[kde-linux] In KDE4, to set a different background for each of the multiple desktops

[Duncan]

Kevin Krammer posted on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:52:25 +0100 as excerpted:

> Quite strange, because I have a 1.8GHz Intel CPU, 1GB RAM, Intel 945GM
> laptop as my main machine and KDE is running fine. It even runs
> unoptimized debug builds nicely (which it often does in parallel to the
> latest release).
> 
> Even works when I ran the VESA driver (due to weird behavior of the
> Intel driver with my previous kernel version).
> 
> I think it isn't possible to make generalizations on certain components
> of either hard- or software. It seems to be more a matter of
> combinations, most likely even dominated by which applications one is
> using and how they are being used.

That's good to read, because I'm in the process of finishing up a 32-bit 
Gentoo image for my Acer Aspire One 150L (one of the gen 1.5 units, 120 
gig SATA but the original 9" 1024x600 screen, and the original 9--
whatever chipset, not the POS poulsbo stuff, I topped up the memory to 
1.5 gig, tho).

But all this while I've been thinking... there's a BIG difference between 
the ~6/10ths MegaPixel screen that runs, and the ~4.6 MegaPixel (dual 
1920x1200, stacked for 1920x2400) that my main machine runs.  It 
shouldn't /take/ a humdinger of a system to handle graphics on an under 1 
MPx display.

But SiS video is pretty much vesafb, in terms of accel I think.  So while 
it's possible it could handle under a megapixel, anything at reasonable 
modern resolution, it's quite likely kde4 will run, but only with effects 
zeroed out... and then what's the point, as the only real thing it has 
above the competitors at this point is eye candy... and for developers, 
what the USAF would call a "target rich environment" in terms of 
"functionality challenged" software. (Still broken ssl handling, still 
broken printer handling tho that's supposed to be much better in 4.4, 
still broken global multi-key hotkeys, still broken ksysguard monitoring 
-- it saves but restores and then ignores what it just read back, etc, 
etc.)

OTOH, I just upgraded my video on my main machine from an old Radeon 9200 
(r2xx series chip) to the new Radeon 4650 (rv730, IIRC).  While the 
drivers are still live-git-tree development versions as there's no 
released native xorg driver OpenGL/3D support yet, and I get funky 
effects like weird colored clocks (mine is transparent green right now, 
supposed to be transparent with a gray clouds and water background... oh, 
just repainted, but one of my panel plasmoids is black background instead 
of gray, now) and occasional crashes, it's MILES better than the old one, 
which couldn't handle OpenGL at above 2KPx either direction, so there was 
no OpenGL for me since I'm 2400 vertical, and it had satisfactory but 
slow compositing.  It's NICE being able to run they eye candy as the KDE 
devs designed it to be run! =:^)

As the old systems die out and newer more powerful ones become common, 
the hardware issues will retreat for a majority of users, and by 4.7 or 
so, shouldn't be any more an issue than they were for kde 3.5 when 
composite effects first came out for it.  (I chose 4.7, because based on 
the current 6-month release cycle, that will come out relative to 4.0, at 
about the same point 3.5 came out relative to 3.0.)  And since most of 
the software functionality issues should be resolved by 4.5 as well, 
hopefully, by 4.7, it'll only be on to even better.  Thus, both factors 
are converging on 4.5 being roughly equal to 3.5 but a year earlier, 
relative to the .0 release, and 4.7 decently surpassing both 3.5 and 
hopefully much of by then current competition, at a time-point relative 
to 4.0, comparative to 3.5 relative to 3.0.

It's just that the growing pains sure are terrible getting there, and kde 
didn't do itself any favors in the way it handled the PR and support for 
the earlier version until 4.x was a reasonably replacement, to put it 
mildly, either.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman