my suse story

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1

I am a windows power user and I am slowing working a test pilot to see if I can transition to suse.

I am often managing many projects +dozens of task instances at once during my windows session.

just playing with the windows manager in suse is very interesting. The cube switcher and virtual desktop could quite possibly double my productivity – possibly turning me into cyborg after all.

I’m hoping I can get some feedback on some random questions i need to wrap my head around.

  • kwin
  • pae
  • compiz

I know that these three interfaces things are related to my windows session in suse. Online i haven’t been able to see really what they are or how to configure them.

Also. Configuring the windows shell ( i.e. menus created while right clicking ) to display application links + commands to accommodate whatever programs i need. for example compressing, creating and manipulating pdfs, uploading, emailing, comparison applications etc.

This is a type of discrete integration that is slowing me down. I wish I new more about kde 4.2 and how to create this type of discrete workstation that i need.
I’m being specific about knowing how to create menu integration here with kde.

I’m looking forward to professional feedback as I’ve seen already in this forum.

thanks,

jamie

2

kwin = kde window manager - what’s to tell.

PAE = Physical Address Extension - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

compiz = Compiz - openSUSE

In kde4.2 compiz effects are native and there is no need to install it separately.

3

Too shorten the above, kwin is all you need with KDE 4.2.

The cube isn’t a required for having multiple virtual desktops, but if you value fancy graphics (I know I do), it can be activated by going to
Personal Settings > Desktop > All effects.
Default hotkey is ctrl+f11, but customisable in the same window as where you active it.

As you want to be productive, you might be interested in the ctrl+f1/ctrl+f2/ctrl+f3/ctrl+f4 hotkeys to, they take you desktop 1/2/3/4.
Ctrl+f8 gives a grid layout of all the virtual desktops.

Might be worth checking out the settings for taskmanager as well, as it allows you to hide tasks that aren’t on the current virtual desktop, saving a lot of useless clutter.

If you have the cash for it, it might also be useful to have a second monitor for a dual monitor display, combined with the virtual desktops that gives an utterly insane amount of room to work with :)… something like
http://thumbnails5.imagebam.com/2537/e3548a25363052.gif](http://www.imagebam.com/image/e3548a25363052)
(that’s with the sphere effect instead of cube though…)

4

In KDE, by default, you’ll find many of the functions you’ve mentioned in context menu (right click menu).

You can get additional functions by so called Service Menus.

A lot of service menus can be found here.

In Gnome you can somewhat achieve this by Nautilus Actions.

5

Thanks for all the responses. I really appreciate it.

jamie