Brilliant Deve wrote:@scummos

Dont like it, Does Not mean (Does NOT support).
That what I don't like most about KDE the development follows much the of the developer's mood.

Development of open source community projects following the developers' mood definitely can be a problem at times, but it's sort of an integral part of the concept. Why would someone work on something he's not at all interested in in his free time? (Note that I'm not at all involved with plasma development or similar)

Brilliant Deve wrote:# New ways to interact with computers : todays & tomorrow computers wont use mouse & keyboard only Touch Screens, Control Gestures, Sensors like KINECT have became widely used in computers & we're not talking about something in the future it's really Exist today, so it's really important for any DE to be compatible with those Technologies.

It will take you a very long time to convince me that selecting an application from the start menu using the kinect is more convenient than just using my keyboard and mouse. Altough there's many fun and interesting new technologies out there, I don't think that trying to integrate every available sensor into launching applications is a good idea. Also I predict that keyboards will still be there in twenty years, and will not be replaced by touch screens any time soon.

Brilliant Deve wrote:# Get Advantage of Bigger Screens : I have 24" Screen why I have to stick with App Menu that ONLY take 6'' inches of my screen !
Give me Nice looking App Launcher that Get Advantage of My Screens, Provide more options & Cool animations.

I personally like to use a bigger screen for displaying more stuff, not for displaying the same stuff like on a small screen but bigger. But that is, of course, up to personal preference. Differently put, even on a huge screen, I'd prefer a small launcher over a fullscreen one.

Greetings,
Sven

I must admit this I find both the title of this thread and the mockups really scary. I'm a Gnome refugee looking for a new DE and now I see an image that has striking similarities with Gnome 3.

I don't see a need for this since there's already Plasma Active.

It is beautiful concept. But if something wrong in the future, how if it created as addon (or something similiar) for KDE?

This concept reminds me original GnomeShell design before they made it more Unity-like. I tmade me thinking more about idea of fullscreen-launchers.
I tried to get the best from your mockup, homerun and ROSA Simply Launcher.
So here's what I've got.



Full-size version: http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/7131/fslauncher.png

basic asumptions were:
- easy and fast to navigate
- exposing advanced KDE features (activites, semantic desktop ...)
- extendable

I think launcher should be in fact container for launching modules (something similar to homerun
So waht we got on the pic, from top-let corner:

- activity icon and name.
- below is list of modules ("My Activity", "Applications...")
- on the botom there' splace for three configurable buttons for switching users/activities,shutting down/suspending etc...
- modules content (main part of the launcher window) with icons grouped into categories.
- optional buttons to manipulate which/how content is displayed (if module has such options).
- search-box

Navigation.
on start launcher shows top of the first module (here "My Activity". Selecting modules could be done by hovering mouse cursor (with some delay, let's say 300ms)
or mouseclick anywhere in the module area on the list. Icons below module name are shortcuts, once clicked, it should jump to the given category in selected module
(on the pic "Places" are selected).

Modules:
Most of the things should be pretty self-explaining, but I'd like to highlight some things.
"My acticity" is the thing that should provide 90% of what you can look for.
- your static list of favourite aps (exactly the same we've got in Kickoff)
- static list of favorite folders ("Places" from Dolphin)
- dynamic lists of most often used/recently used apps/documents
- suggestions - something PlasmaActive does - all the resources that might be related provided by Nepomuk

* in perfect world, those static lists ("Favorite" and "Places") should be held per activity (ie different for eachone).
That would need some patches here and there, but maybe some day ...
** another thing are recent apps, it should count apps launched by other means (krunner, icons on docs, panels, desktop etc...)

Timeline - another concept I "borrowed" from ROSA launcher, IMHO it's quite nice feature, that should show great capabilities
of Nepomuk/Zeitgeis combo. Again separate timeline for each activity.

Another module I wa s thinking of is "People And Places" List of bookmarks and Contacts (nice place to put libpersonas in use) with ability to group by name or tag.

I think that's enough for the moment. I hope to hear your opinions on this concept.
Don't worry 'about labels/names - I know they are terrible (I hope you've already guessed, i'm not english native-speaker)
Pic made mostly from Oxygen icons and plasma air theme.

borish wrote:I must admit this I find both the title of this thread and the mockups really scary. I'm a Gnome refugee looking for a new DE and now I see an image that has striking similarities with Gnome 3.

I don't see a need for this since there's already Plasma Active.

Don't be scared, beatu of KDE is you can have /jump between varrious options without even logging out. I don' think Kickoff, Lancelot or calssic menu are goiin to dissapear
Full-screen menus have some advantages, efectively use screen estate, aeasier to navigate (no nested menus) and so on. It's just GnomeShell screwed it's things up.

Your concept is just awesome. The idea of modules is exactly what I was trying to say. One of the most important things for an application, especially in KDE, is to make it configurable and extensible. Making it with modules where you can download and regroup the way you like is one of the things that would make a laucher perfect, like Unity is doing with lenses. The problem with unity launcher is that everything is separated and just not practical.

Kickoff is a good launcher, easy to use and very fast, but the problem is that it's very limited. We have computers with big screens and use just a small part of it to display dozens of applications, folders, documents, contacts and actions is wasting the potential of the system. While every other DE and OS are evolving to full screen launchers, KDE is keeping with the antiquated style menu, like LXDE and XFDE

Look at this mockup. Almost everything you need to use is in the home screen. With the concept of modules is possible to extend the launcher to search for everything very easily. And making it compatible with KRunner plugins it could search for everything in a much more convenient way.

