From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1PXU3L-0003nx-FK for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 28 Dec 2010 07:33:03 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 8302DE06B7; Tue, 28 Dec 2010 07:31:16 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-wy0-f181.google.com (mail-wy0-f181.google.com [74.125.82.181]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 34D65E06B7 for ; Tue, 28 Dec 2010 07:31:15 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wyf22 with SMTP id 22so11156191wyf.40 for ; Mon, 27 Dec 2010 23:31:15 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:from:to:subject:date :user-agent:references:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:message-id; bh=iJ7HoMsX6zn0Cbds36qdH/4g05qnKSwmPEP+efjaKwo=; b=SilhIXemsRnF3cddXKTjhxdZUFuIOTfeU1W++GSDGb12tTawACIqDMXPgzSVP85HCw qAmq2EWa9NqScsEaL7cau58sIjD2sOFC+nLSifMaBzhuz2fa/BcfInqyvmj8Vf3c9etl gSdp2aMfGCyphe62X6RQqwB8YwTR8pS9nmtLU= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=from:to:subject:date:user-agent:references:in-reply-to:mime-version :content-type:content-transfer-encoding:message-id; b=U/BEr7AR/4l9fNYLhsza0ItVQoEVC7xX7GVrhPS3j6wsVWz/votoUnVskejrefa85i uJ/FWOch4bzidqVDuJ4z8JqbLSzHEDnNq1QMNaEeeoDGkLL/tVWCrZSOPtINRP2Hlqyu mNrLV5rye8pf7XIqycLRghJaptCzzCSJ9Hspk= Received: by 10.227.141.78 with SMTP id l14mr7690253wbu.128.1293521475398; Mon, 27 Dec 2010 23:31:15 -0800 (PST) Received: from nazgul.localnet (196-215-57-124.dynamic.isadsl.co.za [196.215.57.124]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id q18sm9048237wbe.11.2010.12.27.23.31.12 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Mon, 27 Dec 2010 23:31:13 -0800 (PST) From: Alan McKinnon To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Relocating notification popup KDE-4.5 Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 09:31:42 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.13.5 (Linux/2.6.36-ck-r4; KDE/4.5.4; x86_64; ; ) References: <201011292209.03351.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> <201011302356.04280.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> <201012280008.24037.wonko@wonkology.org> In-Reply-To: <201012280008.24037.wonko@wonkology.org> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <201012280931.43217.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> X-Archives-Salt: 663aeb2d-03b6-4720-bb61-acfa1b0d577d X-Archives-Hash: 99a3ee25b8d2d54ea60f5304c2aad794 Apparently, though unproven, at 01:08 on Tuesday 28 December 2010, Alex Schuster did opine thusly: > Alan McKinnon wrote: > > Apparently, though unproven, at 18:35 on Tuesday 30 November 2010, Alex > > > > Schuster did opine thusly: > > > Alan McKinnon writes: > > > > Activities. wtf are those? > > > > > > I tink they are really cool, although I don't use them, and probably > > > never will. But I'm not the average user. I have six virtual desktops > > > (current screenshots are at > > > http://www.wonkology.org/comp/desktop/2010-11-11/ ), each one has its > > > purpose. For each window you can define the desktop it will run on. > > > You change the desktop, and you get new windows displayed, while the > > > plasmoids stay the same. > > > > > > With activities it's the other way around. You switch the activity, and > > > the windows stay the same, but you get different plasmoids. > > > > That's a decent explanation, thanks a lot. I can see how some folks would > > like that and why it's been coded. > > In case you're still interested, this blog entry has some more information > on activities: > > http://chani.wordpress.com/2010/12/26/activity-oriented-vs-application-orie > nted-workspaces/ > > It also covers differences in Gnome's and KDE's approach to this activity > stuff. Good find, it does answer some questions! (especially in the comments). I tend to agree with the long post by user Fri13; to a casual observer my life and desktop looks nicely organized and everything one-to-one mapped to something else. In reality, it's just like everyone else - a mish-mash collection of stuffs that somehow makes sense in my head. So I looked long and hard at this, and found that my desktop is *taskbar- centric* - it's my primary way of organizing things. Apps are spread across 6 virtual desktops in a very ad-hoc style - amarok is on desktop 6 (where it's out of the way), kontact on desktop 2 (where it can be full screen), konsole sticky on the right hand side of all desktops (where I can see it everywhere), and all browsers usually end up on desktop 1 with large numbers of tabs each. Note there's no common method to this madness :-) Like most people, my work is never nicely categorized by Activity - it's too fluid and changeable and too subject to my mood and how I feel today. I also don't like abstracting away the specific app used for a function, I do care whether it's gwenview, okular or digiKam that's loaded an image. They are not mere apps, they are tools, and I'm always aware of what tool I'm using. There's a parallel in the real world - to cut a piece of steel in my workshop I can use any one of several tools and they are NOT interchangeable; to cut a 2" square tube to length I *do* want the angle grinder and not the hacksaw, so I chose the tool myself and do not have it handed to me by some magic selector. Apps are similar, they have their strengths and weaknesses and I usually know which one I want. So now I do understand Activities better. It can be a good idea and I'd like to see some usage experts survey it extensively to make it more obvious how it works. One function that comes to mind which I would use is to return the desktop to a prior state. I often work from home and then want my apps arranged the same way I have them at work. But for now I think I'll just continue the way I always have with a good old Unix virtual desktop setup and KDE session manager. -- alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com