Woodsmoke's quick and dirty "activity" mashup.

[woodsmoke]

Well, this is probably going to be kinda dumb, but I have never got activities to work they always just messed everything up and I had to reinstall usually.

The assumption about what an activity is is that it is some kind of "special desktop' that can somehow be "saved" and "called up", and one puts links, I guess, and files on it, to do "an activity." One then calls it somehow and then "does" the activity.

Well, this may not be "worth a post", but I think that I've been doing the "equivalent" for quite a while just using;

a) virtual desktops(faces of the cube) for each activity. Each of which has a different wallpaper because I click to use different widgets, and I rename the desktops to like "art" for the appropriate one.
b) I put the "rocket launcher", Quick Launch widget, on each desktop along with a folder view widget.
c) I remove the default launchers from Quick Launch and put the appropriate ones in it, like GIMP.
d) In the file folder widget, I navigate to where the pictures.whatever, are stored and make it the default.
e) the widgets and folders all stick with a reboot, but I seldom reboot, just letting the machine run.
f) normally, I have four faces, one for "writing" one for "music" one for "email/IM" and one for GIMP but I often have more.
g) the time to switch between faces PROBABLY cannot, in my OPINION take all THAT much more time than somehow swiching in and out of "activities".

So, that is my quick and dirty activity thing.

Actually, I think that probably a lot of other people do the same thing, AND that going back to before the plasma thing when, I, and probably others, just put a linky to GIMP on the desktop and a linky to the appropriate folder or....horrors!!! put a FILE on the desktop! lol

Comments?

woodsmoke

[Flip the Switch]

Can't help feeling that Activities should come with some kind of Government health warning.

Perhaps WARNING Quitting Activities now greatly reduces serious risks to your mental wellbeing

[rms]

@ woodsmoke

Yes, I use virtual desktops very much in the way described. I think KDE team is slowly moving us away from virtual desktops to activities(though this is plain guesswork).

Being similar to virtual desktops they offer additional features like: separate power management, possibility to stop the ones not in use (to save resources) and maybe there's more to come.

As it is now, it's a mixed bag and everyone can still choose what to use(vd's or activities).

[vw72]

The easiest way I have found to come to appreciate kde activities was by running the netbook plasma interface for a while. Under nebook, it starts with two activities pre-defined: search and launch, and page 1. You can add more activities, and they will show as page 2, page 3, etc. Instead of switching to them like virtual desktops, you just press their button at the top of the screen. Once you are used to setting them up and using them, when you switch back to the normal plasma desktop, they make much more sense.

[woodsmoke]

vw72
Ok I would very much greatly appreciate you explaining that for me and others.

If I click activities I see "photo activity", "desktop icons" and "search". This is on an AMD 64 "tower" with an Nvidia 6600 video card and a Viewsonic large screen monitor.

You spoke, generally, of "two activities".

Are the ones to which I averred the same as those found by yourself?

If so.....when I activated the "photo" activity on the tower, i got a virtually locked up screen with some "SQUEENSY" text at the top left, apparently some kind of text sitting atop each other and complete non-functionality.

AND....I see NO "buttons".

If you would please elucidate upon your particular situation.

woodsmoke

[vw72]

vw72
Ok I would very much greatly appreciate you explaining that for me and others.

If I click activities I see "photo activity", "desktop icons" and "search". This is on an AMD 64 "tower" with an Nvidia 6600 video card and a Viewsonic large screen monitor.

You spoke, generally, of "two activities".

Are the ones to which I averred the same as those found by yourself?

If so.....when I activated the "photo" activity on the tower, i got a virtually locked up screen with some "SQUEENSY" text at the top left, apparently some kind of text sitting atop each other and complete non-functionality.

AND....I see NO "buttons".

If you would please elucidate upon your particular situation.

woodsmoke

The netbook plasma interface shoud come with two pre-setup activities. The first, Search and launch replaces the traditional menu. It has three panels. The top panel contains a menu button, a section for the activities (or pages as they are called), status icons, etc. The second panel, right below the top panel is a quick launcher, you can place icons of your most commonly used apps here. The third panel covers the rest of the screen and has icons for the general menu categories (multimedia, office, games, etc.). The second activity/page is set up for things like news feeds, etc.

When I go to add an activity in the netbook interface (they are called pages), I don't get the option of adding photos. I can add a blank page and then configure it's layout (ie newspaper, folder, desktop, etc.). To these, I add widgets (just like an activity). Since I can't add a photos activity, I can't experience or troubleshoot your problem.

It might be that you aren't actually in the netbook plasma interface. To switch to it, you need to go to system settings, then workspace behavior, then workspace and change the workspace type to netbook instead of desktop.

