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Since KDE 4.3, it is possible to have per-desktop plasmoids (*). I suggest that:

a) Plasmoids be made per-desktop per default.
b) Plasmoids be made "pinnable" (available on all desktops), just like regular applications can be
c) Containments remain "pinned" per default (as they are now) but can be restricted to the current desktop
d) Plasma Activities/Zoom out be removed

Rational: the current mechanism to switch activities is impractical and unnecessary, now that per-desktop plasmoids are available. Having pinnable plasmoids would grant users increased flexibility, and this feature would work exactly the same as for applications, thus decreasing the complexity of the desktop environment.

I believe that the most common use case for users is organizing their work per virtual desktop. If plasmoids are part of this workflow, there is no point in having a mechanism which is functionaly equivalent to virtual desktops, but only for plasmoids.

I'll be interested to hear what you all think about it, and if you believe there are (enough) use cases mandating the continued existence of Plasma Activities.

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(*) The setting to control is very much out of the way. You need to zoom out to access it. A bug has been filled about it on bugs.kde.org.

There is one significant difference between Activities and Virtual Desktops. Activities can change the functionality of the plasmoid.

For example if you have a work and a private activity and an IRC client on both then the IRC client on the work activity would show you work associates and IRC nodes and the private one will show you your friends.

The idea is that applications and plasmoids will change their focus according to what activity you are in.

Still I like the idea of pin-able plasmoids and with activities tied to virtual-Desktops (as is now the option) I think it would not be a bad idea

This is really four different ideas. a and d are not going to happen, period, and lots of people are likely going to vote down your idea because of those two points, hurting the chances of your idea getting accepted. c isn't really clear. b is a viable idea. So please either just make this idea about b, or split it into separate ideas. a and d have already been rejected repeatedly by devs,so if you post those they will just get marked as wontfix, so I would not bother posting them.

As for your question, the point of activities is that they can change depending on what you are doing at the time, providing you with an environment and widgets appropriate for the task at hand. The per-desktop activities thing was implemented late because activities were intended from the very beginning to be independent of your desktop. The idea is to have your computer understand what you are doing and re-configure itself to make that task easier. This has not been implemented yet, it is very difficult to do, but with nepomuk support maturing we should see it happening soon, maybe even to a limited extent in KDE 4.4. Your idea would prevent this from happening, eliminating one of the central goals of plasma and blocking one of KDE 4's most revolutionary features.

You need to remember that KDE is an ongoing project, a lot of stuff that may not seem very useful now, like activities, nepomuk, and akonadi, were developed to provide the underlying technologies needed for unique and revolutionary features down the road.

TheBlackCat wrote:This is really four different ideas. a and d are not going to happen, period, and lots of people are likely going to vote down your idea because of those two points, hurting the chances of your idea getting accepted. c isn't really clear. b is a viable idea. So please either just make this idea about b, or split it into separate ideas. a and d have already been rejected repeatedly by devs,so if you post those they will just get marked as wontfix, so I would not bother posting them.

Thank you both for your comments. It is different ideas indeed, but they work together to replace the current system of activities. I can clarify c): currently, if you add a panel (which is the word I should have used, really...), this panel is visible on all desktops (effectively 'pinned').

TheBlackCat wrote:As for your question, the point of activities is that they can change depending on what you are doing at the time, providing you with an environment and widgets appropriate for the task at hand. The per-desktop activities thing was implemented late because activities were intended from the very beginning to be independent of your desktop. The idea is to have your computer understand what you are doing and re-configure itself to make that task easier. This has not been implemented yet, it is very difficult to do, but with nepomuk support maturing we should see it happening soon, maybe even to a limited extent in KDE 4.4. Your idea would prevent this from happening, eliminating one of the central goals of plasma and blocking one of KDE 4's most revolutionary features.

You need to remember that KDE is an ongoing project, a lot of stuff that may not seem very useful now, like activities, nepomuk, and akonadi, were developed to provide the underlying technologies needed for unique and revolutionary features down the road.

Noted. I guess I should resubmit my idea. What do I need to do, just edit it?

By the way, you said that d) was not going to happen. Did you mean just plasma activities or also zoom out? If you mean the former only, then I'd be happy to suggest other ways of managing activities.

Emm wrote:

TheBlackCat wrote:As for your question, the point of activities is that they can change depending on what you are doing at the time, providing you with an environment and widgets appropriate for the task at hand. The per-desktop activities thing was implemented late because activities were intended from the very beginning to be independent of your desktop. The idea is to have your computer understand what you are doing and re-configure itself to make that task easier. This has not been implemented yet, it is very difficult to do, but with nepomuk support maturing we should see it happening soon, maybe even to a limited extent in KDE 4.4. Your idea would prevent this from happening, eliminating one of the central goals of plasma and blocking one of KDE 4's most revolutionary features.

You need to remember that KDE is an ongoing project, a lot of stuff that may not seem very useful now, like activities, nepomuk, and akonadi, were developed to provide the underlying technologies needed for unique and revolutionary features down the road.

Noted. I guess I should resubmit my idea. What do I need to do, just edit it?

If you change it substantially it is better to post a new one to start with 0 votes again.

There are a lot of people using different activities and virtual desktops independently. But the ideas for more flexibility are good.

Not bad idea.

Plasma don't have to have different activity for different task.

Look like this. We can have activity container, desktop container. Both working as tabs, but user switch it by changing desktop/activity. It should be always visible on desktop/activity, where it was created.

On desktop/activity, where it was empty, it should be hidden. Plasma still can change Nepomuk activity, but if we place plasmoid outside container, it should be displayed on all activity/desktop, but still can change assemblies according to current desktop/activity.

User won't put many containers on the same place. It change way of using plasma and current way is still better, but maybe is there some gold point?

Not bad idea.

Plasma don't have to have different activity for different task.

Look like this. We can have activity container, desktop container. Both working as tabs, but user switch it by changing desktop/activity. It should be always visible on desktop/activity, where it was created.

On desktop/activity, where it was empty, it should be hidden. Plasma still can change Nepomuk activity, but if we place plasmoid outside container, it should be displayed on all activity/desktop, but still can change assemblies according to current desktop/activity.

User won't put many containers on the same place. It change way of using plasma and current way is still better, but maybe is there some gold point?

Developers said they will not implement the ability to show the same widget on multiple activities.