KWin highlight window effect enabled by default?

[Marco Martin]

On Monday 21 December 2009, Lucas Murray wrote:
> Recently the KWin highlight window desktop effect was made to be enabled
> by default in the KDE Plasma Desktop workspace. As I was not a part of
> the discussion to decide this I do not know the exact reason why it was
> enabled by default but I would like to voice my opinion that it was the
> wrong choice.
> 
> The highlight window effect is the one that, when you hover over a
> taskbar item, fades out all windows except the one being hovered over.
> As this animation affects the entire screen and as it can occur often
> during normal desktop usage it has a large influence over the entire KDE
> Plasma Desktop visual identity.
> 
> The effect is also a major part of the Windows 7 visual identity with
> the Microsoft equivalent being Aero Peek.
> 
> I feel that although the effect can be an improvement to usability with
> some minor changes it should not be a part of the default KDE Plasma
> Desktop installation as it makes KDE feel less like KDE and more of a
> blatant Windows clone.
> 
> Although it could be argued that the same can be said for the new KWin
> quick tiling and maximization features being a copy of Aero Snap I do
> not feel that it affects the KDE Plasma Desktop identity in any way and
> can be more thought of as just being a feature that was inspired by
> Windows 7 and GNOME (They have had drag-to-screen-top maximization for
> a while now).
> 
> I would just like to emphasise that I believe that the effect is not an
> improvement on usability in its current state either and is more of a
> distraction than anything else. Having both taskbar thumbnails and the
> highlight window effect enabled at the same time is redundant; having
> all windows fade back in sometimes when moving between taskbar items is
> a major graphical glitch; not having the highlighted windows raised to
> the top of the window stack partially occludes the window and makes it
> look messy. Definitely the most annoying part of the effect is how easy
> it is to activate by accident.
> 
> Just to summarise: I consider that enabling the KWin highlight window
> effect by default is the wrong choice and that the change should be
> reverted before the next KDE SC release.
> 
asked for a freeze exception, let's see how it goes :)

-- 
Marco Martin