I have reason to believe that Plasma is going to turn out to be really important and necessary. Here's a story from National Public Radio that really changed my thinking about Plasma. I'd strongly recommend this to anyone with an interest in desktop productivity.

Multitasking teens may be muddling their brains

As research begins to reveal that intensive multitasking isn't as effective as we like to tell ourselves, Plasma may be coming along just in time to reform that hotbed of promiscuous multitasking, the personal computer desktop environment. Our desktop environments are all built on having everything up front and convenient, for any or all tasks, and that's an invitation for multitasking.

Whether it's already on the drawing board or not, I think it's inevitable that plasma is going to lead to the possibility of multiple desktops geared toward single tasking. Imagine if you could thumb through a collection of desktop configurations, whether designed by you or someone else, each built for maximum efficiency of a single task: a writing desktop, a research desktop, a media desktop, a video editing desktop... This could really make us more productive in the future. This is what I mean when I say that Plasma may start out as eye candy, but it's going to end up as brain food.

So, if I tell you that I hate Plasma, please understand that at the same time I also think that it has the potential of being maybe the greatest thing since X.

But... I really do hate it. I mean the present widget system is just annoying. I especialliy hate having to lock and unlock it every time I make a change.

However, I decided to experiment, and I'm finding that if I remove all plasmoids from the desktop, I can have a perfectly workable desktop.

Here's a screenshot. I'll be back to discuss it later. My ride is here!

neverendingo wrote:Just a quick question, why did you choose to drop the thread here? Only for information.

This is supposed to be about my customized KDE4 desktop. I only got through the preamble when I suddenly had to leave. Will get back to it. I guess it could have also gone in "installation and configuration".

So now that I no longer consider KDE4 to be a mortal threat to my desktop, with its elaborate fluxbox/KDE schema, I've been setting up KDE4 today, a dual boot of Intrepid with KDE 3.5.10 and intrepid with KDE 4.1, OSo I can fool around with KDE4 part of the time, and relax and see the sight, sans plasmoids on the desktop. It's a nice change of pace. Right now, the desktop plasmoids are really just a lot of dragging, resizing, and locking and unlocking for just big adjustable applets. It's just the same function for a lot more work. I've got an old P3, and KDE4 actually runs pretty, the applications are pretty solid, but those plasmoids just drag and drag and drag. It turns out that if you don't put anything on the desktop, no plasmoids, you don't need to worry about locking and unlocking, and for me, that's a relief. So I'm enjoying KDE4 for the first time, though for some poeple KDE without plasmoids must seem like a vegan cheeseburger: No cheese, no burger.


From the default configuration, I left all the widgets on the bottom panel except for the application launcher, which I removed.

I added a top panel, and then I added a application launcher to the top panel, so I was able to put links to all of my most essential applications to the top panel. So the bottom panel is all about widgets, the top panel is about applications.

Now, the little red apple on the top panel, that has the blue arrow pointing to it is a link to konqueror that I reconfigured with "icon settings to open to ~/Desktop." So now I've got access to the desktop, and, as I'm sure many people know, one of the really special things about KDE is that you can create links to application, the equivalent of what Gnome calls a "desktop launcher" in any directory, and you can launch applications from them, using either Konqueror or Dolphin. So I don't need a desktop, I just need ~/Desktop and my choice of Konqueror or dolphin. I can create all kinds of custom links to applications in that directory, and access them any time I want by clicking on my little red apple icon.

So, for the first time, I feel like I'm actually visiting KDE4, and not struggling with it.


[size=xx-large]WOW! THIS IS INCOHERENT! MUST REWRITE SOON, HOPEFULLY TOMORROW[/size]

i wonder how people did it in kde 3.5 with there karamba widgets, every single one needed to be locked. And complain about it in kde4 where it takes less clicks.

This is a personal opinion and discussion, as such moved to the appropriate forum.

blackbelt_jones wrote:
As research begins to reveal that intensive multitasking isn't as effective as we like to tell ourselves

There is no multitasking. There is serial singletasking, but no multitasking. If you ever observe a person who is "multitasking", you will notice that he is NOT doing several things at once.

But... I really do hate it. I mean the present widget system is just annoying. I especialliy hate having to lock and unlock it every time I make a change.

I leave my widgets unlocked all the time.... And I have no need to be constantly changing them.

However, I decided to experiment, and I'm finding that if I remove all plasmoids from the desktop, I can have a perfectly workable desktop.

Plasma is a lot more than just plasmoids. Just because you remived plasmoids does not mean that you have somehow eliminated Plasma. Plasma still draws your desktop and your panels.

