plasmoid: why does it exist?

[Duncan]

B.W.H. van Beest posted on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:59:49 +0200 as excerpted:

> Can somebody explain to me what is the use of this plasmoid thing? All I
> want is to have different desktops, with different backgrounds. Well,
> that is possible, but when do I have to deal with the plasmoid, whatever
> it is?
> I feel that I'm missing the point in the kde4 desktop phlosopy.

A plasmoid is simply a widget on the plasma desktop or in a panel.  There 
are all sorts of plasmoids.  The kickoff menu is a plasmoid.  The lancelot 
alternative menu is a different plasmoid.  So is the classic menu.

So is the clock, and the system tray, and the folder-view, and any other 
widget you have or can add to the desktop or panels.

Meanwhile, I think what you're after is activities.  Each activity has its 
own desktop widgets, and you can switch activities like you would switch 
desktops.  You don't mention what version of kde4 you have, but from I 
believe the 4.4 series, and certainly 4.5 if not 4.4, you can link each 
virtual desktop with its own activity, so each desktop gets its own 
background and set of plasmoids.

The 4.4 series used a zoom interface that was hard for a lot of folks to 
get.  I believe in 4.4, the option to link activities with desktops was 
there, when the activities were zoomed out.  They reworked that with 4.5, 
which now has a checkbox in the virtual desktop kcm (kcontrol module) in 
kcontrol (wrongly aka system settings, as it's generally user specific and 
kde specific settings, so the kde3 name, kcontrol, was more accurate, and 
more googlable as well), "Different widgets for each desktop", which would 
again, associate a separate activity, and therefore its own background and 
plasmoids, with each desktop.

-- 
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

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