From The Chakra Project

Contents 1 Back Up the Truck! 1.1 Internet Apps 1.2 Multimedia Apps 1.3 Office Apps 1.4 Graphics Apps 1.5 Utilities 1.6 Widgets 2 Go Exploring 3 What Now?

Back Up the Truck!

Now it's time to load your computer up with software. I'll list off the major types of apps in each category, what the standard KDE app for each job is, where you can get it (almost all of them are in the official repos), and what the most popular alternatives are. If it sounds like something you want go ahead and install it, and if not, leave it out! That's really what Chakra's all about; a lean, stripped-down KDE that doesn't come with a ton of stuff you'll never use. Unless otherwise specified, all packages are available via the official repos.

Internet Apps

This is arguably the most important category; for many modern users a computer is little more than an internet portal.

• The Rekonq Web Browser. Rekonq is a very new project aimed at creating a fast, lightweight web browser for the KDE desktop environment. If you want familiar standbys like Firefox or Chromium they're in the Bundles repo... and the Chromium bundle features a built-in flash plugin.

• The Kget Download Manager. A download manager gives you more control over your downloads, allowing you to stop, start, and prioritize them. A download manager will also generally restart an interrupted download where it left off instead of having to start from scratch. I recommend Kget for anyone who's using Rekonq or Konqueror as their web browser, and you can get it by installing the "kdenetwork-kget" package. I'll be doing a tutorial on the Rekonq web browser, and when I do I'll show you how to set it to download stuff with Kget.

• The Ktorrent Bit-torrent Client. A bit-torrent client. You can use Kget to download bit-torrents, but Ktorrent is by far the better tool for the job; it's the most powerful bit-torrent client I've ever used. The package is simply "ktorrent".

• The KMail E-mail Client. My favorite e-mail client, and a component of the powerful Kontact personal information management suite. If you want it you can install the package "kdepim-kmail", but I recommend just installing the "kdepim-kontact" package, which will also give you the Kaddressbook address book app and the Korganizer calendar tool. Then launch it by selecting "Kontact" in the "Office" category that you'll now find in your Kickoff application launcher (why it's in the office section is beyond me, but whatever). If you do it that way, your email, address books, calendar (all of which work together seamlessly), and a few other things are all accessible via a single interface. You can also launch them individually, and Kmail by itself can be found under "Internet". Other popular e-mail clients are Mozilla Thunderbird (available via the Bundles repo) and Evolution, which can be found in CCR.

• The Akregator RSS Client. This great app puts all of your RSS feeds in one place, and you can view them using an embedded browser. It's also an add-on component for the Kontact PIM suite, so if you've already got Kontact onboard you can access it using the main interface. The package is "kdepim-akregator".

• The Kopete Instant Messaging Client. An easy-to-use IM client that'll talk to just about any of the messaging services on the web. The package is "kdenetwork-kopete". Another popular option is Pidgin, which is available via the Bundles repo.

That's a pretty good list of web apps; you've already got a great IRC client installed. Some of you are probably saying wait a minute; what about an FTP client? The answer is you don't need one. The Dolphin file manager (or, for that matter, Konqueror) has a great FTP client built in. If you just have to have a separate client for whatever reason, Filezilla is in the Bundles repo.

Multimedia Apps

Here's my own favorite section! There are tons of great multimedia apps available for Linux.

• The Clementine Music Player. Back in the old days of KDE 3.x, I used the wonderful old Amarok 1.x music player. Amarok 2.x, which came out around the same time as KDE 4.0, is in many user's minds (including my own) actually a downgrade rather than an improvement. Clementine is a fork of Amarok 1.4, bringing back all the best features of that player while adding lots of great modern features. It's available as "clementine". Amarok 2.x is also in the repos if you want to check it out. The usual KDE 4.x default player is Juk and it's also in the repos, but it's a pretty bare-bones player.

• The Kaffeine Video Player. It's not really fair to call Kaffeine just a video player; it'll handle almost any kind of media. But video is it's specialty. It's in the repos as "kaffeine", but you might also want to check out the VLC media player, which you'll find listed as "vlc". I prefer Kaffeine for a variety of reasons, but I keep VLC around as well because it has better menu support. The usual KDE default, Dragonplayer, is also in the repos but I don't know anyone who actually uses it.

• The KsCD CD Player. One bit of the old Amarok 1.x functionality that Clementine hasn't brought back (yet) is the ability to play audio CDs. You can do it with Kaffeine, but there's no tracklist support. Amarok 2.x has CD playback functionality, but it has a nasty habit of crashing between tracks. KsCD is a dedicated CD player, and although it's simple it gets the job done. The package is "multimedia-kscd".

