KDEsome

An awesome theme tailored specifically to be a drop-in replacement for KDE's Plasma Desktop.

Before present a little more about this, let's see how it looks like.

KDEsome Main Screen

KDEsome Main Menu

KDEsome Widgets

KDEsome Terminal Tile

KDEsome Firefox

KDEsome Dual Head

Dependencies

To use KDEsome, first make sure that you have meet all dependencies. They are:

1. awesome: a highly configurable, next generation framework window manager for X. It is very fast, extensible and licensed under the GNU GPLv2 license. You can download packages for many Linux distributions straight from the project website or use your favorite package manager.

If you are in Slackware, you can properly install it and its dependencies with (assuming you have sbopkg in place):

# sbopkg -i "lua lgi libxdg-basedir awesome"

Or you can use my own awesome package that might be newer than the one available at slackbuilds.org:

# sbopkg -i "lua lgi libxdg-basedir"
# export AWESOME_VER="3.5.5-x86_64-1_deny"
# wget -O awesome-$AWESOME_VER.tgz \
   https://github.com/denydias/slackbuilds/blob/master/pkg64/awesome-$AWESOME_VER.tgz?raw=true
# installpkg awesome-$AWESOME_VER.tgz

In the command above, replace the value 3.5.5-x86_64-1_deny in AWESOME_VER variable with the actual awesome package version available in my repository.

If you do not trust my binary packages (and you are 100% right on doing it), just use my SlackBuild to compile it from source.

2. Unclutter: a program which runs permanently in the background of an X11 session to hide the mouse cursor when it's not in use (and bring it back when you need it too). Same as above, most distributions have packages for it.

Slackware users should run this to get Unclutter in place:

# touch /usr/lib64/X11/config/host.def
# sbopkg -i unclutter

3. XDG-Menu: automatic generation for WM menu from xdg files. This is an Arch Linux app. I don't know if it's available to other distros out there.

I have Slackware packages for this one too:

# export XDGMENU_VER="0.7.6.2-noarch-1_deny"
# wget -O xdgmenu-$XDGMENU_VER.tgz \
   https://github.com/denydias/slackbuilds/blob/master/pkg64/xdgmenu-$XDGMENU_VER.tgz?raw=true
# installpkg xdgmenu-$XDGMENU_VER.tgz

Same as above, replace the value 0.7.6.2-noarch-1_deny in XDGMENU_VER variable with the actual xdgmenu package version available in my repository.

In the lack of confidence, just use my SlackBuild to get it from source.

4. Compton: A compositor for X11. Compton should be available for many distros too.

At Slackware, install it by running:

# sbopkg -i "libconfig compton"

Although KDEsome is made to work in cooperation with KDE, it's not required that you have KDE installed to use it. Just keep in mind that KDEsome has some configurations in rc.lua that demands KDE applications installed, such as Dolphin, Kate, Kontact and Kopete. Whoever it's easy enough so a user change that for anything of the choice.

Now you are ready to go for KDEsome.

Installation

KDEsome installation is kinda simple. It's just a matter to clone this repository and tell KDE that you don't want Plasma Desktop as your Window Manager anymore. So, let's do it:

$ cd ~/.config
$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/denydias/kdesome awesome
$ echo "export KDEWM=awesome" > ~/.kde/env/set_window_manager.sh
$ chmod +x ~/.kde/env/set_window_manager.sh

Now go to System Settings > Startup and Shutdown > Autostart > uncheck Plasma Workspace item. Do not remove this item from the list, as KDE will assume the default behavior that is to start Plasma anyway.

Next go to System Settings > Startup and Shutdown > Service Manager > uncheck Status Notifier Manager item. This will allow the system tray to show up in KDEsome.

Also under Service Manager, you can also stop and disable Plasma Networkmanagement module and Display Management change monitor. The remaining services can be left alone.

After restart into awesome and you can't see the NetworkManager icon on your system tray, make sure you have the package network-manager-applet and its related installed item is enabled in System Settings > Startup and Shutdown > Autostart.

