Plasma-Netbook Mockups

[Marco Martin]

On Friday 09 April 2010, Markus wrote:
> 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.

as Artur said, tests with joe sixpack users is quite rare.
other users can add a real taskbar or use a desktop shell, if their use of the 
device is actually what would be a desktop (since the use case of the netbook 
shell is quite different)
i could mke configurable to always use the list, however.

> 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.

no buttons when plasma itself is focused, they appear when an application is 
focused

> > 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>

at the moment no, because the close/maximize and the title are the same applet

Cheers,
Marco Martin