And written in python, so you can change pieces yourself you don’t like.

For KBibtex, Y would like it to have a plugin mechanism, such that we can add plugins (for example to upload citations to citeUlike)
7. Would you be interested in a dedicated mailing list/website area for KDE software for scientists?
Yes. A news feed to add to a CSS reader would make it, too
8. What else would you like to tell me?
Keep me informed!
9. If you developed scientific software/algorithms, did you ever consider KDE users/platform as a target? If not, why?
Yes, (or more or less) I tend to use Qwt/pyQwt whenever I need some graphical output.
10. Did KDE software help you with your research in general?
Certainly, the plasma widgets are really useful I would like to have a Basket like plasmoid approach (I didn’t see much development in the last time).

What KDE software do you use in general?
Amarok, KOffice

What KDE software do you use specifically for science?
Step a bit, Cantor a bit, KmPlot a bit, maybe Rocs.

Were you aware of all the applications I listed above? If not, are there any you weren’t aware of that could be relevant to you?
No, I didn’t know about KBibTeX and LabPlot.

What is missing among KDE software for you?
A good 3D CAD program that can be used to design parts.

Would you be interested in a dedicated mailing list/website area for KDE software for scientists?
Maybe

What else would you like to tell me?
I found Octave almost able to replace Matlab (although Simulink is still not replaced, then). The upcoming Octave backend for Cantor is nice!

If you developed scientific software/algorithms, did you ever consider KDE users/platform as a target? If not, why?
N/A

Did KDE software help you with your research in general? For example, do Kontact or Plasma widgets help keep things organised?
N/A

1. Who are you and what field to you work in?
PosDoc researcher in experimental economics at Uni Jena and the Max Planck Institute for Economics in Jena / Germany
2. What KDE software do you use in general?
kontact, koffice (more and more), amarok, kopete, kdropbox, kvnc (unfortunaltey still, as knetworkmanager can’t do the job)
3. What KDE software do you use specifically for science?
lyx, kile, rkward, kate (love the session and pipe to terminal functions), basket
4. Were you aware of all the applications I listed above?
except of steps yes…
5. If not, are there any you weren’t aware of that could be relevant to you?
no
6. What is missing among KDE software for you?
experimental economics software.sth like PsychoPy where interactions between subjects are possible, stata (the only proprietary program I’m using) support in cantor and definitely a kde4 port for kbibtex…(and some more features that it can compete with jabref, sth liek crossrefs to make networks of papers and see how everything works together…:-)). Some basket and kbibtex integration via drag and drop…
7. Would you be interested in a dedicated mailing list/website area for KDE software for scientists?
definitely
8. What else would you like to tell me?
Great that you took initiative to make a call like this!

9. If you developed scientific software/algorithms, did you ever consider KDE users/platform as a target? If not, why?
don’t develop…(sorry…)
10. Did KDE software help you with your research in general? For example, do Kontact or Plasma widgets help keep things orrganised?

yes…helped very much .. the google calender support from akonadi should be improved in order to coordinate better with coauthors…

Thanks again!!

What KDE software do you use in general?
Kontact (Kmail, akregator, kaddressbook, kalendar), Konqueror, Okular, Dolphin, Konsole, Digikam, Rekonq, Kile, Kopete, amarok, kstars…

What KDE software do you use specifically for science?
The calculator runner

Were you aware of all the applications I listed above?
Nope, half of them maybe.

If not, are there any you weren’t aware of that could be relevant to you?
I definitely will look into KBibTeX

What is missing among KDE software for you?
Better printer config/management.
Certificate login in konqueror.
Better compatibility with acrobat reader in PDF forms.
An almost complete vim-mode to use in Kile

Would you be interested in a dedicated mailing list/website area for KDE software for scientists?
A good category in userbase would be sufficient.

If you developed scientific software/algorithms, did you ever consider KDE users/platform as a target? If not, why?
No. I work in a huge collaboration, and all I develop uses either ROOT (data analysis framework) or my experiment’s framework.

Did KDE software help you with your research in general? For example, do Kontact or Plasma widgets help keep things orrganised?
Sure Kontact is really great. Konsole is really helpful too (ability to split horizontally or vertically).
Konqueror is unique for its childplay’s use of custom web shortcuts (like gg:)
But the most useful KDE app for me is maybe okular. I always have a dozen of opened pdf files, and it just rocks: lightweight enough, and really powerful, with a great presentation mode.

Paolo Crosetto, post-doc in experimental economics (dynamic decision making, choice under uncertainty, innovation experimental economics) in LUISS, Roma, Italy.

2. What KDE software do you use in general?
All of it. Being with openSUSE and KDE since 2002.

3. What KDE software do you use specifically for science?
I use Kile for latex editing. Used to use KBibTex, now I use JabRef (heavy, but feature complete – and has nice ‘push to kile’ button). Rkward from time to time, but I just do not get it quite right, so I stick with coding in R console. I heavily use python, with Eric (Qt, not KDE). Tried Cantor, still waiting for more development of it. Kalgebra comes in handy for very easy task (is that function really a wierd paraboloid?)

4. Were you aware of all the applications I listed above?
Yes, apart from some really specific ones (Step, Rocs) which I would not know how to use

5. If not, are there any you weren’t aware of that could be relevant to you?
Nope, unfortunately – but int he comments above I stole a couple of ideas

6. What is missing among KDE software for you?
Once Cantor is more mature, i will not miss a thing. Hopefully.

7. Would you be interested in a dedicated mailing list/website area for KDE software for scientists?
I could opt-in such a mailing list – to get some insights here and there.

