KmPlot is a KDE suite program that is used to plot a graph of a function and its integrals or derivatives. It is a fantastic mathematical plotter. KDE is capable of plotting different functions simultaneously and combining them in a new function. All of these graphs can be colorized, and views are scalable, zoomable, and configurable. KmPlot program offers a fantastic mathematical parser and multiple plot types such as polar, implicit, differential, parametric, etc.

It provides simple mathematical tools for finding the maximum/minimum of a function.  All parametrized functions can be viewed by adjusting variable parameters through a slider.  These plots can be exported as a BMP and PNG, and users can print them. So here is a list of features offered by KmPlot:

• It offers visual and numerical features.
• You can find maxima and minima.
• You can dynamically change the function parameters.
• It helps to plot Integra and derivative functions.
• You can plot between a plot and the first axis of graphs.

It is good to go for the KmPlot program if you want to plot different functions and measure them to understand their behavior. This article will explain the entire procedure of plotting on Linux with KmPlot, including installation.

Plotting on Linux with KmPlot

As KmPlot is a part of the KDE project, it is available in most package management systems. We are using a Debian-based system to execute the below command for installing KmPlot in the system.

After opening the KmPlot, you will get a blank space for starting mathematical functions in it.  There is a function list window on the left side of the screen in which you can select the functions to work on your project.  There is a main plotting window at the right side representing all of the changes occurring in a graphical display.

Now, create functions for using them in KmPlot, so click on the Create button to open a new menu. In this option, you can select different plots like Cartesian, differential, or polar.

There are simple functions and predefined constants for creating specific functions in the KmPlot.  After finishing it, KmPlot will update your main window by generating plots on the graph. You can also go for the advanced options by clicking on the Advanced button. Now you can change the default options for your work.

After that, set the labels for a function’s name, maxima, and minima. Go on the lower left-hand pane to see the integrals and derivatives of selected functions. Now, click on the color button and select colors for the derivative curve for highlighting a new plot.

You can also create complicated plots using the combinations of functions in work.  This option is advantageous when you want to get in-depth details of the underlying behavior of functions.  KmPlot also offers some options to work with plots, so click on the Plot Area tools for opening a pop-up window. You can select Cartesian plots for calculating the area between the x-axis and curve. You can click on the Tools, then calculator option, to open a new window for calculations/quick calculations.

Two options in the Tools menu are used for finding local minima and maxima. Hence, you have to provide an appropriate range to search so that KmPlot can constrain the search. The coordinate system is the essential aspect of plotting a function in KmPlot. You can also tailor the coordinate system from a specific option, so click on the View and select Coordinate System for it.

If you want to change axes x and y limits by setting up axis grid spacing, you can define the tools options’ grid spacing functions. As we have described above, KmPlot is a part of the KDE suite, obtaining multiple parts of the project’s capabilities. You can easily script the KmPlot’s behavior using D-Bus commands. For instance, you can plot a function using the following command:

qdbus org.kde.kmplot-PID /parser

 org.kde.kmplot.Parser.addFunction "f(x)=4sinx+2cosx" ""

After completing your work on KmPlot, you can save it by clicking on the File, then Save or Fake and Save. As for saving the work in any format, you can also save your work as an image by clicking on Click File and then Export to save a plot window into image formats.

Conclusion

KmPlot is a part of a KDE suite program that is used for the graph functions. It is a tremendous mathematical plotter KDE and can plot different functions simultaneously and combine them in a new function. In this article, we have included all of the required details regarding plotting on Linux with KmPlot so that you can use it on your system easily. We have covered the complete procedure from installation to saving a final file in your system.

Process of Installing KDE

The successful installation of KDE only requires three chief steps. But, you can also add the fourth step to explore the desktop environment, after properly installing the KDE desktop environment. The steps to install KDE are;

• Step#1 Installing KDE
• Step#2 Configuration
• Step#3 Startup
• Step#4 Exploring the desktop environment

Prerequisites

The requirement for installing the KDE desktop environment is to use the sudo user. If you have a root user instead of a sudo user, you can create a sudo user the following command and then set a new password using the following two terminal commands.

Lastly, use the command given below to get sudo and its respective command-line editor.

You can also grant access to the command-line user you are using as the text editor.

To successfully save and exit, input the following command.

Installing KDE

You can install KDE via the following commands. It is credential to note that the commands for KDE plasma may conflict with the commands of KDE4 if both versions are not compatible. I have installed KDE with plasma, as I prefer the KDE plasma style and it is suitable for both programmers as well as other users.

You can install the first category with the above-mentioned command.

Configuration

It is the second step where you can configure the KDE you just installed. As we enabled nano as a command-line text editor, we will go with nano. You can put your respective text editor in the following command.

Now you edit the comment on the screen if you remove the (#) and save the file.

Startup

You can move forward to this step after successfully editing and saving the file above. Input the following command on the terminal to get the startup screen of your KDE desktop.

The screen that will appear on your desktop is the default screen of KDE4. You can change it to your accord.

Explore Desktop environment

Its time to explore the desktop environment of KDE4 on your Arch Linux. You will see by the default configuration of KDE4, that is under the name of Conf. or it can also be KDE4. If you wish to reset the setting, then rename the file and restart the current session. You can customize the background of your desktop by going through the settings. Now, you can take advantage of the following features of KDE.

• Change theme and widgets
• Install variant fonts
• Autostart the applications
• Get Baloo
• Change appearance

Firstly, to change the theme and widget of your desktop environment, click on the top-right option of default. Add the widgets that seem to fit your preference.

The fonts of KDE4 are not very popular, so you can input this command to change it.

The features of KDE require manual file addition. If you want to make it automated, then apply this command.

You need to select the options you want to make the auto-restart in this window. Probably your Baloo is available in ~/.kde4/share/config/baloofilerc or ~/.config/baloofilerc these two locations in the server. Baloo has limited space because of its decentralized database in Arch Linux. To use Baloo in your desktop environment, input the following command:

The above-mentioned command is to start the Baloo in the desktop environment of KDE.

You can successfully stop the operation of Baloo with the command explained above.

The last two commands assist in enabling and disabling of the Baloo.

If you covet to change the appearance of your desktop environment, follow these simple steps.

To change the theme, go to settings, and select workspace appearance. Select the category of the theme from the window and change your screen. Now, to change the appearance of applications, go to setting. You can customize the color, icon, style, and emoticons from there.

Conclusion

KDE is a befitting choice for your desktop environment. Programmers who don’t feel comfortable using GNOME and other desktop environments can opt for KDE. It is a befitting choice for your operating system of Arch Linux because its operational speed is nimble. KDE4 and KDE5 are specifically prime among programmers. That’s why this guide covers the installation of KDE4 on Arch Linux. This guide covers all the information regarding the KDE4 desktop environment.

Privacy is one of the most sought-after aspects in recent times, further adding to the inherent value of Linux systems. If these reasons did not clarify its superiority enough, the fact that it has smooth, effortless performance, fast speed, and light interface clearly gives Linux an edge over Windows.

The desktop community has been blessed to have such an asset, considering the numerous features all rolled into one. That is not where the best features of Linux end, as countless distributions have been built upon and based off the Linux Kernel by managing to integrate its features with some distinct ones of their own. One such well-known distribution is KDE, one of the largest and oldest Linux-based communities out there.

KDE has emerged as a leader in the Linux community and has become well-known for producing applications that are extremely stable and visually attractive. Since it is one of the most sought-after desktop environments, KDE has become the default option for several popular Linux distributions. The most notable KDE distributions include Plasma and Neon, which will be the topic of discussion in this article.

What are Plasma and Neon?

KDE Plasma is the name of the desktop environment employed by most KDE-based distributions. Since it comes under the wing of KDE, Plasma follows the same ideology and is free and open-source for the community. Plasma is well known for being customizable and can easily be adapted into the layout that suits your needs. In addition, Plasma is not only extremely lightweight and fast but also feature-rich, making it quite the computing powerhouse. This distribution’s iconic landmark is the Plasma Launcher, which allows users to quickly and easily launch applications, as well as search for files and keep track of all the work that the user does in the history tab.

