Vista sidebar in Kubuntu

I've already posted about customizing Kubuntu's appearance, but I don't think I worded my request too well. I've noticed from Kubuntu screenshots that a Vista-like sidebar is possible, showing the time and system resources usage. Does anyone know how to do this? Also, how do I apply themes to KDE?

I'm also looking at other OSs and considering the following:
PCLinuxOS (?)
Linux XP (?)
Symphony
Knoppix

I selected these based on ease of use. I have tried Ubuntu but I found that the KDE was much more appealing. For whatever the reason, though, Kubuntu is very resource hungry. It frequently slows down, apps take forever to load, and everything is sluggish. Being very familiar with XP, I figured that it just needs a few major tweaks, but obviously I don't know what to do. What can I do to make this thing a speed demon?

 

have you tried reading the documentation or searching the internet yet? I'll guarantee the answers you want are there.

http://www.kde-look.org is a good place to start

try googling "Karamba" or "SuperKaramba"

 

That's KDE for you... :S

 

There must be something I can do to speed it up. Can Ubuntu use Vista sidebars? If it can handle an aesthetically pleasing GUI, I wouldn't complain about switching over.

Is anyone familiar with the above distros?

 

Yea I tried PCLinuxOS and it was okay, but I could not get my wireless card to be recognized were as Ubuntu recognized it without any trouble. I will say PCLinuxOS probably had one of the nicest looks of any of the linux distros I tried. But a disto is worthless to me unless I can surf the net in it, I don't know maybe I had a rare unsupported card. They are free so it would not hurt to give it a try.

 

Gnome can be made to like like whatever you want, including KDE. That's one of the reasons I like it so much. Everything is so customizable. Check out www.gnome-look.org and you're bound to find something that will make Ubuntu look good to you. You can even make it look like XP, Vista, or OS X if you so wish.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and KDE is a huge resource hog. That's part of it.

 

...KDE is a resource hog? Since when? You haven't used it lately, have you? They've trimmed a lot down in the 3.5 and later versions. 4.0 should be even better, more modular. Gnome also doesn't give you the power user options in a GUI like KDE does, you have to dig into their gnome-conf editor thingie, and they also insist on keeping a registry-like file. All the weaknesses of Windows, none of the benefits of Linux!

http://www.kde-look.org is also older, and the gnome-look is trailing KDE in that aspect. Check out Karamba, and Super Karamba as BigV said above. Make sure you have your fglrx graphics driver installed as well, because just using the SVGA driver will make everything seem slow.

 

I've heard of wireless problems, but I was lucky enough to get a laptop with Atheros, and their chips are all compatible with Linux.

 

I've heard of wireless problems, but I was lucky enough to get a laptop with Atheros, and their chips are all compatible with Linux.

OK, I think the theme issue is resolved... the website provided looks very promising. Wrt the Vista sidebar, is that considered a "widget" or is it a modular piece of software that I have to download? Or is it already to be found in Kubuntu?

Thanks for any help.

Edit: it looks like Symphony OS is no longer available. Something about insufficient funds for further development. Too bad. Are there any other distros with the Mezzo UI?

 

KDE isnt that resource hungary for me. Its usually very quick and responsive. But Gnome is still faster.

But my favorite window manager by far is now Enlightenment 17.

 

I have indeed used KDE lately. Still do in fact. I have KDE in my Edgy install, but I rarely use it. I had Kubuntu 6.06 installed along Ubuntu 6.06 on my old C640, and KDE killed it. I used Gnome instead.

 

Yeah, whilst on newer hardware, a KDE system will still run equally or faster than an XP install, it still can't go as fast as Gnome, and that fact is compounded when you are talking older hardware.

Still, although I prefer Gnome, KDE has some great things going for it, and I don't grumble when I have to use it.

 

Enlightenment, its the future

 

E requires that you use it's window manager though, right? That rules out using Beryl, or nifty GL desktops and such. I went through the Enlightenment is the future stage a few years back... it's not

 

Are there any administrative tasks that Linux requires to keep it running smoothly? How is the file system setup?

 

Not really, no. Keep it patched for security. Other than that, you don't need to really do anything. There aren't any defraggers or anything for Linux filesystems. The filesystem... everything starts at /, which is also known as the root. Other drives, devices, etc. all are sub-branches off of /. Actually, Windows works the same way, they just hide it from you Anywho, /etc usually contains your configuration files, /lib is for system libraries, /bin is for system binaries, /usr/bin is for user binaries, /usr/lib is for user libraries, etc. It's really pretty elegant once you get into it. Other drives are mounted at any point in the filesystem under /. When I plug in my USB drive, a device file gets created in /dev, and it's called sdd. Then it mounts /dev/sdd1 (the first partition on the device sdd) on /media/usbdisk (or something similar). Then you can access the files though /media/usbdisk. You unmount it, and it disappears from /media/usbdisk, and you can unplug it. Hopefully that helped a bit. There's a LOT more to learn about. Main thing to remember is that EVERYTHING in Linux is a file. EVERYTHING. Devices, ports, hard drives, files, directories... it makes a bit more sense if you keep that in mind. As long as you don't do anything as root (or sudo), you can't break anything more than your user account.

 

Then I don't need a firewall or antivirus?

 

Most linux's (Kubuntu included) come with a basic firewall. It doesnt hurt to get something better, linux CAN be hacked, but they may or may not do any harm. As for a virus scanner, you'll probably find that most people dont use one. Virus' are so rare that you may never run across one.