Tag: Plasma

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MyTop Five KDE Apps

I’ve been using Fedora 41 KDE Plasma for awhile now and I’ve already discovered some of the great available apps that I use daily. My top five are: Okular, Spectacle, Gwenview, Dolphin and Konsole.

Okular is a versatile and powerful document viewer. It supports many document formats, including PDF, EPUB, DjVu, and Markdown, as well as image formats like JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Okular has great annotation tools that make adding inline and popup notes and highlighting text easy. I can easily add my text to PDFs. Okular can speak the text if I choose that option. Okular is available on other platforms, including MacOS and Windows. It is open source with a GPL v2 license.

Spectacle is a simple yet powerful screen capture utility. I can capture the entire desktop or just a specified rectangle. I can easily copy and paste the image or save it by default to the ‘screenshots’ folder inside my ‘Pictures’ folder. I can also save images in various formats, including PNG, TIFF, JPEG, PCX, WebP, and many more. I can also annotate and edit screenshots before saving them. The spectacle is available on Linux with a GPL v2 license.

Gwenview is a user-friendly image viewer that includes many powerful tools. I can open images with a double-click, rotate them left or right, crop, flip, adjust colors, remove red-eye, and even annotate. I can view pictures in full-screen mode and even create a slideshow. Gwenview has a ‘Share’ option in the menu bar that lets me send images directly to Google Drive, NextCloud, Imgur or via Bluetooth to another device or user. Gwenview is open source with a GPL v2 license.

Dolphin is a powerful graphical file manager. Dolphin is packed with productivity features designed to save you time. With multiple tabs and split view capabilities, you can easily navigate multiple folders simultaneously, allowing for efficient drag-and-drop file operations between views. The right-click menu offers a plethora of quick actions, such as compressing, sharing, and duplicating files. You can even add your own custom actions for additional functionality. Dolphin is open source with a GPL v2 license.

Konsole is a terminal that runs a command shell. It’s easy to use. It supports a great deal of option with a right click that include tabs, multiple profiles, bookmarks support, saving output. It is available on macOS and Windows. It is open source with a GPL v2 license.

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Fedora 41 KDE Plasma: A Fusion of Performance and Elegance

It has been some time since I last enjoyed a Fedora spin. I began my journey with Fedora when it was first introduced in 2003, having previously used Red Hat Linux versions 7, 8, and 9. In my work for the Franklinville, New York school district, I utilized Fedora to develop content filters, data storage systems, and various other devices. Interestingly, during a trip to Portland, Oregon, I visited a school district that had adopted a Fedora-based Linux terminal server project.

During that trip, we were invited to the Portland Linux User Group, and that night they distributed CD-ROMs with Ubuntu 5.04, Hoary Hedgehog. At the time, I purchased a white-box laptop from a nearby custom builder, and I was having trouble getting its wireless card to work smoothly with Fedora. That particular version of Ubuntu just worked right out of the box. My workflow then revolved around Fedora, but I decided to make this Ubuntu distribution work—and I did.

Recently, after listening to Linux Unplugged and the rave reviews, Fedora 41 was getting along with positive reviews of KDE Plasma from Felim Whitley on Linux After Dark that I decided to download and try Fedora 41 KDE Plasma.

I downloaded the ISO onto my Linux Mint Cinnamon daily driver and created the live USB drive with Fedora. I took a spare Dell Latitude 5410 that I had, and in about ten minutes, I had a Fedora KDE Plasma installed. I have used Kubuntu, and long before that, I had experienced the K-Desktop and decided I liked Gnome better. You could say I was prejudiced. But that prejudice was overcome by the design and layout of this particular Fedora spin.

I have used many Linux distributions since installing Red Hat 6.1 in the late 1990s. I’ve consistently been a Linux Mint Cinnamon user since 2020. Mint Cinnamon is still running on my main machine. Nonetheless, I found this version of Fedora compelling. The workflow is very similar to Mint Cinnamon—the location of the main menu and the panel where I can launch frequently used applications. I have complained about the mirrors supporting Fedora in the past and found mirrors for Ubuntu more responsive. That situation seems to have changed for Fedora.

I have found Fedora’s software center helpful and have installed applications from there. I have also used ‘dnf’ to install applications from the command line. The installation times have been great. I love Fedora’s implementation of Wayland and PipeWire. I also installed Cronopete, which is my go-to backup utility for Linux. I don’t know whether it is the Dell or Fedora, but I have found using my Soundcore Bluetooth headphones easier. I added my Brother multifunction color laser quickly with no additional software installation necessary. I enjoy this version of Fedora.

I’m still kicking the tires. I’m familiar with many software choices and learning to use new KDE software like Gwenview and Spectacle. The beauty of Linux and open source is that so many choices and options don’t exist in proprietary software.