• The K3B Disc Burning Tool. To call this powerful app a disc burner is almost an insult. This is an incredibly full-featured tool for burning, ripping, and otherwise working with optical discs. It's easily the best app of it's kind I've ever seen... don't even bother with anything else. The package is "k3b", and you'll also want to get "dvd+rw-tools", which adds some extra functionality to K3B.

I'm going to stop myself there, because most of the other multimedia stuff I use is fairly specialized. The above is a very good basic list of stuff that most people will find useful. If you were following along in the previous lesson, you should have all the codecs installed to play most digital media formats. Enjoy!

Office Apps

Word processors. Spreadsheets. The boring stuff. Oh well, boring or not, it's something most of us use from time to time, right? Here are a few handy items.

• The Okular Document Viewer. This is a PDF file viewer; same sort of thing as Adobe Acrobat Reader. Okular is the standard KDE app for this job, and should provide all the functionality you need. It's available as "kdegraphics-okular".

• The Koffice Office Suite. Here's a full-blown office suite designed for the KDE desktop. If you run a seach for "koffice" in Appset-QT you'll see a whole list of apps. The ones most people are likely to use are Kword (a word processor), Kspread (a spreadsheet app) and Kpresenter (a presentation program). The Kexi database app and the Karbon vector graphics tool might also come in handy for lots of folks. Or if you want, just install all the apps in the suite and see what they'll do. Koffice will do most things you need to do, but one thing it won't do just yet is save to MS Office formats (although it will open them). If you need 100% MS Office compatibility you'll have to get Libreoffice, which is available in the apps repository. It's a fork of the well-known Openoffice.org suite.

Graphics Apps

Here are a few basic graphics tools that will come in handy for lots of users.

• The Gwenview Image Viewer. This one's already installed. An easy-to use yet surprisingly flexible image viewing tool.

• Ksnapshot. The KDE screen capture application. This app is already installed.

• The Gimp Image Editor. If you were following along in the previous lesson you've probably already installed this one. This is a surprisingly powerful photo editor. No, it's not quite as good as Photoshop... but that app costs $500! Gimp is available via the Bundles repo.

• The Digikam Photo Manager. This app is designed to help you manage your photo library, and features the ability to synch with your digital camera, work with networked folders, and a whole bunch of other neat stuff. The package is "digikam".

• Kipi-Plugins. A plugins package that adds a bunch of extra functionality to Gwenview, KSnapshot, and Digikam. If you work with digital photos at all, you want this one.

• Screensaver. The package is "kdeartwork-screensavers".

Utilities

• The Kcalc Scientific Calculator. Just what the name implies. The package is "kdeutils-kcalc".

• Kwallet. This is a tool for storing passwords. Get it with "kdeutils-kwallet".

• NTP. This program allows your computer to interface with a network time server, which means you don't have to set your clock manually anymore. The package is "ntp".

Widgets

Widgets, otherwise known as plasmoids, are little mini-apps that sit on your desktop and add functionality. Some are frivolous, some are very useful, and a handful of them are already installed on your Chakra system. Here are a few handy ones:

• YAWP. Yet Another Weather Plasmoid is my favorite tool for keeping track of the weather. The package is "kdeplasma-applets-yawp".

• Dictionary. For quick definitions, install "kdeplasma-addons-applets-dict".

• Notes. I'm forgetful at times, so I leave notes on my desktop with "kdeplasma-addons-applets-notes".

• Spellcheck. This is "kdeplasma-addons-applets-spellcheck". To make it work you'll need to get the Aspell dictionaries for your language; mine is English so I installed "aspell-en".

• Lancelot. This is a nifty alternative to the Kickoff menu, and it's in the repos as "kdeplasma-addons-applets-lancelot”.

• Show Desktop. Placed on a panel, this'll minimize your windows and display the desktop when clicked. You'll want "kdeplasma-addons-applets-showdesktop”.

• Show Dashboard. Placed on a panel, this'll display the widget dashboard (which I'll explain in a future lesson) when clicked. You'll want "kdeplasma-addons-applets-showdashboard”.

That's just scratching the surface; there are lots of other handy widgets in there. We'll talk more about widgets and how to add them to the desktop or to panels in the Desktop Setup lesson.

Go Exploring

There's almost certainly something you need that I didn't mention above. For instance there's a lot of games available, but I don't know what the good ones are because I don't play computer games. So you'll have to do a little digging on your own. When I first started using Linux I did a lot of Google searching, trying to find apps that would replace the stuff I used in MS Windows. Not only did I find a replacement for just about everything, in many cases the replacements were better than what I was using before! If you need something I haven't covered, go online and see what you can find.

What Now?

This concludes the Complete Beginner's guide to Chakra Linux. If you're wondering what you should do now, the question's already been partly answered; start learning to use all of the great apps that are available! I'll be adding tutorials for using those apps as time permits. If you want to start customizing your desktop environment to suit you own computing habits, check out the Plasma Workspace tutorials. See you soon...

Back | Index