KDE Neon is the Linux distribution developed by KDE derived from Ubuntu Long-Term Support (LTS) releases and comes together with the Plasma version, along with other KDE software. What differentiates KDE Neon from Plasma is the fact that Neon only allows the latest KDE applications to run on it. KDE Neon is made specifically for KDE users, as it only accepts KDE applications and cannot run non-KDE programs. The plus side of this feature is that it regularly receives updates and is usually the first to experience newly-developed KDE applications. Since it also employs Plasma as its default desktop environment, Neon is extremely lightweight and has a very attractive visual appearance, further boosted by eye-catching icons, mesmerizing animations, and polished widgets.

With the introductions out of the way, we will now look at how these two Linux distributions compare with one another in greater detail.

Workflow

Since both Neon and Plasma have are based on and developed by KDE, they are similar to one another and bear a striking resemblance to Windows. The former, however, prefers using lighter themes and has shorter icons in the bottom panel.

Plasma, on the other hand, prefers a more vanilla KDE flavor, having more spread-out panels. Plasma is similar in appearance to Windows XP.

Development and Maintenance

KDE Neon gets the latest updates of all the KDE applications, even the newly-developed ones. If a new release for KDE comes out, KDE Neon will continue to feature support and will allow users to install the latest versions.

Plasma users, on the other hand, will continue to be stuck with the older version. However, this can be somewhat resolved by using the non-stable version of the applications.

Software Support

Both Plasma and Neon are products of KDE and, therefore, both use the Discover Software Center, though Plasma has more limitations to its software availability.

In addition to the Discover Software Center, Neon has more options and more support for other package managers, such as Flatpak.

One thing that Neon misses out on that Plasma possesses is the Software & Updates window, which is a neat way of checking your repositories and updates. You can even look at the additional drivers that your system requires.

Neon, on the other hand, works much better with AppImages than Plasma does.

So, Plasma or Neon?

Both Plasma and Neon are almost entirely the same, for now. In the long run, however, the differences will appear greater once new LTS releases emerge. For users that prefer LTS releases and want the latest KDE experience, KDE Neon would be a better fit, as this distribution would handle all this stuff for you. For users that want a mix of KDE along with Ubuntu and would not mind the small hassle of manually updating applications to the latest versions, then Plasma could be more satisfying. In the end, it all depends on what you want and need in your system. Both are fascinating desktop environments and it is hard to hate one if you love the other.

As Linux follows the ideology of the open-source movement, it can be installed free of charge and this has, in turn, has led to it becoming an affordable choice for many organizations. On top of this, Linux offers a system that can easily be tweaked and set according to the interests of the users. This customizable nature of Linux also allows it to provide more control to the user, making it more preferable for the industry.

Linux itself has several different forms of itself, each being tailored to their specific sets of users. From this large list, KDE and Mate are two quite well-known and popular desktop environments, and thus the reason why we would be making them the topic of our discussion in this article.

What are KDE and Mate?

KDE is one of the oldest Linux based communities that have gone on to become immensely popular and has gained a large following. KDE is a desktop environment that focuses more on the aesthetic sense and thus is considered as one of the most beautiful desktop environments out there. Possessing some sublime looking widgets along with astounding icons and picturesque animations, KDE is a breath of fresh air from the other desktop environments. In addition to this, KDE largely supports the open-source movement, thus making it a part of the GNU Project and being established as free software. It has also advanced into becoming the default desktop environment of several widely known Linux distributions such as Plasma, Kubuntu, Neon, etc.

Mate is a desktop environment based on GNOME 2 developed for the users of Linux. When GNOME 3 was introduced, many users were heavily disappointed with it as it had removed the traditional taskbar and replaced it with GNOME shell. So, a section of these users collaborated and ended up developing Mate which was based on GNOME 2. Since then, Mate further improved the features that GNOME 2 offered and has gone on to gain the support of several well-known Linux distributions, the list including Arch Linux, Linux Mint, and Ubuntu Mate.

Mate provides a very attractive interface, quite similar in appearance to that of Windows and macOS so users that do flock from Windows and macOS to Linux would feel a sense of familiarity with it and find it extremely easy to use. It also composes of several powerful applications that help users doing their work efficiently.

With the introductions out of the way, let us now look at how both of these desktop environments compare with one another in detail.

1) Workflow

Both the workflows of Mate and KDE bear resemblance to that of Windows and hence, look quite similar to one another. The former, however, takes the concept of GNOME 2 and applies a more modern refresh to it. Since Mate doesn’t refrain from adding too many unnecessary animations to its workflow, it is extremely fast along with being extremely smooth and easy to navigate, leading to wonderful user experience.

KDE is an extremely customizable desktop environment, with its focus more on the aesthetic side of things. KDE has one of the most pleasing and easy to the eye appearance of a Linux desktop environment. Its extensibility can be seen by it provides users with lots of control in customizing their desktop which may include adding or deleting widgets, moving panels, and playing around with the window borders.

2) Appearance

KDE shines in this regard as it offers an exquisite layout that can further be customized by the user. It has some of the most eye-catching icons, vibrant colors, and some high-quality themes that appear to be extremely attractive.

Icons:

Bottom Panel:

The resemblance of KDE to Windows 7 can also be seen by the status bar and launcher, which holds all the applications and settings. The image below for reference:

Mate, on the other hand, has more of a traditional feel to it which is quite good for productivity.

Icons:

Similar to KDE, Mate also has all its applications inside a drop-down menu where it has divided each of them according to their specified categories.

3) Customizability

Both KDE and Mate are highly configurable. KDE has more functionalities built inside of it and appears to be more powerful in this field. For users that aren’t satisfied with the appearance of KDE, they are offered multiple options for editing.

Options:

Themes:

Although Mate isn’t as extensible as KDE, it still offers a variety of options to configure it.

4) Applications

Both Mate and KDE do have applications that perform the same kind of tasks, albeit with differences in design. KDE applications, however, tend to be more robust in nature and are more feature-rich than its counterpart. Let us look at those that offer similar features:

Caja:

Dolphin:

Pluma:

Kate:

Apart from these, KDE has some other fascinating software programs that are heavily rich in features. Some examples include KDE Connect, Kontact, and KRDC.

4) Userbase

KDE is among the two most popular Linux desktop environments. Despite losing a few points after its release KDE 4, it has significantly improved itself and has just gotten better and better. Now once again the most popular Linux distros are back to using KDE. Mate, on the other hand, is itself a pretty popular choice but when compared with KDE, its userbase isn’t as large and diverse.

So, KDE or Mate?

Both KDE and Mate are excellent choices for desktop environments. Both are quite versatile and extensible in nature and both are feature-rich. KDE is more suitable for users who prefer to have more control in using their systems while Mate is great for those that love the architecture of GNOME 2 and prefer a more traditional layout. Both are fascinating desktop environments and worth putting their money on.

Cyberattacks are also on the rise, and there is always the possibility of falling victim to a virus or malware, which can cause serious damage to your system and data. There might also be a case where your system becomes damaged or accidental deletion of data occurs. These cases can easily be avoided if you have a backup strategy.

Backing up your data is crucial, allowing you to easily store your data. If you happen to lose your data, you can recover it simply by using a backup. Since backups play such a key role, having the right set of programs is essential for safekeeping your data.

For Linux users, KUP Backup Scheduler can be a great tool for backing up data. In the sections below, this article discusses the KUP Backup Schedule and how to use this program.

What Is KUP Backup Scheduler?

KUP Backup Scheduler is a KDE-based application that allows users to make backups of their files. Along with a simple and easy-to-use interface, KUP Backup Scheduler offers some fascinating backup schemes, each offering different functionalities. Since this program was developed by the KDE Community, the KUP Backup Schedler is completely free and open-source.

KUP Backup Scheduler also supports several file system formats, such as NTFS and FAT32, so issues of non-compatibility should not arise when using this program. It is important to note that although the KDE Backup Scheduler comes under the KDE Project, this program can still be used with other Linux distributions.

Installing KUP Backup Scheduler Using the Apt-Cache

The KUP Backup Scheduler package should be available in the official repository of your Linux distribution, which is the case for both Ubuntu and Arch Linux systems. Ubuntu users can easily install KUP Backup using the apt command. Before installing KUP Backup Scheduler, be sure to run the update command, so that everything is updated to the latest version. This can be done by running the following command:

Next, KUP Backup Scheduler can be installed by inputting the following command into the terminal:

Using KUP Backup Scheduler

After installing KUP Backup Scheduler, open the System Settings application in your system.

