KDE users, could you kindly have the patience to answer some questions?

[Keyper7]

(time before hoppipolla jumps into this thread: 3... 2... 1...)

Hi all,

I'm seriously considering the possibility of moving to KDE. Being a long, long, LONG time Gnome user, I'm gonna ask some possibly stupid questions. I know, I know, Google and whatever, but Google won't say me with precision which info is outdated and which is not (e.g. it might be true that KDE app X was worse than Gnome equivalent Y one year ago, but this might have changed in the last months).

Most of the questions are motivated by the fact that I tend to use whatever is better, but I'd prefer not having to pull the entire Gnome stack to run an app (the Gtk stack is fine, but a perfectly equivalent app exists in Qt, I'd rather use it)

Are you ready? It's a lot of questions, but of course you can only answer a subset if you so desire. Either way you will help me. Thanks in advance ;)

Distro:
Which do you consider the best distro for KDE usage? I'm particular interested in a distro that keeps KDE very vanilla, without much customization.

Gtk apps:
Are the current ways of making Gtk apps look native on KDE satisfactory? In particular, does it work well for apps that "emulate" Gtk such as Firefox, Openoffice, Netbeans and Eclipse?

Qt3 apps:
How does the Qt3 apps look in a KDE4 environment?

Office suite:
Is Koffice a suitable replacement for Openoffice? (or at least the Text, Spreadsheet and presentation part)

Desktop publishing:
Scribus is still the king, I suppose?

Flowchart and diagram modelling:
Is there a KDE option as good as Dia? Not that Dia is *that* good, but...

Font design:
Any Qt alternative to FontForge? This one is not very important since FF is not Gtk either, but maybe there is one I don't know about

Raster graphics:
How's Krita compared to Gimp?

Vector graphics:
Any alternative to Inkscape?

Animation:
Any alternative to Synfig? Ktoon seems to have been abandoned.

Multimedia:
Any KDE/Qt alternatives for: rubyripper, gnome wave cleaner, audacity, subtitleeditor and mkvtools-gui?

Terminal:
Does Konsole support split views like Terminator?

PIM:
How Kontact compares to evolution?

Torrent:
Best torrent manager for KDE...?

eMule:
Any recommended eMule client?

Comic reader:
Any alternative to Comix?

Simple media player:
What is the official KDE equivalent to Totem? (AKA player but not manager)

Photo management:
Any good alternative to f-spot? Flickr export is a must.

CD burning:
I suppose K3B is still the king, right?

Webcam app:
Any equivalent to Cheese?

Sound recording:
I don't need much. An equivalent to the simple gnome-sound-recorder would be fine.

Scanning:
A KDE interface for sane?

Instant messaging:
Any client that supports Google Talk with voice and video?

Microblogging:
Which is the best KDE microblogging client? Actually, I only require it to support Twitter. Twitpic integration would be nice.

Synchronization:
Anyway to synchronize Kontact and my cell phone via bluetooth? Kitchensync seems to be dead.

Whew! That was a lot of questions! I appreciate those who survived until here. =P

[jaxxstorm]

Distro:
Which do you consider the best distro for KDE usage? I'm particular interested in a distro that keeps KDE very vanilla, without much customization.

General consensus is that Arch + KDEmod is very good, although I use a stock KDE install on Arch and find it very usable. Also take a look at Mandriva

Gtk apps:
Are the current ways of making Gtk apps look native on KDE satisfactory? In particular, does it work well for apps that "emulate" Gtk such as Firefox, Openoffice, Netbeans and Eclipse?

Firefox is the exception, it renders QT widgets well, but due to it being XUL based it has a few minor annoyances. GTK apps looks brilliant if you install QGTK style or any of the other equivalents.

Qt3 apps:
How does the Qt3 apps look in a KDE4 environment?

They look fine, never had a problem

Office suite:
Is Koffice a suitable replacement for Openoffice? (or at least the Text, Spreadsheet and presentation part)

Suitable, yes. However, I still use OO because KOffice lacks some features I need.

Desktop publishing:
Scribus is still the king, I suppose?

