the next step on the desktop

Markus Slopianka markus.s at kdemail.net
Tue Feb 1 01:09:54 CET 2011


Dude, calm down a little. I was blaming no one of anything.
You need to understand that when somebody simply states what he observes (that programmers 
with many programs and windows open tend to like Activities more than people who execute 
only 3 applications) it's not an insult against anyone.
In fact I feel it's perfectly valid to scratch an itch of people who tend to execute many 
applications.
You asked for comments and I commented. So don't be a bitch just because my opinion 
differs from yours!

Am Montag 31 Januar 2011, 20:37:22 schrieb Aaron J. Seigo:
> On Sunday, January 30, 2011, Markus Slopianka wrote:
> > > let's try something big and new. let's make that Big Move and step away
> > > from ~/Desktop.
> > 
> > Frankly, I like my dumping ground.
> 
> and you can retain it. nobody is taking it away from you. even though i
> personally think you'd find far better ways of working if you forced
> yourself away from the comfortable known, i'm not selfish enough to make
> you do that :)
> 
> > > my proposal is this:
> > > 
> > > * by default, Search and Launch on the desktop
> > 
> > What do you mean by that? Full screen SAL like on Plasma Netbook? Then
> > one could just use that.
> 
> go compare the netbook shell with the desktop shell and you'll find that
> they differ far, far more than just in the use of SAL. due to those
> differences, "just use Plasma Netbook" is absurd.
> 
> > As long as KDE's file search and indexing mechanism is still broken
> > <http://kdeatopensuse.wordpress.com/2011/01/30/opensuse-11-4-kde-testing/
> > >, I see more frustration than benefit. I could be wrong, though.
> 
> wtf does file indexing have to do with SAL?
> 
> > > * improve the tasks widget to have some of the nice features of widgets
> > > like "smooth tasks" with the mouse over highlights
> > 
> > I'd be happy if I could disable the scroll wheel for starters...
> 
> i've outlined numerous times what such a patch that would be accepted would
> look like. so far nobody has felt like stepping up and scratching their
> itch.
> 
> > > * an "activities" widget (i'll hapilly write it) that sits next to the
> > > app launcher and when clicked brings up the actvities manager
> > > * an activities switcher as a kwin effect (!)
> > > * have all activities avaiable in kactivitmanagerd, even if they are
> > > "stopped" in plasma-desktop
> > 
> > It seems to me that programmers with their fully cramped task bars (IDE,
> > terminals, debuggers, SCM frontends,...) are bigger fans of activities
> > than the common persons with music player and browser open alone and --
> > if they are cutting edge -- even separate chat and mail clients.
> 
> let me be frank with you: when someone blames us developers for catering to
> our own needs and so that's why things must obviously suck in some way or
> another, it really bugs me. you know why? because what you just wrote there
> is a pile of rubbish. we hear back fairly regularly from people in a
> multitude of differing situations that use activities and have even come
> to rely on them. but no, you don't like them and/or see the need for them
> so then, ipso facto, it must be something the developers have done just
> for ourselves with no other reason or research having been done, right?
> 
> do you even know where the idea for activities came from? good old fashion
> field research with people who use their computers to do content creation.
> yes, that isn't the average web browser centric user, but they can very
> handily ignore activities altogether if they wish as they are not in their
> way at all.
> 
> but of course, we should all stop what we're working on because it's so
> 
> "obviously" unuseful and instead immediately do what you personally want:
> > Personally, I'd rather have an actually good Dock implementation that
> > merges launcher, task switcher, and systray in a single icon for each
> > app.
> 
> we added launcher support in 4.6 and we re-engineered the system tray
> protocol to make this possible. so yes, that's generally where we're
> headed. if you wish to see it all "come together" sooner, then you need to
> get involved and start making patches.



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