probably isn't a simple tick-box in a graphical client to do it.

Matthias Ettrich: The KDE-Man! (EFYtimes)

dale77 — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:10:13 +0000

I know there are many options out there. What I'm after is one which is *as good as* any of
those pesky windows apps.

Don't get me wrong, when in Linux I vnc/kompare/kedit with the best of them. But I prefer the
ease of use and features of those windows apps. 

For example. Remote desktop in windows has this nifty feature where you can bring your local
resources with you to the remote. Just check a box on the connect dialog and once connected
\\tsclient\C in explorer will show you your C drive... Can do in X?

Wine is the quintessential poor second cousin. What I want is a great tool built for linux...

Matthias Ettrich: The KDE-Man! (EFYtimes)

epa — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:52:04 +0000

Remote Desktop - does the X Window System not do what you want?  If you want to connect to
Windows machines use rdesktop.

TortoiseSVN - there are plenty of graphical clients for Subversion, have a look on
freshmeat.net.  True, I don't know if there is one that integrates with the file browser in
the same way as TortoiseSVN; a project called ArgonautSVN aims to integrate with Nautilus but
is still in development.

WinMerge - again there are many graphical diff/merge tools; the first I found on Freshmeat was
KDiff3.

Notepad++ - Do none of the available text editors on Linux work for you?

If you're really keen on these particular programs and you don't like the Linux equivalents,
WinMerge and Notepad++ both run well under Wine.

Matthias Ettrich: The KDE-Man! (EFYtimes)

dale77 — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:31:00 +0000

Mostly games? Remote Desktop? Tortoise SVN? WinMerge? Notepad++?

It is sad that some really good apps do not have a similarly featured linux version.

Go ahead, prove me wrong. And the answer is not VNC/?/Kompare/Kedit. No poor second cousins
please.