I am quite satisfied with the Homerun project. It is in someway very close to the concept of this thread. I would love to see a sidebar equally extensible and configurable, some way to make 2 columns of modules, and some plugins to search for videos and torrents. I think the project is in the right way.

Both ROSA Simply Launcher and Homerun are nice, but has some flaws.
- layot limits extendability: both use horizonta tabs for "modules". It's nice where we have 2-3 tabs, but gets cumbersome when the amout of tabs grow. Tabs that are out of the screen are hard to discover (iirc there's no indcator there are more tabs) and not all input devices support horizontall scrolling.
- slower navigation compared to kickoff/classic menu. Lets say I want to launch ksysguard (without using search). I know it in applications/system.
> Homerun: open HR (bottom/top-left corner), open aplications on the middle-top of the window, open system, select ksysguard
> ROSA: open RSL (bottom/top-left corner) open applications on the bottom, scroll huge list of apps (btw, I really wish they make it 1 icons row per click, now it's really slow and annoying), click on ksysguard.
> classic-menu: open menu (bottom/top-left corner), select system, select ksysguard
> my launcher: open ml (bottom/top-left corner), click on "System" - the middle-left, click on ksysguard.

Generally with ROSA Simply Launcher you always have to scroll trough th list, Homerun is more stretched kickoff, becase you still have to go trough nested menus. Both of them are suboptimal, with RSL doing a bit better job in the end.

I don't really think two columns of modules would do better, as it would break the flow and consistency of layout. Now it's rather clean (by KDE standards - ie still a bit crowded but managable ). I don't really suppose ppl would have more than 6-8 modules, that means there are anly 2-3 not fitting a screen. With most important/often used modules being on the top.

Regarding searchiong for things like videos etc... That's why I think it's time to start to promote technologies used in KDE (here Nepomuk is to the rescue), assuming this activity is used for browsing videos and other media, your videos should be on firs t page in recent/most often used, and "suggesdtions" (here should go all the things Nepomuk thinks are related ie, videos/pics on your computer, links from bookmarks and browser history).
Other place where you can look for the things is timeline, I guess there could be a separate sub-page with interface to nepomuk search (ie serach for types of resource (link, contact, doc/audio file ...., tag, date, name etc...)

Now KDE is just another DE, GnomeShell went with GS experience - strick uniformity for all the things with all the pros and cons. KDE can distinguish itself with modern technologies and concepts that make desktop really personal and adaptive to the users workflow. Something Gnome developrs once claimed their goal, but somehow fail do provide.

borish wrote:I must admit this I find both the title of this thread and the mockups really scary. I'm a Gnome refugee looking for a new DE and now I see an image that has striking similarities with Gnome 3.

I don't see a need for this since there's already Plasma Active.

Sorry if I am late to join this discussion, but I've been recently following some topics on the news and there are things that worry me too. I understand now KDE is going through various transformations mainly to be able to be a platform for different form factors of new devices recently entering the market. However take a look at what this guy shows what can clearly be seen as an experiment gone too far:
http://www.zdnet.com/will-90-percent-of ... 000012348/
Please read the article first before you go further....



For me for example what I see on my screen before I launch any application must be minimalistic. I won't show it to you, because there is nothing to show. That's my rule. If you think I need to know there are 30 more applications I can use, I don't want to know and I don't want to see them on my desktop - whatever the form factor is. You should abide by those rules, then you won't have trouble finding what you need. What worries me is that with the next incarnation of KDE I will have to spend 2 hours again and again customizing my desktop.

At home I use my LCD screen on my coffee table and I also watch TV. For that reason my desktop is just a black background with 10 icons with my favourite applications, otherwise I would be watching my TV while my LCD computer screen would shining at me all the time causing a headache. What's the point of having such an overloaded with stuff screen like shown at the beginning of the thread? Ok, I understand, ArthurTaborda is showing it after he has custimized, that is the way he sees and and it suites the way he works. I also understand the aim is to use it on a smart phone or tablet, that is understandable, but try not to port those solutions to traditional desktops. Whenever I install my system and KDE I can already customize it anyway by linking my most common applications to my desktop. Simple, quick and easy, I go to "Start", find my "app" and link it to my desktop. Period. What's wrong with that?

By the way, the best application start menu is in Sabayon Linux I have, check it out and let me know what you think.

Sometimes when I look at people's desktops I see hundreds of icons. I find this totally distracting and utterly inefficient. At work I use Windows XP and my desktop is again "black" and only 10 icons to launch my applications I need. Documents? I open the file browser and I know where my documents are.

The next thing to consider. If you really wish to change things, take a 60 year old person ask her/him to test it, whether it is usable and that person understands what you want to achieve. Make sure we can still use the traditional desktops, I don't see anything wrong with them. At work I also have Windows 7, Windows 8 and the first thing I do is switch to the old "Windows" simple look. No fancy stuff at all. It serverd me well for the past 10+ years, why should I change it? From what Windows 7 looks like does not help me at all to work more efficiently, on the contrary, many new "gadgetry" is simply getting in the way. So please - KEEP IT SIMPLE.

I am great fan of KDE, I have never - ever used Gnome and I wish the KDE team to stay on top of all the desktops in the world .

Just my thoughts.
Regards
Richlion