ksuperkey 0.4 released

This is just a quick announcement that ksuperkey has been updated to version 0.4. The new version brings some features from upstream (most importantly the ability to define mappings using keycodes) and an improved Makefile, which will hopefully make the application easier to package.

ksuperkey is shy and likes to stay hidden in the background, so this is as close to a screenshot as you’ll get

ksuperkey is a small utility that allows you to use your Super key (sometimes called Meta or Windows key) to open your application menu, while keeping the functionality to use Super in keyboard shortcuts. In other words, ksuperkey won’t interfere with any of your existing shortcuts. It achieves this by letting Super act as a normal modifier key when pressed in combination with other keys, but generating a different keyboard combination (Alt+F1 by default) when the Super key is pressed and released on its own.

You can easily install ksuperkey and try it for yourself following the instructions on Linux-apps (the application is now included in many distributions’ repositories, and even shipped with a few distros, which is really cool). After installing ksuperkey, you just have to make sure the shortcut for your application launcher is Alt+F1, add ksuperkey to autostart, and finally log out and log in again (or start ksuperkey manually). Detailed instructions here.

Note that ksuperkey only depends on X11 and should work perfectly fine in Plasma 5, as well as other desktop environments such as Xfce, LXDE, GNOME Shell, etc.

Why not try ksuperkey with the new, shiny application dashboard in Plasma 5.4?

If you run into problems or have any questions, feel free to drop a comment below. I’ll try to answer when I find some free time.

I need your help!

I would like to keep an up-to-date list on Linux-apps of ways to install ksuperkey on different distributions, and for that I need your help. Currently I have:

• Arch Linux
• Chakra
• Fedora
• Gentoo
• Kubuntu
• Netrunner
• openSUSE
• PCLinuxOS
• Ubuntu

If you know the best way to install ksuperkey on your distribution, and it’s not included in the list above, I would appreciate if you could leave a comment below. If the only way is to compile from source, that would be helpful information as well. Many popular distros are currently missing from the list, for example Mint, Debian, Fedora, Mageia, CentOS, Manjaro, Slackware, Gentoo, etc.

Thanks!

Update August 17, 2016: Changed links to point to new Linux-apps.org site instead of KDE-apps.org.

Open Application Launcher with Super key

Many users want the Super key (also commonly called the Windows key and confused with the Meta key) to open the Application Launcher in KDE Plasma Desktop. At the time of writing 145 users have voted for the Brainstorm idea “Super key to load Application Menu” and there are 51 comments. A workaround has been around for a long time which involves remapping the Super key to a regular key, but then you lose the ability to use it for other keyboard shortcuts. Until now, that is. In this post I’ll write about how you can eat the cake and have it too.

Super (Tux!) key between Ctrl and Alt. Source: Flickr

Spoiler: If you don’t feel like reading, scroll down to “… called ksuperkey!” to find the solution.

Welcome our new forums!

It’s been a while since I wrote about how you can create a community for your users at KDE Community Forums. Today I’m happy to announce that the forum got, not one or two, but six new forums. Isn’t that incredible?

The KDevelop forum was the first to join. Here you can receive help for using the powerful KDevelop IDE, as well as help the developers, for example by sharing your screenshots.

The Kexi developers have been very active in the new Kexi forum, asking for user’s wishes and sorting out problems in the General Help subforum.

Soon Dolphin, the default KDE file manager, also got its own Dolphin forum. Before topics about Dolphin would be shattered around in the Other KDE Software and Workspace forums. We realized that the new Dolphin forum didn’t really fit in any of our existing categories, so the System & Utilities category was created.

Marble is the first application from the KDE Educational Project to join the forums, visit the Marble forum to take a look. Don’t forget hat you still can ask questions about the other KDE EDU applications in the Games & Education parent forum.

KDE Workspace Vision is a special kind of forum where users can discuss what they would like to see in their future workspace, see Dario’s post for more information. It differs from Brainstorm as you’re allowed to post and discuss complete visions, while only single concrete ideas are accepted in Brainstorm.

Finally, we have our newest addition, the Konsole forum. Like Dolphin, topics about Konsole used to be posted to different places in the forum. Now most of them have been moved to their new home.

Meanwhile, the KWin developers implemented a feature in KWin to get useful information for users to post when asking for support. It’s really great to see developers care about helping their users. Martin also proposed a GSoC idea about supporting users directly from the desktop (with a plasmoid), using forum.kde.org. Unfortunately it’s too late to apply, but who knows, maybe someone already did? If it’s not taken and you’re interested in given it a try, you should definitely contact Martin or one of the forum admins (forum-admin@kde.org).

To close up – if you’re a user of any of those applications, the forums provide an easy way to connect with the community and receive expert help from other users and developers. If you’re a developer and want your own forum for your application, you’re just a few click away!

KDE Community Forums – Create a community for your users

It’s always nice to see KDE developers join forum.kde.org, and especially nice when they request a new forum for their application or project. Lately we’ve had two newcomers, Gwenview and Accessibility – the forum team wishes you a warm welcome! Kontact & PIM has also been split from Office & Productivity due to popular demand.

