OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/17885/Interview_Sebastian_Trug_Lead_Developer_of_k3b Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2013, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Thu, 20 Jun 2013 10:32:37 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239145 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239145 I guess we all have our own favourites, but for me k3b is one of the glories of desktop Linux, together with other applications like Amarok, Kontact and (in terms of their potential) KOffice, Basket and Ktorrent. The next guy would probably have a different list.

I've never tried Mandriva and I know nothing about Nepomuk. This brief interview makes me think I should try Mandriva. Kubuntu 7.04 has completely failed to install on my PC despite half a dozen attempts - the first distro in seven years to wipe my partitions and then fail at the starting gate with pitiful error messages - so it's time to try something new. Actually, maybe it's not "new" but a return to the solid core of what makes Linux great and has done for quite a few years now. For me that's KDE and distros like Mandriva, OpenSuSE and Debian. For you, it could be something quite different. Each to their own. Thu, 10 May 2007 14:03:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (moleskine) Comments Gnome user guilty of using k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239146 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239146 K3B is the reason I have the kdelibs on my system. ;)

I don't think I am the only one either. Thu, 10 May 2007 14:08:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (h3rman) Comments RE: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239148 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239148 I'd only add Konqueror, Kate and Yakuake.
Hey, this could be the next thing to ask OSNews readers.
It's a little more technical and more likely to cause flamewars than movie-questions,
I'll admit that ;-) Thu, 10 May 2007 14:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (RandomGuy) Comments RE: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239149 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239149 Have you md5sum'ed .iso image? Thu, 10 May 2007 14:44:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Punktyras) Comments RE[2]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239152 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239152 Kate (at the risk of groans from purists)

Tellico. Superb as collection manager, but in fact if you do a custom collection, its a general purpose flat file database.

Kjots - especially now the new version lets you do books within books. Thu, 10 May 2007 14:49:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (alcibiades) Comments Interesting Short Interview http://www.osnews.com/thread?239154 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239154 K3B has long been one of those applications where I have felt that a free open source offering is better than any free or low-cost option on any system. It is definitely better than Nero Express, and I have seen areas where it is better than the full version of Roxio. Others may disagree, but if K3B were available on all platforms, I wouldn't use anything else.

I found it very interesting that Trug worked on a PhD in AI. I don't know much about Nepomuk, but from the description he gave, it sounded like some experience in AI would be quite beneficial to development. It certainly sounds like Nepomuk could be very helpful. I'll just have to wait and see if it lives up to its potential or if other projects become more successful. Thu, 10 May 2007 14:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Hands) Comments Misspelling http://www.osnews.com/thread?239155 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239155 His name is Sebastian TruEg, not TrugEdited 2007-05-10 14:58 Thu, 10 May 2007 14:58:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (cromo) Comments RE: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239158 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239158 For me, I would also add Konversation, Kopete, and digiKam. Thu, 10 May 2007 15:12:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Isolationist) Comments RE: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239159 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239159 The one thing different you'll notice about Mandriva compared to Kubuntu is that you must sign up as a member to receive OS updates, which requires money. Not sure which distro you use, but the Debian strand provides all OS updates free. This was my reason for switching to Kubuntu. I didn't mind Mandriva, but just didn't want to plop down the money for OS updates. Besides that it has some good stuff going for it! Thu, 10 May 2007 15:14:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (nathbeadle) Comments K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239163 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239163 Of all the applications around, K3B is really the one that stands out in terms of "can't do without out". It's the primary reason why Nero hasn't got a snowball in hell's chance on desktop Linux - it has less features than K3B, is actually less straightforward (now that I go back to the Windows version), looks worse and has far less integration with surrounding components.

Goodness, K3B is supposed to burn discs, but it is the first CD ripper I feel that is actually easy to use, and has straightforward but powerful options to rip as you like. Thu, 10 May 2007 15:30:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (segedunum) Comments meh http://www.osnews.com/thread?239167 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239167 i never understood why everyone got so WOW over k3b, its just a shell that calls a bunch of tools. Thu, 10 May 2007 15:34:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (_df_) Comments RE[3]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239169 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239169 I'll second the mention of Tellico. I use it for my DVD collection, and I love the little touches (retrieve info from IMBD/Amazon, loan manager, etc.). A very good little app.

My personal list: Amarok, k3B, Konqueror, DigiKam, Tellico, Kate and Kopete.Edited 2007-05-10 15:41 Thu, 10 May 2007 15:41:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (archiesteel) Comments RE[2]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239170 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239170 Actually, when I tried out the latest release, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is no longer the case. You still have to register to receive updates and update notifications, but there is no cost involved. Thu, 10 May 2007 15:41:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Flatline) Comments RE[2]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239172 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239172 The one thing different you'll notice about Mandriva compared to Kubuntu is that you must sign up as a member to receive OS updates, which requires money. Not sure which distro you use, but the Debian strand provides all OS updates free. This was my reason for switching to Kubuntu. I didn't mind Mandriva, but just didn't want to plop down the money for OS updates. Besides that it has some good stuff going for it!