If you want to change the nm-applet icon to match KDEsome, run in Slackware (adapt for another distro):

# cp ~/.config/awesome/themes/kdesome/trayicons/nm-applet/*.png \
/usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/
# rm -f /usr/share/icons/icon-theme.cache && \
/usr/bin/gtk-update-icon-cache -t -f /usr/share/icons/

In the rare case where someone uses Synology CloudStation client, there are also systray icons for it too. To install them in Slackware:

# cp ~/.config/awesome/themes/kdesome/trayicons/cloudstation/*.png \
~/.CloudStation/app/images/

Restart you KDE and you should get it done.

Features

Many! Hit Mod4+F1 to get a nice help screen for KDEsome (it's in Brazilian Portuguese, but easy to translate).

The most nice feature is the seamless integration with underlying KDE. You can use many of your KDE applications and global shortcuts without conflicts with awesome. Screenshots (Printscreen), session control (Ctrl+Alt+Del), KRunner, Yakuake activation and many other shortcuts comes straight from KDE without a glitch.

KDE also takes care of dual head (multiple monitors) setup for you. This feature plays nicely with awesome and compton, so your multiple monitors works just as you expect they do without hassle.

You can even rely on the fantastic KDE Connect to remote control your screen or media player as KDEsome was made to keep all the KDE goodies intact.

TODO

There are things I don't know how to get done with Lua and awesome API yet, or do not had the time to fix. If you are willing to help, please see the issues page.

Why You Did That?

It's just fair you ask, indeed. There are three main reasons I did KDEsome rather than use one of the tons ready-made awesome themes out there.

1. Saving Resources: I'm a minimalist kind of person. I see beauty in less resources, rather than more. I don't like expensive stuff and I try to be the most productive I can with the minimal set of resources available. This sounds elegant to me.

As such, I run at very low profile with my technological needs. My actual machine is just a 2nd gen Core i3 running at 1.4GHz top speed. It has a fair 10GB RAM and a 240GB SSD, which after wear & tear protection holds 166GB. This is the system where I make my living. With that specs, I can't and don't want to spend cycles with all that KDE Plasma Desktop bells and whistles, totally unnecessary.

So, here are some figures got with that machine:

1. KDE with Plasma Desktop:

- Startup loading apps: Conky, Yakuake and Synology CloudStation
- Cold boot time (from power up to Plasma Desktop appears): 33s
- Memory usage (as soon as the boot finishes): 1.38GB

2. KDE with awesome:

- Startup loading apps: Conky, Yakuake and Synology CloudStation
- Cold boot time (from power up to awesome appears): 23.57s (28.57% faster)
- Memory usage (as soon as the boot finishes): 523MB (62.10% less)

2. Productivity: I work with many complex activities in a typical day. When I'm at it, I don't like to get distracted with things that are not absolutely related to the task I'm working at. Although you can 'silence' Plasma Desktop and many KDE applications as you wish, you need to make this happen by going into various different places that are quite confusing to keep track of. awesome centralizes this in a 'environment as code' approach.

Another productivity feature of awesome is its tiling approach, where it takes care of windows (clients) placement alone, while you just have to think about the task you're working on. Forget about move and resize windows as this is not important for the duty and wastes time.

3. Politics: Although I'm still a huge fan of KDE and its products (Frameworks, Plasma and Applications), I do not like the way the project is being conducted towards pseudo 'open source' dependencies such as systemd, wayland and others. There's still a choice, but nobody can say for sure how long it is going to last. By replacing such an important part of a desktop environment as the window manager with awesome, I'm just a small step away to replace entire KDE if project directions breaks the confidence I have put on them over the years.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thanks these folks:

• Jerónimo Navavo, which after his post about awesome and Slackware community at Google+ gave me the sparks to try something different.

• All the awesome developers.

• Luke Boham, whose GitHub repositories are state-of-the-art for any awesome enthusiast. KDEsome is entirely based on his awesome Powerarrow Darker.

Licenses

My code for KDEsome is licensed under GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3.

Code of others are licensed under their own terms.