Next, open the Backups section, which can be found under the Personalization section. The initial screen that appears should look as follows:

To make a new backup of your system, first click Backups Enabled, followed by Add New Plan.

When you click Add New Plan, you will get the Backup Type window. This window will give you two options for choosing the type of backup scheme that you want to use. The Versioned Backup selection allows you to keep a record of all the backups that you have made, while the Synchronized Backup selection simply makes copies of your file and stores them on your system.

The Versioned Backup is unavailable in Ubuntu 20.04, as it requires bup, which was dropped from Debian testing due to Python 2 reaching the end of its life (bup uses Python 2 and does not support Python 3).

After selecting your backup scheme, next, you must choose the files and folders that you want to back up. KUP allows you to back up both your own data and the data of other users, including the main root directory. This requires permissions to gain access to the selected files.

After selecting the source for backup, you must now choose where to save your backup file. KUP Backup allows users to either save the files on their current disk drive, or on an external storage memory. By default, the application always saves data on the external disk, which is the preferred option.

For both internal and external drives, you can specify the destination path and folder for your backup.

Internal Drive

External Drive

The next phase can easily be called the best thing about KUP. The power that lies behind this simple-looking tool can be seen in its ability to schedule backups.

KUP provides users with three different options for scheduling. The first option, Manual Activation, is as the name says: this option allows users to perform backups manually.

The second option, Interval, allows users to set up time intervals for backups to occur. For example, a backup can be set to occur every two weeks.

The last option, Active Usage Time, is the highlight of this feature and works by backing up your system after it has been active for a specified amount of time. For example, if the limit set is around the 40-hour mark, then once the system reaches this time limit, KUP will start the backup immediately.

KUP also provides other options to users, including adding hidden folders to the backup, checking for corrupted files, and even restoring a partially corrupted file.

Once this step is done, click the Apply button in the bottom-right corner of the window. And with that, your backup process will be complete.

Why Use the KUP Backup Scheduler?

The KUP Backup Scheduler is an amazing tool. Even though it has a simple-looking interface, KUP Backup Scheduler covers all the features required for an excellent backup tool. For fast and frequent scheduled backups, this program is the perfect tool to have.

In addition to this, it is silky smooth and has an immaculate performance that does not eat up too much memory resource of your system, which, in turn, has made it much faster and lighter compared to Windows. With so many powerful features bundled inside of it, it is by no surprise to see it rise so much in popularity among the desktop community.

The most fascinating thing about Linux appears to be the variety of distributions out there that have been built on the Linux Kernel and comprise all its major features along with having some of its own to distinguish among themselves. Among these, the ones that have dominated the Linux world have been the KDE and GNOME communities which are the two go-to desktop environments for Linux.

Hence, in this article, we will be looking at their pros and cons and how they both compare against each other.

What actually are KDE and GNOME?

KDE is one of the largest Linux communities out there, known for producing some aesthetically beautiful and stable applications for both the desktop and mobile. KDE has been a huge follower of the Linux philosophy of all software to be free and open-source and easily available for the community. This can be seen by their continuous work of holding events like Akademy and Camp KDE as well as their participation in multiple Google competitions.

The KDE community is renowned for their meticulous work in bringing together large sets of professionals, each with a different role and producing applications with eye-catching icons, glistering animations and an extremely smooth looking interface which gives off a modern vibe. It has also been established as the default desktop environment for many Linux distributions including Plasma, Neon, Kubuntu, and so on.

GNOME is a desktop environment that, similar to KDE, also follows the ideologies of Linux closely and thus is part of the GNU Project, making it free and open-source. GNOME has been developed by the people working at the GNOME Project, which is a large community comprising of several collaborators that develop and publish free software. GNOME has been established as the default desktop environment for several Linux distros, the most notable ones include Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, CentOS, and Red Hat, with the last one also being one of their largest contributors. GNOME is widely known for its consistent and stable interface which is easy to use and provides a large set of user-friendly tools for users to get their work done, all of these attesting to the popularity that GNOME has achieved.

With the introductions out of the way, let us now look at how both of these desktop environments compare with one another in detail.

1) Workflow

GNOMEs switch to GNOME 3 had completely changed its entire workflow. In the old days, it had a layout reminiscent that of Windows, having a single launcher that contained all the applications and settings. GNOME 3 introduced the GNOME shell which removed the launcher, menu, and icons on the desktop and brought about an interface that hides all your applications and only makes them appear when they are needed, keeping the desktop clutter-free.

KDE focuses more on the aesthetic side of things, having a slight resemblance to that of Windows. Unlike GNOME, KDE is extremely customizable as you can move panels, add or delete components and it even allows you to change the window borders.

2) Appearance

As mentioned above, KDE has an extremely beautiful design layout, vibrant wallpapers, and sharp and crisp icons. It also offers an aesthetically pleasing UI experience and several high-quality themes that are quite attractive.

Icons:

Bottom Panel:

In KDE, you access most of the stuff from the launcher including your applications which have been divided into different categories. This can be seen in the following image:

GNOME, on the other hand, has changed its appearance from its former self and now offers a more aubergine touch which gives a very modern vibe.

Icons:

Top panel:

Additional Settings:

In GNOME, you can get the complete list of applications by clicking the drawer in the bottom left of the screen.

3) Applications

Both GNOME and KDE do have applications that perform the same kind of tasks, albeit with differences in design. KDE applications, however, tend to be more robust in nature and are more feature-rich than its counterpart. Let us look at those that offer similar features:

GNOME File Manager:

Dolphin:

GNOME Bash:

Konsole:

GNOME Text Editor and Kate:

KDE does have some other fascinating applications that GNOME misses out on such as KDE Connect, Kontact, and KRDC.

4) Userbase

Both KDE and GNOME attract specific sets of users that align with the features that they offer. GNOME has a much larger userbase, mainly due to how popular Ubuntu has been among Linux users.

However, with many users dissatisfied with GNOME 3, many users are switching to other alternatives which have made KDE once again extremely popular, particularly among the beginners as they feel more home with the Windows-like appearance that KDE has to offer.

So, KDE or GNOME?

GNOME & KDE both are among the most popular desktop environments of Linux. They have been leading the race for quite some time and healthy competition exists between the two. KDE offers a fresh and vibrant interface that looks extremely pleasing to the eye, along with more control and customizability while GNOME is well-known for its stability and bugless system. Both are polished desktop environments that are top-notch choices & satisfy the needs of their users.

Data is indispensable in today’s market, as everything depends heavily on it. As the reach of the Internet continues to grow, and as more and more users dive into online life, the amount of data that companies deal with expands. The scale at which data is being generated is massive.

At the rate at which available data is expanding, the companies using this data must also keep up with it and, as a result, this often leads them into thinking up strategies about how to efficiently manage the huge amount of information coming in so it does not end up burdening their storage services.

Disk partitioning is one useful and popular method used to optimize storage resource usage. This is a useful technique, as divides your storage spaces into separate, specific areas that allow the storage service to be better utilized by the company.

For Linux users, one such partition manager is the KDE Partition Manager, which will be discussed in detail in this article.

What is KDE Partition Manager?

KDE Partition Manager is an application used for disk management tasks in your system. This app allows users to create new file systems, whether on an already existing partition or a new one; move or delete these partitions; and resize a partition without any loss of data.

In addition to this, it also allows you to make a backup of your partitions, as well as restore your partitions a backup version. KDE Partition Manager has support for a large number of file systems, the most notable ones being NTFS, FAT, F2FS, and so on. Just like every other application of KDE, the Partition Manager is released under the GNU Public License, making it completely free to use and open-source.

Installing KDE Partition Manager Using Apt

KDE Partition Manager comes as part of the official Ubuntu repository, making it available for installation using apt. First, you will need to update the apt cache of your Ubuntu system, which can be done by entering the following command in the terminal:

Next, install KDE Partition Manager by running the following command:

Using KDE Partition Manager

After installing KDE Partition Manager, you can find it in the list of applications that you have installed on your system.

When you open the partition manager, you will be greeted with a prompt asking you to authenticate your identity. Input your password and press enter. The partition manager will then start scanning your disk so that it has a record of all the disk devices present in your system.

