Re: opensuse 11.1, kde 4.1, desktop

Will Honea wrote:
Desktops are tools - pick what fits. I work with some boxes that have no
desktop at all: pure command line. I also like XFCE for reduced clutter.

I used to have one CLI as well. Do not use it at the moment. XFCE I
tried for a few months, but it lacked ease of configuration.

The fancier KDE/GNOME environments are useful for some of the applets they
include if you have the resources to spare but the task should define the
tool.

What applets are you talking about? The ones on the taskbar? Those I
can understand, although I do not like a taskbar as such. Then there are
the ones on the desktop. I do not understand using the desktop as a
working field. e.g. a simple icon.

Say I have an icon on locating 128x128. When I open a program, I can not
reach that specific icon anymore. So I either need to use a work around
to reach that icon, or see that that icon is always available.

After a while, you will start to notice that not having anything over
that icon is perhaps more interesting, so you leave a certain place
alone with several icons. Then you notice that the icons do not need to
be that big, so you make them smaller and closer to the edge.

The second thing is the question as to why you need those icons. Don't
you have a button where you can reach all your programs? Well, yes, but
that is not very easy to use. Most programs are in sublevels. Ony a
certain amount cab be in the first level. Now why is that? Because there
is only one button on the taskbar to press.

No idea why. It would not take that much taskbar real estate to have 4
buttons or 6. One for work, one for multimedia, one for games and one
for system maintenence.

Then there is the fact that you have multiple desktops on Linux and that
the memory use in Linux is much better. This means that I can open e.g.
OOo on a desktop and other tools on other desktops, which gives me no
need to go to those icons in the background in the first place. These
programs also start up when I log in.

So this is just about the icons. How dows that work in reality for me?
http://houghi.org/shots/wmaker/right_01.png
On the right side you have gkrellm with more information then I actually
use. On the right side are my aplets. The first is just a nice picture
and does not do that much. Number 2, 3, 4 and 5 are wmdrawer.
http://people.easter-eggs.org/~valos/wmdrawer/?section=screenshots
Then you see the workspace indicator and changer. You can easily do it
with e.g. [ALT]+1 as well. Then there is 4 x wmbiff showing all the
different mailfolders on my machine. Clicking on e.g. spool will open
the mailprogram with that spool and settings.
Then a single click terminal starter
Then time and date that opens a calendar
Followed by the weather
Below that one that now is use for music. Left click goes to the next
song. Middle click shows the lyrics
Then top, showing the tree most users.

Doing it the other way around is like an answer looking for a
question.

That is exactly what most people do. They install Kubuntu or Ubuntu or
select KDE or GNOME and stick with that and start defencing it. If they
wouldn't they would have to admid they made a wrong choice and people
are very unlikely to do that. The reason for that is that we are trained
that making mistakes is wrong.

When I started looking for a window manager, I looked for one that did
not use a taskbar in the standard way and did not as such use icons on
the desktop. That is how I started with Enlightenment!. The
configuration was not as easy as I would like, so I then looked and came
to Windowmaker.

I even have no idea what the default was then for SuSE. I know it wasn't
Enlightenment! or Windowmaker. SO from day 1 I asked what I wanted. I am
well aware that the majority just launches what is given to them,
without serously asking if this is what they want or are so made to
think what they want, that they stopped thinking and believe it is
actualy their idea.

Unless you ask for yourself what you want, nothing will change.
Unfortunatly most people do not ask what they want, but look at others
what they want and say: I want that too.

So the sad truth is that I am the only person in the universe who can
save everybody from all doing the same thing and run Windows. ;-)

houghi
--
Theologians can pursuade themselves of anything. Anyone who can worship
a trinity and insists that his religion is a monotheism can believe
anything -- just give him time to rationalize it.
Robert A. Heinlein, JOB: A Comedy of Justice
.

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