How do I remove the "new activity" item from the desktop?

[John Woodhouse]

----- Original Message ----
> From: Duncan <1i5t5.duncan at cox.net>
> To: kde at mail.kde.org
> Sent: Tue, 31 May, 2011 6:18:53
> Subject: [kde] Re: How do I remove the "new activity" item from the desktop?
> 
> Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. posted on Mon, 30 May 2011 10:49:17 -0500  as
> excerpted:
> 
> > In <4DE3A208.2050107 at earthlink.net>,  Felix Miata wrote:
> >>On 2011/05/30 03:51 (GMT-0700) John Woodhouse  composed:
> >>> Frankly what it boils down to is I can't see the point  in having a
> >>> largely empty screen. Many many others can't  either.
> >>
> >>I can't see the point of having any icons on the  desktop.
> > 
> > Same here.  I use a tiling window manager, so I  only see the desktop
> > when I'm not already doing something.   Excepting how I've used widgets
> > to partially replace all my Kicker  applets, I really don't see a use for
> > them.
> 
> I'd have probably  replied under John W's sibling-to-yours reply, but as he 
> posted "upside  down", screwing up the context quoting (please use standard 
> quote-context,  reply-in-context, John, it drastically simplifies keeping 
> track of quoting  and context in long threads)...
> 
> Long post, rather rambling, but perhaps  it'll be interesting to people...  
> Among other things, there's some  interesting info about X menus that might 
> be new to some... a screenshot  link... and a description of all the system 
> monitors I run...  Go ahead  and skip it if none of that nor extended 
> ramblings on the thread at hand  sound interesting...
> 
> On my desktop/workstation, I take the middle  road.
> 
> I have dual 22" full-HD monitors, 1920x1080, stacked  for
> 1920x2160.  Reduced 256-color 1/3 size Screenshot here: 
> http://bugsfiles.kde.org/attachment.cgi?id=59229
> (That was the "good"  shot on a report of bad panel
> placement, bug #271532 if anyone's  interested.)
> 
> That's enough screen real-estate to not have to be /too/  worried about 
> screen space (tho I'm hoping to upgrade to dual 42" monitors  at some 
> point, same resolution but nearly 4X the display area!), and I have  the 
> pseudo-xinerama options setup so apps maximize to only one  monitor.
> 
> The bottom monitor is my "work" monitor, where I often run dual  half-
> maximized windows side-by-side (kwin's drag-to-side half-max is great  for 
> this!), for konsole or browsers or compose-windows for replies like  this.  
> Triple-pane apps such as my mail/news/rss clients  (kmail/pan/akregator, 
> respectively) get "almost-maximized" to full width but  just title-bar-
> short of full-height, using kwin's window rules.  This  arrangement 
> conveniently allows me to work with the almost-maxed window and  1-2 half-
> maxed windows all accessible, clicking in say akregator to open a  browser 
> or pan to open a reply window, covering half the monitor, with the  almost-
> maxed window in the other half.  Or I can have two half-maxed  windows with 
> just the titlebars clickable behind the almost-maxed big  window.  It's an 
> arrangement that works very well on 1920-width  monitors, since half-maxed 
> is then 960 width, generally enough to browse or  type/read in a terminal 
> or reply window reasonably comfortably, with  almost-maxed three-pane 
> windows comfortably sized as well, while still  allowing access to the half-
> maxed apps via the titlebar.
> 
I'm on a number of forums that top post normally but I can try and remember to 
switch on here. Rambling yes but the post does indicate several ways of cracking 
the egg and why activities may be of use to some if not all. I would also hope 
that it may help others to give changes a chance rather than not even attempting 
to use them.

I've avoided dual monitors so far. Many use one as a sort of launch point and 
another for actually working within but it can be useful to mix that a little in 
the interests of real estate. Task bars are likely to always fit in nicely for 
people who use just one monitor.

I run a 22ins monitor at  1680x1050 that's been with me for many years. About 9 
I think. Now hd tv's are available I am wondering about moving in that direction 
but there really isn't much of a gain in resolution so it's a question of just 
how big one can go before the dot size/spacing becomes a problem. I run the 
monitor at 100dpi which produces nice tight clear text. that is a little small 
for ageing eyes without some aid. At some point I intend to play with this and x 
scaling to see just how large I can go before things get objectionable. There is 
even another possible gain from using a TV. My graphics card has an hdmi output 
which means it's possible to gain a decent sound system as well all in the same 
unit.. Just how well it will work from a distance of under a couple of feet 
though is questionable.

Back to the topic - nearly. There is one person kicking about that refers to the 
thing in the top right corner as a hemroid. I might add that as I eat cashew 
nuts regularly in some respect I agree with him. He just wants kde 3.x and will 
not give anything else a chance. However a cashew is a rather poor description. 
I'm a little disappointed to see kde drifting off in this direction. It happens 
because in real terms it is just a method of showing the same things in a 
different manner and quaint names crop up as a result as it makes them newer and 
supposedly more exciting. This sort of thing doesn't really help new comers at 
all as exciting as it may seem. Widgets fall into a similar vein really but in 
this case the term is meaningful.

It's interesting to note that for all I know a cashew might be something 
entirely different and not the hemroid which just goes to show how useful a name 
it really is.


John

___________________________________________________
This message is from the kde mailing list.
Account management:  https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde.
Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.