Tutorials

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Fedora 17 - Customize KDE

After installation, there’s a number of things I like to tweak for a comfortable working environment, as well as modify what software is installed. Please note that this is KDE specific.

Tweak User Interface

Kickoff Menu

To show application name instead of application type (ie, display Firefox instead of Web Browser)
  • Right click on the blue “F” KDE menu -> Application Launcher Settings
  • Ensure “Show application by name” is checked
  • Click “OK”
Double Click Mouse

Change the single-click-to-open, to double-click-to-open.
  • Click the blue “F” KDE menu -> System Settings
  • Select “Input Devices”
  • Select “Mouse” on the left side
  • Ensure the “Double click to open files and folders” button is selected
  • Click “Apply”
  • Close as desired
Virtual Desktops

I prefer to have multiple virtual desktops, instead of just one, as shipped.
  • Click the blue “F” KDE menu -> System Settings
  • Select “Workspace Behavior”
  • Change “Number of desktops” as desired
  • Click “Apply”
  • Close as desired
As an alternative, you can simply right click on the workspace pager in the task bar (just to the right of the three-dot activity manager) and select “Add Virtual Desktop”.

Task Manager

By default, the task manager will display tasks from all virtual desktops. I prefer to show only those tasks on the current desktop.
  • Right click in task manager area (open space on bottom panel)
  • Select “Task Manager Settings”
  • Ensure “Only shows tasks from the current desktop” is checked.
  • Click “Apply”
  • Close as desired.


Remove Software

kdepim

I do not care for akregator, blogilo, kmail, knode, knotes, kontact, or korganizer. So I pull them out.

As root,

yum remove kdepim


Update System

Updating the system is very easy. One single step does the trick.

As root,

yum upgrade or yum -y upgrade



Install Software

Evolution

I install this as a replacement to kdepim. It handles email and contacts just the way I need it.

As root,

yum install evolution


Firefox

I much prefer Firefox to Konqueror

As root

yum install firefox


Enjoy!

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