[kde-linux] Desktop widget like Windows Vista sidebar/clock thing?

[david]

Duncan wrote:
> david posted on Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:03:03 -1000 as excerpted:
> 
>> Thomas Olsen wrote:
>>> On 5/10-2009 10:51 david wrote:
>>>> Windows Vista has a desktop widget thing (I think they call it the
>>>> Side Bar?) that shows some news headlines in a vertical list and a big
>>>> analog clock. My wife saw that on my parents' Windows Vista PC - and
>>>> now she wants that on her desktop. Sigh.
>>>>
>>>> Anything like it for KDE?
>>> Like this?
>>>
>>> http://picasaweb.google.com/tanghus/Screenies#5389043974390891410
>>>
>>> Just add a panel, resize it, set it to auto hide, add widgets "Analog
>>> Clock" and "RSSNOW". Easy peasy ;-)
>> Kolia wrote:
>>
>>> I can't check myself right now but you could try this:
>>>
>>> Add a panel on a side of your screen
>>> Add the "News" (not sure of the english name, the icon is RSS orange
>>> icon) and "analogic clock" plasmoids to this panel Set this panel to
>>> auto-hide
>> Duncan wrote:
>>
>>> In addition to the suggestions of the others, there's a plasmoid
>>> available for download on kdelook with the purpose of cloning the MS
>>> sidebar for KDE.  I was looking for something else and not much
>>> interested in it when I came across it, so IDR that much more about it,
>>> including the name, but it's there, if you're interested in searching
>>> for it.
>> Thanks, all. Now I just have to convince my wife to accept changing her
>> UI from KDE3 to KDE4 ... or I can just browse around at kdelook.org and
>> see if something there works with KDE3.
> 
> If you'd have /said/ kde3 (kde4 is the default assumption 'round here)...

Really? Sad. When KDE4 finally gets out of beta (about v4.5, I think), 
then it can be the "default" assumption. ;-)

> That picasaweb url doesn't show anything here, presumably because it 
> requires flash or some other proprietary stuff I won't have on my 
> computer.

I viewed it in FF with NoScript and had to temporarily allow scripting 
for ggpht.com. It looks nice but lacks any kind of transparency for the 
background. It also looks like KDE4.

> So I'm flying a bit blind, except for the sidebars I've 
> happened to see running on other people's computers, and based on the 
> description above...
> 
> For kde3, for rss, there's the knewsticker application and kicker 
> applet.  Of course, there's also the clock kicker applet.  I always used 
> digital (tho I have a nice big analog one on my kde4 desktop ATM, 
> professional plasma theme off of kde-look, goes very well with the Beach 
> reflecting clouds wallpaper from I think the kde4 weather wallpapers pkg, 
> they're both black and white with the interior of the clock fully 
> transparent lending an extremely effective modern art look and feel to 
> that plasma workspace), but IIRC there was an analog applet for it as 
> well.  If not by default, I'm sure kdelook has an analog clock kicker 
> applet or two "kicking" (<g>) around.
> 
> You can of course set a vertical kicker panel on autohide just as you can 
> with kde4, and it's possible to set it transparent as well, tho I think 
> it's actually "fake" transparency for the panels in kde3.  (There was 
> true composite transparency as an effect available for kwin, from kde 
> 3.5.1 IIRC, if your graphics hardware and X supported it of course, but 
> that was only for application windows.  I think the panel transparency 
> was all faked for kde3.  But the effect was still very nice.)

Thanks. I added a vertical panel, added the analog clock, KDE3 
apparently doesn't let me tweak the width of the panel or anything. 
Adding the KDE3 newsticker app gave me a segfault. And now my taskbar 
appears to be gone (sounds like eye candy can be dangerous) ... oh, 
well, I think I'll just ignore this request of hers unless she brings it up.

-- 
David
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community