That is not true. They offer a club membership that offer some things but you do not need to join to get updates. Man at least get your facts straight. Thu, 10 May 2007 15:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (AnthonyBrooks) Comments RE: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239174 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239174
It's the primary reason why Nero hasn't got a snowball in hell's chance on desktop Linux...


Actually I think the primary reason Nero hasn't a change on desktop Linux is the fact that it "isn't" Nero, i.e. the Linux version is just a shadow of the Windows version.

Nero is one of the products where a feature set is almost identical to the name, i.e. people associate the feature set with the product's name.

Since Nero for Linux fails to deliver this feature set, people who have bought it feel ripped off. Thu, 10 May 2007 15:45:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (anda_skoa) Comments RE: Misspelling http://www.osnews.com/thread?239175 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239175 Actually, in the blurb it's spelled Trüg, which is the same thing as Trueg (in German, an umlaut above a voyel is the same as putting an "e" after it). However, you are correct in stating that the title is mispelled (i.e. no umlaut on the u and no e after). Thu, 10 May 2007 15:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (archiesteel) Comments RE: meh http://www.osnews.com/thread?239177 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239177 That's because the shell is very well done, and makes all those tools very easy to use. *That's* the wow... Thu, 10 May 2007 15:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (archiesteel) Comments k3b owes its existance... http://www.osnews.com/thread?239179 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239179 to Nero ! ;)

You can't deny the obvious ;) Thu, 10 May 2007 15:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Googol) Comments RE: meh http://www.osnews.com/thread?239184 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239184
i never understood why everyone got so WOW over k3b, its just a shell that calls a bunch of tools.


You've just described every well-written graphical program ever made. In fact, this is a very good summation of the whole Unix philosophy.

Well done!

[EDIT: Spelling]Edited 2007-05-10 16:08 Thu, 10 May 2007 16:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (fretinator) Comments RE[2]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239185 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239185 Only Mandriva users understand how that community works. I'm sure it's not as bad as some suggest, and that it mostly falls into the category of nagware (required free registration) rather than having to pay for fixes (which is unfathomable for any OS).

The problem is that Mandriva/Mandrake has been redefining their business model and community strategy for years, and the message has gotten a bit muddy. Other communities such as Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE have focused on sending a clear and friendly message to the community. Nobody is confused about whether you have to pay to get updates for any of these distributions. None of these distributions offer an array of 5 different release versions, requiring you to think about how much you're willing to pay and what premium features you really need.

Hey, I'm all for exploring ways to monetize free software, but I'm not at all convinced that Mandriva's strategy is working. They need to start sending a clear message that resonates with the community. I think they need to focus on marketing premium services rather than premium software. At the very least, they should make it really easy to do a paid upgrade from the community version to the premium version over the network. When I think of Mandriva, I remember the days of shrink-wrap software, and that's not a good association to have these days.

It's a perception problem, not a technology problem, which is unfortunate for Mandriva since perceptions are much harder to change. Thu, 10 May 2007 16:12:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (butters) Comments Excuse my ignorance, http://www.osnews.com/thread?239190 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239190 But is k3b a Mandrave specific program?
I'm a Slackware user (or was until the HDD failed on my Linux machine) and never notice this application in the default ISOs. Is it just a case that I wasn't looking hard enough? Thu, 10 May 2007 16:55:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Laurence) Comments RE[2]: Misspelling http://www.osnews.com/thread?239191 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239191 Uhm, I din't know about that. Sebastian himself on k3b website spells his surname as Trueg and that's why I assumed the title is incorrent. Which in fact is incorrect, as you confirmed ;-). Thu, 10 May 2007 16:55:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (cromo) Comments RE: Excuse my ignorance, http://www.osnews.com/thread?239192 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239192 Of course not, K3B is a free software like any other GPL´d. The only difference is that the K3B author works for Mandriva.
As a Slck user, you know the routine, download the sources and compile it. K3B can be found in many distros. Thu, 10 May 2007 17:03:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (xultz) Comments RE[2]: Misspelling http://www.osnews.com/thread?239194 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239194 It had an umlaut when I submitted it ;) I guess OS News' software has a limitation with titles. Thu, 10 May 2007 17:14:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (AdamW) Comments RE[2]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239195 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239195 This is not true. You do not need to register anywhere or pay any money to receive updates. With releases prior to 2007 Spring, you did have to pay to use Mandriva Online, the update *notification* system (the applet that lives on the panel and tells you when updates are available), but you could always install updates for free with no registration using MandrivaUpdate. With 2007 Spring, even Mandriva Online works with no payment and no registration. Thu, 10 May 2007 17:15:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (AdamW) Comments RE[3]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239196 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239196 You don't even need to register. Update notifications and updates work without any kind of registration. Thu, 10 May 2007 17:16:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (AdamW) Comments I'll fall in line http://www.osnews.com/thread?239197 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239197 with others, and express my "WOW" for k3b:) it's an amazing piece of shell, as someone described it:)

For slackware users, Im pretty sure k3b can be downloaded in .tgz format from linuxpackages.org.

