Day 1 with Fedora 10 KDE4

The goal is trying to use all the programs and things I do in Mint work here. Samba shares, NTFS, DeVeDe, K3B, Firefox, Picasa, Krusader, SMPlayer, etc. Keep in mind that I haven't been a fan of KDE in any version. I did try Fedora 9 KDE4 and PC-BSD 7.0 KDE4, those were the beginnings of KDE4 and should of never been released as finished. At best those versions should of been Beta or a RC1. I've been distro hopping as of late, so why not try Fedora 10 because the reviews have been so positive. For a general list of packages included with CD: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=fedora

Day One: Installations, Nvidia Drivers, Getting used to KDE4. Okay off the bat, K3B in Linux Mint failed a burn at 4x (what?). 2nd shot at Automatic speed worked.. weird. Using the Fedora 10 KDE4 LiveCD. Installation as really easy, just as friendly as other popular distros (*buntu, SUSE, Mandriva). Just the generic blah blah of all distros. Hardware Detection found everything but my On-Board Nvidia Card... i kinda expected that. A lot of distros try to use all the free drivers and Nvidia/ATi aren't free. They tant your Kernel.



Off the bat KDE4, like Vista, uses what i call a Kickoff menu style. If your a Gnome, XFCE, or even Enlightenment, it will take while to get used to it. Click on the Fedora icon and get a menu with tabs, in each tab has a menu. In that menu, has a list as well and a list.. so like this.. Fedora Icon -> Application Tab -> Click Utilities -> Pick the program. Okay, i found myself stuck.. Well there is arrow to the left that it like a Back Button. I'm trying to get used to this. But if you hate it like I do. You can right click the Menu Button and switch it to Classic Menu Style.

This is always the pain in the ass part, just like with Fedora 8 and 9. Hardly used Konqueror as my Browser, so lets use it. Off to www.fedoraproject.org after about 20 mins of searching and getting nothing but Fedora 9 help. Hello 10 was just released!! So, off to www.google.com and what do ya know, off the bat found http://rpmfusion.org/FAQ. Followed that completely and after 30 mins, Nvidia Drivers. Okay no 3d effects but that is okay. Also used RPMfusion to add all non-free video codecs



Konqueror is the default Internet Browser and the only one... I didn't like that. So, off to get Firefox 3. Menu -> Applications -> System -> Software Management. Started Kpackageget... searched for Firefox 3 then added my add-ons to Firefox and bam that easy.


Simple Filemanager: Dolphin (not as indept as Konqueror or Krusader) is nice and polished looking. Does the job.

So, a 3rd way there. and just as fast as Mint XFCE with Compiz and Emerald.

Day 2: deeper explanations of KDE4 interface (Plasmanoids, settings, and of course Desktop Icons). Everyone biggest problems were trying to get desktop icons.. so i dive into it. I may take pics as well.