KDE 4.2 in Ubuntu?

I got into Linux through Ubuntu and I still consider it my principal OS. it’s easily the one I know best and trust most and I generally turn to it whenever I need to do something just a little out of the ordinary.

However, Ubuntu is Gnome-based and I know that most of the high-powered Linux users (inlcuding Linus Torvalds) prefer KDE. I tried it a few times (up to and including KDE 4) but really never saw why it was thought to be better than Gnome (or Fluxbox or whatever others).

Nevertheless, here’s a nice tutorial about installing KDE 4,2 in Ubuntu which I might just be tempted to try as long as I can preserve the option to switch back to Gnome if the going gets too tough.

Just to mention that I’m going back to Brazil tomorrow so I’m not sure when the next post will be. This is particularly the case as, where I’m going, there may not be an internet connection for a while (a “while” being up to a week).

Watch videos in ASCII mode

This is a lot more interesting than useful but it worked well in Ubuntu 8.04 on my EeePC 901.

This is the command required where video.avi is the name of your video:

mplayer -vo caca video.avi

Know what’s eating up your cpu

Another Tips4Linux command, this time to list in order of priority what processes are using your cpu. The command is:

ps -eo pcpu,pid,user,args | sort -r -k1 | more

How many files in this folder?

Tips4Linux tells you to type

ls -l | wc -l

in a terminal to find out. Note this does not include files in the subdirectories.

Super Tux Kart — Cross platform game

I have absolutely no interest in computer games but maybe this might get Margaret (10 years old) to try Linux. Of course, being cross-platform this game actually works in Windows and OS X also.

Clear memory cache to speed up your box

This tip from Tips4Linux can be very useful if cached memory is what’s slowing your machine down after you’ve been using it for a while.

Here’s the command:

# sync; echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

(note, it won’t run with sudo) and here’s another blog post on the same thing that explains a little more why it can be beneficial. Certainly, I notice a significant improvement when I use it in Ubuntu on my EeePC 901

List directories only from CLI

Type

ls -d */

as explained in this post.

Display real time memory use from CLI

Another great post from one of my favourite blogs (Tips4Linux).

However, it seems the command should be

watch -d free -mt

rather than the one shown in the post. At least, that’s what worked for me in Ubuntu 8.04 on my EeePC 901.

Netcat – a really great command line tool

This has to be one of the very best blog posts I’ve read in a very long time. It introduces and explains a lot about the “netcat” command.

Despite its unassuming name you can actually use this to quickly set up a chat between two computers or send files between the two. This is as well as a whole lot more.

I tried netcat between two computers using Ubuntu 8.04 and it worked flawlessly. It works also on Mac and Windows. However, don’t forget to read the comments as well for some experiences in other distros and OSes.

Some great “wallpaperable” animal photos

Here’s a really nice collection of animal shots where at least a few would make great screen backgrounds.

I’m using the  first picture (iguana-looking thing) on my MacBook right now. This works well because the photo consists of a variety of shades of green which means it can provide consistently good contrast with the Desktop icons.

Of course, it looks like the majority of these are photoshopped, but what the hell, they still look great.