After scanning, the app will then present you with a complete outline of your disk drives, giving details including the type of partition, the total size of the partition, the amount of space used up, and so on. The main components of the KDE Partition Manager include the devices panel, which lists all the devices that can be found on your system; the graphical and tree view, which both show a different representation of the partitions; pending operations,which contain all the operations waiting to be executed; and a few other panels.

You can add more panels by going to the Settings menu item and then checking the panels you want to appear in the Panels Shown section.

To resize or delete any partition, first, select the correct device from the devices panel and then right-click on the partition to which you would like to apply the desired action. Click unmount. This is done because you can only apply actions to an unmounted partition.

To resize the partition, either once again right-click and select the resize/move option or hit the keys Ctrl + R, which will open the following dialog:

You can play around with the memory size. Once you are satisfied with the values, press OK, which will add a new operation to the pending operations list, along with updating the graphical and tree views.

After resizing and applying the other corresponding actions, you need to apply these changes to make them permanent. This can be done by going to the Edit menu item and selecting Apply. This will open a dialog box to confirm whether you want to apply all the pending operations. Click OK and the process will start. Once all pending operations have been applied, you will receive a success message, along with a report containing all the details of the entire process.

KDE Partition Manager can also be used to format your partitions. To do this, once again, unmount your partition, and then either right-click and select the delete option or hit the delete button, after which your partition should look something like this:

Next, right-click and select the New option or hit Ctrl + n, which will open the following prompt:

Set the options that you want your partition to have and then hit OK (be sure to select what type of file system you want your new partition to be). The following image shows the result that you should get after performing this action:

Now, click the Apply button from the Edit menu item, click OK on the pending operations dialog, and then wait till the process finishes, after which you will see something like this:

And, voilà! You now have your formatted partition.

Why use KDE Partition Manager?

KDE Partition Manager is a powerful utility program that offers a variety of features to its users for handling disk devices. Supporting a large number of file formats and being free to use, KDE Partition Manager is certainly quite the game-changer in data management.

There have also been software applications developed to provide users with remote access to other devices, including computers running Windows, Linux or macOS, or Android mobile phones.

One such tool is KDE Connect, a Linux-based application that allows users to not only share their files between different devices but also gain complete remote control of them.

This article will take a look at KDE Connect in detail and discuss the main features that this application offers to its users.

What Is KDE Connect?

KDE Connect is a tool that allows users to connect their Linux systems with other devices, which may be another system running Windows, macOS, Linux, or Android. KDE Connect is a useful tool developed by the people working at KDE that easily allows communication between many different kinds of devices.

The best features that this application offers include receiving phone notifications on your desktop to which you can reply; controlling your desktop by having your phone act as a remote control; sharing files between the connected devices; and even finding your phone by giving it a ring.

KDE Connect performs all these functions while keeping a secure protocol on the network so that no privacy issues arise. The icing on the cake is that this application is completely free and open-source. Having all these features integrated inside a single application is quite a feat and makes it an excellent application to use.

Setting Up KDE Connect

To use KDE Connect, you must first set it up on both your Linux system and your Android mobile phone. Let us look at the steps to do this:

Installing KDE Connect on Your Linux System

First, you will need to install KDE Connect on our system. You can find KDE Connect as a package in the official repository of your Linux system. In Ubuntu, this app is supported by its official repository, so you can install KDE Connect by using the apt command.

Before installing KDE Connect, the apt-cache of your system must be updated so that no issues emerge later on in the installation process. To do this, open the terminal via the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + T or from the Ubuntu dash, and enter the following command into the terminal:

Next, enter the following command into the terminal to install KDE Connect:

Installing KDE Connect on your Android Phone

To connect your phone with your Linux system, you will also need to install the KDE Connect application on this device. KDE Connect can be found in both the Google Play Store and F-Droid, so you can install the application from either of these locations. The following image shows the application in the Play Store:

Setting Up KDE Connect

To use KDE Connect, open the application on both your Linux system and Android device. You will see the names of the devices that have KDE Connect installed and running:

Android:

Linux:

When you click on either of these items, the application will ask you whether you want to pair your device with the other. Click on any of them.

Once you have requested the devices for pairing, the device you are on will ask whether you want to accept the pairing. Click Accept to pair the two devices.

Once this is done, your two devices should be paired.

Linux:

Android:

Features of KDE Connect

Some other features that KDE Connect provides include the following:

As seen in the above image, one of the best features that KDE Connect offers is sharing files from one device to another. You can easily send files from your Linux system to your Android phone using this application, and vice versa.

To transfer a file from your Linux system to your Android phone, drag and drop your file onto the KDE Connect minimized notifier or click on the Share file selection, which will open up a window from which you can select the file you want to transfer.

KDE Connect also allows users to use your Android phone to act as a mouse and control your Linux system. To do this, open the Remote input section, and voilà! Your Android phone will now act as a mouse. You can even use your phone to enter text in your Linux systems, like a keyboard.

Another great feature that comes along with KDE Connect is the ability to notify you of any notifications that might come from your phone. If you leave your phone somewhere or it is charging, there is no need to worry, as you can receive all notifications directly on your Linux system. You simply need to permit KDE Connect to allow notifications on your Android phone.

You can even reply to these messages, as indicated by the image below:

Another particularly useful feature that comes with KDE is that it can easily find your phone if it has been misplaced somewhere. For this, your phone just needs to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your Linux system. To do this, open KDE Connect and click Ring my phone.

Your Android phone will keep ringing until you click the FOUND IT text that appears on your phone.

Why use KDE Connect?

KDE Connect is one of the best projects developed by the KDE Community. This application is a powerful tool, with so many features integrated inside of it. Even more amazing is the fact that KDE Connect is completely free to use. This app is a tool that really does blow your mind.

The Linux-based application called Kontact, a personal information manager, includes all these different applications and functions built into one. This article will show you how to install Kontact and will provide an overview of some of the features that Kontact offers to its users.

What is Kontact?

Kontact is a free and open-source Linux based Personal Information Manager (PIM) developed by KDE. Kontact unifies all the different applications that people usually interact with – email, calendar, contacts, etc. – into a single window. This allows users to handle all their emails, deadlines, and other data in a more organized and efficient manner. Being both highly customizable and secure, Kontact provides users with powerful tools, giving them full control over what to do with their data.

Having all these applications integrated inside a single window makes communication with colleagues and clients much easier, in addition to making work processes more productive.

Installing Kontact

Ubuntu offers two main ways for users to install Kontact on their computers. The following sections will take a look at these methods:

Method #1: Installing Kontact Using Flatpak

Kontact can easily be installed from Flatpak, a package management system that allows users to install applications without worrying about the libraries and dependencies needed for various Linux distributions.

Before installing Kontact, you first need to set up Flatpak in your system. To do this, open the terminal via the Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut, or by searching ‘terminal’ in the Ubuntu Dash. Enter the following command in the terminal to install Flatpak:

Next, to install applications from the graphical interface of Flatpak, the following command must be run to install the Flatpak Software plugin:

The third step is to add the flathub repository to your Ubuntu system. This can be done by running the following command:

Finally, restart your system. Once your computer reboots, open flathub and search ‘Kontact’ in the search bar.

After opening the Kontact flathub page, click on the install button.

This will bring up a prompt, where you will select the Open with option and then click on OK, which will automatically open the Flatpak software plugin and install Kontact.

Method #2: Installing Kontact Using the Official Ubuntu Repository

A good alternative is to use the official Ubuntu repository, which remains the primary source from which Linux users install their applications. Since Kontact is included in the official repository of Ubuntu, it can be installed simply by using the apt command.

Before you install Kontact using this method, you must first update the apt cache of your system. This will prevent any issues from occurring later in the installation process. To do this, enter the following command into the terminal:

Kontact can now be installed by entering the following command into the terminal:

Using the Kontact Manager

As mentioned above, Kontact consists of several integrated applications that each perform separate tasks. When you start Kontact, the main window opens, which shows the Side Panel that contains the following components: the menu bar, and the main landing page of the opened component. You can easily move around from one component to another by clicking on the specified component in the Side Bar.

SideBar:

Main View:

The first component of Kontact is the Summary tab, which contains a complete overview of all the other components of Kontact. These include whether you have any upcoming events or any pending To-dos, or any new messages in your email (See the Main View image above for reference).

The next component is KMail, which is the email segment of Kontact. When Kmail starts for the first time, it will tell you to set up your email account. Enter your email address and password, and follow the next few steps to set it up.

