KDE at Work - Apps I use to get stuff done
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- čas přidán 27. 06. 2024
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I showed you how I use KDE, and Activities to switch between personal stuff an Work, and my preferred layout, now it's time to take a look at the applications I use to get stuff done!
00:00 Intro
01:30 Email and Calendar
03:18 Web Browsers
05:06 Graphics Design
06:02 Todo List
07:02 Office Suite
08:11 Screen Recording
08:37 File Manager
09:18 Desktop-Specific apps
10:29 Laptop-Specific apps
11:52 Parting Thoughts
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Common apps
Let's start with the apps I use on both my laptop, and my desktop:
Email / Calendar
First are the email and calendar apps. I use Kmail, and KOrganizer for this. These are the default on KDE, and you can tell that they have older roots, they don't really look or feel super modern, so I tweaked their layout a bit to make them fit my workflow better.
I use the versions supplied in the official manjaro repos or by KDE Neon on the laptop.
Web Browser
Of course, I also use a web browser, and my preferred one is Firefox.
I also use Chromium, because I need to test our website and webapp in the most used rendering engine, and GNOME Web, when I need to check if something breaks on Safari Desktop.
Graphics
I sometimes need to quickly mockup something, to propose changes or evolutions to our webapp, and for this, I use GIMP. I never used Photoshop in my life, so for me, it's super natural to use, it's relatively fast and simple, and the workflow of starting with a selection and then using it to draw, move, add, or remove stuff is pretty well ingrained in my brain.
Planner
To manage my tasks and reminders, I use Planner. Planner is, IMO, THE best todo list app on Linux. It has so many nice features, and it stays super simple and easy to understand.
You can sync it with a todoist account as well, but not with Nextcloud for now, which is too bad.
Office suite
There is LibreOffice, which I really like, especially with the tabbed bar user interface. it's fast, it works really well, its compatibility has really improved a lot, and it's a native linux application, so it tends to look right on any desktop, including KDE. It's also open source, it does all I need for spreadsheets, presentations, or long form writing, it's a nice program.
BUT. I also use WPS office, because its file format compatibility with MS Office documents is just better.
Screen recording
As I test our app and website, I tend to create bug reports, and there is no better way to illustrate one than with a simple, quick recording of what is happening. For this, I use OBS, which is definitely overkill.
File Manager
Here, I use Dolphin. It's a wonderful file manager, with plenty of options to make it either simple, or very powerful. I tend to use it in a simple way, with a few tabs, no split view, preview panels,or terminal. I like the fact that it integrates nicely with Nextcloud, so I can see the sync status of files and folders, and quickly copy sharing links to various files, and it's super snappy and responsive.
Desktop only apps
On to the apps that I only use on my desktop.
Discord
This one, I only use on my desktop, because we use it to work remotely and keep in touch with my colleagues.
Droidcam
I don't own a webcam at home, but I still need to do some video conferencing. For this, I use Droidcam.
Laptop only apps
Now, on the laptop specifically, here's what I use:
Slimbook Face
This is an app that makes use of the IR camera on my Slimbook Pro X 14. It lets me replace my password with just my face. Sadly, KDE's login manager doesn't support that, but everythime the DE asks me for a password, including in a terminal, I just let it scan my face, and a second later, it's done, and the command can run.
Slimbook Battery
On the laptop, since most Linux desktops don't have power profiles, I also installed Slimbook battery. it's their app to handle, well, power profiles. I use the laptop in performance mode when it's plugged in, and in low power mode when it's not, the balanced plan, I never use. - Věda a technologie
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Sorry to ask here but what theme you used here in your KDE. I saw that your dolphin file manager has a pretty transparent view. So I wanna know. I am using feren os which is a customized KDE to look like Mac.
will you review debian 11?
Layan :)
Probably not! It packages relatively old stuff that I already reviewed on the channel, so there wouldn’t be much new to point out :)
@@theprimordialdude1138 The Mac cloning thing gets boring quickly IMO. If I wanted a Mac I’d buy one.