Together with Konqueror, Kaffeine, Konversation, it makes my KDE desktop "Komplete"(along with a bunch of non-kde apps tho:)). Thu, 10 May 2007 17:17:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (parentaladvisory) Comments RE[3]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239199 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239199 There is no 'required free registration'. You can run Mandriva Linux Free or One with no registration of any kind whatsoever, and registering is not needed to use any feature of the system.

The only 'required free registration' I can think of, actually, is to use the forums, and that's fairly normal =)

I agree that the message did become a little muddy after the introduction of the Mandriva Club, but I don't think having both free and commercial editions is really a problem. We've been doing it all along and it seems a fairly simple thing to understand. What people mostly got confused about is the role of the Club in terms of things like updates, and that's something we're trying to set straight. Thu, 10 May 2007 17:21:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (AdamW) Comments RE[3]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239202 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239202 Great to hear!! I used Mandriva even back in the Mandrake days, but as a Comp Sci student I just didn't have the money for things back then hence my switch. I'm really glad to hear things have changed and have become more accessible. Thanks for the update! Thu, 10 May 2007 17:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (nathbeadle) Comments RE: Gnome user guilty of using k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239210 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239210 k3b is one of the reasons I switched to KDE some years ago. I was so happy to get a robust cd burning app on linux, I even donated to k3b website that time. Thu, 10 May 2007 18:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (bedo) Comments RE: I'll fall in line http://www.osnews.com/thread?239211 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239211
Together with Konqueror, Kaffeine, Konversation, it makes my KDE desktop "Komplete"(along with a bunch of non-kde apps tho:)).


Personally, I like Kirefox, Kevolution and Kautilus also! Thu, 10 May 2007 18:45:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (fretinator) Comments RE[4]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239217 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239217 just for the record, we've _never_ charged for updates or restricted them to Club members or anything like that. updates have always been freely available, right from the first release in 1998 through to now.

the most restricted things ever got as far as the Club is concerned was that, for a few releases, Club members got new releases around a month before the public. We stopped doing that with 2007. Thu, 10 May 2007 19:00:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (AdamW) Comments RE[4]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239223 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239223 + Konversation
+ Kaffeine
+ KonsoleEdited 2007-05-10 19:48 Thu, 10 May 2007 19:45:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ebasconp) Comments the music i listen to while i drive my car http://www.osnews.com/thread?239224 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239224 was burned in k3b on Fedora Core release 6 running Gnome.

k3b is a great package and when I'm in windows land, and a cd is finished burning via roxio or whatever, i sorta miss that 'du du de du do da da' trumpet that squeaks at you when k3b finishes its work !

heh

cheers
anyweb

ps. did you know that you can verify md5sums in k3b?

http://www.linux-noob.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2342 Thu, 10 May 2007 19:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (anyweb) Comments RE[5]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239225 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239225 I actually prefer Kmplayer to Kaffeine, personally - although they are both very good (and Kaffeine is the default app). Thu, 10 May 2007 19:49:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (archiesteel) Comments RE[2]: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239228 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239228 Actually I think the primary reason Nero hasn't a change on desktop Linux is the fact that it "isn't" Nero, i.e. the Linux version is just a shadow of the Windows version.

I'd suggest you try Nero 3 Beta version. While K3B still has better ground on Linux, Nero is no longer a "mere shadow". They've replicated the Nero 6 interface with almost all the feature available on Windows. (And this time it uses GTK+2).

You can check the screenshots or downloads at http://www.nero.com/eng/NeroLinux3Beta.html . Thu, 10 May 2007 19:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sukru) Comments RE[6]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239233 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239233 Codeine! Codeine! ;) Thu, 10 May 2007 20:56:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (superstoned) Comments RE: Interesting Short Interview http://www.osnews.com/thread?239234 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239234 the good news than is that the KDE 4 version of K3B might very well be ported to Windows and Mac OS X. Thu, 10 May 2007 20:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (superstoned) Comments RE[4]: Viva k3b: change perception ? may be with this: http://www.osnews.com/thread?239239 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239239 May be that message on the Cooker mailing list could change the perception, from the CEO, David Barth:

«

Hi all,

2007 Spring is now released for a few weeks. 2007 Spring is probably one
of the best Mandriva Linux release in years and I want to thank all the
teams, and also particularly all the cooker contributors, who have
worked for long months on this project.

