Newbie thinkin' about KDE &ClamTk virus scanner says...DUH

[Michael Hirsch]

On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 5:54 PM, Frani Angel <an8el3 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi Linux affictionados,

Greetings, and welcome.

> Have questions...not sure if I'm supposed to start one thread per question
> or just ask them all in at once. So I'll ask two right now.

In general, it's a good idea to ask a question that matches the
subject so people will know what the message is about.  If you have
multiple questions on one subject, go ahead and group them.  Questions
on very different subjects are best put in two separate emails.

>  Part of why I ditched windoze was that I had been impressed with a
> journal/calendar program on ubuntu KDE on the last long term support dapper
> drake on someone else's computer eons ago. I'd like to find it now - anyone
> know what that was called?  ...and how I could get it? Is there a version of
> it on the new(er) KDE desktop that I'd get in a package with it if I
> installed KDE?

The calendar program is usually run inside of "kontact", the KDE
email/calendar/address book suite.  It can also be run separately,
though I don't recall the name.  Kalendar, maybe?

> My other problem with deciding about and installing the KDE desktop is that
> I'm not sure how to get or install KDE... or how to find that old
> journal/calender program either - or if a "newer" version of that
> journal/calendar/time manager is already present on the "new" KDE, or if I
> should use the 4.2 KDE or would it be better for me to go with a more
> stable, but slightly older version of KDE, etc.

I would stick with the stable 3.5 version for now.  Once you are more
comfortable with linux you can try 4.2, but right now that will cause
headaches.

> * Which KDE version would that be and how can I get and install it?
> So, I've stuck with the gnome desktop...but not sure there's a difference
> that big enough to bother with.

Since you are running Ubuntu just "sudo apt-get install
kubuntu-desktop".  The next time you log in, look for the menu that
lest you select your session type.  Choose KDE and log in.

> * Can anyone give me a general sort of plus and minus review of what are the
> difference between KDE & gnome? What do I give up if I use KDE vrs. gnome?

If you choose KDE you'll end up with a desktop that I like better.
Others disagree with me.

That's only half facetious.  Both systems are quite usable.

> OK, second question:
> Because I came from windows, I imagine that I have to have some sort of way
> to scan for viruses, so I downloaded ClamTk, which is a virus scanner. So,
> of course, I thought I need to update it. Found the place to do that on the
> GUI. However, this virus scanner says...that I have to be logged in as root
> to update signatures.

I don't know anyone who uses a virus scanner on Linux, unless they are
using it on a server to scan email destined for Windows system.

> Except I AM logged in as root, but I'm using the GUI, which doesn't somehow
> recognize that I'm already logged in and doesn't pop up anything so I can
> verify my root password, etc.

Don't log in as root.  In fact, under Ubuntu root can't log in unless
you've gone and changed the default configuration.  To run things as
root, use "sudo command" where command can be any command you want.

Hope that helps,

Michael