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OK I really like Mac OSX's dock. I am a recent convert from Gnome and I really liked a Gnome dock called docky. I am using Smooth tasks at the moment which is half way to being a dock.

This is my idea. KDE should have a widget that can be put on a plasma panel that acts as a dock. The user should be able to:

1) 'Pin' their favourite applications to the dock allowing them to launch applications as well as manage their open windows.

2) Windows should be grouped per application.

3) Left click opens window

4) Right click opens the window's context menu

5) Hovering over an icon displays thumbnails of that application. Middle clicking on a thumbnail closes that window, right clicking opens that window's context menu and left clicking opens that window.

6) Middle click opens a 'Plasm-assistor' (yeah I know, but its the best I could come up with ). Plasm-assistors are little plasmoids that pop that allow users to do quick tasks without opening the application. For example Joe is listening to his music in Juk and it shuffles on Spice Girls. He needs to quickly skip the track but is too cheap to have a keyboard that has media buttons. He middle clicks on the Juk icon in his dock and skips the track. A screenshot of what I mean is linked at the end of this post. The Plasm-assistor could also include his now playing list or any other number of features. Other examples of possible Plasm-assistors:

Kmail - list of unread emails
Akregator - list of unread feeds
Kopete - favourite contacts
Dolphin - recently used documents

Applications should no longer be placed inside the system tray. Only plasmoids without a window that run in the background performing system tasks should be in the tray, like in Gnome 3. I think this is the long-term plan in KDE anyway. Networking, Volume (this should be turned into a plasmoid, don't know if there are plans to do this), Power, Re-moveable Devices etc. This is shown in the example screen shots I have linked.

There are many reasons why this should be the case. You probably already know them: Why have an icon for akregator in the task bar and then one in the system tray? Why do some applications minimise to tray and some minimise to task bar?

This way the application's icon would be the replacement for its system tray icon. The application's icon in the dock should change to inform the user of events. For example Joe receives an IM from David. The Kopete logo bounces and fades into David's display picture. The number of unread messages could also be displayed. The amount of unread messages for Kmail could also be displayed in Kmail's icon. This is the same principle of 'helpers' in Docky.

Well that's my idea for the KDE desktop. Unfortunately I'm not a programmer - just a guy with an idea but I'm doing software engineering in uni next year so I'm really hoping that one day I'll be able to contribute a bit more than just an idea! Thanks for reading, tell me what you think, I'd love to see this implemented

Screen shots can be found here:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4058/465 ... 15_b_d.jpg

And here:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/465 ... db_b_d.jpg

There's already a plasmoid with 90% of the functionality made called "s-tasks" and a variant called "smooth-tasks"; check them out, I use them personally - they can be customized however you want. #6 already has an idea on the brainstorm somewhere.

Apparently pinning is difficult because of how the libraries work, I personally want to correct this when I get the time.

If you don't like the system tray, it can be removed; However I don't think it would be good to remove this by default, as it can show icons "on-demand", such as bluetooth - which I wouldn't want mingling with my programs. Many of the plasmoids you mentioned you wanted already exist one place or another, take a look for em.

Kver wrote:There's already a plasmoid with 90% of the functionality made called "s-tasks" and a variant called "smooth-tasks"; check them out, I use them personally - they can be customized however you want.

Yes I did say at the begining of my post that I am currently smooth tasks. It has not got anywhere near 90% of the functionality I have mentioned though. All it is, is a taskbar with icon only enties. Not a dock.

Kver wrote:#6 already has an idea on the brainstorm somewhere.

Could you give me a link to it please?

Kver wrote:Apparently pinning is difficult because of how the libraries work, I personally want to correct this when I get the time.

Ah I see. Yes this would be AMAZING like I say I'd love to get my hands dirty and do some real programming but I just don't have the knowledge. I'm hoping to teach my self some basic stuff over the summer

Kver wrote:If you don't like the system tray, it can be removed; However I don't think it would be good to remove this by default, as it can show icons "on-demand", such as bluetooth - which I wouldn't want mingling with my programs. Many of the plasmoids you mentioned you wanted already exist one place or another, take a look for em.

I think you miss understood me. I never said get rid of the system tray. I just said applications should not minimise to the system tray. The system tray should just be used by plamoids that run in the background doing system tasks such as the network, power and volume plasmoids. Applications that have windows should be minimise to the dock. The appication's icon could then alert the user of changes just like icons in the system tray currently alrert users.

This is a bunch of separate ideas, all of which are either already implemented, already planned (or at least being discussed) by developers, or already submitted to bugs.kde.org.