The explosion of open source applications since the advent of universal packaging has been not only fun but incredibly useful. When looking through the Flathub list of featured apps and I found this Clock app, tailored to the KDE Plasma environment and this is, absolutely, my new favorite desktop clock, alarm and timer application.
Bottom line up front: This should be installed by default for the Plasma Desktop. This is a near perfect application for the various time-centric activities that are often done using a mobile phone, bundled with Android. Just as it is default with Android (maybe iOS too, no idea), this would be a perfect bundled application on the Linux desktop.
Installation
There are a couple ways to install Clock, called “KClock” (ironically?) on your Linux system. On Plasma based desktops, you can use discover and search clock or if you want to use the terminal.
openSUSE
The terminal is my favorite place to play so this is how you would install this clock application in the terminal.
sudo zypper install kclockFlatpak
To install this Flatpak application in the terminal:
flatpak install flathub org.kde.kclockFeatures
There are the expected features you would get with any other clock application but with a few little bonuses that are quite handy. I will say that it does seem that some of them seem to not be working correctly but I’m sure that will get worked out in short order.
Time
When the application first launches it will be on the Time section and show the current timezone as per the region settings in Plasma. This would be very familiar with anyone that has used a mobile phone. At least, it feels very familiar.
Adding additional time zones can be easily added with the + Add button in the upper right corner of the window. Type in the location for the time zone you want to have represented, like Chicago, Denver or Los Angeles and select location. That will add them to the window, again, much like you would have on a mobile device.
This can be very handy if you have people you need to integrate with people across the world. I do find this quite handy and will use this feature, for sure.
Timers
Another very useful feature is to be able to set times for various things you may have going on. For example, in the kitchen, lets say you are timing various dishes cook times and need to start them as you get to that stage of the preparation, you can set those times here.
It is easy enough to set as many times as you want by pressing the Add timer button. Within here you can set the timer very easily along with some quick set buttons of 1m 5m 10m and so forth. Adding a label, is optional but available as well.
The command at timeout here doesn’t seem to work. I have tried a few things unsuccessfully so this may be a future feature to be implemented. When you are done, you can see the timer in your list, clicking on that timer will bring it to a familiar countdown wheel.
What I like about this is that I can set several timers easily and start them as needed. SUPER handy for my Linux Powered Kitchen System (which, by the way is still being actively used on a daily basis.
Stopwatch
Another nice feature to have on my Linux desktop is the ability to have a stopwatch. Not for the purposes of running laps around the kitchen but rather to be able to track the stages of my meat smoking activities.
This has a nice display as you click Lap and below the larger total time has the current lap time. I find that to be super cool.
The one thing you cannot do here is to add notes on each lap line. Perhaps I should make a feature request?
Alarms
I can’t say that I am likely to use this feature all that much but I can certainly see the use of having an alarm. This, like the phone app you can set one-time or reoccurring alarms. To begin in the Alarm section select Add alarm.
Set your alarm time by either clicking on the arrows or click on the number itself and type the time you want.
If you want the alarm to repeat on certain days, here you can select those days. I tend to sleep in about an hour later on Saturdays and Sunday so I could easily use this to set an alarm on the appropriate days of the week.
Excitingly, you can also set the ring duration and alarm snooze time as well.
An optional name can be made for the alarm you are setting. The one issue I do have here is that I can’t set a custom sound. Whether I used a built in sound or a custom sound, it is the same Casio watch-style beeping you had on a watch. Not a huge deal but it would be nice if I could select a different sound. Perhaps this too is a feature that is going to be ironed out in the near future.
The list of alarms is a great interface where you can easily toggle the specific alarm on and off. This is great for those instances where you are going to be on vacation or taking time off work or school.
Settings
The last section is the settings. There isn’t much to adjust here, just the time format from System default, 12 Hr or 24 hr clocks. I am using 24 hour clock which is my system default.
What I Like
This application is essentially what I have wanted to have on desktop Linux for years. I have used others that worked fine but just weren’t this sort of polished user experience. I absolutely love this.
Being able to set multiple timers is incredibly handy for many purposes outside of just when you are sitting behind your computer. I am using this on my Kitchen computer now for helping me to manage times of the various tasks that go on there.
What I Wish It Did
The Alarms don’t seem to recognize any other sound besides the default beep. Perhaps this is a feature that will be fixed buy the time I select publish, but if not, than I’m sure it will be very soon
It would be very convenient if I could take notes adjacent the laps for activities like tracking the temperature when I am smoking meat, I would be elated. It’s not necessary, of course, I can use a text editor like Kate to take the notes and just be sure that they line up for later use is great too
It would be great if KClock would “quit” to minimize to the system tray instead of just outright quitting. Interestingly, the Timer function continues, even when the application has quit but the Stopwatch doesn’t have this same capability, probably with good reason.
Final Thoughts
KClock is the application I have wanted for many years and I finally have it. Thank you to the developers Devin Lin and Han Young for making this application something I can enjoy on my desktop. I hope that some of these little issues can be ironed out. When it is and I remember to update this article, I will make a note of it here because, no need for a follow up. This is a FANTASTIC application and I am very grateful that developers have taken the time to make this a reality. Applications on Linux are so much fun lately!
References
KClock on Flathub
Dell Inspiron 20 3048 All-In-One Desktop
KDE Plasma 6 | Customizing Date and Time Formats
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