Although Krita and GIMP both get compared to Photoshop as Linux alternatives, they're geared to different workflows. Krita is much more focused on digital art whereas GIMP is more focused on image manipulation. I will use both from time to time, depending on what I'm doing.
While true, it is somewhat a good competitive alternative to Photoshop, it provides a decent amount of features and tools, while some things are bit buggy and unstable in some areas it's still pretty good, it's a lot easier to understand and navigate compared to GIMP, and will feel familiar to those who have used Photoshop in the past. You can still do image manipulation in Krita fairly well, but does need some tweaks in a few places.
I use GIMP at work for lossless manipulation of scientific images, it is very good for this purpose.
All alternative fall off horribly once they need to be incorporated into a workflow. Adobe just offering a full workflow is without an alternative if your time is being paid for.
We experienced that the hard way with visio Vs libre draw, less visible at first but evidently once two people do similar things in each alternative.
@@emeukal7683 That's true to some extent. If your work depends on being able to exchange files with others than perhaps staying with Adobe tools is indeed the safer choice. However not all creative professionals work in big studios and whatnot. Many freelancers DO work alone and for those the choice is there and hence things like Affinity apps getting a foothold in the business. Clients usually don't care which tools were used to create the final product as long as said product meets their specifications down to the letter and looks professional. A booklet done in PDF/X-1a format produced in Scribus is virtually indistinguishable from another produced in InDesign and as long as both meet the standards required by professional printers I don't see why they would care anyway. Legendary illustrator Frank Frazetta never once used Photoshop in his life to produce his masterpieces and one would be hard pressed to assert that the man would have trouble finding work because of that.
It is just a matter of finding out whether one is capable of meeting the customer's technical specifications while deviating from what is considered normal in his/her tools. In some cases it is doable with a pure FOSS toolset, in some cases it isn't.
Yes, Krita is focused on painting, but it has powerful tools for image manipulation, and until GIMP went under GNOME's umbrella, Krita was much more powerful than GIMP for image manipulation.
Fortunately GIMP improved a lot improved a lot in the last three years.
The thing I love most about Dolphin is that one little split screen button in the toolbar. It isn't a setting deep in the options and it isn't a view mode you have to choose above the other. Just hit the button when you need to copy something over, navigate to the target location, copy things over and close again. Very nice.
That and the F4 key which opens a terminal at the bottom of the window.
Vectorized graphics are meant for graphics that need to support higher resolutions. Since you seem to be limiting your graphics to 1080p for your videos (or maybe more, then downscaling), you shouldn't need to use vectors very often. I might recommend learning to use vectors for things like logos, so they can be nice and crisp in higher resolution or when printed to merchandise.
The bug you mention in Dolphin at 8:37 has existed since 2017. It's not just when downloading from Firefox. It's when using Chrome too or when extracting downloaded files. The bug appears across multiple kde distros.
I think your thumbnails are perfect the way they are Nick. They're uniquely identifiable amongst other CZcams videos and you don't need to change a thing.
Keep up the awesome work :)
Damn, your KDE looks good! I always use "stock KDE" with Arch, but after watching this video, I'm gonna try my hand at theming.
It’s the Layan thème
I swear KDE breaks everytime I start playing with themes and latte dock haha. All stock for me with some nicer icons. I've learnt my lesson :)
@@SuperMcZombie It doesn't.. You are doing something wrong. Just download and install themes directly from the settings. Reboot if something doesn't look right. That's it
@@SpaceTimeBeing_ nah download enough themes and change them around enough and it'll break.haha
@@SpaceTimeBeing_ I have to say, my experience has been very similar on KDE. Even its default selection constantly bugging or breaking. It's partially why I went away to Gnome and Cinnamon.
But hey if it works for you then that's fine.
I really wish Emacs was easier to set up, a lot of this tasks are done beautifully with it. Sadly it's not for everyone, I just wish it was haha.
Great video, as always!
Doom Emacs is pretty much set up Emacs, doesn't take much effort to start in.
I love emacs. But I cannot recommend it to anyone, for this exact reason. It's just not worth it... Well, it worth it, but only if you really like to put yourself in constant uncomfort, and I guess for someone in that place, they don't need me to recommend emacs to them, they already know about it.
