The Simpler-Than-It-Looks Solution

1. Point your browser to http://firefox.com and download the firefox generic linux package. Here is a link to Version 3.0.6.

2. Download the .tar.bz2 archive and extract it to any directory. In the folder firefox, you will find an executable called firefox-bin. If for some reason it isn’t an executable already, make it by right clicking and going to file properties.

3. Run this executable to launch firefox. It may or may not take a while to start.

4. Point your browser to http://toolbar.google.com/ and you will find that the toolbar suddenly appears compatible with the browser.

5. Install it afer accepting the EULA.

6. Quit firefox. You may delete the downloaded files and the extracted files since they are useless.

7. Launch firefox from the version installed globally in your distro now. You will find that google toolbar has just been installed.

Why the Problem exists and the Solution works

Problem arises because all non-official compiles of firefox should not use the official firefox branding, due to a rule enforced by Mozilla Corporation. Now, since you are executing firefox from the generic official build, its unaffected because its the official package.  So google identifies it correctly as a supported browser. Now, all plugins are installed in your home directory. So whichever executable of firefox you run, the same settings are taken as long as the distro is the same. So this install can be used by your distro’s firefox build.

Alternate Solution

Just grab the .xpi installer of the google toolbar from somewhere. Drag and drop it in the firefox window and it will be installed. I don’t recommend this because of the chance that the version of toolbar you have in the XPI may be old, or that google may take issues with you or somebody else distributing the installer of their toolbar without their permission.

1. Open file manager in root mode. For this, open terminal, and type sudo nautilus, or sudo dolphin or sudo thunar or sudo pcmanfm depending on what file manager you use.

2. If your username is foobar, go to location /home/foobar.

3. There will be a file called .recently-used.xbel – delete it.

4. Create a new file with the same name – again as root.

5. Right click and in permissions, for all, set permisssions to NONE.

6. Do steps 3-5 for another file, this one called .recently-used located in the same directory.

7. Close the root file manager.

Now you have effectively disabled access and erazed information in the two files, where all standards compliant software store their recently used list,  by making root own them, and by BLOCKING all access to the files.

KDE 4.2 is simply AWESOME!

The KDE 4.2 Desktop - Simply Superb

The first thing I saw when I ran KDE4.2 is that its fast, atleast when compared to KDE4.1 and Gnome. But don’t run it unless you have more than 512MB RAM. 512MB is the  minimum for a good experience. If you have 256MB RAM like me, you are in for some serious lagging, though its still usable and you can comfortably unitask.

But the visual effects, plasmoids, menus and the whole interface – its simply fabulous. I have never seen a better Desktop Environment in my life, and this beats MacOS 10.5, Windows 7 and Gnome 2.4 hands down. Its ULTIMATE. See <<THIS VIDEO>> to know what I mean.

And now I am 99.99999% sure that Windows 7 superbar is nothing but an imitation of KDE4’s Plasma Panel.

KWin-compositor is much lighter on resources than Compiz Fusion, but its obviously not as light as xfce’s basic composite capabilities. But yeah, KWin-composite now has several features to REALLY start rivaling compiz fusion as the eye-candy of choice for lay-users.

The applications have not changed much, because the way they look remains the same in KDE4.2 as in KDE4.0 and KDE4.1. But they are definitely faster and much more responsive. I couldn’t review them due to lack of time. But see  <<THIS VIDEO>> if you want to see KDE in action. It shows the KDE window manager in action.

Konqueror has a spell checker which has a small issue – it checks spelling as I type each letter, and not as I type each word. So for example, when I just typed example, it underlined the word when I had finished typing “exa”. But I can live with it.

Amarok2 and DigiKam are both out in KDE4, but sadly, K3B is still in development. Once K3B comes out, KDE4 would be 100% ready for desktop use. Another app you may miss is Kaffeine, but luckily, since the VideoLAN team has switched VLC Media Player from wxWidgets to QT4, you can use VLC instead of Kaffeine. And Amarok2 supports both video and audio, and is now the best jukebox ever, effortlessly outclassing wmp, itunes, realplayer, etc thanks to its great interface and features along with support to play ALL media formats.

And yeah, on a personal note, I am still sticking to Xfce4.4 because I have less RAM, however, when I get an upgrade, I am coming back to KDE4. And hopefully, KDE4.3 will be out by the time my new rig arrives, around June-July.

Till then, feast your eyes on the KDE 4.2 visual guide.

But for now, HATS OFF TO THE KDE TEAM.

My Tips to migrate to KDE 4.2

1.

Remove .kde and .kde4 and any other KDE related folder or hidden configuration file from your home directory before installing KDE 4.2.

2.

You need _minimum_ 512MB RAM to run it. 1GB recommended by me.

3.

It has desktop effects on by default, and they slow down weaker computers, especially those with IGPs weaker than Intel GMA 950. Disable them and restart KDE if you want to experience a faster interface

4.

You can use ANY distro for trying KDE 4.2, but my personal advice is that don’t buy things people say like SuSE having best KDE support and hence use only that. I personally recommend you use KDE from a Rolling Release distro, either vanilla or with some trusted patches.

I personally recommend Gentoo and ArchLinux. The problem with SuSE and Ubuntu is that they optimize the DE for next releases and right now you can’t expect the best of KDE 4.2 in them. On the other hand, distros like Gentoo and ArchLinux are totally different and they keep rolling out updates and never have feature freezes for a release. Hence they often have the latest of updates.