KDE4 - Here is some help

[Mark S Bilk]

I don't have KDE4 running (I'm monitoring this newsgroup for
screams and blood in the water before stepping in myself),
but I found some web pages that should be helpful for an
introduction to the system, and for the problems people have
been talking about here.

Here's the announcement of KDE4.3.3, with a screenshot showing
non-transparent windows. So there must be a way of turning off
transparency. (Maybe click on the "cashew" (see below) in the
upper right corner of the screen.)
http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-4.3.3.php

This KDE 4.3.0 page also shows several screenshots with
non-transparent windows:
http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.3/index.php

The designers have invented various "cute" (they must think so)
neologisms:

"Plasma" -- the user interface of KDE4

"plasmoid" -- an applet, widget, or other component of Plasma

"cashew" -- a boomerang-shaped icon appearing in some components
that calls up a menu when clicked, e.g., for adjusting options.

There is a component called the "dashboard", which I haven't
found an explanation of yet, but it can use applets from the
OSX "dashboard" (whoopee).

The user section of the KDE wiki, probably a good place to start
for an introduction:
http://userbase.kde.org/

Simple introductory page for the UI:
http://userbase.kde.org/Plasma

The Plasma FAQ -- very informative for problem solving!
http://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/FAQ

Technical info about Plasma, of which, e.g., the "List of known
plasmoids" may be of interest to users.
http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Plasma

Intro to konsole, with link to the full konsole manual:
http://userbase.kde.org/Konsole

KDE Documentation (pdf files):
http://docs.kde.org/

I want to use 11.2 so it will run the latest multimedia programs.
Mostly I use konsoles with mc running in them, and CLI commands,
filter pipes, bash scripts, mplayer, firefox, and even lynx
occasionally (e.g., to access the IMDB). I launch most GUI
programs from the KDE menu to avoid tying up a konsole. As long
as I can get non-transparent windows, and konsoles with the color
scheme and font that I've worked out, with mc running in them,
I guess I'll be happy amid the plasmoids and cashews. And I hope
the display aduster can still vary the screen gamma, because
that's very handy for looking at dark websites.