Its been a while since I've written for this blog.


These days I use KDE. Qt is a quality toolkit which I have plenty of experience with (more than GTK at least), and is supported by a wide number of langauges. The new QML/JS is particulary exciting to me, as is the fact that KDE runs on a number of QML/JS plasma extensions, meaning it is quick, easy, and fast to iterate for.


Specifically, I am using Kubuntu 12.04.2. I like Ubuntu for its stability, but I don't much care for Unity. If I wanted a Dock and a super bar, I'd use a Mac. If I wanted pure simplicity, I'd use GNOME3. But I like stability, wide support, and most crucially a capable desktop environment, so the KDE derivative of long term support release of Ubuntu makes a lot of sense to me. I can focus on software I love, and want to write, rather than focusing on something breaking on my desktop every few weeks (and believe me, it can pile up). It also offers me a lot of functionality and power, unlike lighter weight desktops such as lxde or xfce.

So, I though I'd revive this blog with a quick script to help any Ubuntu user to switch to Kubuntu. First, the code:

#!/bin/bash
sudo apt-get --purge remove ubuntu-desktop unity unity-2d && sudo apt-get autoremove && sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop 

 What this code does is to remove the ubuntu-desktop and unity, and install kubuntu-desktop. However, there are couple other steps you'll want to make sure and follow. First, copy the script into a file somewher, say '~/switch-desktops' . Then, chmod the script so you can actually execute it:

chmod +x ~/switch-desktops 

For bonus points, if you have a directory in your path setup, you can move it there and leave off the directory when using it. Now, switch to Virtual Terminal 1 (VT1). In case you don't know, this is one of the numerous virtual terminals accessible via the F keys (e.g. F1-F9). Most graphical shells, like Unity or KDE, run on VT7 or VT8 these days. Simply use Ctrl+Alt+F1 to switch to VT1.

Login into the terminal (same username and password as normal), and run your new shell script:

switch-desktops

Or if you didn't put the file in the PATH, you can run something like:

 ~/switch-desktops 

Thats all! Happy Switching.