The future of virtual desktops

[todd rme]

On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 10:51 AM, Martin Gräßlin <mgraesslin at kde.org> wrote:
>
> ----- Ursprüngliche Mitteilung -----
>> A Quinta, 3 de Março de 2011 06:36:02 Aaron J. Seigo você escreveu:
>> > On Friday, February 25, 2011, Hans Chen wrote:
>> > > - I see virtual desktops (VDs) as subordinate to activities
>> >
>> > this is incorrect. disabuse yourself of this notion.
>> >
>> > > , i.e., each activity should have its own set of virtual desktops.
>> > > Currently VDs are not activity aware.
>> >
>> > i don't particularly see the benefit of this. it is in theory possible
>> > (kwin is already aware of activities), but unless there is significant
>> > benefit to such a thing, it will be very complex to add to the
>> > configuration GUI.
>> >
>> > > - There is an option to kind of merge activities and virtual desktops
>> >
>> > no, there isn't.
>> >
>> > > ("Different widgets for each desktop"). I know that it was added due
>> > > to popular demand, but now that activities also manage windows I
>> > > don't
>> > >
>> > > think it is needed anymore. (Some users are not going to like this, I
>> > > know.)
>> >
>> > yes, like the people we implemented that feature for in the first
>> > place: people who want different wallpapers and widgets on each
>> > desktop.
>> >
>> > virtual desktops and activities are actually, not just in theory but
>> > actually, orthogonal. we know this from usage patterns of real live
>> > users.
>> :)
>>
>> I catualy think that the activities change UI should ilustrate exactly
>> that;   the ortogonal nature of them :)
>> we would show stacks of activities showing all their VD's
>> the vd's would be aligned horozontaly....(small thumbnails of them)
>> and the activities would be on the verical axis.... yes Ortogonal :D
> For technical reasons we cannot provide (live) thumbnails for not active activities. Personally I doubt you would recognize anything on the thumbnails. I find it difficult to recognize the windows in desktop grid and scaling everything down further does not improve the situation ;-)

Would it be possible to take a snapshot when the activity is switched off?

-Todd