@@vladlu6362 yeah, but then you need to learn it, customize it and extend it... That's my August and most likely September.
@@AmirHosseinHonardust Took me 2 hours of "intensive" learning. The rest was passive. Not much to learn at all.
@@AmirHosseinHonardust Why would you need time to customize it? It has themes. Why would extending be difficult? It's uncommenting some lines.
Your thumbnails are pretty good!
Thank you!
I was actually surprised when I heard that the thumbnails are not good enough. They are great!
ONE OF THE MOST AWAITED VIDEO SIR , THANKS A LOT 😊 ❤.
I like the glassy theme you use. It really helps fix the "Dated" look of your Mail/Calendar applications.
Judging by the available options, "Slimbook battery preferences" looks like a GUI for configuring "tlp", which is what I always use on laptops (it works on any laptop, but comes with extra features for Thinkpads). It's easily configured via one central, well documented config file and plays nicely with KDE's included power management options provided via "powerdevil". My old 2009 Macbook Pro can last 4hrs of browsing with wifi compared to 2hrs without tlp, which can automatically switch between profiles btw.
Love tlp! It is pretty much "set-and-forget" particularly with Thinkpads although it can be a bit aggressive with its power-saving settings sometimes.
Your thumbnails look great! Not only are they stylish, but I notice them above other videos on my CZcams feed because of your consistency with that style.
Thanks a lot :) I try to experiment with them, but I like the new style!
@@TheLinuxEXP do you make them in Gimp?
I do!
Your theme is really interesting
Shows how customisable linux is
Yeah, it looks really cool!
Can I setup a theme like this on Zorin?
@@ralsei7170 watch gnome customisation videos
I love KDE have used other Desktops but always come back to it. Best all round DE IMO.
I prefer Cinnamon on Arch for a very simple UI. Just to keep myself away from the madness of theming the ever living hell out of everything. Wasted too much time on Vim colorschemes and syntax highlighting already. So, not to fall down the rabbit hole of ricing all the things like window managers, mostly default settings for everything and just start working became my motto.
But I will be damned, KDE will be my go to recommendation for a smexy interface if anyone plans to do the switch from Windows.
@@whydoyouaskdude Good DE also for macOS users as you can make it look and feel exactly like macOS with about 5 to 15 mins of tweaking.. Frankly KDE can look and feel like any DE why I like it myself
Also feel ya why I just stick with Arc and Arc-Dark themes as love it and fits my tastes
I like the little tune at the end. I always keep it on and dance with the upper part of my body when the lower part is sitting on my office chair :)
Hahah yeah, I find it very dance-able as well 😅
You can refresh the Dolphin view with F5, no need to restart the app.
Hit like, put a comment, trick CZcams to recommend this channel to many.
This is how I start watching your video.
Hi you can use F5 key to reflect any changes in file manager immediately,if it doesn't
Love to see your desktop environment customisation
It’s coming :)
I also have the Dolphin bug, and great video as always!
Thanks :)
Personally, I can not express how much I love KDE desktop, I have used windows, ubuntu and mac. and I found the best by far KDE.... I think if the main flavor of ubuntu would be kubuntu it would be more popular.... :)
If they make Kubuntu more stable
KDE used to be all about apps, after kde2, user apps have slowly perished, but system apps and plasma are still worthwhile to contribute in that desktop.
Shout-out to Alma Linux, hell yeah
That webcam trick should come handy!
By Hylia, I was looking for an alternative to howdy to use my IR camera from my laptop which never worked well for me, This slimbook face might be the thing. Thank you Nick, keep the great work!
It uses Howdy, but the GUI is a lot simpler to use
Thanks for vid love from Nepal which linux distro as primary os?
Manjaro KDE and KDE néon
Very good list, thanks for that. ... my only reason I haven't switched to Linux for work is my dependence on Adobe suite unfortunately. Hope one day there'll be a good emulator for that.
Been a while since I actually went back to check out the sponsor
Hey Nick, glad your channel is back! Can you tell me what icon set you're using?
I think it’s called Inverse Blue
Yeah, I replaced them with the stock breeze folder icon, didn’t like the yellow ones!