After setting up KMail, you can check your emails under the Inbox section.

The third component is KAddressBook, which stores all your personal details and manages your contacts. The fourth component is KOrganizer, which gives you access to multiple calendars and to-do lists and thus helps in managing your events and tasks and other items that require deadlines.

Another component of Kontact is Akregator, an RSS feed reader.

Why use Kontact?

Kontact is a powerful tool that allows users to access multiple personal information management applications inside of a single window, without having to go to the hassle of overburdening yourself by opening multiple applications. Kontact is a reliable tool that has made the work of so many people easier.

What Is Kaffeine?

Like other KDE products, Kaffeine is a multimedia player developed specifically for Linux. It is based on the VLC Media framework, which gives it support for a wide variety of formats for media codecs. Kaffeine is well known for having a user-friendly interface and is jam-packed with features that allow it to perform all the basic multimedia tasks that a media player can.

Kaffeine not only allows you to play video and audio files but also gives you access to running files from DVDs, as well as VCDs. Unlike normal media players, Kaffeine also has a button for running live digital television on your systems, freeing users from the hassle of downloading their favorite shows and simply streaming them live. All these features and more make Kaffeine a worthwhile product to have.

Installing Kaffeine

Ubuntu offers two primary methods that you can use to install Kaffeine onto your system. The following sections will take a look at these methods:

Method #1: Installing Kaffeine with Snap

Kaffeine can easily be installed by using a Snap of the program, an application developed by the people of Canonical that contains the complete package, along with all its dependencies. This form of installation has become quite popular recently, as you can install Snaps onto any Linux distribution.

To install Kaffeine from the Snap store, first, open the terminal via the Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut, or by searching ‘terminal’ in the Ubuntu Dash. Then, enter the following command into the terminal:

Method #2: Installing Kaffeine with the Official Ubuntu Repository

However, Snaps are still are not that stable yet and seem to be a bit buggy in terms of their performance. An alternative method is to use the official repository of Ubuntu to install Kaffeine, which has been the get-go for years. Since Kaffeine appears to be included in the official repository of Ubuntu, it can be installed simply by using the apt command.

Before you install Kaffeine, the apt cache must first be updated to prevent any issues from occurring later in the installation. To update the apt cache, enter the following command in the terminal:

Now, enter the following command into the terminal to install Kaffeine:

Using the Kaffeine Media Player

Kaffeine has a pretty easy-to-use and user-friendly interface. When you open Kaffeine, you will be presented with multiple options for what you want to do.

As mentioned above, Kaffeine allows you to play video and audio files from multiple sources. To play a file, simply click Play File, which will then ask you to select the file you want to play. Kaffeine supports all formats the VLC Media Player does, as this program is based on the LibVLC framework.

Kaffeine also allows users to open multiple playlists at once. Click on the Playlist tab on the sidebar, and this will open the following window:

As seen above, Kaffeine allows you to create new playlists, rename the playlists, remove any existing ones, and even save them onto your system. You can also add multiple files to your playlists. Users can run files and playlists on a loop, shuffle them, remove a file that they are not interested in, and even clear the entire playlist.

Kaffeine also has support for live digital TV, where you can not only watch TV but also record it. This is only possible if you have a tuner card installed in your system, as Kaffeine first detects this card and uses it as a source to scan for channels. Click on the Television tab in the Sidebar, then hit the Start Scan button.

Next, select the channel you want to watch:

To set up a recording session beforehand for a specific channel, open the Television menu item and click Recording Session. Then, click New, and you can set the session as you

like.

To play around with the file currently running, you can use the playback options, as shown in the image below:

Why Use Kaffeine?

Kaffeine is a solid media player that supports multiple video and audio formats, as well as running files from DVD and CD devices. A unique feature that sets Kaffeine apart from other media players is its ability to run live digital TV. Kaffeine is certainly an application well worth using.

Hence in this article, we will be taking a closer look at the KDE Project and what makes it so special.

What is KDE?

The KDE Project, which is short for K Desktop Environment, is an international organization that started as a desktop environment but soon evolved into a community whose main aim is the development of free, open-source software for different platforms.

KDE is one of the largest open-source international communities out there that have become well known for creating stable and high-quality applications for both the desktop and mobile. The community of KDE is made up of all sorts of people with a diverse set of skills – programmers, writers, translators, artists, and so on.

It is precise because of this diversity that has allowed KDE to reach the heights that it has touched upon right now.

Work of the KDE Community

The work of the KDE Community revolves around dealing with free and open-source software. They have been actively participating in movements like Google Summer of Code and Google Code-in. They have even gone as far as developing their competition called the season of KDE.

They have also cooperated with the GNOME Community in the Free Desktop and bi-annual Desktop Summits. In addition to this, there are the Akademy and Camp KDE events also being held by the KDE Community. The Akademy event is an annual world summit held in Europe, whose main purpose is for collaboration to take place between the community and its industry partners.

The Camp KDE is another conference event that is held in order to let contributors and users of KDE share their experiences.

Although KDE has produced some applications that are mainly cross-platform, the main operating system that their applications are mainly built for is Linux. KDE provides Linux users several applications that are known for being extremely flexible, user-friendly, having an out of the box performance and having a beautiful appearance with eye-catching colors and aesthetic features.

Let us thus look at some of the most popular works that come under the KDE Community.

a) KdenLive

KdenLive is one of the best professional-level video editors available for Linux. As part of the KDE community, it is completely open-source and free to use. KdenLive is known for being highly stable and having an abundance of features to its name. One of the best features that it offers is the ability to use a variety of audio and video tracks.

You can easily move the video and audio clips from one place to another. Moreover, these tracks allow you to mute the audio, lock them so no one can change them and even be given names to identify them.

KdenLive also has a large range of effects and transitions, which has multiple categories itself, such as audio correction, color, image adjustment, and so on.

It further allows you to add changes to these effects by increasing or decreasing their volume.

Category of Effects:

Adding further Change:

b) Elisa and KMPlayer

Elisa is a KDE based music player that is known for having a very user-friendly and simplistic interface. It allows users to browse music by multiple categories – albums, tracks, artists, etc.

It also allows users to create and manage their playlists, in which you can add, remove, and star your favorite songs.

Another great well-known application of the KDE Community is KMPlayer, which is a simple, multi-featured media player. It supports multiple file formats such as MP4, MKV, FLV, etc. and allows one to watch videos in DVD and Blu-ray quality.

KDE Plasma

KDE, as its name implies, was initially only a Desktop Environment and later evolved into the huge organization that it is today. This desktop environment of KDE goes by the name of KDE Plasma, another free and open-source software that truly sticks to the ideals of the KDE community.

It boosts of a beautiful appearance, giving off a more modern vibe along with eye-catching widgets, animations, and pleasing aesthetic features.

KDE Plasma comes along with some fascinating default applications that are easy to use and consume fewer memory resources than their counterparts. The most well-known ones include Dolphin, an extremely lightweight file manager, Konsole, the default bash terminal for KDE Plasma, and KTorrent, a BitTorrent client.

Dolphin:

Konsole:

KTorrent:

Why makes KDE so Special?

KDE is among the most popular open-source communities out there, fully adamant about following the philosophy of being free and open-source. This code of conduct, followed by KDE, has allowed it to expand massively and has led to thousands of members joining its community. The thing that sets KDE apart from others is indeed this amazing community of it. It boosts having people with diverse sets of skills – from programmers to writers, from translators to artists, and so on. Having been around for 20 or so years, it is by no surprise that it has established itself as one of the major Linux communities.

All these factors have led to it becoming immensely popular, which can be seen by its large, growing community consisting of both developers and users. The Linux community itself comprises of so many other communities that have been built on the Linux kernel. In terms of desktop environments, KDE, along with GNOME, has been the major leaders that have dominated the market.

The KDE Project is an international community whose work revolves around developing free and open-source software for both the desktop and mobile. It has become one of the most well-known open-source communities in the industry and, along with GNOME, is one of the major competitors behind the evolution of Linux.

Since KDE is a community fully focused on bringing forward people with different sets of skills together – artists, programmers, writers, etc., it is heavily committed to following its code of conduct of everything being free and open-source. These same sets of objectives also can be found in KDE Plasma, which is the desktop environment that KDE offers to its users. Hence today, we will be looking at how one can install KDE Plasma on systems having Ubuntu 20.04 installed.

