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This seems inevitable to me, and it's one big reason why I stopped complaining about KDE4 even though I still don't like using it. I think it's going to lead to some amazing things.

Someday soon, I think it's inevitable that we're going to be able to save several plasma desktop [configurations? Profiles?] under one user account, and switch between them at will. I'm not a developer, but is seems that we're so close to this, and from my point of view as a user, it's going to change everything. If I can design several desktop configurations for several different tasks and groups of tasks, all of these widgets that seem so obtrusive and annoying to me are going to be a lot friendlier and more helpful. If I don't have to have the weather widget on the desktop al the time, the fact that it takes up so much more room than the old panel applet isn't going to matter any more. Same thing for RSS now, which allows me to scan a whole lot more information in a much shorter time than Knewsticker, but takes up a whole lot more space. If I can switch desktops like switching channels, bigger widgets with more information and other advantages are not going to be a problem.

I looked around, and I didn't see where anyone had mentioned this, but this must have come up before. I can't be the first person who thought of this. It's going to make plasma a lot more useful, and it's probably not that far away.

blackbelt_jones wrote:Someday soon, I think it's inevitable that we're going to be able to save several plasma desktop [configurations? Profiles?] under one user account, and switch between them at will.

Isn't that what activities are for? I voted yes for this, because I think the activities could be streamlined and made more obvious how to use them but it seems like your idea is implemented already but that it needs to be made more easily accessible.

Yes, that is what the activities are for.

Marked as implemented.

ivan wrote:Yes, that is what the activities are for.

The what? The "activities"? I don't know what that is, but since I considered it inevitable, I can't say that I'm surprised that my idea has already been implemented.

I can say that I am delighted! I opposed KDE4, and more recently, I came to respect it, but not to want to run it myself. After I posted this, I became inspired to try running it again. (Keeping KDE3 on the other box.) For some of us, it's been a tough pill to swallow, but it's exactly what you need to be doing right now. As a concept, KDE3 was just about perfect, so what else is there to do but break the mold and start over? And yes, people will scream bloody murder. I know I did.

I've been working on setting up my KDE4.2 box for days. Compared to setting up KDE3, it's a huge pain in the ****. The more options I have, the more effort it takes to use them effectively. There are so many moving parts, getting them all working together isn't easy. Just finding a theme that looks good with wallpaper you like can drive a person half crazy. Too much transparency in folderview and your icons are only semivisible and your text is illegible. And some of the themes have beautiful folderview windows and ugly analog clocks. IMO, the analog clock is extremely important visually because it's the only widget that's round. Every other widget that I can think of is square or rectangular and so the analog clock adds variety to the whole.

I spent more time setting up my KDE4.2 box than most people spend building a computer, and I'm not done yet. I'm never going to "save" the time that I invested in setting up KDE4, no matter how efficient is is and how many clicks I avoid BUT


I hope to use this surprisingly elegant desktop (yes I did find a theme i like) to structure and improve the time I spend on the computer. Improving time is much much better than saving a few seconds here and there. If the desktop helps me enjoy writing enough that I write more and download porn less, every minute of the time spent setting up will have been worth it.

It was this story from National Public Radio that influenced my thinking about the desktop, and made me realize how potentially important Plasma is toward creating a better, more nourishing Desktop envinronment, with emphasis on the "environment".

Thanks for thinking of my great idea before I did!:thumbs_up::lightbulb: If it's really what I was talking about, "Activities" sounds like the real business end of KDE and Plasma, the revolutionary part of the revolution. It's distracting to have to put our whole lives into one Desktop. Our computers are giving our kids ADHD as they try to play Halo and watch HULU while doing their homework. Our desktops are our environment. They're where we live, and they shape who we become.