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[nightflier]

Happy to be of any help. 

To see a larger selection of available hardware, open gslapt and then click "Edit" > "Preferences" > "Sources tab", then check the box for the "testing" area (should be 5th line down). Next click "Update" again, then search for Seamonkey. You should then find version 2.0 available.

Note: Do not select "Mark All Upgrades" with testing enabled. For VL-Light and KDE-Classic; I would even go so far as to say don't use this option at all, unless you are willing to accept system-wide changes and additions to your system which may change the way it works.

KDE vs. other window managers: The reason for this release is to provide KDE 3.5 to those who prefer it. VL Light is the version for those who prefer a faster window manager. That said, you can use gslapt and install "icewmvmods" on this version. This will install IceWM with the customizations from Light, including the winter landscape background. The user login screen will then let you choose which environment to use.

[GrannyGeek]

however, if I may be permitted, as one totally oblivious, to offer a small criticism, when I followed your perfect explanation above, I was a little bit disappointed to find seamonkey version 1.18, instead of the more recent version 2.0, which I have been using for about a month or so, now, on xp.

SeaMonkey 2.0 is in the testing repo. You can enable testing in Gslapt, Edit, Preferences, Sources tab, and click on the box next to the testing repo. It is disabled by default because packages in testing are, well, being tested by us, the users, before they go into the usual repos. It's perfectly safe to enable testing and even have it displaying packages whenever you run Gslapt--as long as you're aware that packages in testing *could* have bugs that *might possibly* cause you grief. But if you don't have testing enabled, you could go for a long time before the package is available in the other repos. Sometimes they sit in testing for a long time, mainly because not enough people download them and report any problems they might have or even that they had no problems. You definitely don't want testing enabled if you're going to do an upgrade of every available package for which an upgrade is available. But for looking--let the buyer beware. I've been using SeaMonkey 2 for as long as it's been available in testing almost as soon as it came out and am not having problems except for a display problem that shows up on some Web sites and may be related to the video drivers some of us are using. Firefox has the same problem. Opera does not.

It seems to me, that this version of Vector Linux, which proudly exhibits an obsolete version of KDE, ought nevetheless deliver the newest versions of other components, for example, the kernel, or vlc media player, or web cam modules, and so on...

This is not such a simple thing as you might think. New versions often require new dependencies or new versions of dependencies and that can break the system. Also, remember that all packages are produced by volunteers and they don't have time to seek out, compile, and make a package of every new version. And then the new package has to be tested in the "real world." If you want to see the latest versions VectorLinux has available, you have to enable the testing repo and be aware that you might encounter bugs nobody found yet.

I did not really follow the argument made for selecting the older version of KDE, but I didn't object to it, because, frankly, I don't use KDE.  I wish that vector linux used one of the other, less resource intensive windows managers.  I have no need for "Konqueror", and so on,....

This begs the question of why you installed VectorLinux KDE-Classic. You have two other lighter choices, both of which use lighter window managers and are free of KDE programs. VectorLinux Light is the least resource intensive version and includes IceWM and JWM. IceWM is very nice for a very light window manager. It is easily modified and very customizable, though you do it with text files. The system itself is managed with VASM, just like all versions of VectorLinux. Light is particularly suited to older or lower-powered computers, though it works very well on new stuff. I have it on my laptop and like it very much.

VectorLinux 6 Standard (or Gold, the same thing) uses XFce by default and offers a somewhat lighter desktop environment, LXDE. XFce is my favorite desktop environment and it's very easy to set up as you like through a graphical interface. If you want to add any or all of KDE to VL6 Standard (or Light), you can do so. Or you can leave it free of KDE. As always with Linux, it's your choice. I have it on both my desktop computers, where it is my main operating system.

I still prefer the former desktop image with the winter landscape, so I am not yet sold on this particular version of Vector Linux.  I am sold on this forum.  Wonderful.

You should be able to change that. I'm not real familiar with KDE, but I think in the KDE Control Panel or some similar name, there is a Desktop section in which you can select a different wallpaper. I don't know if the Norwegian Lake desktop is included, but if not, you should be able to download it from somewhere or maybe one of VL's users could e-mail it to you.

Since I don't think you've invested a lot of time yet in configuring VL KDE-CLASSIC, if I were you I'd download VL6Light or VL6Standard, which will give you the lighter window manager you want. Then you can put anything you want on the system.

I'm sure we all appreciate your feedback.
--GrannyGeek

[GrannyGeek]

Note: Do not select "Mark All Upgrades" with testing enabled. For VL-Light and KDE-Classic; I would even go so far as to say don't use this option at all, unless you are willing to accept system-wide changes and additions to your system which may change the way it works.

I disagree strongly with this advice. There is nothing wrong with selecting Mark All Upgrades if testing is enabled. But if you then select Execute, you may indeed have unexpected consequences to your whole system, even going so far as to trash it (or so I've heard). But marking all upgrades merely shows what's available. Anything from testing should ALWAYS be chosen with caution and awareness of why the package is in testing (it's new, needs to be used on a variety of systems to see if undiscovered bugs or consequences are lurking).

I always include testing and I always use Mark All Upgrades after the package lists are updated. But I never then select Execute. Instead, I go down the list of Upgrades to see where they are in the repos. The Common tab displays the location of the new version. Generally after I see what's available I unmark things in testing unless they're something like a browser update (SeaMonkey, for example, or Opera 10.01) or they're for a program for which I want the latest features, such as Gimp. This takes a little longer, but it makes sure I don't miss anything I really want.

As for not using Mark All Upgrades even when you don't have testing enabled, how are you supposed to know that an important patch or security upgrade is available?