Yep

Flowchart and diagram modelling:
Is there a KDE option as good as Dia? Not that Dia is *that* good, but...

Not sure

Font design:
Any Qt alternative to FontForge? This one is not very important since FF is not Gtk either, but maybe there is one I don't know about

Stick with Fontforge

Raster graphics:
How's Krita compared to Gimp?

Nowhere near as good, but theres no reason you can't continue to use GIMP

Vector graphics:
Any alternative to Inkscape?

None as good

Animation:
Any alternative to Synfig? Ktoon seems to have been abandoned.

Not a clue

Multimedia:
Any KDE/Qt alternatives for: rubyripper, gnome wave cleaner, audacity, subtitleeditor and mkvtools-gui?

Sorry, unsure.

Terminal:
Does Konsole support split views like Terminator?

No, if you need this stick with terminator.

PIM:
How Kontact compares to evolution?

I personally think its better, but its personal choice really.

Torrent:
Best torrent manager for KDE...?

KTorrent is good.

eMule:
Any recommended eMule client?

Usnure, don't use it.

Comic reader:
Any alternative to Comix?

Stick with Comix

Simple media player:
What is the official KDE equivalent to Totem? (AKA player but not manager)

DragonPlayer

Photo management:
Any good alternative to f-spot? Flickr export is a must.

Digikam, personall think its better than F-Spot

CD burning:
I suppose K3B is still the king, right?

Of course

Webcam app:
Any equivalent to Cheese?

Webkam

Sound recording:
I don't need much. An equivalent to the simple gnome-sound-recorder would be fine.
This is one thing I haven't found myself.

Scanning:
A KDE interface for sane?

Instant messaging:
Any client that supports Google Talk with voice and video?

Kopete will soon, but stick with Pidgin

Microblogging:
Which is the best KDE microblogging client? Actually, I only require it to support Twitter. Twitpic integration would be nice.

The Microblogging plasmoid will probably appeal to you

Synchronization:
Anyway to synchronize Kontact and my cell phone via bluetooth? Kitchensync seems to be dead.

Depends what cell phone

[RiceMonster]

I don't have answers to everything, but here's what I can respond to.


Distro:

Arch. I don't use KDEmod though, I use the repo version. You basically get vanilla KDE with split packages rather than those monoliths like kdenetwork, etc (though metapackages are available) which is the way I like it.


Gtk apps:

Well I like to use bespin, which there isn't really a gtk theme that goes nicely with it. If you want them to mix, you should either use Qtcurve for gtk and qt, or set your qt apps to follow your Gtk theme.


Qt3 apps:

Unfortunately they feel kind of out of place. It's like using gtk 1 in GNOME 2.x


Terminal:
Does Konsole support split views like Terminator?

No, unfortunately. Only tabs.


Torrent:

KTorrent. It's very good, just make sure you enable protocol encryption if your ISP throttles like mine.


Simple media player:

Well, I watch videos in KMplayer which is just a player. It's likely what your looking for.


CD burning:
I suppose K3B is still the king, right?

Yup.

[Tibuda]

KDE is not my main desktop environment, but I'll try to answer some of your questions:


Gtk apps:
Are the current ways of making Gtk apps look native on KDE satisfactory? In particular, does it work well for apps that "emulate" Gtk such as Firefox, Openoffice, Netbeans and Eclipse?
There's something for Gtk+ like QGtkStyle for Qt. OpenOffice itself can emulate Qt when you are in KDE (or if you set the environment variable OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP to kde4).


Torrent:
Best torrent manager for KDE...?
Ktorrent, what else?


Simple media player:
What is the official KDE equivalent to Totem? (AKA player but not manager)
I think it is Kaffeine, but have a look at VLC (it uses Qt, but I use it on Gtk+ and Windows environments too).


Microblogging:
Which is the best KDE microblogging client? Actually, I only require it to support Twitter. Twitpic integration would be nice.
Choqok

[praveesh]

I shall answer a few questions.. If you like vanila kde, you can use kUbuntu.

The gtk apps integrates well , firefox has some issues but that can be easily fixed.

