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I'd like to only have to turn compositing and desktop effects off/on with one checkbox rather than than have to have the effects checkbox is ticked and ensure that compositing is not suspended. We would still have automatic suspension of effects (as we have now). They'd just turn off, to turn back on when resources were available *only if* they were turned off automatically.

I'm sure there's a long technical reason for having two independent toggles that both have to be on for most things to work, but as a user I only care if my desktop effects are on or off. Thats it. The number of times I've done Alt+Shift+F12 to turn my effects on, but had it not work because the "other" toggle (the checkbox) wasn't ticked. With this, Alt+Shift+F12 would *always* work, when toggling effects (not just when the other hidden checkbox is ticked)

Vote yes, to be able to toggle compositing and desktop effects with one simple checkbox / keyboard shortcut.

(PS the naming is not the point of this idea eg. on/off, enable/disable, active/inactive etc)

Hmm... must have missed that, "temporarily" bit...

Madman wrote:Hmm... must have missed that, "temporarily" bit...

What's "temporary" about it? I can't say I've ever seen compositing turn on all by itself (which would be enexpected behavior anyway).

To get Desktop effects, you still have to have two things turned on. Compared to having both off, there is still no benefit to having just one turned on.

So whats the benefit of having users have to toggle two switches instead of one?

The checkbox lets you choose if you want to use desktop effects at all. Checked -> yes I want to use it. Unchecked -> no, I don't need bling / my hardware doesn't support it.

The toggle button lets you, well, toggle between the two states. You might want to toggle it off when playing games, for example. But that doesn't mean that you don't want to use desktop effects at all.

You can think of it like an external hard drive. If you want to use it, you can plug it in. Some have an on/off button that makes it possible to power it off, even if it's connected - a pretty neat feature for some users.

Here is why I like having it like this. I have a computer that is sort of borderline, depending on what I am doing compositing might be okay or it might not. However, it is always okay when the computer first starts up because there is nothing else running. When I have compositing turned on with the checkbox, if things get too slow it will turn off automatically. But because the checkbox is checked, when my computer reboots compositing is turned back on. That would not be possible with only the checkbox, because the system has no way of knowing whether the checkbox is off because the system automatically turned it off due to some high resource usage at some poinrt, or because I don't want compositing at all. Doing things this way would be absolutely terrible for me, I would have to go in and turn on compositing manually practically every time I reboot my computer.

+1 for TheBlackCat comment (my integrated intel card is almost borderline too...)
BTW, there is a plasmoid (Toggle compositing) to switch on and off desktop effects with only one click. Quite easy.

Also if you have desktop effects enabled, you can turn it temporarily off with ALT-SHIFT-F12, and after reboot it will be turned on again.

Kubuntiac wrote:

Madman wrote:Hmm... must have missed that, "temporarily" bit...

What's "temporary" about it? I can't say I've ever seen compositing turn on all by itself (which would be enexpected behavior anyway).

You evidently have never been on a laptop and run out of power, then... or plugged it back in.

kubuntiac wrote:To get Desktop effects, you still have to have two things turned on. Compared to having both off, there is still no benefit to having just one turned on.So whats the benefit of having users have to toggle two switches instead of one?

lefty wrote:Also if you have desktop effects enabled, you can turn it temporarily off with ALT-SHIFT-F12, and after reboot it will be turned on again.

Alt+Shift+F12 would turn desktop effects on/off in this suggestion. This is compared to what we have now where it toggles between "off" and "on-but-only-really-on-if-the-other-checkbox-is-also-turned-on-as-well-otherwise-you'll-need-to-do-this-and-go-into-another-window-to-finish-turning-it-on".

@ Blackcat / RGB (/ Madman)- Fair enough use case. You do realise this suggestion would keep automatic suspension of desktop effects though, don't you? It's just made into a clear on/off rather than:

* On-and-active
* On-and-suspended
* Off-and-active
* Off-and-suspended.

(only one of which actually works with desktop effects)

To take your example, if you have desktop effects turned on and system resources are too high, the system can turn them off for you. (Logical, no?) If the system (not you) turned them off, and now it can handle them, it restores them automatically. New users don't *need* to know a triple keyboard shortcut or sub window hidden away in the system settings. If you *do* know the keyboard shortcut though, it will *always* turn the effects on or off, rather than working only if another hidden setting is also lined up right.

Surely that's easier and suits average users better the "combination lock" method we have now?

First, I think you are significantly overstating the complexity of the issue. We are not talking about a hidden setting, nor is it a combination lock, the two things are right next to each other. It isn't that complicated. If you have the checkbox off, desktop effects won't work, ever. So if you ever want to use desktop effects, you need to have the box checked. You highlighted the "disabled" bit, but ignored the "temporarily" bit. I don't think "enabled, but temporarily disabled" is at all unclear or illogical.

Second, they serve two different purposes, purposes that I think are best kept separate. The check box is for determining whether you want to use desktop effects ever. This is more for the computer than for you, so the computer knows not to turn desktop effects on when you don't want them. The button is for turning the effects of temporarily, they will be turned on again under various situations.

So to put it simply, there are two different questions, "do I want to use desktop effects ever", and "do I want to use desktop effects right now"?

There are several problems with your automatic on-off idea. First, it requires that perfect detection of when the computer returns to a state where desktop effects are feasible. That currently does not happen at all, so your idea would be a disaster if implemented before that is working. Second, it would mean your are a slave to the computer's whims, there is no way to override its decision to disable desktop effects for whatever reason, nor is there a way to force it re-enable them if it doesn't properly detect that it is okay to use them again. You are stuck with whatever the computer wants to do. Third, if you manually disable the effects for what you intend to just be a temporary thing, they won't be turned back on again automatically, which is a hassle for me.

Personally I just don't see the benefit. I don't think the situation is complicated or ambiguous at all, while your suggestion requires I essentially hand over all control over compositing to the computer's whims with no way for me to intervene. So I see a number of serious problems introduced for what I consider to be a fairly minor issue. And with compositing as it is right now, with no auto-restore when the system load drops again, this idea would present huge problems.

I think there also is a plasmoid existing for that - check kde-look.org

I would like this also. It's annoying to have to go somewhere else to turn on compositing--it should restart if it's able to. Another thing is often when I select the notification icon, all notifications instantly disappear before I see them, so I had no way of seeing compositing had crashed nor the way to turn effects back on. What a mess; KDE3 was better/faster, and some people who used that said KDE0 to 2 were better but that it was continually downhill since 0.