The distribution is solid and has greatly benefited from the additional
2 weeks of tests we put into polishing the result. And it shows: reviews
are good and sales are solid.

We are now taking a short break before the next run: Mandriva Linux
2008. But during this break, we are making several changes in
preparation for the next release.

First, I'm reorganizing the teams in the Engineering, promoting Anne
Nicolas as Engineering Director. Anne was previously leading the
Corporate team. She brings not only strong professionalism, but also a
clear community minded approach. She will involve all the engineers in
the Brazilian team, who can now play a central role in building the
distribution. She will be in charge of the development of all the
Mandriva Linux releases.

Second, Anne is working with the teams to draft the technical roadmap
for the 2008 release. This roadmap will also contain a set of guidelines
for contributors work. This is the starting point for discussing and
adopting requirements expressed by the Cooker community.

Third, Anne will organize the work and enhance the Mandriva policy for
contributors.

Mandriva is proud and honored to have one of the oldest free software
community for distribution editors, one of the largest and one of the
most open, with key contributors working on many of the core modules of
the relese. Anne will ensure that this ecosystem continues to grow,
opens even more, and also that interactions are better formalized
without breaking the fun in the game Wink

On this occasion, I'm proposing a further step and wish that the next
Free Software version of Mandriva Linux be made directly by a member of
the community.

Last, build platform improvements will also be resumed now that the
release is out. Phase 1 was about stabilizing things, so let's head for
Phase 2 and implement some much needed changes!


Thanks for reading so far. Thanks for your support of Mandriva Linux,
and... Vive le Printemps!
--
dbarth
» Thu, 10 May 2007 21:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (glyj) Comments RE[3]: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239240 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239240
While K3B still has better ground on Linux, Nero is no longer a "mere shadow". They've replicated the Nero 6 interface with almost all the feature available on Windows


Nice. This upcoming version might have a chance then.

However, trying to enter a new market with an inferior product, i.e. the earlier version of Nero for Linux, has damaged the name considerably. They might still be able to overcome this, though.

Unfortunately the page about feature just list burning capabilities, no word about DVD authoring and things like that.
While this part of the Nero feature set might be included in the item about DVD video burning, I am a bit afraid that even this new Linux version will not be able to do it like the Windows version is.

(And this time it uses GTK+2).


How they could ever release a version based on GTK 1 when virtually nobody had it left installed, is a big mistery to me.
Most likely the person who provided their Linux information was one of the "consultant" type people, i.e. those who are excellent in presentations but have little actual technical background.

Anyway, nice that they have finally arrived at a level where they can compete on this new market. Hopefully this additional competition will make it easier for content authoring projects to attract new developers as well. Thu, 10 May 2007 21:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (anda_skoa) Comments RE[2]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239241 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239241 Thanks for the tip. I re-burned the CD iso using different settings and it now works. Unfortunately, Kubuntu still won't fire up. There was the almost obligatory bugger-up with Grub, which I cleared using my SuSE DVD. After that Kubuntu refused to boot up properly after energetically trying to fsck an ntfs partition which it claimed was ext2. After that it got to a log-in screen of sorts but said that a failure with kconfigstart or something forbade further progress. Finally it seems to have taken one look at my widescreen monitor settings and given up the ghost, giving me a blank scrren with no access to ttys or anything else.

Well, that's another four hours of life wasted. I've binned the stuff and am going for Debian Unstable. IME, Kubuntu 7.04 alternative installation CD is Kompletely Useless and an utter waste of time. I wish folks would stop being so uncritically adulatory with this distro. If I add on the other probs I've had with earlier incarnations of K/Ubuntu, I'd say it was easily the least satisfactory Linux distro I've tried. Mod me down if you want, but it's time these folks were subject to the same scrutiny as any other distro. It's the only one I've had in seven years that I've simply not be able to install. Thu, 10 May 2007 21:37:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (moleskine) Comments RE[3]: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239246 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239246 I'd suggest you try Nero 3 Beta version. While K3B still has better ground on Linux, Nero is no longer a "mere shadow". They've replicated the Nero 6 interface with almost all the feature available on Windows. (And this time it uses GTK+2).

Too little, too late I'm afraid. K3B is freely available, integrates with a lot of surrounding freely available open source components and is shipped with every Linux distribution there is. It also has a fair bit of functionality Nero doesn't.

Nero are also promising HD-DVD and BluRay burning at a time when few people are using them in order to try and give themselves an edge.

(And this time it uses GTK+2).

Good for them, but K3B looked fantastic before Nero on Linux ever did. Better interface as well.Edited 2007-05-10 22:03 Thu, 10 May 2007 21:58:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (segedunum) Comments RE: Gnome user guilty of using k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239252 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239252
K3B is the reason I have the kdelibs on my system. ;)

I don't think I am the only one either.


