This is one area that the web has done better.

look at firefox for example, when you click a link you have the option of putting it in a new tab. we have "similer" ability with multiple desktops, but it isn't as good.

I suggest that we have just one desktop, but rename it to tabs. then we have an easily accessed button for a new "tab" plus we can right click any app and tell it to open in some existing "tab" or open it in a new one altogether.

this is clearly not a critical feature, but it could be a big seeling point to those who are familiar with tabs, but not Desktops.

This is technically already available thanks to the Plasma desktop. Only difference is that it is called "Desktop Activity", and doesn't have a tab bar available yet ( I think a Plasmoid is available for this )

oh good. I'll check into this. I do think naming them tabs would however make more sense to those who have never been used to linux.

me personally, I am an advanced user after having used it for two years. tells ya how much you can learn form having to recompile a kernal to get your wifi card to wark just right.

Yes, you can use the so-called "activity bar" to switch between activities (best fit into an auto-hiding panel, at least in my experience). You may want to check the tutorial sections, there are pointers on how to use activities, a screencast, and some tips.

I don't think that's what the OP wants. Activities is for plasmoids. As far as I understand, Technobabble wants to replace the virtual desktops with tabs, so the pager would be a tab bar for example.

well I wouldn't want pager replaced. more like enhanced. yeah you are on the right track, and yes I am talking about Virtual Desktops.

frankly if it could be done right it could boost productivity. if done wrong it could confuse everyone including the new users that it was supposed to help.

don't get me wrong I like Kde 4 the way it is, but this is an idea that has been floating around in my head.

right now most people have 2-4 desktops, but they only use 1. I am one of them because they are not intuitive. if we structured them like Tabs where you could have multiple windows in each tab it could be a boon.

Think about it. instead of a fixed nuber of Desktops, You could click new tab open your e-mail, and simultainiusly run Synaptic out of sight. finnaly you could click on the menu right click on Kdimond and tell it to open in new Tab.
Synaptic is done, so you close that tab, and E-mail is now tab 1.

Everybody on the same page as me now?

To me this seems to be me to be better broken down into a few separate ideas, each of which is a fairly small change to the existing system but together I think can accomplish the same goals you are describing:

An "Open on Desktop" menu for the application launcher and quicklaunch right-click menu, similar to the "To Desktop" option in the title bar and task manager right-click menus.

A "Desktop Window List" plasmoid, similar to the "Window List" plasmoid except it show a list of windows for each of your desktops instead of just the current one.

An easy way to add or remove desktops. This would probably take the form of a "To New Desktop" option in the application launcher, window titlebar right-click, task manager right click, and an "Add Desktop" and "Remove Desktop" options in desktop window list, pager, desktop containment, and perhaps the desktop cashew. The pager could perhaps have a + button for adding desktops and a - button on each desktop for closing them (it may be better if these only appear if you hover on the page for a certain amount of time). This should move windows in the closed desktop to the next available desktop. However, I am not sure how efficiently kwin handles adding and removing desktops. It would have to be very quick for this sort of thing to be a good idea.

An "Automatically Close Empty Desktops" option in kwin, probably with a setting for the minimum and maximum number of desktops it will allow (getting too many desktops may cause a serious strain especially on compositing window managers).

acctually you kind of nailed it. if done right it could speed up productivity for many people, and with your Idea of auto-closing empty desktops it could give a small speed boost to the computer illiterite.

Funny you would suggest something like this as I have been thinking about dynamic desktops for a while now, the difference with mine though is that you can create new desktops in any direction, not number order. Doing it in number order would make things easier I guess...

Completely dislike the name "tabs" though as they are not tabs at all, they are different desktops and have been called as such forever.

I wonder if this could be put in initially as just another "Activity Type" (Like Desktop and Folder View). That way those who wanted to could experiment with it.

I think that is a really interesting idea. Maybe skip calling the desktops "tabs", though perhaps a "tab bar" panel at the top of the screen would make managing them easier. You could almost think of it as a very dynamic pager, one that facilitates creating and closing desktops very fluidly, and easily sending apps to a new desktop (creating one if necessary).

I think this very good idea. Personally, I don't find arranging windows to a grid or to sides of a cube that convenient or even logical.

I thought of this "mockup" after reading this. Not so pretty and plasma seemed to go bit a shaky after this (Kubuntu 8.10), but I think Technobabble's idea has some potential.
http://imagebin.ca/view/J-MkH2Ka.html
http://imagebin.ca/view/DCdiV7q.html

It consists of two panels where upper one handles virtual desktops and task manager is located to the lower edge of the screen. Task manager only show windows of current desktop and automatically hides, as I usually don't clutter one desktop so much that i can't see every window.

It is very easy to identify each desktop only by looking to icons shown on pager.

Of course pager needs improvement: dynamic desktops, different (more tab-like) looks, and drag'n'drop feature (you could drop windows to a different desktop, or if you hover over a "tab" you both change desktop and bring the window along.) Drag and drop would be useful to anyone, I guess. One outfit of pager could be more symbolic, like browser tab bar with rectangular tabs which each shows symbols of programs running on the desktop.

beh wrote:I thought of this "mockup" after reading this. Not so pretty and plasma seemed to go bit a shaky after this (Kubuntu 8.10), but I think Technobabble's idea has some potential.

Your images are broken.

SteveMcQwark wrote:Your images are broken.

Links were okay, I edited the message without actually chancing anything and now images are show again. I wonder if they disappear again...

I still don't see them.

TheBlackCat wrote:I still don't see them.

Well, I can see them. I don't know what's wrong. I used one plasmoid to upload these. Here are links to images:
http://imagebin.ca/img/J-MkH2Ka
http://imagebin.ca/img/DCdiV7q