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View Full Version : How I wish my desktop environment worked [panels and stuff]



arsenic23
May 31st, 2009, 04:33 AM
With all the talk about Gnome3 and KDE4.x, compiz and whatnot, I've really started thinking about what I like and dislike about how I interact with my GUI. I've tried a lot of different configurations and setups, but I've never been completely satisfied by any of it. The following is what I'd need my desktop to behave like in order to be 100% happy. I just thought I'd share my thoughts with the community at large.

** I want an environment without minimize. (Or one that will let me turn it off.)

I only ever minimize windows on accident anymore and minimized windows don't expose/compiz.scale. Also having potentially minimized windows means that you absolutely have to have a window list in a panel somewhere and on very small displays, like netbooks, I'd really like to do away with that kinda thing.

** I want an environment that can make use of or duplicate the more useful features in compiz.

scale - zoom - expo - the smooth and easy workspace switching you get by setting the cube to flip with the middle mouse scroll on screen edges - real time thumbnails - desktop plane

** I want a more dynamic panel that will display perfectly on the sides on the display.

Whenever I use a newer wide screen monitor I always feel like I should place my panel(s) on one of the sides of the screen as opposed to the top and/or bottom. Horizontal pixels just seem less valuable on these types of displays then vertical pixels.

** I want to be able to view the programs open in my workspace by thumbnails with captions. Also I'd like to be able to view the programs open on my other workspaces by thumbnails that are smaller or faded or something with no caption so that I can switch to that workspace and program by just clicking on the little thumbnail. All of these thumbnails should automatically scale and move to fit in the area of the panel they are given -- displaying the thumbnails of the active workspace should take priority over the other workspaces.

I've included an image to demonstrate some of this. (It is a little crude, sorry.)

lykwydchykyn
May 31st, 2009, 04:46 AM
How much time have you spent in KDE4? I don't think it can do all of this, but a lot of it is possible. The missing bits can probably be accomplished with plasmoids.

arsenic23
May 31st, 2009, 05:00 AM
How much time have you spent in KDE4? I don't think it can do all of this, but a lot of it is possible. The missing bits can probably be accomplished with plasmoids.

Only a bit. I've never been a fan of KDE, and 4 has been really really off-putting to me. I've messed with it a little on other people's computers and in virtual machines, but I really just don't like KDE.

I'm also aware that kibadock was able to almost duplicate what I've described as far as thumbnails for open programs. I had setup a test environment using it to try and get similar functionality back when I was using fiesty (picture included). It never really work all that well.