Koffice is not well , compared to open office in handling ms office formats. And open office integrates very well with kde.

Ktorrent is considered as one of the best bit torrent clients

The equivalent to totem is dragon player . It looks nice and is usable but I don't think it's better than totem.

[kio_http]

Distro keeping KDE vanilla:
That would be kubuntu

Gtk apps
Yes, with the latest kubuntu karmic Gtk integration is close to perfect!

Qt3 apps

They don't look bad at all. Its also very rare to see qt3 apps nowardays

Office suite
You don't have to use koffice. In Kubuntu karmic Openoffice is modified to have a native QT4 interface. Koffice isn't bad but I prefer Openoffice

Desktop publishing
Yes scribus is the KING!

Flowchart
Kivio can do it well.

Font design
I don't really know about font design

Raster graphics
Both Krita and Gimp are unique and can't be compared. You might like to use both together. Each for a component

Vector graphics
Inkscape is supposed to be good. I don't really do vector graphics and don't know much about it. I think Krita can do SVG however

Animation
I'm completely at loss on this subject. Ask someone else.

Multimedia
I know there are a lot of good qt multimedia tools. And like I said GTK integration is almost perfect in the latest Kubuntu 9.10

Terminal
Yes it does have split view. Konsole is the best terminal app I know. It has a lot of features.

PIM
Kontact is great. I've never used Evolution so I can't compare.

Torrent
Ktorrent with KGET are the best.

emule
Never used emule so don't know

Comic reader
A great comic reader is available by default as a plasma desktop widget.

Media player
Simple is dragon player. Featured is Kaffein and music is Amarok (my favorite player ever!)

Photo management
Theres Digikam for importing, Gwenview. And flickr widgets for the plasma desktop

Cd burning
k3b is great. Should have been K4b now but is still k3b-kde4!:KS
It never failed me!

Webcam app
Lots of them exist. Though I've forgotten their names.

Sound recording
Krecord works great

Scanning
kooka is a good scanning interface for sane

Im
Google talk, I' not too sure. But Kopete is my favorite IM software. Like Isaid a gtk app would look almost Native in Kubuntu Karmic. So if you have any liked Im software you can still use it.

Microblogging
There's a great plasma widget that does it.

Synchronization
Don't know I don't sync anything.

The only down from ubuntu karmic is Kubuntu karmic has no xsplash but its boot doesn't look that bad and its fast.

long question rewarded by long answer:KS

[gormac]

Konsole has split views, at least KDE4.3.3 version does. Accessible from View->Split View, or with keyboard shortcuts

[chucky chuckaluck]

i'm using kdemod on arch. i have it installed without konqueror, which i never use (i think dolphin is as good a file manager for less trouble and almost anything is a better web browser).

qtcurve for gtk will have your gtk apps looking like qt apps, for the most part (in some color schemes, thunar can look pretty awkward).

i've never been able to get used to krita. gimp ftw.

kaffeine might appeal to you if you're a totem fan. otherwise, vlc ftw.

i use xterm instead of konsole. you can probably use terminator just as easily (and if it's gtk, qtcurve will take care of the look). there is an option to select default applications in systemsettings.

[Hallvor]

Best torrent manager for KDE...?

kTorrent


eMule:
Any recommended eMule client?

I think you must use aMule, but it runs well under KDE.


CD burning:
I suppose K3B is still the king, right?

Yes.


Instant messaging:
Any client that supports Google Talk with voice and video?

Kopete would be your best bet.

[Pasdar]

Just wanted to say I'm running Kubuntu 9.10 with KDE updated to 4.3.3 and its awesome...

[hoppipolla]

Just wanted to say I'm running Kubuntu 9.10 with KDE updated to 4.3.3 and its awesome...

hehe yeah just bung 2 DEs on your distro and try it! I love it to bits! :D

[bigbrovar]

Distro:
I would have easily said arch, but i don't know how good your linux kung-fu is, arch is not for new users. However I would say kubuntu is very vanilla with very tiny customization

Gtk apps:
Kubuntu comes pre-installed with kcm-gtk which makes gtk apps look well integrated with the rest of kde. It works well with firefox. Openoffice is also very integrated with kde4 because of the openoffice-oxygen-style which is installed by default.

