Plasma Applet Direction

[Jud Craft]

"we (plasma team) don't actually control that =)"

There really does need to be a pervasive integration of all aspects of
the user-experience with plasma.  Get Hot New Stuff is an interesting
compromise, but at the moment it seems a strange klutch, which stands
in the way of implementing a much more comprehensive solution, similar
to Microsoft's new integrated galleries for downloading widgets and
themes in Vista/Windows 7.

I know 1) that all takes a lot of manpower that's probably not
available, and 2) plasma team probably doesn't want to deal with this
stuff anyway.  I know I wouldn't.  Just a dream. :)  But someday it
would be fantastic to easily browse a gallery of available plasmoids
and metathemes (Qt, Plasma, wallpapers) and immediately apply them
without the hassle of configuration.  But until deeper integration is
done, tedious it stays.

Certainly no one, though, could argue kde-look and kde-apps (and their
gnome counterparts) are pinnacles of web marketplace usability.  My
word those sites are intimidating.  And then you find all sorts of
packages which may or may not work, are too distro-specific, and
require manual compilation*.  I'm certain a lot of work went into
their design, but despite that it's quite a low standard for extending
the free desktop.  Just can't win mindshare with stuff like that.
/rant

*And perhaps these problems are the sad state of linux in general, as
opposed to the website.  Certainly if packages _didn't need to be_
distro-specific or limited by package management, _no one_ would ever
make such packages -- it's a direct result of the linux software
ecosystem.