What is KDE Plasma?

Before we move onto the process of actually installing Plasma, let us first view some of the benefits that Plasma possesses. KDE Plasma is the name of the desktop environment that KDE offers to its users. Being a product of KDE, it is also completely free and open-source. The excellence of Plasma is that it is not only lightweight and extremely responsive with a great performance, but is also a powerhouse, being heavily rich in features. The interface of Plasma gives off a modern and polished vibe as it possesses some eye-catching icons, scintillating widgets, and animations as well as several other pleasing aesthetic features.

Let us now finally look at how Plasma can be installed.

Steps for Installing KDE

In this article, the tasksel package will be used to install KDE Plasma on our Ubuntu systems.

a) Installing Tasksel

Tasksel is an Ubuntu package that provides an interface that allows users to install packages on their systems as if they were performing a specific task. To use tasksel, we first need to install it on our systems.

To do this, open the terminal by either hitting the Ctrl + Alt + T keys or use the dash to get access to the list of all applications installed. After opening the terminal, enter the following command:

To verify whether tasksel has been installed, enter the following command into the terminal:

If you see a screen similar to the one shown below, then the tasksel has been installed onto your system.

Press Esc to go back to the terminal.

b) Installing KDE Plasma

Once the tasksel has been installed, our next step is to install the KDE Plasma Desktop Environment on our Ubuntu system. There are two versions of Plasma that are available for installation – minimal and full.

The minimal version comes only with the Plasma desktop environment. No other applications are installed, and users can install whichever they want later on. This version is quite useful if users don’t want to use too much of their memory or if users want to stick to the default Ubuntu applications.

To install this version, enter the following command into the terminal:

The full version comes with the complete KDE package, possessing all the core applications and Plasma desktop environment. For users wanting to experience KDE in its complete form, this version would be much more suitable than its counterpart.

To install this version, enter the following command into the terminal:

This will open the following layout:

During installation, it will display a prompt asking you to configure sddm, which is the display manager for KDE. Press tab to move to the Ok Button and then hit enter to move to the next prompt.

In the next prompt, it will ask you to choose the display manager between gdm3 and sddm. Select sddm from the two options.

After this, a few other packages will be installed.

Once this has been completed, close the terminal and restart your system.

c) Choosing Plasma

After restarting your system and reaching the login screen, click on the wheel icon found on the bottom right of your screen and choose Plasma from the options there.

After selecting Plasma, enter your username and password to log in to your system, and a black screen with the following icon will appear.

This will take a couple of minutes. After the loading has been completed, your KDE Plasma Desktop Environment will start.

Voila, KDE Plasma has been installed onto your system.

Why use KDE?

KDE is one of the largest Linux communities out there that have stood by their ideals and have achieved massive success. Its highly customizable and flexible, allowing users to set up an interface according to their tastes. In addition to this, it is extremely lightweight, which makes it pretty fast and gives off a very snappier experience to its users. KDE is what freedom defines. It is by no surprise it has made such a prominent name for itself in the Linux Community.

If you’ve installed the minimal version of Debian 10, then you will not have any graphical user interface. You will have to use Debian 10 from the command line. But, if you do need to use any graphical desktop environment, then you can easily install it from the official package repository of Debian 10.

In this article, I am going to show you how to install KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment on Debian 10 minimal server. So, let’s get started.

Requirements:

In order to install KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment on your Debian 10 minimal server, you must have,

• Internet connectivity on your Debian 10 minimal server. About 1-2GB of package files will be downloaded from the internet.
• 10GB of free disk space.

Upgrading Debian 10 Packages:

Before you install any new set of softwares on your Debian 10 server, it’s a good idea to upgrade all the existing packages to their latest version.

To do that, first, update the APT package repository cache with the following command:

The APT package repository cache should be updated. As you can see, there are 2 packages that can be upgraded.

To upgrade the existing packages, run the following command:

About 47.9 MB of packages will be downloaded from the internet. Now, press Y and then press <Enter> to confirm the upgrade.

The APT package manager will download and install all the required upgrades.

At this point, all the upgrades should be installed.

Now, reboot your Debian 10 machine with the following command:

Installing KDE Plasma 5 Desktop Environment:

Once your Debian 10 server boots, you can install KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment with the following command:

As you can see, about 1635 new packages are being downloaded and installed. It will take a very long time if you have slow internet connection.

At this point, KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment should be installed.

NOTE: Debian 10 does have live installation images for desktops and laptops. But, if you’ve used the net installation image of Debian 10 to install Debian 10 on your laptop and mistakenly did a minimal installation of Debian 10 on your laptop, then consider installing the all the required laptop tools with the following command:

By default, Debian 10 desktop environment will not start automatically even though you have installed KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment on your Debian 10 machine. Debian 10 will start in headless mode.

To tell Debian 10 to start the graphical desktop environment by default on boot, run the following command:

The graphical desktop environment should be set as the default target.

Now, reboot your Debian 10 machine with the following command:

Once your Debian 10 machine boots, you should see the KDE Plasma login window. Now, to login, type in the password of your login user and press <Enter>.

You should be logged in to your KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment.

You can check the system information from KDE Menu > About System.

As you can see, I am running Debian GNU/Linux 10. The KDE Plasma Desktop Environment version is 5.14.5. The KDE Frameworks version is 5.54.0. The Linux kernel version is 4.19.

Uninstalling KDE Plasma 5 Desktop Environment:

If you don’t like the KDE Plasma 5 Desktop environment, then you can easily remove it and go back to headless mode.

First, start Konsole terminal from KDE Menu.

Konsole terminal should start.

Now, remove the KDE Plasma 5 Desktop environment with the following command:

All the KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment packages are being removed.

Once the KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment packages are removed, set headless mode as the default target with the following command:

The headless mode should be set as the default target.

Now, reboot your Debian 10 machine with the following command:

From the next time your Debian 10 machine should boot into headless mode.

So, that’s how you install KDE Desktop Environment on Debian 10 Minimal server. Thanks for reading this article.

Speaking of the desktop environment, KDE Plasma is one of my most favorite ones. This one has the shiniest interface along with a cool collection of handy tools of its own. However, because of the polished and shiny interface, KDE Plasma is a bit more resource hungry than the others. However, most of the computers these days come with a pretty decent amount of RAM, so the additional RAM consumption shouldn’t affect your performance even the slightest bit.

Today, we’ll be enjoying KDE Plasma on another of my favorite distros – Manjaro Linux! Arch Linux is always feared as one of the difficult distros. Manjaro brings the experience of Arch Linux in the simplest possible manner for the entry-level and moderate Linux users. In fact, Manjaro Linux dramatically simplifies most of the Arch hurdles with ease.

Getting KDE Plasma

There are 2 ways you can get KDE Plasma on Manjaro Linux – installing the KDE Plasma edition of Manjaro Linux or installing KDE separately on the currently installed Manjaro system.

Method 1

Get the KDE Plasma version of Manjaro.

Then, make a bootable USB flash drive using Linux Live USB Creator or Rufus. Using the tools, all you have to do is select the ISO and the target USB flash drive. The tool will do the rest all by itself.

Boot into the device and run the installation of Manjaro Linux (KDE Plasma edition). Note that the tutorial is a demo using VirtualBox but the real life installation steps will be EXACTLY the same, so no need to worry about.

Method 2

If you installed any other version of Manjaro Linux, then you have to follow these steps for enjoying the smoothness of KDE Plasma.

At first, install the core of KDE Plasma –

For the complete experience of KDE Plasma, let’s install all the KDE applications. Note that this installation will consume a huge amount of disk space.

If you’re not interested in the entire package of KDE apps (literally a HUGE collection of apps), you can install a small one (containing only necessary ones).

The default display manager for KDE is SDDM. If you’re a hardcore fan of KDE, without SDDM, you may not have the full enjoyment of KDE. You can also configure SDDM as the display manager of KDE.

After this step, restart your system.

Don’t forget to install Manjaro configurations and theming for KDE Plasma. I strongly recommend getting them as they include a number of tweaks for the newly installed KDE Plasma specifically for the Manjaro Linux environment.

Now, it’s time to update the current user –

After everything is configured properly, restart your system.

Enjoying KDE Plasma

Voila! KDE Plasma is now the default desktop environment of your Manjaro Linux!