Qt3 apps:
How does the Qt3 apps look in a KDE4 environment?

They look like ****

Office suite:
Is Koffice a suitable replacement for Openoffice? (or at least the Text, Spreadsheet and presentation part)
Well idk it depend of preference, Koffice is still in beta (Not sure) but the last time i tried it i when back to openoffce 5min later. but this IMHO. you can always give it a try.

Desktop publishing:
Scribus is still the king, I suppose?
Yeah i suppose

Flowchart and diagram modelling:
Is there a KDE option as good as Dia? Not that Dia is *that* good, but...
sorry no idea

Font design:
Any Qt alternative to FontForge? This one is not very important since FF is not Gtk either, but maybe there is one I don't know about
no idea

Raster graphics:
How's Krita compared to Gimp?
I use gimp, I have heard some nice thing about Krita but am a Gimp user and am not in the mood to relearn

Vector graphics:
Any alternative to Inkscape?
IDK

Animation:
Any alternative to Synfig? Ktoon seems to have been abandoned.
No idea

Multimedia:
Any KDE/Qt alternatives for: rubyripper, gnome wave cleaner, audacity, subtitleeditor and mkvtools-gui?
No idea

Terminal:
Does Konsole support split views like Terminator?
IDK

PIM:
How Kontact compares to evolution?
Kontact and Evolution are pile of crap IMHO. I use thunderbird + lighting for PIM ( U can also add sunbird)

Torrent:
Best torrent manager for KDE...?
Ktorrent even when i was a gnomie it was Ktorrent

eMule:
Any recommended eMule client?
idk

Comic reader:
Any alternative to Comix?
qcomicbook

Simple media player:
What is the official KDE equivalent to Totem? (AKA player but not manager)
Dragon player is nice, VLC looks awesome in kde

Photo management:
Any good alternative to f-spot? Flickr export is a must.
DigiKam is the best foto management software anywhere

CD burning:
I suppose K3B is still the king, right?
Yep still the king

Webcam app:
Any equivalent to Cheese?
Kamoso. not as good as cheese, but gets the job done. and has better video recording support

Sound recording:
I don't need much. An equivalent to the simple gnome-sound-recorder would be fine.

It me know when you find one ( am sure it exist just haven't searched

Scanning:
A KDE interface for sane?
em there is Skanlite which is not as loaded as xsane but gets the job done and its KISS UI. let me know if u find better

Instant messaging:
Any client that supports Google Talk with voice and video?
I use pidgin, kopete is one of the first IM client to support video chating (long long time ago) But i don't know if it can be used with gtalk. since i don't use it (it doesn't have proxy support) so i use pidgin which works really well.

Microblogging:
Which is the best KDE microblogging client? Actually, I only require it to support Twitter. Twitpic integration would be nice.
Choqok has it all ( plus annoyingly stable :D )

Synchronization:
Anyway to synchronize Kontact and my cell phone via bluetooth? Kitchensync seems to be dead.
Sorry Idk about that. But is very possible (I think)

[Ms_Angel_D]

Op thanks for this thread because of it I found a few apps That I wasn't aware of :D

[Keyper7]

Op thanks for this thread because of it I found a few apps That I wasn't aware of :D

You're welcome. ;)

And thanks for the replies, guys, your suggestions will be very helpful.

[lightningfox]

Distro:
Which do you consider the best distro for KDE usage? I'm particular interested in a distro that keeps KDE very vanilla, without much customization.

Opensuse



Are the current ways of making Gtk apps look native on KDE satisfactory? In particular, does it work well for apps that "emulate" Gtk such as Firefox, Openoffice, Netbeans and Eclipse?



Firefox and Openoffice look fine on KDE




Photo management:
Any good alternative to f-spot? Flickr export is a must.

Digikam is good.




Instant messaging:
Any client that supports Google Talk with voice and video?

Kopete.