In this post I’ll talk about why you, a developer or contributor, should consider to create a forum at the KDE Community Forums for your KDE application or project.

One of my favorite features in KDE SC 4.8

Show Keyboard Accelerators When Needed

Explanation

Keyboard accelerators are letters with an underscore that you see on buttons, labels etc. This feature is very useful for people who prefer to use the keyboard. For example, instead of using your mouse, you can click on OK by pressing Alt+O.

The downside is that it makes applications appear more cluttered. But not anymore. Starting from 4.8 (or did I just not notice this awesome feature until now?), you can configure Oxygen, the default style for KDE applications, to hide keyboard accelerators until you hold down the Alt key, or make them disappear completely.

So how do I do that?

Job Offer for KDE-Programmer

This is a guest post by Clemens.

Hello everyone!

Netrunner (http://www.netrunner-os.com) aims to become one of the leading KDE-centric Linux distributions, and to achieve this we need your help! Thanks to the financial support of Blue Systems we have the opportunity to hire one developer experienced in KDE/Qt/C++ programming to improve some areas of KDE software. You’ll be able to work full-time on various KDE-projects, such as

• Improving Kmenu, the panel and other parts of Plasma Desktop
• Fixing various bugs
• Improving/adding functionality

The improvements will be pushed upstream to make them available for all KDE users.

We guarantee monthly payment depending on your skills and experience with regards to KDE.

If you are interested in taking the offer, please send me an email with your CV to:

starbuck[AT]netrunner-os.com

Thanks and “Happy Holiday Season”!

The journey to a simple ToDo widget

Alternative title: More reasons to love Free and Open Source Software.

This is a story about how I got what I wanted through toil, sweat and tears (thankfully no blood was spilled; the sweat and tears part might also be slightly exaggerated). All thanks to the nature of Free and Open Source Software.

Like many other times, it all started with a harmless thought: “So many things to do, I think I need a ToDo list”. Before I would keep track of things to do in a Notes widget on my desktop (screenshot), but this felt a bit primitive. It was time to get something better, although still simple, as I only needed the most basic features:

• A clear list of tasks that need to be done and when they must be accomplished
• Easy way of adding new tasks and marking tasks as completed
• Possibility to create tasks that are repeated (e.g. a task that needs to be done once every day)
• Basic priority settings

with the last point being a “nice to have” rather than “must”. With this in mind, I set out on my journey to find a suitable ToDo widget for my desktop.

Share your Knowledge

As Anne already blogged about, I suggested during the WebWorld sprint that we try to strengthen the UserBase Wiki image. I made two proposals:

• Whenever UserBase is mentioned the first time in a new context, call it “UserBase Wiki” or “KDE UserBase Wiki” if the context doesn’t make it clear that it’s KDE-related. The reason for this is that many people have mentioned that they didn’t know what a “userbase” was, and that they weren’t aware that UserBase actually is a wiki anyone can edit.
• Give UserBase its own unique logo.

I had made a rough logo based on the idea “Connect the pieces” and intended to simply replace the KDE icon in the sidebar, but Claus and Anne saw another mockup I had made (for a completely different purpose) and thought it would look good with some text as well. Brilliant idea, strangely enough I hadn’t even thought about it – isn’t it wonderful to work with other people? During the sprint we set on “Share your Knowledge” and asked our logo creator Eugene to make a logo for us. Here’s the result:

Of course you should just head over to UserBase directly and see it in action. If you still see the old KDE logo you might have to refresh your cache, Shift + F5 in most browsers.

Finally, a reminder:

UserBase is a wiki for KDE users, made by KDE users. Registration is no longer necessary to contribute. Share your Knowledge »

KDE WebWorld 2011: Last day and summary

Today was another warm and sunny day at Linuxhotel in Essen, where the first KDE WebWorld sprint was held, but the increasing cloudiness and predicted rain in the afternoon meant that it was time to pack and go home. A lot of things have happened during these days, so here’s a summary (because Ingo forced me to do one):

KDE WebWorld 2011: UserBase (day 1)

If you follow the planet you should know about WebWorld 2011 by now, but if you don’t this picture summarizes it quite well:

In this post I’ll write about what the KDE UserBase Wiki team has worked on during the first day – and it’s quite much in just one day! The wiki has always had much potential in my opinion, but unfortunately not too many contributors. We want to change that.

• Everyone is a potential contributor. To lower the entry barrier further, we now allow non-registered users to edit pages. This is great news for those who just want to make spontaneous contributions. However, registering has many benefits and is still recommended.
• Everyone can contribute. We have made small changes to the sidebar and the pages for contributors to make it clearer. Hopefully this will make it easier for new contributors to get started.
• Details are important as well. It is awesome to have all these different people gathered here in the same place (and what a wonderful place it is). This has allowed us to quickly fix a bunch of small and some larger issues with UserBase. Those are issues the user shouldn’t experience in the first place so I won’t go into any details, let’s just say that it has improved the user experience of the wiki. There has also been improvements in the translation tools, small tweaks in the style and other nice stuff.