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I'm using Kubuntu 10.10 Maverick, KDE 4.5.1.

I filed a bug against Kolourpaint that it should have a color picker. The developer responded that I should use the Color Picker widget. But I had looked for a "color picker" utility at length in the Application Launcher, I used its Search and explored the Applications > Graphics and Applications > Utilities categories.

It seems insane that KDE so vigorously hides a lot of its apps by leaving Plasma widgets out of its launcher! I don't want to add widgets and panels or futz around with the cashew symbols (most times I do so I end up messing up my panel) every time I want to do something on my computer. Instead I click the big K, and expect that it will help me locate and run an application that does what I want. I believe most KDE users have the same expectation and usage pattern, so they are missing out on a color picker, Hard Disk Status, the "Remember the Milk" ToDo app, and dozens more, while being vaguely dissatisfied with KDE's apparent incompleteness.

The fix is to add Plasma widgets to the Application Launcher so they're accessible to its search and appear its existing categories. By all means give them special features like drag to desktop, "Add to panel > [New panel]" submenus, and special badging.

Workaround: it seems KRunner (Alt-F2, the well-hidden power tool that looks like Application Launcher's search but is very different, but now I digress) can find and run Plasma widgets, thanks to its search plug-in "Windowed widgets" that can find "Plasma widgets that can be run as standalone windows". KRunner doesn't support browsing by category. By the way, you can't find KRunner in Application Launcher either.

fyi if you use Lancelot instead of Kmenu (application launcher) then you will have the plasmoid search available to you

Plasma widgets are meant for compact little tools/overviews/gimmicks that sit on your desktop or panels all the time, not just opened on demand.

For the open-on-demand usage pattern, you should probably use the respective stand-alone applications for each specific use-case.
And such stand-alone applications *do* exist in KDE:

color picker: KColorChooser
hardware info: KInfoCenter
disk access monitor: KSysGuard
todo list: KOrganizer (also accessible from within Kontact)
all-purpose note taking: KJots, KNotes (also accessible from within Kontact)

And then of course there are also additional third-party KDE apps:

advanced note taking: BasKet (http://basket.kde.org)
advanced disk info: KDE Partition Manager (http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=89595)
and many more...

If you are willing to install non-KDE apps, you get even more choice:

todo list: Tasque (http://live.gnome.org/Tasque/Screenshots)
and many more...

"the well-hidden power tool that looks like Application Launcher's search but is very different"

The search in KRunner, Kickoff and Lancelot is the same with the only difference that in Kickoff, most search engines (runners) are disabled to prevent crashes of the whole desktop.

KRunner and Lancelot live in a separate process, so crashing is not a problem for them, thus they can support more runners.

Am I the only person left in KDE that thinks, regardless of platform or use-case, Plasma widgets should be kept separate and distinct from full-fledged applications (I'm looking at you, plasma-mobile!)?

@Madman this is off-topic, please create (if you want to discuss further) a separate thread and leave a link here.

Madman wrote:Am I the only person left in KDE that thinks, regardless of platform or use-case, Plasma widgets should be kept separate and distinct from full-fledged applications (I'm looking at you, plasma-mobile!)?

I do agree with you as well.

On-topic: I use [ALT]+F2 most of the time, so it never bothers me much.

ivan wrote:@Madman this is off-topic, please create (if you want to discuss further) a separate thread and leave a link here.

Sorry, I felt it might be on-topic since it's discussing treating Plasma widgets as applications in the applications menu.

Well, brainstorm discussions should be focused on the idea itself, and nothing else - your post *is* related to the topic, but not the idea itself.

BTW, I think having a thread about that could be useful.

Here you go.

smls wrote:For the open-on-demand usage pattern, you should probably use the respective stand-alone applications for each specific use-case.

OK, but you've mistaken a user trying to get something done for someone who gives a damn about plasmoids versus applications and usage patterns. I'd love it if I run a program for the first time and it shows Like me? I'm a plasmoid, you can add me to a panel!, but first I have to know it's available. Hiding useful programs from the Application Launcher due to geeky semantic differences is NOT helping users.

smls wrote:Color picker: KColorChooser

Thanks! But that's missing from my Kubuntu 10.04 distribution. I could have found it in KPackageKit, but (here we go again...) KPackageKit > Get and Remove Software doesn't seem to show plasmoids.

smls wrote:And then of course there are also additional third-party KDE apps

Indeed. I realize there's a world of software available to help me get things done, my point is what I wanted is already on my computer.

While KDE is stuck making me try three recipes (Application Launcher, expose cashew > Add Widgets..., and KPackageKit > Get and Remove Programs) to get things done, I've heard about an alternative runtime that lets me find any program anywhere by any means and click on it, and it just works. It's called the Web...

Might it be more effective to stop hiding Krunner behind a shortcut, and place it in the default favorite applications (i.e. the ones you see when you open the KMenu)? That way, new users would find out about it without having to learn a shortcut first. (That they should use a shortcut could be offered as an explanation, which would help make Krunner a lot more newbie-friendly.) Krunner seems way too powerful a tool to hide it behind a shortcut "for the experts". Elsewise there should be a snazzy tour of Plasma for new users that is available at first start.