[kde-linux] Re: Panel widgets alwais to the left

[Duncan]

John Culleton posted on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:45:24 -0400 as excerpted:

> Basically I want to make KDE 4 work like 3.5 or XFCE. I want a menu on
> the left (the classic option) and I want the ability to add icons (not
> plasmoids ) to the bottom bar. Most of these are programs I download and
> compile. At the moment I use Slack 13.0, 13.1 is still a bit flaky on my
> system. Here are some of my favorite programs:
> Scribus Gimp Gvim Firefox Inkscape
> Even if there is an older version available via Slackbuild etc. I
> routinely download, compile and install the newest version from a
> tarball. Basically I want to do productive work, not just play with
> the GUI.
> 
> If/when I get Slack 13.1 to behave decently I will be adding another
> edition of Scribus so I will have two versions, 1.4.0 and 1.5.0. I want
> both of them on that bottom bar.
> 
> Toying with going back to FVWM of years ago.
> 
> But back to the issue:  How do I put widgets for my favorites on the
> bottom bar?  Most of them are not even in the KDE Menu system and don't
> have plasmoids AFAIK.

1) Every widget plasma works with is a plasmoid.  (There are also 
containers in the form of panels, activities, etc, that contain plasmoids.)

2) Now it's a very possible and indeed commonly implemented idea to have 
icon-based launcher plasmoids, and I believe that'll fill your need quite 
well.

I don't personally use icon-based-launchers much, as I prefer keyboard 
shortcut based launching (and indeed have a custom solution I hacked up to 
extend kde's capacities in that regard, running here), so am not as 
familiar with the options as I might be, but there's at least one such 
plasmoid (quicklaunch) shipped with kde, and several more available for 
download on kde-look.org, if you don't like the kde default.

So add widgets, quicklaunch, try adding icons to it, and see if it works 
as you need.  And if you want variants on the same functionality, as I 
said, kde-look.org has several (many?), some of which are quite popular.

Meanwhile, kde including plasma is indeed getting too heavy, flashy and 
unfortunately high-maintenance-buggy, to suit the preferences of many 
users.  FVWM is a bit drastic tho it works fine for may, but there are 
many options in between that may very well be a better solution for you 
than the heavy kde/gnome or the minimal fvwm/*box type desktop/wms.  I 
personally still like the power of kde so haven't explored these others, 
but from what I read, enlightenment, xfce and lxde fit in this middle area 
somewhere.  There's nothing wrong in saying kde isn't the be-all/end-all 
solution for everyone and mentioning alternatives for those who wish to 
explore them.  That is, after all, a big part of what the whole FLOSS idea 
is about, empowering the user with that sort of choices!

(Which is why I have a hard time understanding Gnome's our way or the the 
highway mentality to configuration, while at the same time being glad they 
exist, as if they didn't, many of those configuration-for-dummies-is-the-
way-it-must-be folks would be trying to kill kde configuration options!  
So let people, users and devs alike, do what they do, and if it means they 
disagree with kde's approach strongly enough to find a different one more 
comfortable, more power to 'em!)

But back to your question, I expect either quicklaunch or one of the kde-
look.org alternatives will fill your icon-launcher needs quite well. =:^)

-- 
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