When installing GTK+ plus apps I highly recommend using this method

 sudo aptitude --without-recommends install gtkapplication

That way you won't draw in unnecessary GTK+ dependencies only whats needed. 

Greetings! I have always visited howtoforge after installing a new version o Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Fedora.

I just want to thank your effort and good tutorials.

 So long...

I have always enjoyed these "Pefect Desktop" tutorials, but I have to agree that this one inparticular appears to be a "Perfect Gnome desktop" pasted on top of a Kubuntu headline.

Many of the applications mentioned are good (for a Gnome desktop), but using native KDE applications in Kubuntu would have resulted in a true "Perfect Desktop".

I guess "Perfect" is a matter of preference, I would just ask the Author spend more time with KDE apps in the future.

Otherwise, I would like to thank falko for taking the time to create these tutorials.

 

i fully agree that ubuntu and his derivatives, as well as any other major linux distro, are a good alternative to windows, BUT i will not ever say that gimp is a solution for photoshop replacement. we, linux users, must be honest to ourselves and to the other people.

it is better to advice a gamer or a person who use photoshop or other dedicated windows apps as autocad to not throw away their win installation.

regards

I wonder why one would choose Canonical distro for KDE desktop.  I mean Canonical is trying very hard to hide everything from KDE.  Why can Ubuntu just have simmilar choice like Opensuse 11.2 has.  In Opensuse 11.2 you have KDE as a default desktop but you have a choice to select Gnome.  Ubuntu could just do the same except they could have Gnome as default.  Thus stop delivering Kubuntu.  Try Mandriva or Opensuse if you are KDE lover.

How come Windows is the basis for the perfect desktop? People won't switch unless Linux can offer something different.

Ubuntu will become dependent on MONO, as GNOME is re-engineered using MONO, which gives Microsoft's API the control over  the Ubuntu desktop.  However, as of June, 2009, MONO was at 2.4.2 while Microsoft is about to release .NET 4.0.   MONO/Moonlight has ALWAYS been a version or two behind .NET/Silverlight, which will make any desktop built with MONO a version or two behind the features available Windows via the latest version of  .NET.   

MONO has unresolved legal issues concerning its Winform GUI and other components which are not under the ECMA 334 & 335 standard or the MS "Community Promise", which forces MONO developers to create bindings to the GTK toolkit,  called GTK# or GTKSharp,  which gives a legal GUI component to MONO.  If people want MONO apps they should stay with Ubuntu.

It can't do any more harm to Ubuntu to install additional MONO applications because Ubuntu is already contaminated by Microsoft's API, but there is NO valid purpose in installing MONO based apps on Kubuntu, which features the KDE4 desktop built using Qt4.  Unlike MONO, the Qt toolkit and QtCreator are totally under the GPL and represent state of the art software engineering. 

Keeping Kubuntu free of MONO will keep Microsoft away from controlling the Kubuntu desktop via MONO and keep Kubuntu free of legal threats from Microsoft.

GG

 

Just wondering why all these ultimate desktop howtos are identical - I can get how these are what a lot of people consider the best app for the job, but why would you choose so many GTK apps for a KDE desktop?

 Sure they work well, but they look terrible - or at least sub-par compared to the rest of the desktop. You'd be better off sticking with Ubuntu give the app-list provided here. At least then the themeing etc would blend in.

Also, why so many applications to do a single job? Multiple torrent clients? Why? Vuze does all that the other client does (if not more) - and if it is considered too heavy, then why install it at all? Ditto with evolution/thunderbird. Why not kmail, it'll integrate better into KDE. Braseo and K3B? They're almost identical.

Choice is great and all, but surely you'd end up just using one of the apps and not the other - and a guide like this, I would think, should be aimed at people who don't want to have to try a whole swag of applications to figure out what works best with their desktop? Otherwise you might as well just give people a list of apps and say pick the one you like. I guess maybe that is what this is...

 I know this will be considered a rant - it's not. But as a typical I-just-want-it-to-work kind of guy, I don't get the why of the choices made here.