Razor-qt desktop on openSUSE 12.3

Razor-qt is desktop which a KDE-ish

• highly configurable,
• easy-to-use,
• light weight(low hardware requirements),
• fast desktop environment based on Qt.

Razor-qt cosists of various components:-

• Panel -you can add plugins, behave like GNOME 2.X applets
• Desktop with icons support
• Application launcher(razor-runner)
• Settings (Configuration center)
• Sessions

 Razor-qt works with various WMs, but Openbox seems to be the preferred window manager.

Installation:-

 I have openSUSE 12.3/ GNOME 3.6 installed, the following procedure was used to install Razor-qt.

Pre-installation:-

 First i turned-off Autologin , created "new" user and used this new user for logging into Razor-qt. For details see User Management on GNOME 3.X

Installation using YaST

Add repo

Add the following additional repo using YaST:-

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/X11:/QtDesktop/openSUSE_12.3/

Install Packages

Install the following packages using YaST Installer

• Base packages
• razorqt
• pavucontrol -simple GTK based "mixer" for PulseAudio
• Additional packages
• qtdesktop - Will pull in various "Must have" Qt applications :-
• juffed - Simple tabbed text editor
• nomacs - Lightweight image viewer
• qlipper - Lightweight clipboard history
• qterminal - Advanced terminal emulator
• quiterss - QuiteRSS - RSS/Atom aggregator
• qupzilla - Web browser based on WebKit core
• qxkb - Qt keyboard layout switcher
• qpdfview - Tabbed PDF Viewer
• screengrab - Screen grabber
• clementine - A cross-platform Music Player based on Amarok 1
• smplayer - Complete Frontend for MPlayer
• speedcrunch - A calculator with history display
• vlc - multimedia player for various audio and video formats
• qbittorrent - A Bittorrent Client built with C++ / Qt4

Installation using zypper

Add repo

open comman launcher(Alt+F2) and open terminal using command ("gnome-terminal") and run following command:-

sudo zypper ar -c -f -n 'QtDesktop_openSUSE_12.3' http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/X11:/QtDesktop/openSUSE_12.3/ QtDesktop_openSUSE_12.3

Install Packages

Run in the following command in terminal to install the desktop

sudo zypper in razorqt pavucontrol qtdesktop

Razor-qt Overview

 At first time login, Razor-qt provides a dialogue box with a list of window managers and I chose Openbox

The default desktop looks conservative with a touch of gloss. The analog clock adds a nice touch to the desktop.

We see a traditional main menu (Alt+F1)

 Lot of plugins / applets can be added to panel by right clicking on it. We can see Application Menu, Quick Launch, Task Manager, Colour Picker, Lock Tool, CPU Usage tool, Network Usage tool, Show Desktop tool etc.. added in the screenshot below

 Each plugin on panel can be customised. Task Manager can be customised to make opened applications look like squares instead of rectangles.

  Desktop icons / items can be added by creating launchers inside ~/Desktop folder by using commands like "gnome-desktop-item-edit 1.desktop"

 

  Razor runner makes launching applications keyboard friendly (Alt+F2).

 

Razor Configuration Center

 The Razor Settings applet / plugin on the panel is very useful in configuring the desktop. "Razor Session Configurator" can be used to make applications like Artha(Dictionary tool) to start along with the desktop.

 To change themes we need to use both "Openbox Configuration Manager" as well as "Razor Appearance Configuration" .

 "Razor Shortcut Configuration" can be used to create keyboard shortcuts to launch applications easily using keyboard.

Qt Applications

 SpeedCrunch is a cool calculator which has lot of inbuilt formulae

 qBittorrent makes a powerful torrent downloader. qpdfview is a cool lightweight pdf viewer with "tabs" support.

 JuffEd is a good text editor and NoMacs does a good job as image viewer

 QupZilla makes a wonderful webkit based browser and has variety of features like AdBlock, RSS reader, Cookie Manager and web inspector. It also has a good collection of inbuilt themes.

 SMPlayer and VLC (Audio & Video players) play almost anything you throw at them.