You're not the only one. Thu, 10 May 2007 22:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (bosco_bearbank) Comments RE[3]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239268 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239268 While my experience wasn´t THAT bad - I actually managed to get it installed fairly well and quickly - and the hardware detection was on par with other good distros as far as my machine is concerned, these are the only good things that I have to say about Kubuntu.

My biggest complaint with it still is how buggy their KDE is because of those endless unneeded patches. It is unbelievable! And then there are those small annoyances intended to please Windows users, such as double-click on the titlebar maximizes windows instead of rolling them up. I can understand them changing the single-click default of KDE to double-click to make it easy for Windows and GNOME users but the behavior of double-clicking on the titlebar immitating Windows is simply ridiculous! Thu, 10 May 2007 23:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (DeadFishMan) Comments RE[3]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239270 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239270 I got Kubuntu installed fine, but on each boot another randomly chosen app would be broken, in one case even conveniently removing itself from the menus when it disappeared !? After about eight boots of diminishing usefulness it suddenly announced some incomprehensible drivel about the graphics card nvidia driver and refused to work. (The graphics card, and my other OS were fine)

I am a KDE fan of long standing (8yrs) and found this quite the worst implementation I have come across. Thu, 10 May 2007 23:17:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (biteydog) Comments RE[3]: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239275 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239275
'd suggest you try Nero 3 Beta version. While K3B still has better ground on Linux, Nero is no longer a "mere shadow". They've replicated the Nero 6 interface with almost all the feature available on Windows. (And this time it uses GTK+2).


No, if you read the post again, he wants all the functionality included with the Nero kit - Nero is no longer just a cd burning application, it includes encoders and the likes - what about an AAC encoder? AudioCoding has abandoned FAAC/FAAD leaving people like me high and dry - why doesn't Nero make their Windows AAC encoder available for Linux?

It is the fact that they're not making available their WHOLE Nero product to Linux - just the burner; the burner by itself holds no value in the Linux world - K3B does it all, and for free - the value for Nero would come when they provide their whole Windows kit for Linux - thats when they can start demanding the price they want. Thu, 10 May 2007 23:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (kaiwai) Comments Mandrake http://www.osnews.com/thread?239276 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239276 I spent a fair amount of time using Bochs this semester and I debugged into its code to find out why my OS wasn't working. I noticed that many of the core parts of the software were written by a Mandrake guy. Bochs is an awesome project, and I really like Mandrake after seeing that they were behind it.

Mandrake+KDE, FTW! Fri, 11 May 2007 00:02:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (PlatformAgnostic) Comments RE[3]: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239280 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239280 Nero? I could say what I think about Nero, and it wouldn't be pretty. It has to have one of the worst UI's of ANY application that I've EVER used. EVER. K3B absolutely shits on it, and if KDE/Sebastian ports this baby to Windows, you can kiss Roxio and Nero goodbye (or should that be goodbuy!).

Dave Fri, 11 May 2007 03:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (melkor) Comments RE[4]: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239281 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239281 "It is the fact that they're not making available their WHOLE Nero product to Linux"

You know, I'm thinking that's a good thing considering all the total junk applications that Nero on Windows comes with. Nero Scout? Who needs that?

"K3B does it all, and for free"

Thankfully it doesn't do everything that Nero does. Fri, 11 May 2007 03:34:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Soulbender) Comments RE: Excuse my ignorance, http://www.osnews.com/thread?239282 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239282 For your information K3b is in /extra on the Slackware CD, so no you was not looking hard enough. Fri, 11 May 2007 03:35:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (SlackerJack) Comments RE[5]: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239288 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239288
You know, I'm thinking that's a good thing considering all the total junk applications that Nero on Windows comes with. Nero Scout? Who needs that?


Yeap, one terrible application - you're going to judge a whole suite on one application - should I make a review of Linux based on the fact that it might include emacs? the worlds worse editor?

Thankfully it doesn't do everything that Nero does.


Such as? What is K3B lacking what Nero provides? make a statement, back it up with evidence. Fri, 11 May 2007 05:37:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (kaiwai) Comments RE[6]: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239293 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239293 if something is missing, you have mandvd (stands for Mandrake DVD ? ) Fri, 11 May 2007 06:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (glyj) Comments RE[6]: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239298 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239298 "Yeap, one terrible application - you're going to judge a whole suite on one application"

It's called "an example". There's a lot more crap in the Nero "suite" or whatever it is called today. Nero Photo (or whatever it is called) anyone?

"should I make a review of Linux based on the fact that it might include emacs? the worlds worse editor? "

Oh come on, that's an entirely different matter and you know it.

"Such as? What is K3B lacking what Nero provides?"