Using the netbook interface on my laptop, I have the regular Search and Launch, Page One has been configured for news feeds, Page Two is my social networking with facebook, twitter, etc. and Page 3 is set up for research and writing. On my desktop, I use the same basic activities except that instead of Search and Launch I have the traditional KDE desktop and I have a couple of extra activities set up.

By using the netbook plasma interface is how I learned to appreciate the whole activity thing.

[oshunluvr]

I've been wondering what all the activity nonsense is about.

I, like woody, primarily use a desktop. I have dual 19" monitors and have devolved from the cube to a simple 2 desktop dual-monitor setup for a total of four workspaces. This suits my needs perfectly.

However, on my netbook this is not possible or even functional. I can also see on a tablet (think really big android smartphone) the use of activity based screens would be wonderful.

Personally, I'm hoping activities fork into plasma-active or tablet desktops and I get to keep my simple and functional desktop without activities being foisted on me.

[woodsmoke]

vw72
thanks, I'll try that on my toshiba lappy
woodsmoke

[vw72]

I've been wondering what all the activity nonsense is about.

I, like woody, primarily use a desktop. I have dual 19" monitors and have devolved from the cube to a simple 2 desktop dual-monitor setup for a total of four workspaces. This suits my needs perfectly.

However, on my netbook this is not possible or even functional. I can also see on a tablet (think really big android smartphone) the use of activity based screens would be wonderful.

Personally, I'm hoping activities fork into plasma-active or tablet desktops and I get to keep my simple and functional desktop without activities being foisted on me.

KDE works quite well with just the default desktop. In their simplest form activities can be thought of like additional desktops that are customizable. Just like people customize the icons/apps/widgets on the multiple pages of their android phone, activities let you do the same for KDE. For the record, what Android does is not the same as activities, I just use it as a simple example of something activities can be used for. On a phone (or tablet or netbook) people use them because of limited screen space. On a desktop, it allows differnt tasks to be grouped together and yet out of the way when not needed.

[Snowhog]

What I personally would like to see (and I think would be more 'intuitive' for many) is a 'switchable/configurable' Panel.

[claydoh]

I've been wondering what all the activity nonsense is about.

I, like woody, primarily use a desktop. I have dual 19" monitors and have devolved from the cube to a simple 2 desktop dual-monitor setup for a total of four workspaces. This suits my needs perfectly.

However, on my netbook this is not possible or even functional. I can also see on a tablet (think really big android smartphone) the use of activity based screens would be wonderful.

Personally, I'm hoping activities fork into plasma-active or tablet desktops and I get to keep my simple and functional desktop without activities being foisted on me.

Other than the cashew-thingy, how are activities foisted on you? They are there to use, or not to use, as one sees fit, I think.



I really should dust off and finish my piece on activities, if that darned thing called work didn't keep getting in the way

[rms]

It would be quite useful to have separate virtual desktops for every new activity if virtual desktops are to survive.

Edit: and the ability to delete random desktop when not needed just as it is possible with activities.

[oshunluvr]

Other than the cashew-thingy, how are activities foisted on you? They are there to use, or not to use, as one sees fit, I think.

I was referring to this opinion, with which I somewhat agree.

Yes, I use virtual desktops very much in the way described. I think KDE team is slowly moving us away from virtual desktops to activities(though this is plain guesswork).

As I said, the whole activity thing has a place on mobile devices but isn't really needed in the desktop environment IMO. At least for now - unlike the unholy trinity of Nepomuk/Strigi/Akonadi aka "The Semantic Desktop" - it doesn't appear that the addition of activities has unduly gobbled up resources. Also, my intent if not clearly stated was the hope that activities would not be foisted on us, not that they are being so at this point.

In my world: The main reason to use linux other than pure economics is control over my system. I hate that when I'm trying to use a Windows machine I am constantly struggling with watching the hourglass icon for endless amounts of time when I haven't even asked the system to do anything. The semantic crap would be fine if I could easily remove it - but I can't. I disable it as best as I can, but it appears the devs have borrowed a few pages from the Gnome/Microsoft playbook and indeed foisted the semantic desktop upon us. I just hope the development of activities doesn't go down the same path.

Oh and BTW - I figured out how to make the cashew-thingy invisible... Not that it really bugs me at all, just because I could

[Snowhog]

Oh and BTW - I figured out how to make the cashew-thingy invisible... Not that it really bugs me at all, just because I could

The original I HATE the Cashew came about because of the 'in your face; here it is' approach. The cashew has no self configuration to make it hidden. I myself don't fret over it's visibility on the desktop. I don't use it, and it doesn't bug me.

[oshunluvr]

Yeah, it's too small to be bothersome. I haven't bothered hiding it with 12.04