@@TheLinuxEXP Thanks! I found it, but for some reason I end up with yellow folder icons no matter which variant I select. Any ideas?
Edit: The folder icon is only yellow on my Plank dock, otherwise they work okay. Still weird though.
10:54 Man, I just hope you won't paste any unknown command on your terminal, though the face after a "sudo rm -rf /" would be hilarious
Though for this issue I would highly recommend usage of Ctrl-C to at least minimize damages from accidental sudoing as Ctrl-C kills/cancels any terminal commands running in that instance.
Aww I think your thumbnails are cute!
I run KDE. The only thing I don't like about it is this obsession with naming absolutely everything with a K. I don't have anything against the letter per se, it just feels, well, kontrived. I guess it's a kompulsion.
Newer apps don't have that anymore, but you obviously don't rename already existing ones.
I like this series.
Thank you!
With the programm from tuxedo, you can create powerpfofiles as well and they switch automaticaly if ac is pluged in or not.
Hello, will you make a video showcasing how you custimzed your KDE? Hands down it looks super breathtaking from your video here :D
Maybe :)
Gonna give Planner a go, ta, as I hadn't really heard of that one before.
Did he say "My girlfriends"?
What an studd 😂
On a serious note though, I can see your KDE plasma experimenting has gone very far, very nice theming (thumbs up) 👍🏾
One of his girlfriends be like: 😑
Hahah mispronounced word can get you in a lot of trouble 😅
No gestures on KDE is a big reason why I can't switch from Gnome on my laptop:(
Same
just get touchegg lmao
@@yoman9446 Does it support one-to-one gestures like gnome?
Better use Pantheon i guess, really difficult for me too enjoy Gnome
@@sandarulj No, KDE does not support 1:1 gestures like Gnome 40. That's the only thing that I really enjoy of Gnome 40. Touchegg does great work with gestures, they are not exactly 1:1, however, it allows to display animations to makes them nice to use. I'm still in KDE because, beyond the customization, KDE is smooth and fast with many windows opened and even if you are using an iGPU. I feel Gnome laggier when there are many windows opened.
Once again we see the importance of your work for a real life impression of Linux on real life work, not only fast reviews. And yes, the KDE productivity apps are mediocre. The Gnome apps ( Calendar, Evolution, Geary ) although far from the quality of the best Windows and MacOS apps, are better than the KDE ones.
True in almost all cases except the file manager. Gnome files is so much worse than dolphin.
@@Watchandlearn91 Gnome files is also worse than Nemo, Caja, Thunar and PCmanfm.
@@learningbird9940 Yep. Nemo is my personal favorite.
Amazing
Your desktop looks great! Can you make a video showing your customizations?
It’s planned :)
You know what? English is not my mother tongue and you are speaking very quickly, more than many english speaking youtubers. So I listen all your videos at 0.75 speed 😀
Regarding the dolphin bug not refresing downloads folder, you can use F5 shorcut instead of closing and opening it again which makes bug bit less annoying.
8:01.....I'd be curious to know when your novel is published to give it a read sir :D All the best!!
Congratulations on the way your life is going on right now. Really enjoyed the video.
Just one question, do you use x11 or Wayland with plasma? Is Wayland buggy with plasma?
X11 everywhere. Wayland just isn’t ready for video recording / video production IMO
@@TheLinuxEXP thanks for the reply. 😌
Thank you.
You’re welcome!
can u do a full video on planner, looks like a great product
For Dolphin, you can add a Refresh button to the toolbar to make things show up. It happened to me too and it's annoying, but the refresh button makes it somewhat tolerable.
Dude yes! That bug at 9:03 is super annoying and happens to me all the time
It’s such a pain…
Great video!!
I use audacious, audacity as well as a file manager all the time. Is there a way to have them all load in a specific workspace when I login to a session?
Im sitting here with my Slimbook Titan with the feeling of having a cool underdog and than the advertising is for them 😄
13:50 I like this, a solution would be just to ask to do automatically of let you select manually after.