Well, it lacks the aforementioned Nero Scout and all the other more or less useless apps Nero comes with.
It's a good thing that K3B "lack" these "features" of Nero, btw.
As for the core feature of actually burning media I can't recall any usefull feature Nero has the K3B doesn't.Edited 2007-05-11 06:56 Fri, 11 May 2007 06:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Soulbender) Comments RE: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239299 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239299 Wow, others have added cool apps above, I'd add Kile (a LaTeX editor), I'd die in pain without it ;) ) Fri, 11 May 2007 07:05:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (l3v1) Comments But kio-slaves is garbage.... http://www.osnews.com/thread?239301 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239301 I love k3b, but I when I installed a fresh copy of Kubuntu Feisty, I noticed the following:

1) You can't simply burn an ISO image using a SMB share that you browse using the network browsing. You sure can select the image, but when it comes to actually burn it, it comes up with a message: file not found. This is because the SMB share isn't actually mounted, however k3b gives you the option to select the file and burn it. That's a bug.

2) When you select a media file over SMB to open, it copies the entire file before prceeding to open it!


I think these problems go away when you actually mount the drive (smbmount) but what's the point of having kio-slaves give you the option to browse the files, but not have full access to the files? Fri, 11 May 2007 07:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (nighty5) Comments RE[4]: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239311 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239311
Nero? I could say what I think about Nero, and it wouldn't be pretty. It has to have one of the worst UI's of ANY application that I've EVER used. EVER. K3B absolutely shits on it, and if KDE/Sebastian ports this baby to Windows, you can kiss Roxio and Nero goodbye (or should that be goodbuy!).

Dave


Well, then you haven't used Linux very long.
Gtk1 may be old and look ugly but for the longest time it was faster and more reliable than Gtk2.
Many Linux apps took their time to fully port into Gtk2 and for a good reason.
And K3B took a long time to stabilize too.
It had serious bugs in many releases.
I grew tired of the constant update race to fix this and that.
And for the longest time it would not honor the chosen write speed.
Worse, the developer gave some lame excuse why a user's chosen write speed is ignored.
And K3B would not save ISO image, how ridiculous is that?
I don't know if it has that functionality now but I found that annoying as hell.
Obviously the developer's experience and coding skill has grown over the years and it shows, K3B has matured and is now fairly reliable.
Although for basic burning tasks I find Nero just fine and actually prefer it to K3B which depends on KDE.
On older machines that don't have KDE or Qt installed that functionality is nice to have.
The major point against Nero is that they're kind of late with their Nero for Linux offering.
But they still deserve some credit for at least trying.
I don't see Adobe porting Photoshop or any other major Windows apps coming to Linux.
Also $20 to license it is quite reasonable I think.
And with this new Nero version looking and working like the Windows version I am sure most Windows converts will prefer it to the rather different and sometime confusing K3B interface layout.
So I wouldn't write Nero off just yet. Fri, 11 May 2007 09:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (shapeshifter) Comments RE[2]: Excuse my ignorance, http://www.osnews.com/thread?239313 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239313 "
For your information K3b is in /extra on the Slackware CD, so no you was not looking hard enough.
"

More the case of not looking at all.
Sadly I don't get enough free time to explore the excellent collection of extra's slack has to offer.

However, now I know where to find it (and now i've got a new HDD for my linux desktop) i'll have an install and play tonight.

thank you Fri, 11 May 2007 10:10:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Laurence) Comments k3b "just works" http://www.osnews.com/thread?239315 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239315 what more could i ask for. ;)

alongside kontact, digikam, amarok and others i have a near perfect desktop. Fri, 11 May 2007 11:04:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (REMF) Comments cdrtools http://www.osnews.com/thread?239318 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239318 Am i the only one who thinks k3b is just another sucku sucky KDE frontend? Fri, 11 May 2007 11:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (whendrik) Comments RE: But kio-slaves is garbage.... http://www.osnews.com/thread?239319 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239319 This is not the place to report bugs, http://bugs.kde.org/ Fri, 11 May 2007 11:56:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (m_abs) Comments RE: cdrtools http://www.osnews.com/thread?239321 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239321 Well, many people seems to like K3B so it must not suck so much.
Sure, this is a frontend, but apparently a well made one, which as shown by the reaction is unfortunately not so frequent.. Fri, 11 May 2007 12:59:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (renox) Comments What K3B is so good at http://www.osnews.com/thread?239324 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239324 I have always used K3B, although I try not to use QT in my GTK environment. But K3b does everything! I have never seen a program invoke so many tools without making any weird errors. And I have never seen error messages and log output so useful before.

People say that KDE programs have too many options, but with a program like K3b, options are exactly what you want, and they are integrated in a very non-annoying way.

