Amarok II, where art thou?

Did a check on Amarok 2’s features again and the wait is growing more and more unbearable. Of the jukebox players for Windows out there, the best I’ve seen are Winamp’s latest version (even though I’m not too fond of the media library itself) and Windows Media Player 11 (I still can’t believe Microsoft got it right).

But Amarok on Linux blew me away – it has everything, it’s perfect – radio, performance, instant wikipedia info, instantaneous lyrics search, tag management – crazy! And the new version looks even more awesome!

I really hope they give a general timefram of when the betas and RCs are going to roll out now.

Official KDE 4.0.0 Release Announcement

The KDE Community is thrilled to announce the immediate availability of KDE 4.0. This significant release marks both the end of the long and intensive development cycle leading up to KDE 4.0 and the beginning of the KDE 4 era. Be sure to also check out the KDE 4.0 Visual Guide.

It’s out! After all these months of waiting, it is finally out! KDE 4 has invaded the interwebs! Finish, stupid PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniME download, Finish!

read more | digg story

PCLinuxOS

PCLinuxOS is a Mandriva fork that seemingly shot up in distrowatch’s top distros list. I was more than a tad surprised at this, seeing a world where nobody ever mentioned PCLinuxOS as much as say, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora or OpenSUSE. Intrigued, I read more about this distro and decided to give it a shot, which is what I’m typing from right now.

PCLinuxOS installs and boots fast and has a very slick interface – and of course, KDE! The biggest hurdle I can see is that since PCLOS doesn’t have a regular release cycle (or at least not one as frequent as the Ubuntu distros), you have to upgrade a ton of packages after installation, which is a bit of a pain for those of us with inferior connection speeds.

Even then, I like what I see in PCLOS, particularly the mklivecd command, which lets you construct a Live CD out of your existing installation – a very handy tool to have. Despite being based off Mandriva, it has the APT package management system, which means Synaptic is back, and that alone is worth celebrating.

PCLOS also has a special control centre independent of the KDE control centre, and I liked it! It sets up everything very well and is pretty easy to use. PCLOS also feels very cool to use, as compared to Ubuntu or other distros. Konqueror is still around to hate, but I think that should be taken care of once we make the big jump to KDE 4.0.0 on January 11th (I can’t wait!).

Setting up the Internet wasn’t too much of a problem, thanks to the new control centre tools, but I’ve yet to get sound working. PCLOS’ forums look decent, albeit not as eternally busy as Ubuntu’s.

I think I will be using PCLOS for quite a while, especially because of its priceless mklivecd command, but being the fickle distro-jumper that I am, I might just try out Linux Mint’s next KDE version if it comes out!

Not Impressed with Sabayon, Curious about PyroLinux

I’ll be taking Sabayon out in the near future, most likely to be replaced by Linux Mint’s KDE community Edition. Sabayon didn’t impress me much. It has excellent driver detection and started Compiz Fusion on startup, which was great. KDE was good too, but Sabayon is certainly not a beginner-friendly distro.

I had to spend a while messing with settings to get my internet to work, and then about five times that much time fixing and setting up the sound system (which only partially seemed to work). Also, Sabayon’s forums aren’t exactly very large (or maybe I’m just used to Ubuntu!). Finally, I did not like Portage at all.

Portato had a spartan interface – definitely not very good. Its GNOME alternative, Porthole looks better but is much, much slower at installing/downloading/whateveritwasdoing. Both front-ends appeared to take their own time in downloading/installing, so I’m not very impressed with Portage.

Again I turn to Linux Mint, which I have found to be the most polished distro yet (although most of its credits would go to Ubuntu). A new, brash distro made Digg headlines today, named PyroLinux. While the distro and its devs got a nasty bashing in the Digg comments section, I’m still hoping this one will last.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have a whole lot going for it. It includes Avant with it, Microsoft Windows-like “sharp” fonts, a more “user friendly” interface (with no exact details about that). PyroLinux is designed to “just work”, the exact words used by Ubuntu. Codecs, Graphic Drivers and such work out of the box, so that’s good I suppose.

I think the guys at PyroLinux are lighting their fire (pardon the pun) too soon. While it sounds worth a try, announcing a distro with a haphazard list of features and no screenshots is not a good idea, especially if you’re touting Pre-Order ability. I will say that PyroLinux sounds like a pretty catchy name for an OS. Maybe HydroLinux can be made as a competitor to PyroLinux, and based on a rival distribution to Ubuntu (Fedora or Gentoo would be good here).

Hmm.

And now for Sabayon

Linux Mint is a dapper distro, and does a great job of rounding off Ubuntu’s edges and polishing it, overall. If you’re interested in Ubuntu, I’d actually suggest Mint! However, its KDE version is still in beta, and appears to be quite a bit in the future. With some recommendations from friends, I decided to try out Sabayon. Things that attracted me are:

• KDE!
• Unique looks
• Not Debian-based, which is something I have to try. This is Gentoo-based, so I’m crossing my fingers here.
• Uses Portage for package management, which is also something I have to try.

90% done now. I’ll be trying the miniEdition for 3.4, and I must say that I don’t find Sabayon’s online site very impressive. Regardless, we march forth.

Downloading Linux Mint

Linux Mint finally managed to grab my attention. It touts as an elegant, easy-to-use, Ubuntu-based distro. It is completely compatible with Ubuntu repositories, so it’s virtually a different flavoured Ubuntu. Despite my hatred for GNOME, I decided to check it out, because something knocked my Kubuntu out.

Mint does have a KDE version in Beta (which is available in DVD-only, for some reason). I’ll wait for the full, and the release of KDE 4 this December. Maybe I’ll wait for Ubuntu’s Hardy line to come in, because Kubuntu Hardy must use KDE 4. If Mint’s KDE group becomes good enough, that might be worth a look. And if nothing, I can manually switch my Mint from GNOME to KDE. I can always reinstall if anything goes wrong.

It’s at 90% and almost done now (torrents FTW!). I’m downloading the piping hot 4.0 Daryna right now. Mint appears to be in its infancy, since I cannot see a professional-looking forum or support page at their site. The site itself has a somewhat informal feel to it. Regardless, since it is so similar to Ubuntu, I suppose support concerns must work both ways.

I have a feeling that Mint can be really big, though. It’s not far from the top in Distrowatch’s ranking. This might just be the new Ubuntu.

What I was doing this evening with my Ubuntu.

Decided to mess up a bit, and replaced Metacity with Kwin. I don’t exactly know why, but it feels nice, I suppose. KDE has terrible native themes, though. It’s embarassing, in a way. I can’t wait for KDE 4 to roll in and kick asses.

Meanwhile, I got fed up with the graphical glitches I’ve been having in Firefox. I reinstalled the Firefox package and things seem a bit better now. I can still see some pictures “jumping” around, but it has reduced considerably. I’m planning a format-install for Gutsy, so I have 14 days to mess around crazy.

Once KDE 4 comes out, I might take Kubuntu Hardy, though. Kubuntu did impress me, though not quite as much as Ubuntu. If KDE 4 lives upto its hype, it may get an edge over the monstrous GNOME, though.