Plasma-Netbook Mockups

[Markus]

Thanks for your comments. I'd like to further share my reasons for the 
decisions.

Am Freitag 09 April 2010 19:59:28 schrieb Marco Martin:

> i think however the exposè effect has more informational value

As someone who used Mac OS X for years, I know Exposé inside out.
I also know that when I wanted to switch whole apps (even if it were only 
three or so) with many windows, the practical aspect shrunk.
I also remember that using it with a touchpad only was very cumbersome.

My reason for including both -- Exposé and menu -- was that the user can adapt 
his/her workflow according to the attached input devices rather than the 
capabilities of GPU and drivers.


> a crappy
> device is supposed to not have garzillions of apps open at the same time
> btw

Well, it's not our decision what the user runs, right? ;-)
Today's netbooks are more powerful than the iBook I bought 6 years ago and 
I've seen market data that indicates that not so few people buy netbooks as 
their only PCs and even Atom CPUs advance. Who knows how powerful these 
machines get 2 years from now.

That's why I thought that the user should still be able to conveniently switch 
between 10 apps that add to 50 windows -- whether we think it's a good idea or 
not.


> there was a reason for the strange layout we have now:
> the close and maximize buttons are epected to be at right,

Correct me if I'm wrong but from everything I saw of Plasma Netbook, there 
weren't any close or maximize buttons at all.


> and i think it's
> really weird if as in your screenshot those buttons are separed from the
> applet that gives the title, even if they could mae sense at opposite sides
> of the screen.

Given that it's all Plasma, I thought that all positions can be changed anyway 
if the user decides.
I also thought to mirror Mac OS 9's layout where the close button was on the 
left and a similar menu was on the right.
<http://wrds.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/mac_os_9_screenshot_2.png>

The main point on my mockups were not to present the "ultimate" applet 
positions, but instead a feature set I believe would be beneficial to have 
available in the default setup of Plasma Netbook.


> as discussed here some days ago, a menubar like that is quite challenging.
> and problem will be that probably only kde applications will be able to use
> it.

I remember a blog posting by some Chinese KDE contributor (who also wrote a 
Scim-based input method panel for Plasma) that he modified Xbar to be 
compatible with GNOME/GTK applications. That was one, two or so years ago, 
though.


> having
> controls for the current window in two opposite parts of the screen really
> looks strange to me.

It's just a thing of getting used to.
In the early 2000s I used BeOS (dual boot with Win98) at home and occasionally 
Mac OS 9 at work. Both share the concept to separate window size modification 
(Zoom and on OS9 also Window Shade) from the Close button. This was something 
I could adapt to within minutes.
And as I said: My mockups don't have the goal to hinder users to rearrange the 
Plasmoids on the bar.

Bye