Installing KDE on CentOS 7:

I have a minimal CentOS 7 server virtual machine set up. It does not have any graphical desktop environment installed yet. I am going to install KDE desktop environment there.

KDE Desktop environment is available in the official package repository of CentOS 7. It is really easy to install as well.

First update the YUM package repository cache with the following command:

The YUM package repository cache should be updated.

Now you can install KDE desktop environment with the following command:

Thousands of packages will be installed and about 984 MB of packages will be downloaded from the internet. Press y and then press <Enter> to continue.

The packages should start downloading as you can see from the screenshot below. It should take a while.

Once the installation is complete, you should see the following window.

Now you have to tell CentOS 7 that you want to start graphical desktop environment when you start your computer by default. To do that, run the following command:

A graphical desktop environment should be loaded the next time you start your CentOS 7 machine.

Now restart your computer with the following command:
[cc lang=”bash”]
$ sudo reboot
[cc]

When your computer boots, you may see the following window. It is a license agreement window. Click on the marked section of the screenshot below.

Now from the following window check I accept the license agreement checkbox and click on Done.

Now click on FINISH CONFIGURATION as marked in the screenshot below.

Now you should see the GDM login screen. Click on your user account to select it.

Now type in your login password and click on Sign In.

You should see the KDE splash screen as shown in the screenshot below.

After a while, KDE desktop environment should load as you can see in the screenshot below.

Configuring KDE Desktop Environment on CentOS 7:

In this section, I will show you the basic configuration of KDE 4 desktop environment on CentOS 7.

KDE has System Settings app, from where you can configure the whole KDE 4 desktop environment. You can find System Settings from the KDE 4 Application Menu as you can see in the screenshot below.

System Settings app should open. From here you can configure KDE 4 themes, desktop effects, file associations, date and time, fonts, workspace, monitors and many more. Everything is really easy to find here as everything is nicely categorized. You can also search for specific things in System Settings app using the top right search box.

For example, if you want to change the date and time of your computer, double click on Date & Time as marked in the screenshot below.

Date & Time settings should show up as you can see from the screenshot below. From here you can change date, time, time zone and also set up time server.

Changing Wallpapers:

You can change wallpapers of your KDE 4 desktop environment. Right click on an empty place of your desktop and click on Default Desktop Settings from the menu.

Desktop Settings app should start. You can select any of the wallpapers that are available by default and click on Apply.

It should be set as the desktop wallpaper as you can see from the screenshot below.

If you don’t like the default wallpapers, you can also set your own wallpaper. To do that click on Open…

Now select your image that you want to set as wallpaper and click on Open.

The image file should show up in the Desktop Settings app now. Select it and click on Apply.

The wallpaper should be changed.

Working with KDE Widgets:

KDE 4 plasma desktop environment has many desktop widgets which you can use to make your desktop more beautiful and interactive. To add a widget, click on Desktop and then click on Add Widgets as marked in the screenshot below.

Now double click on a widget you like to activate it. I am activating the Analog clock widget.

As you can see from the screenshot below, the Analog Clock widget is activated and an analog clock is displayed on the desktop.

To remove the widget from the desktop, click on it and a transparent menu should appear. Click on the cross icon as marked in the screenshot below. The widget should be removed from the desktop.

You can also click on a widget to select it, and then drag and drop it somewhere on desktop as you like.

The widgets may have specific settings, which you can access from the widget menu as you can see from the screenshot below.

The widget specific settings should show up. I enabled the seconds hand on my analog clock. To save the changes, click on Apply or OK.

As you can see, the seconds hand is displayed.

Applications of KDE 4 Desktop Environment in CentOS 7:

In this section, I will talk about some of the applications installed by default on KDE 4 desktop environment of CentOS 7.

Web Browsers:

On CentOS 7 KDE 4 desktop environment, Firefox and Konqueror web browsers are installed by default.

Terminal/Console:

On KDE 4 desktop environment, Konsole is the default terminal application. It is a very powerful terminal emulator.

Document Viewer:

Okular is the document viewer of KDE 4 desktop environment. It supports many types of digital documents such as PDF, CHM, DjVU, EPub and many more. I really like Okular.

KDE 4 has many more applications. I leave the rest of it to you to find out. Have fun KDEing on CentOS 7.

That’s how you install and configure KDE on CentOS 7. Thanks for reading this article.

Linux Mint used to have a KDE desktop environment edition. But starting from Linux Mint 19 Tara, Linux Mint won’t have any more KDE desktop environment edition.So how do we get KDE desktop environment on Linux Mint? Well, you can use Linux Mint 18.3 KDE edition, or you can install KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment on Linux Mint 19 Tara.

In this article, I will show you how to install KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment on Linux Mint 19 Tara. I will install KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment on top of Linux Mint 19 Tara Cinnamon edition. Let’s get started.

Installing KDE Plasma 5 Desktop Environment:

Linux Mint 19 Tara is based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver. Linux Mint 19 uses Ubuntu 18.04 LTS’s official package repository along with its own package repository. Even though Linux Mint 19 don’t have KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment, we can install it from the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS’s official package repository as it is available there. You won’t have Linux Mint 19 specific KDE themes and tweaks, but at least you will be able to install a decent KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment that works.

First update the APT package repository cache with the following command:

The APT package repository cache should be updated.

Now run the following command to install KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment on Linux Mint 19 Tara:

Now type in y and then press <Enter> to continue.

APT package manager should start downloading the required packages.

The installation should be completed after a while.

Now to switch to your KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment, go to Mint Menu and then click on the Logout icon as marked in the screenshot below.

Now click on Log Out from the popup window.

Now click on the Desktop Environment switcher in the login window as marked in the screenshot below.

Now click on Plasma.

The KDE icon should show up. Now type in your password and press <Enter>.

You should be logged into your KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment as you can see from the screenshot below.

As you can see, I am running KDE Plasma Version 5.12.5, KDE Framework 5.44.0 on Qt 5.9.5. This is all on Linux Mint 19.

KDE Plasma 5 Desktop’s Applications on Linux Mint 19 Tara:

You get all the KDE Plasma 5 default applications just as you do on Kubuntu 18.04 LTS. I am going to take a look at some of the KDE applications on Linux Mint 19 Tara, just to make sure that it works perfectly.

The Linux Mint 19 Tara’s applications and themes are also available on the KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment that I just installed. I will take a look at them as well.

The KDE terminal application Konsole works well as you can see from the screenshot below.

The Dolphin File Manager looks just as it should.

As you can see, the Linux Mint 19 wallpapers are also available.

The Linux Mint 19 Tara icon themes are also available in the KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment.

To change the icon theme to Linux Mint icon theme, search for Icons on the KDE Menu and click on Icons as marked in the screenshot below.

Now select your icon theme and click on Apply. I selected Mint-Y icon theme.

The icon theme should be changed.

As you can see, the KDE Menu icons and Dolphin File Manager icons, including the desktop icons are changed to Mint-Y.

Linux Mint 19 Timeshift utility is also available. Just search on KDE Menu and you should be able to find it.

The Timeshift utility of Linux Mint 19 is running on KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment just fine.

The Linux Mint 19’s graphical firewall program is also available as you can see from the screenshot below.

Firefox web browser also works just fine.

The KDE Plasma 5 desktop themes are available.

You can easily change your desktop theme from here.

You can even change the whole workspace theme.

Linux Mint 19’s Redshift also works.

Redshift also integrates well with KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment as you can see from the screenshot below.

Conclusion:

Even though Linux Mint 19 Tara doesn’t have a KDE edition, The KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment installed from the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS package repository on Linux Mint 19 Tara works flawlessly. All the KDE Plasma 5 applications work as well as the Linux Mint 19’s own applications like Redshift and Timeshift.

The Linux Mint 19’s icon themes also work and integrates well with KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment. I think, KDE 5 Plasma desktop environment on Linux Mint 19 Tara is stable. You can use it without any problem.

Thanks for reading this article.

In this article, I will show you how to install KDE 5 Plasma desktop environment on Arch Linux. Let’s get started.

Installing KDE 5 Plasma Desktop Environment:

Arch Linux is a rolling release Linux distribution. All of its packages are always kept up to date the instant they are released. So it is always a good idea to perform a full system upgrade before you try to do anything that involves a huge system change like installing a new desktop environment. Doing so eliminates a lot of the problems you may have due to unresolvable dependencies during the installation process.