Cheers to this program! Fri, 11 May 2007 13:10:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Ben Jao Ming) Comments RE[5]: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239329 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239329 Umm, I've been using Linux on and off since 1997...probably longer than you. I used Linux as my sole desktop from 2002-2006, only switching back to Windows XP for Photoshop CS2 (and yes, I hate using Photoshop).

During my time of using K3B, I never had a single showstopper issue, it's worked fine for a long, long time.

I think you'll see Photoshop come to Linux within the next 3-5 years, it's only a matter of time. As to $20, why would I pay that, when I can use K3B for free (both price and freedom)?

Nero is just dreadful with its UI, one of the very worst applications I've seen in a long, long, long time. And I'm being very polite here.

As to GTK/GTK2, I find GTK based applications ugly. I much prefer QT.

Dave Fri, 11 May 2007 13:52:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (melkor) Comments RE[5]: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239331 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239331 Umm, I've been using Linux on and off since 1997...probably longer than you. I used Linux as my sole desktop from 2002-2006, only switching back to Windows XP for Photoshop CS2 (and yes, I hate using Photoshop).

During my time of using K3B, I never had a single showstopper issue, it's worked fine for a long, long time.

I think you'll see Photoshop come to Linux within the next 3-5 years, it's only a matter of time. As to $20, why would I pay that, when I can use K3B for free (both price and freedom)?

Nero is just dreadful with its UI, one of the very worst applications I've seen in a long, long, long time. And I'm being very polite here.

As to GTK/GTK2, I find GTK based applications ugly. I much prefer QT.

Dave Fri, 11 May 2007 13:55:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (melkor) Comments RE[3]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239332 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239332
I wish folks would stop being so uncritically adulatory with this distro. If I add on the other probs I've had with earlier incarnations of K/Ubuntu, I'd say it was easily the least satisfactory Linux distro I've tried. Mod me down if you want, but it's time these folks were subject to the same scrutiny as any other distro. It's the only one I've had in seven years that I've simply not be able to install.


Well, perhaps the reason folks are so adulatory towards K/Ubuntu is that they *don't* have issues with installing it. :-)

I'm sorry you had problems, but don't judge an entire distro (and, most importantly, those who like it) because of the fact that it didn't work for you. Fri, 11 May 2007 14:15:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (archiesteel) Comments RE[4]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239333 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239333
I can understand them changing the single-click default of KDE to double-click to make it easy for Windows and GNOME users but the behavior of double-clicking on the titlebar immitating Windows is simply ridiculous!


As far as I can tell, it's still single-click for all icons in Kubuntu...

That said, this thread is *not* about K/Ubuntu at all, but about k3B and (arguably) Mandriva. Please stay on-topic. Fri, 11 May 2007 14:19:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (archiesteel) Comments RE[4]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239391 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239391 Well, perhaps the reason folks are so adulatory towards K/Ubuntu is that they *don't* have issues with installing it. :-)

I'm sorry you had problems, but don't judge an entire distro (and, most importantly, those who like it) because of the fact that it didn't work for you.

I said in the comment that this wasn't the first time I'd had issues with K/Ubuntu, so while I am judging it on my experience (besides, why the heck not?) I am also judging it on 3-4 iterations rather than one.

A glance through Ubuntu's forums will show that since it came onto the scene Ubuntu has suffered from just as many bugs and difficulties as any other distro. The difference lies in the simply absurd levels of hype that now accompany it. Ubuntu hasn't yet been credited with creating the world in seven days or making contact with alien civilizations but you'd be forgiven for thinking that's only a matter of time.

I don't happen to think the hype all that useful: eventually it will backfire as these things always do, not least when folks start to notice that Ubuntu isn't really doing anything that other distros don't do. The fallout will effect all of Linux and not just this one distro. Fri, 11 May 2007 17:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (moleskine) Comments RE: But kio-slaves is garbage.... http://www.osnews.com/thread?239485 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239485 same thing happens when you drag a movie file and you drop it into VLC, it wont open unless you mount the device over the network Fri, 11 May 2007 20:31:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (diegoviola) Comments RE[5]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239498 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239498 It's not as much hype as brand recognition. People aren't saying that K/Ubuntu is technically better than other distributions, but rather that it is more polished and newbie-friendly.

Ubuntu hasn't yet been credited with creating the world in seven days or making contact with alien civilizations but you'd be forgiven for thinking that's only a matter of time.


I don't think hyperbole is really useful in the context of this discussion. Honestly, I'm a Ubuntu user and I would never say it's the *best* distro, because such a thing doesn't exist, and you'd be hard-pressed to find any Ubuntu user that would make this claim either. In other words, folks *already* know ubuntu isn't really doing anything other distros don't do. After all, it's all Linux - as soon as one distro does something good, other distros usually follow suit. Similarly, it's quite normal that Ubuntu has had just as many bugs as other distros, because - as is most often the case, for any distro - the majority of bugs are upstream.