Janne wrote:Plasma is a lot more than just plasmoids. Just because you remived plasmoids does not mean that you have somehow eliminated Plasma. Plasma still draws your desktop and your panels.

Further, in fact: the Desktop and Panels are Plasmoids

bcooksley wrote:This is a personal opinion and discussion, as such moved to the appropriate forum.

Really? That certainly wasn't what I intended. The personal opinion was intended to be preamble to a discussion of alternative ways of customizing the desktop. [hr]

Dryfit wrote:i wonder how people did it in kde 3.5 with there karamba widgets, every single one needed to be locked. And complain about it in kde4 where it takes less clicks.

What are they?

The problem as I understand it, that any change to the desktop or the panels requires unlocking.[hr]

GeneralZod wrote:

Janne wrote:Plasma is a lot more than just plasmoids. Just because you remived plasmoids does not mean that you have somehow eliminated Plasma. Plasma still draws your desktop and your panels.

Further, in fact: the Desktop and Panels are Plasmoids

Well, that's why I kept saying "Desktop plasmoids". Surely, if anything is a plasmoid, it is a plasmoid on a panel, which I have kept, so I think it's pretty obvious that I haven't eliminated plasma. I hope to god that I didn't say that I believed that I had.

Really, you guys. Since we're in the opinions forum now, I just explained why I thought Plasma was maybe "the greatest thing since X" that will change the game and boost productivity for everyone, and then I expressed a personal preference. Why are you more interested in my personal preference?

blackbelt_jones wrote:
Really, you guys. Since we're in the opinions forum now, I just explained why I thought Plasma was maybe "the greatest thing since X" that will change the game and boost productivity for everyone, and then I expressed a personal preference. Why are you more interested in my personal preference?

I'm not really sure what this whole thing is about. Is it about the fact that you can have a desktop with just a panel(s), and no desktop-plasmoids at all, and that the result looks pretty similar to "normal" desktop?

Janne wrote:

blackbelt_jones wrote:
Really, you guys. Since we're in the opinions forum now, I just explained why I thought Plasma was maybe "the greatest thing since X" that will change the game and boost productivity for everyone, and then I expressed a personal preference. Why are you more interested in my personal preference?

I'm not really sure what this whole thing is about. Is it about the fact that you can have a desktop with just a panel(s), and no desktop-plasmoids at all, and that the result looks pretty similar to "normal" desktop?

Do you think it looks more like a "normal desktop?" I think the point is that I didn't used to enjoy running KDE4 and now I am enjoying it, which is a good thing, n'est-ce pas? I also wanted to explain how I did it, which may not be as ingenious as I thought before setting out to write it down. One thing I had a hard time figuring out was that i could get application launchers onto the top panel by putting the application launcher widget onto the top panel.

Another interesting discovery is that the application launcher -widgets can be edited. I was able to change the icon for my konqueror launcher, and change the command line to open konqueror to ~/Desktop

The larger point is that there are a lot of different ways to run this stuff. My usual desktop isn't KDE3. It's fluxbox optimized to run KDE3 applications, especially Konqueror and kpager.

...and that's when I realized there's no kpapger in KDE4. Hope that isn't permanent.

It's true that the "need to constantly adjust the widgets" comes as much from my own personality as from the requirements of the desktop, but it's the only personality I have. I never can get it just right, and I am forever adjusting.

And if I don't lock them, when I log out or if plasma crashes, when I log in again, I find them all stacked up in the left upper corner of the screen.

blackbelt_jones wrote:
Do you think it looks more like a "normal desktop?"

Depends what "normal desktop" is. I would say that there is no such thing as "normal desktop", since they are all different to some degree

I think the point is that I didn't used to enjoy running KDE4 and now I am enjoying it, which is a good thing, n'est-ce pas?

Of course it is, and I'm glad you have found a setup that you like .

The larger point is that there are a lot of different ways to run this stuff.

Yep. I would encourage people to experiment with new things .

One thing I love about KDE is the ability to put custom launchers (my word for what KDE calls "links to applications" anywhere in the file system, where Konqueror or Dolphin can activate them. KDE3 had the capability, and when you carry that over into KDE4, it makes folderview a hundred times more powerful. Before, you could build a menu in any directory, and now you can make any directory part of the Desktop! I'm pretty sure that Nautilus can't do that. In Gnome, (I believe) your desktop launchers are all on the Desktop, and they're no good anywhere else.

So Konqueror/Dolphin can really be a universal menu. If you've got some of those good application links set up, and you're trying some unfamiliar desktop gui, and you don't know how to do anything, if you can manage to open konqueror or dolphin, you have access to those links, to give you some time to learn to run things more natively.

I think I probably will start running folderview unlocked on my KDE 4 system.