In an earlier version of VectorLinux, you couldn't Mark All Upgrades at all and the reason was that the devs, I guess, were afraid people would do a system-wide upgrade and make a mess of things. Some of us considered that to be extreme nannyism because it imposed something on users instead of letting us make a choice. Being overly cautious about seeing what's in testing and avoiding Mark All Upgrades even when testing isn't enabled seems to me to be nannyism rearing its head yet again. Maybe there should be an explanation of the risks that come when you're marking all upgrades with testing enabled, but beyond that, the user should decide whether the risks outweigh the benefits.

I must also mention that if we want packages to be tested, they won't be if users don't even know they're available. I've often thought it would be nice if Gslapt had an option to view just New Packages. Unless I read the VL Package News section and remember new packages available in testing, I wouldn't even know a new package (not an opgrade) was available.
--GrannyGeek

[nightflier]

Granny's clarification is correct. Merely marking all updates will not modify your system. The changes are not applied until you click "Execute".

Her further instructions on "expert use" of gslapt is also good information. A couple of additional points:
Whenever you remove anything using gslapt, review the list of packages to be removed.
VL Standard uses large parts of Gnome. The Gnome parts were stripped out for Light and KDE-Classic. On these releases, applying all available updates often results in those parts being put back in. This won't hurt your system, but it does fatten it.

[caieng]

if I were you I'd download VL6Light or VL6Standard, which will give you the lighter window manager you want. Then you can put anything you want on the system.

Yes, thanks, that's exactly right.  That's what I will do, upon returning, in ten days time-->now out of town....

(SeaMonkey, for example, or Opera 10.01)

Umm, no, I disagree.  Just a day or two ago, I upgraded to Opera 10.10, on XP. Surely, this must be a simple typographic error?

[spectral_knight75]

Thanks for the great speedy release, I'm sort of new-ish to linux in general, though on my behalf I have been using the following : Vector SOHO 5.8 Gold, Vector SOHO 5.9.1 Final and now Vector Kde Classic (also : Ubuntu and Linux Mint) all happily multi-booting of my thinkpad r51 1829 kcf.

The thing is..where do I locate programs like Open-Office, Grsync, Krusader and Dolphin for KDE classic?  Are those available?  Grsync is a big one for backing up my data to my firewire external drive.  I love the inclusion of wicd in kde classic.  I was looking for that in my business.  I do wifi hotspots and only wicd I know of on linux that can show signal strength and the mac address of the device you are connected to.  This was also included in the main edition of Mint Gloria..which I was considering going to for the need of wicd.  Problem is if I reload soho 5.9.1..I lose wicd (I am not good with installing software from source).  If wicd can be included in SOHO 6.0 that would be great.  Hence the reason I multi-boot..each distro I have has certain apps I use from day to day.  Just not all in one distro.

Should I just reload SOHO 5.9.1..and wait for SOHO 6.0 since there are some apps I rely on?  I rely heavily on : open-office, grsync, dolphin, krusader (for a change of pace over dolphin), and most important korganizer and all that is related to it.

Myself..I enjoyed the speed and productivity value..of the SOHO releases.  Something happened to my 5.9.1 soho install though..might be flash related..but images/flash related content kept breaking up in all browsers (firefox, opera and seamonkey).

I like the way kde classic looks and feels though.  I tried Linux Mint Gloria KDE..and it sucked the memory out from my laptop.  Only has 1GB of ram, and at idle..with none of my programs running, already 945MB was consumed.  So I had to remove that.  To be honest, I don't like the look and feel of the newer KDE4 series..it feels to bulky and bloated.  I'll happily stick to vector soho with kde (the likes of the 5.9.1 version) without complaints.  I just could not find the newer adobe flash updates in the available repos at the time.

Any replies to my queries would be greatly appreciated.

[nightflier]

OpenOffice and Grsync are available from the VL repo using gslapt (on menu under "System").

For other programs, you can try posting requests for them in the "New package requests" area of the forum.
Otherwise, you can download and use Slackware 12.1 packages.

If you are in a hurry, these packages tested fine on my system:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/krusader/files/krusader/1.90.0/krusader-1.90.0-i486-2bix.tgz/download
http://repository.slacky.eu/slackware-12.1/desktop/dolphin/0.8.2/dolphin-0.8.2-i486-2as.tgz

To install a downloaded package, use a terminal (command line window), enter commands:
su
<root password>
installpkg /path/to/package.tgz

[Colonel Panic]

I downloaded this yesterday, have just installed it and must say I'm impressed. All the functionality of KDE 3.5 is working on my machine in 256 MB of Ram (plus swap), and the whole thing installs from a single CD. Well done everyone who worked on this release.

[retired1af]

Whoa! Talk about a blast from the past. I've gotten so used to KDE4 that this almost seems foreign. 

Great job all. Now to see how badly I can break it. LOL

[blackbelt_jones]

   I've been running the live version of KDE classic for a few days, and now I'm downloading the hard drive version for install.

I started out hating KDE4, but now I have come to love it.   It redefines the desktop in so many ways.  It's beautiful.  Maybe someday, it will be mature.

But after all this time, I can't see a single productivity advantage for me, though I don't think that's necessarily true for everyone.  Whenever I go back to KDE3 after several months, its feel like my Desktop has lost 20 lbs.

Which is not to say that there aren't features in KDE4 that I miss, especially folder view (the ability to use any folder as the basis for the Desktop GUI).  That's a real practical breakthrough for the Desktop.  But you can't have everything.   

Thanks for this wonderful gift to no-nonsense old school users.   Vector Linux is now officially more hard core Slack than Slackware, and from now on,  it's my hard drive distro.  When I want Kubuntu, I'll boot a flash drive.