9:15 Can't this be solved by pressing F5 to refresh?
this would be my suggestion
F5 refresh works for me, I do encounter it only rarely, but sometimes the folder view is "stuck" on old view, not auto-updating with new file writes... I generally don't mind it too much, hitting F5 is still muscle memory from DOS times...
F5 (Refresh) works for me, but I would like for it to be done automatically.
It should be done automatically because kde filesystem frameworks should be using kernel inotify to monitor events on filesystem. If I downloading something using firefox, not only I can find the downloaded file in the target directory, I can also see partial downloaded file or x.part and monitor their size in dolphin.
@@WidyaWalesa yes, it definitely should work. But for some reason it sometimes bails out (can't track down when it happens, and no idea if it's the kernel service or dolphin implementation).
That said, it does work most of the time for me. Only rarely it stops working.
Mass Effect, nice!
Hello Nick. Did you try Iriun for using the phone's camera and mic?
As for sci-fi novels... Since you can't get them to final version, maybe you should do something like a rolling release? Release the current version and keep updating? In theory, you can even accept "patches" from readers, but I think this is too... unusual.
That’s not a bad idea!
@@TheLinuxEXP what’s the premise of the novel.
It’s an exploration of gods / what makes a god what it is, and why you really wouldn’t want to be immortal, all wrapped up in a Babylonian mythological setting :)
Also having issues with kmail the setup is pretty difficult sometimes
Good .thank
About the downloaded file in Firefox which do not show in Dolphin. You may try to press F5 (Refresh) and maybe the file will show without closing and opening the file manager again. For me this works.
It's cool that you're on alternative platforms. I subscribed to Nebula, so no odysee for me :(
Regarding productivity tasks, there's this youtuber, Mariana's Corner, that tried lots of productivity software. Maybe some of the stuff she encourages are available on linux?
Layan! :)
I also like Safari lol.
To get face recognition to work on SDDM, you need to configure PAM.
Thanks for the tip!
You make great videos and your voice makes me sleep 😴 but you have great content
Hahah sorry about the voice 😅
You can start making audible I will be 1st person to buy the book 😉 but I started to love Linux after started watching your videos, thanks man
Did you stop using elementary os
you could use trello as replacement for your planner
am new to your channel do you have a setup video as i would like top know more about your setup behind you please as in what linux it is and how you set it up feed up with windows now
Your Channel English is impressive, congratulations! Maybe one video in French with English captions would be nice also! What about it?
So it's 2021, we have a zillion Linux variants but we still don't have decent email, calender and many more basic software. I use Manjaro with Plasma and I love it but it makes me mad every time I open up Thunderbird to read my mails. Millions of hours go into the development of the different Linux variants but no one seems to bother to develop modern looking, functional, basic software for these variants. And this goes on for decades now.
Completely agree. I have managed to lock myself into MS Outlook with a historical 9GB .pst file that goes back to year 2000. I realise that Outlook won't run on Linux, but it is pretty much the only thing preventing me from dumping Windows and making the switch. My current plan is to run Linux with W.10 running as a VM. I may even go back to XP Pro... But this would only be to run Outlook and, initially at least, Excel.
But - if there was a Linux based email client (nothing cloud based, thanks) that could import a .pst file from Outlook, well, I'd be a happy man!
I don't like biometric authentication. Let's use your example to explain why:
Our modern computers generally store information in a binary digital format, meaning that, to store the information to authenticate you using your face, the computer takes some measurement of your face and stores that as a string of ones and zeros.
So it is basically just a (hopefully) very complex password, but with one very important difference:
If an attacker obtains a copy of your password, it is usually best to change your password. I reckon changing your face without disfiguring yourself is pretty impossible. Digital photographs do exist, and your computer probably isn't using anything else for the authentication. It is also very easy to copy digital Photographs. Maybe even just a high resolution printed copy of a photograph of your face is enough for an attacker to pass the authentication.
I really like what the devs have done with kde, but I’ll always be a gtk fan 😄
I really like GTK as a toolkit, yeah
Apps I use to get stuff done: "Keep above other windows" and "Shade" title bar buttons.
How do you deal with the issue of kerning in LO Writer? I am referring to here the inconsistent spacing between letters.
