LXDE and the impact as we move from KDE3 to KDE4.

[Village Idiot]

HI.

I have a couple of punters who are lucky enough to be getting LXDE desktops from me soon. I will be installing the LXDE release which I will update and send the machines out the door.

My concern is once they go, what will I need to watch out for as we migrate from KDE3. I want to know if I'll need to plan on a re-install or whatever in the 12 months time frame I will offer support to the new owners.

Not knowing much about the technical DE stuff, can you crystal ball gazers chime in on the life span of the LXDE release? Can I expect another 18 more great months of rolling from now?   Should I consider an alt. release?

I should say the intended users are your typical extreme novice users. They like to check email, play media, surf the web(with flash) and that's about it. I was planning to use the non-KDE apps where possible, but the issue is still food for my insomnia.  

Thanks for your consideration.  

[Neal ManBear]

PCLinuxOS is a rolling release, i.e. there should be no issues with updating the system. I'd advise against installing any KDE3.5 apps to PCLXDE. There are plenty of other apps available.

All of the apps you mention are already installed on PCLXDE. Alternatives are available in the repos, if they are needed.

[Village Idiot]

No worries. 

[skyhawk]

PCLinuxOS is a rolling release, i.e. there should be no issues with updating the system. I'd advise against installing any KDE3.5 apps to PCLXDE. There are plenty of other apps available.

All of the apps you mention are already installed on PCLXDE. Alternatives are available in the repos, if they are needed.

Am I correct in adding that it might be best to choose GTK apps for the LXDE release? As soon as I installed LXDE, I marked KDE apps as forbidden territory. There seem to be plenty of GTK apps to choose from.

[Neal ManBear]

Yes. LXDE is GTK based, so It would be good to use GTK apps.

[mikkl]

If I do, however, decide to give some KDE apps a try, should I use the kde4 repos?

TIA,

mikkl

[T6]

kde3 is abandoned and almost unsupported here, kde4 sounds like a good idea

[mikkl]

My question was really should I be using "kde4" in my synaptic settings when updating LXDE?

Sorry for not being clear,

mikkl

[T6]

kde4 is not the default option, you have to add it but it is a good idea to have it because you could need a app from kde4 and the libraries will be available if you have the section enabled, kde3 will stop working probably next year(unusable up to a certain point)

[Joble]

mikkl:  Yes, if you want to avoid possible conflicting libs in the future.  As Neal pointed out, it's best to stick with GTK apps, but if you must use a kde app or two, you'd best stick with the ones available in kde4.  (It's not mandatory, but it's my best advice)

Edit:

DOH!  T6 beat me to it!

[mikkl]

Thanks T6 & Joble,

That is what I suspected.

I am a big fan of Kontact and so even with testing out LXDE as a desktop, I will probably want Kontact for my PIM.  I will use the KDE4 area and give it a try.  This is my first trial with VirtualBox and I figure that the worst I can do is break the install and have to start over!

mikkl

[kenboldt]

would it be safe to remove kde or kde4 from the repos line altogether if running LXDE?  or are there still some things in that area that will need to be upgraded? 

What I mean is in synaptic, when defining the repos, there is a spot where you define "Main kde extra nonfree" or something like that (not at my computer right now, sorry).  Would it be safe to completely remove "kde" from that line to ensure that when I am looking at the available packages, I know that none of them are kde?

I guess, a better question, as a relative newbie, would be, how do I know what applications are GTK based, and which aren't if it doesn't exclusively say so in the description?

[Neal ManBear]

would it be safe to remove kde or kde4 from the repos line altogether if running LXDE?  or are there still some things in that area that will need to be upgraded? 

What I mean is in synaptic, when defining the repos, there is a spot where you define "Main kde extra nonfree" or something like that (not at my computer right now, sorry).  Would it be safe to completely remove "kde" from that line to ensure that when I am looking at the available packages, I know that none of them are kde?

I guess, a better question, as a relative newbie, would be, how do I know what applications are GTK based, and which aren't if it doesn't exclusively say so in the description?

I'd advise against removing kde. Change it to kde4. If you remove it, you may find yourself with apps or dependencies that aren't updating properly.

[MaddogF16]

would it be safe to remove kde or kde4 from the repos line altogether if running LXDE?  or are there still some things in that area that will need to be upgraded? 

What I mean is in synaptic, when defining the repos, there is a spot where you define "Main kde extra nonfree" or something like that (not at my computer right now, sorry).  Would it be safe to completely remove "kde" from that line to ensure that when I am looking at the available packages, I know that none of them are kde?

I guess, a better question, as a relative newbie, would be, how do I know what applications are GTK based, and which aren't if it doesn't exclusively say so in the description?

If you go into synaptic and click on "sections" then scroll down to "KDE desktop enviroment" and click on it you will get a listing of KDE apps and can see what if any are installed. If an app you want is listed there then it's QT based. Gnome desktop will show a lot of GTK based apps and some are cross compatible.

[kenboldt]

thanks for the advice and the tips Neal and maddogf16.  Much appreciated.