Can someone explain to me the logic of not allowing users to place icons on the desktop???

How does this in any way, at any time, in any universe make any sense to anybody??? Can this behavior be changed?

Yes, I know about the Folder widget and all that, but I want to interact with the desktop by dragging and dropping icons onto it, having them show up right on it when I download a file to it, etc... you know, the type of interaction with the desktop that has been the standard for the past 20 years or so...

mattydee wrote:Can someone explain to me the logic of not allowing users to place icons on the desktop???

How does this in any way, at any time, in any universe make any sense to anybody??? Can this behavior be changed?

Yes, I know about the Folder widget and all that, but I want to interact with the desktop by dragging and dropping icons onto it, having them show up right on it when I download a file to it, etc... you know, the type of interaction with the desktop that has been the standard for the past 20 years or so...

Do you know about Folder view as an activity? It's exactly what you want and available for you in KDE4.2.

Primoz wrote:

mattydee wrote:Can someone explain to me the logic of not allowing users to place icons on the desktop???

How does this in any way, at any time, in any universe make any sense to anybody??? Can this behavior be changed?

Yes, I know about the Folder widget and all that, but I want to interact with the desktop by dragging and dropping icons onto it, having them show up right on it when I download a file to it, etc... you know, the type of interaction with the desktop that has been the standard for the past 20 years or so...

Do you know about Folder view as an activity? It's exactly what you want and available for you in KDE4.2.

No, what is it? How can I get it?
Thank you

You need to have KDE 4.2 (currently at RC1) installed. Then it's just a matter of going in the desktop settings (the ones you use to change wallpaper) and select "Folder View" as desktop type.

it is already present in opensuse 11 with kde 4.1.3, so if you are using that distribution you don't have to upgrade RC1 of kde 4.2

Actually, the way Folder View works is the best thing in KDE4, I think. In fact, except for the the panel, Folder Views are the only plasmoids I use. Here's a screenshot:
[url=http://i43.tinypic.com/rh0jk6.png][img=576x360]http://i43.tinypic.com/rh0jk6.png[/img]
(Click to see larger image)[/url]

Here, I have a large view of my Home folder and the "Desktop" (haha, "Desktop") folder. On the left, I have the folder with the stuff I'm working on right now, filtered to show only the the .c and .h files. The one on the right is on a remote ssh server.

So now, instead of having a "Desktop" which usually contained random files that I did not plan to save somewhere, now I can also have access to something I'm working on somewhere deep in some folder, and I can also drop stuff to another machine, all without having a single file manager window open!

Yeah, it might bit weird (actually, my dashboard is decoupled from the actual desktop which is only graced by the Blue Curls, as I usually like my desktop to be most of the time), but I really like this way of doing things. This is by far the most innovative and now indispensable thing KDE4 brought me.

Thanks for the tips. I'll have to wait for 4.2 on Ubuntu.

Thanks Alec, I'll try your approach.