Hi Nik. I'm from Maldives. Could u suggest me a Point Of Sales application (for Retail shop) compatible with Linux?
As for the video sponsor Slimbook, I'd have loved to get one of those, but I really need USB PD for power - custom AC adapter is so old school. That's a pity though, cause it's really nice to have that variety in terms of keyboard layouts (something I always struggle with, here in France with AZERTY...), and most importantly, having some hw which should work better on Linux (I guess?)
Well, yeah it does work really well under Linux :)
Can you maybe make a vid about how to get a desk environment like yours?
It’s planned!
Krusader is underrated or often forgotten KDE double pane file manager. Total commander feels like shit in comparison
I've faced that dolphin bug too a couple of times. It fails to refresh when a file is outside it whiles the folder is open. Pressing f5 or refreshing through the gui shows the file or folder without needing to close and reopen
Actually, I think that your thumbnails look really good. An effective thumbnail is probably going to seem really dorky to the person making it, but your thumbnails actually grab attention (with graphics, text, and colors) without being click bait. I think you're just being a little hard on yourself.
Thanks a lot! I felt they were pretty bad, but a lot of people seem to enjoy them in the end!
But your thumbnails look amazing !
Do they?
@@TheLinuxEXP Yes ! They always catch my eyes
now we gotta see almalinux vs rocky linux
For deving I use Kate and gnome builder don't at me. Kate is stupid powerful, but can be reduced to look just like your text editor, and after spending some time learning vim and customizing my shortcuts and reading through the plugins it just combines being swift and and everything I can think of. It is probably my favourite KDE app and it is what got me into the plasma desktop, but I too have noticed that not all KDE originals were created equal
3:27 what is this extension called? I would love to have that in my own setup!
I'm sure a lot of us want to read your sci-fi novels.
I need to get them translated to English :)
the dolphin bug for me such that, sometimes newly added files would not show up in the folder if the folder is already opened but I would just press F5 and it shows up when it refreshes. Maybe the bug in your copy is a little severe.
Which theme and icon pack do use use Nick. How to enable translucent theme. Plz tell me/us
Layan thème, inverse blue icons, force blue script for win!
might wanna try trojita mail
Can you make a tutorial on how to have your desktop
I wish there was a Todo app that could create, schedule Todos & Tasks using voice, anytime anywhere
Like Google Assistant on the phone. But alas!
@Tom Golden It's text-based & I've to write the todos manually. I'm talking about something closer to Google Assistant
What distro do you use in this video?
2:02 the text in mail is almost invisible, is that on purpose for privacy, or a theme issue?
@4:25 why is that ? Nick, Both applications you mentione are great tools
The one thing I really miss on a Linux box is a really good file mangler. I've never used anything on Windows OR Linux that holds a candle to Multi-commander..
If multi-commander is sth like midnight commander then have you tried krusader? For me its a much better alternative to total commander or double commander. If you want sth terminal-based with vim-ish taste you can also try vifm
WPS 👏 👏
I like YOUR thumbnails better that almost ALL others on here.. KEEP them.. don't change to something else.
Oh I don't plan to use stupid faces in thumbnails any time soon 😁
8:02 something interesting 😏
Whats your theme? Is beautiful ❤️
Layan :)
what is your themes? its look nice
sometimes you have to press F5 in Dolphin to refresh it, no need for closing the dolphin and restart again...
Yeah, we’ll it should really refresh itself without pressing a key, though :)
@@TheLinuxEXP Exactly! I believe that was the behaviour in older Dolphin versions. Since I upgraded to Fedora 32 with KDE, I have that bug
Wow you can actually get Kmail working? I’ve never had much lick. Doesn’t play nice with MS EWS. It’s ridiculously buggy with EWS.
I couldn't get it work with something even as simple as gmail 🐙
@@caraxes_noodleboi Gmail isn't simple at all since it does so many things that adhere to no industry standard. Just one of the many reasons to avoid Gmail.
@@armorgeddon Could you please suggest a good alternative that will work will e-mail readers on linux?
How do you guys remove the title bar for applications in KDE?
Krita is cool aspecially with tablet