A usable plasma desktop

[Steven]

A few usability bugs (okay, maybe only one, but I like exaggeration as much
as the next guy) have been popping up recently regarding how to deal with
the Desktop folder. Users and applications alike are used to using it as a
dumping ground for files, launchers and downloads. Most solutions have to
wait until the unfreeze for 4.3 to even consider implementing them. And
since you, the devs, are hard at work polishing plasma for the KDE 4.2
release, I should hope that you don't get distracted working on feature
requests for future releases.

However, I think its important, even now, to think about where plasma is
going with regards to the traditional desktop. Right now, there is the
option to have a folder view desktop displaying the Desktop folder
(confusing). I think this a hole in plasma, rather than a benefit, but at
the moment its necessary in order to make the desktop usable for many users.

Right now, the obstacle to getting people to use a plasma desktop is that it
is hard to set it up to work as desired. Setting up folder views with
filters to show files grouped as they are relevant to the current activity
is time consuming and not as straightforward as it should be for two
reasons: filters are difficult to set up properly and folder views can only
show the contents of one folder.  What if I have files in several different
areas of my file structure that I want to show in one place? Having them in
separate folder views doesn't group them logically, and moving the files
around and then setting up the filters takes more time than it's worth.

What I propose as a possible solution to the Desktop problem is a symbolic
desktop file structure that resides in the Desktop folder. Icons and folder
views would be shown as launchers and folders respectively, categorized by
activity. Files dragged to the desktop would have the option of being
represented as icons or as being placed in a new folder view. Unless they
are dragged to a folder view representing a specific folder, the files would
also be left in place. Any file manger or folder view pointing to the
Desktop folder would, by default, see a flattened view of all this. However,
this would be configurable through a dialog and perhaps through popups where
possible and posing minimal annoyance. Plasma should, in this case, also be
set up to deal with Desktops that are already established in other DE's,
converting launchers to Icons, and placing the rest in a folder view, and
placing a Downloads folder view on the desktop for easy access without
configuration. Downloads could be forwarded to the Downloads folder, which
would also be represented in the Desktop file structure as a folder view.

A more detailed (and long-winded) description of this is posted at:
http://forum.kde.org/making-the-commitment-to-a-usable-plasma-desktop-t-20032.html

I know that any solution to the Desktop problem would have to wait for
unfreeze, but I think its important, both for the future, and to help fix
the current usability bugs, to think about a final solution to this issue.
What do you think? Is this overkill? Is there better way to set this up?
Does it have any merits? Any better ideas?
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