KDE now at 4.2: ... and STILL no invidual wallpapers per desktop???

[tomwitt]

I was really looking forward to the KDE 4.0 when it first came out... then I encountered the panel from hell. I tried (no, really, I seriously tried) to tame the panel. I was not successful. I slunk back to KDE 3.5 muttering things like, "It will come, my precious... it will come." and "Are you friggin' kidding me with that panel thing?! There were joking, right?? Tell me they were just messin' with me and panel configuration is not meant to be understood by mere mortals, please, tell me!! It has to be they were messing with me, right??"

And for many months, I meekly stayed with Kubuntu 8.xx and it's KDE 3.5.<something> [and loved it], dreaming of the day when the KDE 4.<something> panel would submit to MY whims. I knew the day would come, someday... if I just bided me time, waited patiently, and thought good thoughts [though, not of the variety involving Pam Anderson].

Then, I tried Jaunty RC<something> and and KDE 4.1.<something> and ... again ... that friggin' unwieldy panel. While I almost bolted in terror, I hung in there and [imagine a glorious light shining down through dark and stormy clouds] a few days later came the REAL jaunty with KDE 4.2 ... and a sane, rational, intuitive, user-friendly panel. All was good in my world. So I went about learning KDE 4.2 and discovering it's chocolate bacon-y goodness. Until I discovered that you can't set individual wallpapers per desktop.

Oh sure, I tried the experimental settings, ( Edit .plasmarc -> [Global] section -> perVirtualDesktopViews=true )... nada. I tried "zooming out" on the plasma desktop and successfully chose multiple wallpapers... but not really when you "zoom in" to where desktop life REALLY lives.

So I'm left with KDE 4.2 and it's sane panel [which really rocks]... but are you friggin' kidding me that KDE is now at 4.2 and something as fundamental as unique wallpapers per desktop is STILL not implemented?? What are those KDE developers smoking/drinking/breathing [... please tell me and I'll buy them some more since KDE 4.2 rocks; however, I'll buy them even MORE if they fix the individual wallpapers per desktop thing].

I'll end my rant now. And hope that someone will tell me how to setup unique/individual wallpapers per desktop; they made life a lot easier in KDE 3.<something> and I want that same goodness in KDE 4.<something>.

-- Tom

[KeithZG]

Re: KDE now at 4.2: ... and STILL no invidual wallpapers per desktop

AFAIK the problem is that the ideas the plasma devs are running with are a bit . . . different than the traditional motifs, so changing the look of the desktops (ie. having different wallpapers and plasmoids...although I guess that's actually kindof the same thing, since the desktop backgrounds are all plasma) is one thing: that's "activities". Meanwhile there's the traditional different virtual desktops for applications.

Basically then you have two things, one the ability to change virtual desktops and one the ability to change plasma "activities". Which is why hilariously my KDE 4.2 session on this laptop has a pager plasmoid on my main panel, and then on a smaller autohiding dropdown panel I have the activity changer plasmoid.

Of course that doesn't really accomplish what you wish to do (and what I myself set things up in an attempt to do). However, from what I know the simple reality is that although the framework might appear to be there, the ability to tie together virtual desktops and plasma activities (thus being able not only to have each virtual desktop have a different wallpaper but also entirely different plasmoids and widgets) didn't get finished in time for 4.2. Sad.

BUT!

Apparently it's already working in the 4.3 SVN, so hopefully it'll be all ready soon and finally back to feature parity with 3.5 (with a bit of added frosting on top).