8. What else would you like to tell me?
Thanks for doing this!

9. If you developed scientific software/algorithms, did you ever consider KDE users/platform as a target? If not, why?
No. When I do things for me, then it’s ok; but as soon as I start cooperating with others, well, it’s an MS (and not much computer literate) word out there. When I run experiments they ought to work on MS machines. And apart from that, my algorithms are nothing to write home about.

10. Did KDE software help you with your research in general? For example, do Kontact or Plasma widgets help keep things orrganised?
I rarely use Kontact – it seems to be getting in the way rather than helping me. But perhaps it is because I am very bad at keeping contacts and I lose them all over my pc. Plasma is OK for helping me taking notes. Basket is my favourite for all kind of brainstorming. If all people had it, it would be even better – you could share your brainstorming with others.

If you come across others, tell me as I am also eager to know of the best solution out there.

1. Who are you and what field to you work in? (Add where and for whom if you’re happy to do so)

My name’s Jonas Thorell and I am currently working on finishing my master thesis in corpus-based linguistics at Uppsala University, Sweden.

2. What KDE software do you use in general?

Well, I use KDE SC exclusively so that would include the plasma desktop, Kontact, okular, dolphin, k3b, amarok, bangarang, ktorrent, kate, kmymoney, kmess, rekonq, chokoq, digikam, and gwenview to just name the most frequently used programs.

3. What KDE software do you use specifically for science?

Kontact (Kmail, Calender, and Kjots especially. Kjots as a sort of make-do citation manager as in “These are the things in this or that article I need to evaluate if it’s
useful”). In KDE3 I used Basket for that, as well as a brain-storming tool. Last time I checked the KDE4 version it was too buggy to use but I will have to try it again
(can it be embedded within Kontact yet?). Kate for raw text handling (later imported into a wordprocessor document), and konsole for running perl-scripts. When I’ve needed
Latex, only to get some equations to actually look like equations, I used either Kile on a KDE3 workstation or Lyx (Qt4 only and not really a KDE app) – the same reason as Basket really, the KDE4 version of Kile was too crash-prone when I tried it what seems like ages ago. Kompare for the occasional need to view differences in raw data, okular for general pdf/ps-files viewing, and finally krita to touch up diagrams.

Earlier I’ve also used the “Social Networks Visualizer” available on kde-apps.org (although,
if memory serves, it’s really a Qt-app).

4. Were you aware of all the applications I listed above?

Yes, but they’re not really applicable to what I do. Maybe Cantor if/when I need to work using R. Of course, the R-backend needs to be in a useful state first which I
currently do not know if it is.

5. If not, are there any you weren’t aware of that could be relevant to you?

N/A

6. What is missing among KDE software for you?

Mostly a good integrated program for lexical analysis. Actually, I’d settle for _any_ good program for that capable of running in a Linux environment. That’s the only reason
I keep a WindowsXP installation in virtualbox around in fact. A good citation manager wouldn’t be amiss either. The mendeley app someone else mentioned seems okay, so need to try that one out. Still, I’d love one that could integrate with KDE more fully. I like the idea expressed by Jörg Cassens!

7. Would you be interested in a dedicated mailing list/website area for KDE software for scientists?

Sure, but personally I think the best idea would be to set up a sub-forum on forums.kde.org. I prefer forums to mailing-lists being my primary reason for that.

8. What else would you like to tell me?

More of a Thanks! to everyone involved in making it possible to do (almost) everything I need using
free software, and in a very efficient manner!

9. If you developed scientific software/algorithms, did you ever consider KDE users/platform as a target? If not, why?

I’m not much of a coder, so no. The things I’ve written are too specific to be used by anyone but me (and, unfortunately, they take things for granted that are only true on my system). Besides, they’re mostly commandline scripts anyway.

10. Did KDE software help you with your research in general? For example, do Kontact or Plasma widgets help keep things orrganised?

Apart from what I’ve already said, KDE as a whole has made quite a bit of difference. I’ll just write down
four examples.

1. Plasma. I use one activity per project. Right now it’s only one, but it has been more than that in the past. That’s usually only a folderview widget (sometimes as a containment) pointing to a specific folder/filtered to show only certain files. But I’ve also used the sticky-notes widget or the shortlog one for a “Getting things done” reminder and it’s great not having to see those when I’m not in research-mode. I’ve also used the blackboard widget once or twice to make a quick scetch or two to remind me how things are connected. Sort of as a visual aid to memory.
2. Nepomuk. I’ve used the tags to differentiate between projects. That is, one tag for each project. I’ve had quite a few files that were necessary, or potentially necessary at least, for several projects. Tagging files lets me see everything related to one project in one folderview without me having to keep softlinks all over the place (or worse, copies of files all over the place). I also used the rating system to keep track of what files are most valuable (that is, which papers written by others are most useful as references).
3. Kwin. The tabbed window feature is a must-have now that I’ve gotten used to it. I don’t know how I managed without it! Having say Writer, kate, konsole, rekonq, and two or three pdfs opened in different tabs rather than different windows makes everything so much easier, and far less cluttered.
4. Not entirely KDE-specific, but I love that all apps I use can export directly to pdf. After all, not everybody has the good sense to have software installed that can read odt/ods files.