You can do a full system upgrade of Arch Linux with the following command:

Now you may be asked a lot of questions. Just press ‘y’ and then press <Enter> to accept the solution that pacman package manager thinks is the best if you don’t know what it is. You should be good.

Once you answer all the questions, you should see the following window. Here you can see how much network data you need to download the updated packages. Press ‘y’ and then press <Enter> to continue.

The upgrade process should start. It may take a while depending on your network connection.

At this stage, the upgrade process is complete.

Now that your Arch machine is up to date with the latest packages, you can install KDE 5 Plasma desktop environment on Arch Linux with the following command.

You should be asked to select the packages to install from the list. If you don’t know what to do here, just press <Enter> to select the default option, which is to install all the packages in the given list.

Now you should be asked to select a phonon Qt 5 backend. You may choose gstreamer or vlc backend. If you don’t know what it is, just select the default, which is the gstreamer backend.

Now press ‘y’ and then press <Enter> to continue.

The package download process should start. It may take a while to complete depending on your internet connection.

The KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment should be installed.

Now you should install & configure the KDE 5 Plasma recommended desktop manager, which is SDDM.

You can install SDDM desktop manager from the official repository of Arch Linux with the following command:

Now press ‘y’ and then press <Enter> to continue.

SDDM desktop manager should be installed.

You can check whether SDDM is running with the following command:

As you can see from the screenshot below, SDDM is not running.

You can check whether GDM is running with the following command:

As you can see from the screenshot below, GDM is running.

Right on I am using GNOME 3 desktop environment on Arch Linux. GNOME 3 by default uses GDM desktop manager. You have to stop GDM desktop manager and start SDDM desktop manager for KDE 5 Plasma desktop environment to work smoothly.

I will not stop GDM and start SDDM directly. Instead, I will remove GDM from the system startup and add SDDM to the system startup of Arch Linux. That way when I restart my Arch machine, SDDM will be started automatically and GDM won’t be.

To remove GDM from the system startup, run the following command:

To add SDDM from the system startup, run the following command:

SDDM should be added to the system startup.

Now restart your Arch machine with the following command:

This is what you should see when your Arch machine starts. This is the SDDM desktop manager. The default look and feel of SDDM might not be pretty, but it is highly customizable. You can change the SDDM theme later if you do care about how it looks.

By default, GNOME Classic is selected as you can see from the marked section of the screenshot below. Click on the marked drop down box to change it.

You should see some options as shown in the screenshot below. Click on Plasma.

Plasma should be selected. Now type in your password and log in.

You should see the KDE loading screen as shown in the screenshot below.

After a few seconds, you should be greeted with the beautiful KDE 5 Plasma desktop environment.

At the time of this writing, KDE 5.12 Plasma was the latest stable version.

That’s how you install KDE 5 Plasma Desktop Environment on Arch Linux. Thanks for reading this article.

KDE Plasma 5.10.2 release introduces new translations and bugfixes most from the KDE’s contributors. The bugfixes are typically small but important and they include:

• Discover: Make the PackageKit backend more resistant to crashes in PackageKit
• Plasma Networkmanager Openconnect: make sure the UI fits into the password dialog
• Include a header for the settings page for better consistency

KDE Plasma 5.10.2 Key Features

• Populates the actionsMenu right in the SourcesPage
• Split qml as well as image qrc files
• Improve hiding of scrolling controls in the UpdatesPage
• Better integrate smaller ApplicationDelegate
• Don’t mark used as unused
• Fix snap backend build
• Hopefully fix build in build.ko
• Include missing margins in the UpdatesPage header controls
• Improve apt-config integration in pknotifier
• Integrate apt setting for periodicity in the notifier
• Fixed calculation of top border
• Fix warning: x has no RESET, and this is unnecessary
• Openconnect: make sure the UI fits into the password dialog

See changelog for more

How to install KDE Plasma 5.10.x on Ubuntu 17.04 Desktop using Kubuntu Backports PPA

• First update and installing any pending updates on your machine

sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

• Upgrade to latest KDE Plasma 5.10

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

• If this is the first time you are installing KDE Plasma, then follow steps below

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
sudo apt update && sudo apt install plasma-desktop

• After installation is completed, reboot your machine. On the login screem, select Plasma as the desktop environment

How to downgrade KDE Plasma 5.10.x

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

KDE Neon is a Linux distribution based on the Ubuntu Long-Term Support (LTS) release. KDE Neon is leveraged with the KDE Plasma desktop and various other KDE applications. At the time this article was written, the latest version of KDE Neon is 5.20.4, and it is based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. This article shows you how to install the latest version of KDE Neon in the Oracle VirtualBox Manager.

Install KDE Neon in Oracle VirtualBox

First, download the latest version of KDE Neon from the official website of KDE Neon.

https://neon.kde.org/download

Download the 64-bit User Edition by clicking the User Edition Live/Install Image button.

Next, start the Oracle VirtualBox Manager and click the New option to create a new virtual machine.

Enter a name for the virtual machine in the Name field and select the desired Machine Folder to which to save the virtual machine. KDE neon is based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, so you should select the Type as Linux and the Version as Ubuntu (64-bit).

Next, select the Random Access Memory (RAM) size. The recommended memory size is 1024 Megabytes (MB), but you can allow more memory depending on your system specifications.

The KDE Neon virtual machine requires a hard disk. To create a hard disk for the KDE Neon virtual machine, select Create a virtual hard disk now and press Create.

At the next screen, select the VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) hard disk file type and click Next.

At the following screen, select the storage type Dynamically Allocated and click Next.

At the next screen, verify the destination and name of the virtual hard disk, select the appropriate file size, and click Create.

Now, we will configure some initial settings. Click the Settings option to proceed.

In the Settings window, click the Display tab, check the Enable 3D Acceleration box, and click OK.

Next, click the Start button, and the following window will appear. Click the Choose icon, add the KDE neon ISO, and click Choose.

Click the Start button, and the system will check the installation files.

When the desktop is loaded, press the Install System button.

Select the preferred language and click Next.

Select the appropriate location, i.e., region, location, and zone, and click Next.

At the following screen, select the desired Keyboard Layout, then click Next.

As we created a new virtual hard disk for our KDE neon virtual machine, on the partitions screen, we will select Erase disk and click Next.

Enter the required details in all the fields to create a new user, then click Install.

The installation will now begin.

When the installation is completed, press the Done button, and KDE Neon will restart.

After the system reboots, you will see the following screen:

Enter the password and log into your KDE Neon system.

For a full-size view of your virtual machine, click on the view icon in the top-left corner of VirtualBox and select Auto-resize Guest Display.

Conclusion

KDE Neon is an Ubuntu LTS-based Linux distro with an eye-catching user interface. This tutorial demonstrated the steps to install the latest version of KDE Neon in the Oracle VirtualBox Manager.

The latest update to Plasma 5.8 series was Plasma 5.8.4. Lets have a quick look at some of the key updates in this release:

• Many bug fixes for multi screen support such as:
  • Load screenpool at the same time as we connect to screenchanged signals
  • Avoid connecting to screen changed signals twice
• Make screenshots visible when there’s only one screenshot too
• Disable Qt’s high DPI scaling on shutdown/switch user dialogs
• Add plasma-discover to mappings
• Delay init of Wayland setup till next event cycle
• Tear-down Wayland objects before app quits
• Badges and progress display in task manager now works with more 3rd party applications
• Fix Unity launcher count badge rendering when task is created
• In addtion, the behavior of scrollable systray popups was also fixed

Install KDE Plasma 5.8 LTS on Ubuntu 16.10, Ubuntu 16.04

• If you have an existing KDE Plasma installed, then run the following commands to upgrade to latest release

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

• If this is your first time of installing KDE Plasma on your desktop, then run the following commands to install

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

• Click OK on Configuring ssdm

• Select lightdm as the display manager

lightdm(Light Display Manager) is the default for Unity desktop environment. SSDM (simple desktop display manager) is the preferred display manager for KDE Plasma desktop environment

• After installation is completed, reboot machine and select Plasma desktop environment before login

How to downgrade KDE Plasma

sudo apt install ppa-purge
sudo ppa-purge ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports