Slim it down!

An almost-overlooked addition to the upcoming Kubuntu 11.10 is the new Kubuntu Low-Fat Settings package. With this set of new default settings for various KDE bits, it is quite possible to reduce memory usage by as much as 32% and reduce KDE’s start up time by 33%, according to our intrepid apachelogger. This is a boon to those of us with older and slower hardware.

What this package does is turn off desktop effects by default, changes the default window decoration style and tweaks some style-related settings, disables the auto-loading of various KDE modules such as bluedevil, the printer applet,  and some nepomuk bits. It also reduces the number of Krunner plugins that are enabled by default as well.

This does make the desktop look a bit different as the Plastik windeco is not as pretty as pretty at all like the default Oxygen is, but doesn’t have all the animations, shadows and bling .

You can check this all out by installing the package kubuntu-low-fat-settings. However, any existing users you have will not see any of these changes as most likely all the specific config files have already been created in your ~/.kde/share directory. New user accounts will see this immediately, and boy, there is a definite difference! The savings mentioned do seem accurate from a quick check, my new user account was using literally half the ram my normal account does after login, but the fresh one does not yet have any email accounts or calendars set up, so Akonadi was not running. KDE does load at login lickety-split, too.

Here is the list of config files involved (they are locally found in ~/.kde/share/config)

 ~/.kde/share/config/kdedrc
 ~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals
 ~/.kde/share/config/knotifyrc
 ~/.kde/share/config/krunnerrc
 ~/.kde/share/config/ksmserverrc
 ~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc
 ~/.kde/share/config/nepomukserverrc

One could simply delete these files while KDE is not running, but you would loose any other settings you may have changed.

If you are curious, you can download the source tarball and see what the changer are. Most are configurable from within System Settings and other places.

This is a good starting spot for KDE fans who have, as one can then go and tweak some settings (Plastik is sooo KDE3 ) to better fit what one likes and can live without.

Have fun!

Plastique is soooo 2007....

Kubuntu Oneiric progress, kmail2 testing

As it get closer to release day, Kubuntu’s 11.10 is shaping up very nicely. KDE 4.7.1brings further polish on what is already a great desktop. Some things in my opinion aren’t really highlighted enough, things the everyday user might find nice.

The network management widget has received some love and attention. It provides for more options, including being able to choose which connection is the system connection, and the ability to edit. disable, and disconnect the pervasive ‘auto eth0′ wired connection from the gui is a welcome Little Thing.

          

                     

Muon! Software! Center! This should be in the Favorites menu in Kickoff by default!

We should all sing praises to Jonanthan Thomas, it’s creator for bringing usable gui package management goodness to us KDE users. I personally have gotten used to NOT  browsing for fun stuff to try, I was happy to discovered an mail client I had never seen before. Not quite a Little Thing, yes, but but little highlighted.

Since I usually keep my KDE configurations backed up, I sometimes miss the little tweaks, such as what they did to Dolphin’s menu. By turning off the menu bar and adding a separate config buttom a-la Chrome browser and others, it does open some real estate in the file manager’s window. I often use dual panes and terminal in there, the added space makes it nicer while not having to turn off the info pane. A welcome Little Thing, some extra space is.

     

Now to a Big Thing: Kmail2 migration testing.

As KDE 4.7 now comes  with the new Akonadi-based Kmail2, users will either have to utilize the migration tools, or reconfigure their accounts from scratch. The migration needs testing, more on that in another post.

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