Comments on: I Don’t Think We’re In Kansas Anymore: How-To Install KDE 4 Beta 2 on Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon Beta 7.10!

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:36:25 +0000

The window manager of KDE is kwin, yet as far as I can tell you are referring to the complete desktop environment with this article… :-S

By: Murali

Murali — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 00:24:14 +0000

I installed KDE4 beta according to the instructions posted here. When i choose KDE4 and login, it takes considerable amount of time before it shows desktop. I can’t see any K-menu, all it shows is blank taskbar and an annoying pop up box which comes when mouse is pointed to upper left corner. Is there a way to get KDE3 style of K-menu and other things in 4? Or did i do anything wrong..

Thanks.

By: Aman

Aman — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 22:03:14 +0000

Hi.
Thanks for your great article,but I fell in trouble . After all of those installation I reboot my computer and I’m going to text mode screen!!! I’m new in Ubuntu and can not fix this problem. Do you have any idea??
(I run Ubuntu 7.10 .and install KDE 3.94)

By: Harsh

Harsh — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:52:01 +0000

Oh and btw, add kdebase-workspace to the install list. I couldn’t find the kde.desktop with that one not installed after kde4base-dev. But that might be just me perhaps ..

By: Harsh

Harsh — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:54:49 +0000

It actually appears normally if you have your CD enabled as a repo and are attempting to install the build-essential package (Live CD)

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:10:06 +0000

I’ve only come across the “Insert Installation CD” under Ubuntu once. When it happened, I had the same eerie Windows deja vu that you did. But there’s a quick fix: Use the “Software Sources” app or preferences in Synaptic to remove the Installation CD as a source. No more double installation.

By: Blazeix

Blazeix — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 22:05:33 +0000

Just a matter of pickiness, but KDE is actually a “Desktop Environment” and KDE’s window manager is Kwin. Likewise, GNOME is a “desktop environment” who’s window manager is Metacity. XFCE4 is a desktop environment who’s window manager is xfwm.

A desktop environment is a collection of a bunch of programs like panels, a window manager, filemanagers, and various desktop-environment-specific libraries.

A window manager’s job is to manage how/where windows are handled. period.
For example, Compiz is an alternative window manager. this is why you can run compiz under gnome, KDE or xfce, since you are just swapping out KWin/Metacity/xfwm for compiz. Fluxbox is window manager, which is why you can’t use compiz with fluxbox, since you can only have one window manager; one must replace the other.

“Window managers vs Desktop environments” is something that people often mess up when writing about Linux, but it’s best to try to correct it when you see it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_manager
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment#X_Window_System

This was a great article by the way, and I’m definitely going to take a look at doing this, thanks for writing it up!