KDE 4.00

A couple of days ago, I impulse-installed KDE4 on my main Ubuntu machine. After hearing a lot of hype about it, I decided to see what it was like, and if it was worth all the attention. I had, a while back, impulse-installed KDE3. I uninstalled it within a few hours. Because of that, I cannot give a fully accurate review of it, which is why you have never seen one. However, from what I saw, in that little amount of time, i was not very impressed, to say the least. the applications bar was very windows-ish, and I just got this general feeling of Windows-ness. It also did not look any better than gnome, and I just did not see the appeal. However, that is NOT the case with KDE4. After using it for a couple days, I am simply amazed! The interface is more intuitive than anything I have ever seen, it’s usability is just incredible, it logs in faster than GNOME, and the graphics are incredible(not special effects). I have not had to use a terminal for anything so far, except for an error I had when I tried to soup up the graphical effects. This is the perfect Windows alternative. The graphics appear to be much better on it than on GNOME, although I do not see how that is possible. I watched a DVD a few minutes ago, and it actually looked better than DVDs normally do under GNOME, even though I was using the same player, Gxine.

As I said at the beginning of the post, the interface is amazingly intuitive. The file manager that comes installed with it, Dolphin, has so many features in it that the default GNOME file browser does not have. It has an optional file tree on the side, it has an optional terminal at the bottom, and the window can be halved, allowing you to browse two separate locations simultaneously, in the same window. The launcher bar, known to you Windows users as the Start Bar, is amazingly designed. You have your Favorites on the front, and then there are the applications, divided by categories, then there is the Computer tab, the equivalent to My Computer in Windows, but it is in the “Start” bar itself. Then there is Recently Used, which (obviously) lists your most recently used applications. Lastly, there is a tab where you can log off, restart, shutdown, etc. Also, another thing that I thought was cool, was the alternating wallpapers.  It comes with a wonderful selection of default wallpapers, one of which you can set as the default desktop wallpaper, or you can set them as a slideshow, along with any other pictures you wish.

However, after all of that, I have decided to switch back to GNOME. If you are looking for an alternative to Windows, I would suggest KDE, because it would most likely be easier to get used to. But, if you are a fluent computer person, who is willing to accept some change, I would suggest GNOME. Gnome may be a little more complicated, but in my case, and in the case of most computer geeks/engineers, complicated is better. KDE is simple, and easy to use, GNOME comes packed with as many advanced features as you could ever want, and has incredible graphical effects that KDE cannot even attempt to match. KDE’s package manager is not nearly as good as GNOME’s. You can only select packages to install one-by one. GNOME’s Synaptic Package Manager is very good at installing large amounts of packages simultaneously. Also, GNOME is very customizable, and that is very important to me. I did not get the impression from KDE that it’s look was meant to be changed very much. However, I did keep Dolphin. I really, really like dolphin as a file manager, and I will recommend it to anyone. Also, I will be keeping Konqueror, since not only is it a web browser, it is a file manager, and an application manager, with all the features of Dolphin, too.

So, in conclusion, I would say that neither KDE or GNOME is better than the other. It depends on your wants, needs, and preferences. If you

want simple, easy to use, and a good alternative to Windows, use KDE. If you want advance functionality, and extreme customization, as well as better graphical effects, I would recommend GNOME.

(edited at 2:57:  Added screenshots and wallpaper feature description)

Hardy Heron, HERE I COME!!!!

I was very reluctant about upgrading to Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron, and was running it in a VM, to test it. However, I then ran into this. Needless to say, once I read it, I immediately opened my Upgrade Manager, and told it to upgrade to Hardy. 21 minutes left. More to come, once I get it up and working. Meantime, here is a screenshot from the article above, to whet your appetite:

(credit: Lifehacker)

Another Reason Linux trumps Windows any day!

I ran across this article on Cnet today:

“Comparisons between two mass Javascript injection attacks suggest they may be related, according to a security company. The latest attack has compromised various sites including one United Nations and several UK government sites with links to malicious servers.

On Tuesday Websense reported seeing distinct similarities between attacks staged earlier this month and over the weekend. Specifically, they cite the use of the same tool to execute the attack being resident on the malicious server. Last summer various groups used the MPACK toolkit to propagate a similar series of Javascript injections.

Javascript injections are browser attacks and require no more effort than appending a script tag to the end of the URL. If a legitimate site is vulnerable to script injection, an attacker can add a script tag to the Web-facing page of the site so that subsequent views will automatically download whatever content is within the script tag. Often the script tag contains calls out to a malicious server.

A user need only stumble upon a compromised site to become infected. In this case, when viewing a compromised site, the injected Javascript loads a file named 1,js. The file is located on a malicious server, which then attempts to execute eight different exploits targeting Microsoft applications.

As of Tuesday, two other files named McAfee.htm and Yahoo,php were no longer active.

A quick review by CNET News.com found that travel and academic sites continue to host the injected Javascript code.”

Yes, the virus was inserted through a vulnerability through the browser/site, and not Windows, but that is not the point I am trying to make here.  The key phrase in this story is ” attempts to execute eight different exploits targeting Microsoft applications.”  As I have mentioned before, one of the biggest reasons that viruses are less common on Linux systems, besides the fact that the OS itself is significantly more secure, is that pretty much all viruses designed these days are for Windows, and, recently for Macs. I use Ubuntu Linux, as you know if you have spent 2 minutes on this blog.  I have never gotten a virus.  Admittedly, I have not used Ubuntu that long, but In the amount of time that I have used Ubuntu, I would, at the rate I caught viruses on Windows, through AVG, have probably 7-10 on here by now.  I feel much safer when browsing the internet, and take a lot more risks.  I know that I can safely go onto any site I want, and not suffer any ill effects, because I am invulnerable to outside attack.  I would like to point out though, just to prove that I am being fair here, that browser-specific viruses can still be caught, while on Linux.  No matter what the Operating System, a virus designed for Firefox will still penetrate Firefox.  However, there are still ways to circumvent this.  Firefox is good, because the majority of the browser-specific viruses are targeted for IE6/7.  Also, Opera is another alternative, although it might be vulnerable to some of the Firefox-specific viruses, since it uses the same plugins as it.

Note: Original Cnet.com post can be found here.

Microsoft Zune XP theme: Five-star rating!!!

Microsoft actually did something good for once!!! They just released an XP skin that was designed for Zune, but looks cool for people that don’t have one. Combine that with the Zune Firefox theme, and… wow. there are only, like, 4 XP themes made by microsoft in existence. And this is the only decent one! it has dual-five-star ratings on Cnet.
Also, what is even cooler, is, according to Cnet.com, I was the first person in existence to download it from download.com. it was released yesterday, and has 477 downloads, currently. these are screen shots. No, I don’t know where to get the wallpaper, I got it a long time ago from wincustomize.com. And, yes, my start bar is on the top of my Desktop. cool, huh? And, that Xbox thing is Windows Media player, with a Xbox skin.

Click on the images for larger version (I think)