What Ubuntu does have, however, is name recognition and effective branding, and as inane as this may sound, that goes a very long way.

To bring this back on-topic (a little bit), I'll say that Mandriva (then Mandrake) was the first distro I tried, and as such it holds a special place in my heart. I'll give the new version a try, and maybe some day I'll even use it again as my regular OS. Ultimately, as I said earlier, it's all Linux, so it's not really relevant *what* distro you run. Fri, 11 May 2007 21:09:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (archiesteel) Comments RE[6]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239551 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239551 "Honestly, I'm a Ubuntu user and I would never say it's the *best* distro, because such a thing doesn't exist, and you'd be hard-pressed to find any Ubuntu user that would make this claim either."

erm...

this is not true. ;) Sat, 12 May 2007 00:28:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (AdamW) Comments RE: k3b owes its existance... http://www.osnews.com/thread?239595 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239595 to Nero? Which owes its existence to the Adaptec CD burner (which was around before Nero), which owes its existence to...........

Actually the K3b interface is based far more on the Adaptec one, instead of the (horrible) Nero one. Sat, 12 May 2007 09:50:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (biteydog) Comments RE: Excuse my ignorance, http://www.osnews.com/thread?239615 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239615 You'll find k3b in the "extra" folder on recent Slackware releases. Sat, 12 May 2007 13:55:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (gavin.mccord) Comments RE: cdrtools http://www.osnews.com/thread?239621 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239621 Yes, you are.

It's much better for the "normal" user to use a well designed frontend for a task over a complicated commandline tool. Sat, 12 May 2007 14:52:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (m_abs) Comments RE[6]: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?239622 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239622 Oops, I meant I hate using Microsoft Windows. Love using Photoshop.

Mods, can you delete the other duplicate post? Stupid connection was mucking up when I tried to post and it duplicated somehow...

Direct link to other post here:

http://www.osnews.com/permalink.php?news_id=17885&comment_id=23...

Thanks.

Dave Sat, 12 May 2007 14:52:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (melkor) Comments RE[7]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239628 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239628 Well, okay, I'm sure you could find a few...there are fanboys everywhere, after all! :-) I guess I'm trying make a distinction between emotional attachment and an rational appraisal of a distro's good and bad points.

What I meant to say is that, while people will have personal preferences, and for them Ubuntu may be the best distro, in the end it's often very subjective, and I think that's understood among many (if not most) people. There are things I don't like as much about Ubuntu, but overall I still like the distro. I could say the exact same about Mandriva, incidentally.

That's why to me it's all Linux in the end. I realize that others may be more passionate, however... Sat, 12 May 2007 16:30:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (archiesteel) Comments RE: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?239636 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239636 I'd go for qBittorrent instead af Ktorrent. qBittorrent used QT4.2 and with the Cleanlooks theme it's the best bittorrent client for Gnome ;) (Did I write what I think I wrote?)

What I admire in KDE/QT (looking at it as a Gnome user) is the enormous array of high quality applications based on KDE (or just QT in some cases). k3b, Scribus, qcad, qBittorrent, Kate, Kontact, KOffice. The slickness of these applications is... well... wauuuw. My Gnome installation has become half KDE4 - if you count QT4 applications that is ;) Sat, 12 May 2007 17:25:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (dylansmrjones) Comments RE[2]: Viva k3b http://www.osnews.com/thread?240205 http://www.osnews.com/thread?240205 Have you seen Transmission? GTK+ Bittorrent client (well, it started out for OS X actually, but it has a native GTK+ version now), best client I've ever used. Mon, 14 May 2007 21:26:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (AdamW) Comments RE[6]: K3B Kicks Ass http://www.osnews.com/thread?240713 http://www.osnews.com/thread?240713 yeah, never had serious trouble with K3B either. It mostly managed to impress me, actually. Lately, for example, i plugged in a usb cd burner, expecting to do some configuration, etcetera - but it just popped up in k3b, and the 'burn' button turned from gray to color, and it just worked. Great job, imho... Wed, 16 May 2007 12:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (superstoned) Comments RE[2]: But kio-slaves is garbage.... http://www.osnews.com/thread?240721 http://www.osnews.com/thread?240721 apparently smb doesn't work as it should. Luckily, they're working very hard on the KIOslaves for KDE 4, so it's very well possible this'll be fixed or at least improved. Wed, 16 May 2007 12:56:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (superstoned) Comments RE: What K3B is so good at http://www.osnews.com/thread?240722 http://www.osnews.com/thread?240722 well, Sebastian is an excellent hacker, and he has spend serious time working out the kinks. CD burning is no easy thing, and K3b does a great job... Like most KDE apps, it's years ahead of the competition. Wed, 16 May 2007 12:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (superstoned) Comments