I had heard through the grapevine that the latest version of SuSE had a new “start menu” (actually the K-menu) in KDE. I thought little of it since I don’t have SuSE, but then I heard that people were using it on other distros and that KDE developers might put it into KDE 4 (this could just be a rumor, so don’t go telling people I told you that).
So, courtesy of Treviño’s repository at Tuxcity, I decided to install it and give it a try.
All I can say is WOW! My first impression upon seeing screenshots was “ugh, it’s fat like the Windows XP/Vista menus” (and by fat, I mean F-A-T not P-H-A-T). But unlike the Windows menus, it’s fat for a reason and actually quite phat as well.
You have 5 tabs:
1. Favorites – You customize this menu with simple right-clicking to have your personal favorite programs as soon as the menu pops up.
2. Recently Used – Documents, videos, songs, etc. that you’ve recently used.
3. My Computer – Settings, System info, drives, etc.
4. All Programs – All your apps. Goodbye to the old hierarchy of popup menus. There is one menu that slides over when you browse through the categories. You can also scroll through the menu with the mousewheel. It’s much harder to accidentally start the wrong application.
5. Leave – Logout, shutdown, etc.
Finally, it has a killer search feature that allows you to search files on your computer, search your bookmarks (and with one click open to the web site you’re looking for), and so on…
I love it. I’m IN-love with it (sorry, Sweetie). I’m keeping it.
Ad:LanternTorch.Net: Freelance writing, web design, editing, and technology training training
Ad:Reliable, affordable web hosting
Thanks for the mini-review. Especially for newbies, Kckoff is friendly and easy to navigate. It has taken a bad rap from some of the people who are used to the standard K-Menu, but please remember that there are many, many hours of actual user testing behind it. And it shows.
This should be the default!
Digital Photography…
hey great stuff…