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#151 2011-10-11 16:49:14

mythus
Member
From: MS Gulf Coast
Registered: 2008-05-15
Posts: 509
Website

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

Greetings!

October has turned out to be a month of experimentation for me. When for more than a year I had been contempt with the desktop I had submitted earlier this month (the first one I submitted this month, and indeed in a long while). Well afterwards, I flirted with GNOME 3.2, but quickly grew tired of her controlling ways. Then, inspired by a light weight qt desktop project posted on these very forums, I did my own experimentation using pekwm, qtfm, and qtpanel. It was lightweight indeed. But I guess in truth my heart lies with KDE.

So I went to KDE, and got the crazy idea that I'll try to use activities instead of virtual desktops. So, I removed all my virtual desktops and set up three activities to cover my typical computer usage, each being indeed separate activities with only one desktop, not merely virtual desktops. I've been using this setup for a couple days now and am liking it, so I figured I'd share it with you guys.

Activity 1: Internet Activity: Faking Busy
tYXJlbQ

Simply running chromium and (since I am in an experimentation mood) the kde-telepathy client.
This is on my first activity, the aptly named Internet activity, where I do all my internet related stuff.
Plasma theme is a customized Aya, that has some other plasma theme parts in it.
Plasmoids visible are Lancelot, ICON task manager, System/Ram/Network activity managers, and digital clock.

Activity 1: Internet Activity: Faking Lazy
tYXJlcg

Here you see the same activity, with three separate comic viewers for my procrastinating enjoyment and the awesome CWP weather plasmoid.

Activity 1: Internet Activity: Showing the hidden panels
tYXJldA

Here I am simply showing the two hidden panels (set to autohide), both at the bottom. The bottom left is the activity switcher, since I can't yet set a hot corner for that or whatever. The bottom right is my systray panel, an idea I got from GNOME shell back in 3.0, that I loved and still love.

Activity 1: Internet Activity: Showing the Dashboard
tYXJldw

Here I am showing off the use of the dashboard. I am showing it in the Internet Activity, just to give the general idea. Imagine, I am working on something, or in this case, browsing the web, when I wonder what the temperature is. Instead of checking my phone, minimizing the browser, or opening a tab, I just throw my mouse cursor up to the top right corner and *poof* my widgets that are on my desktop are nicely over-layed on top. Now I can see the temperature (or use whatever widget I was wanting to use). I think that this is an awesome little kde feature (no doubt exists elsewhere as well).

Activity 2: Book Activity
tYXJleg

Here I am now in activity 2, my so-named "Book Activity". This is my main working activity, where I am working on my edition 2 book for my RPG. I have the desktop set up with four separate folder-view widgets to quickly access different documents and such on the fly. And, of course, dolphin is always there when needed.

Activity 3: General Activity
tYXJmMQ

This is my General Activity. Basically I'd use this activity for anything not related to internet or document work, which actually makes this the least used of my three activities. I have it set as a Search & Launch activity, which works nice for what I'd use this activity for, ie, changing system settings, system updating/command line work, playing games, etc...

Final Thoughts
I am liking this setup and am starting to realize some value in the activities idea. There are some things that aggrivate me though...

1.) Chromium doesn't adhere to this 'activities' thing well. When I have it open, if I switch to book activity for example, it's open there as well. Unlike other programs Chromium doesn't open in only the internet activity, and I can't seem to find out how to make it do so. Note: I haven't yet tested other browsers to see if they give similar results, but KDE-Telepathy client, LibreOffice, Kate, for example stay in their activities.

2.) I really hope that they implement the separate-panel for separate activity wish.

3.) I'd love to see a "Activity Grid" like the desktop grid, where I can via hot spot zoom out and see the various activities and do mass manipulation. As I recall, this was the default manner of working with activities, but due to performance reasons, it was canned. Yet oddly enough the desktop grid effect works fine...

4.) I like how with every program I have used - except for chromium - that they have opened in only their activity that I opened them in. This gives activities a big leg up on simple virtual desktops. I can pause an activity if I need to, can't do that with virtual desktops, and when I resume the activity, it resumes where I left off. This saves immensely on resources, if I need the resources for something else in another activity, and it seems to me that resource use is better than when simply using virtual desktops with all that I have going on now in them instead. This seems better resource-wise than setting up virtual desktops as mock activities. But of course, YMMV.

5.) I don't like to simply show off my desktop for the hope of internet-cool-factor. Quite frankly, I could care less what anyone else thinks about my setup, I like it, it works for me, so that is enough for me. However, there may be those who don't know about some of the things that I and others show in their screenshots, that they may find useful. So I make my screenshot posts as detailed as I can to provide information for those seeking it.


Legends of Nor'Ova - role playing community devoted to quality forum-based and table-top role play, home of the Legends of Nor'Ova Core Rule Book and Legends of Nor'Ova: Saga of Ablution steam punk like forum based RPG

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#152 2011-10-11 17:37:27

ninjaaron
Member
Registered: 2010-12-10
Posts: 296

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

I read your book.  Prolly gonna stick with scrotwm.

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#153 2011-10-11 20:03:09

sam87
Member
From: down the rabbit hole
Registered: 2009-09-26
Posts: 141

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

vYXJqYg
soundprank's captivated...it has me captivated! still wmfs smile


what i cannot build, i do not understand

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#154 2011-10-11 23:44:27

iv597
Member
From: United States
Registered: 2011-09-18
Posts: 96
Website

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

Clean
Clean

Busy-ish tongue
SortaBusy

I'll share configs with anyone who wants them. This isn't *quite* done, so I'll probably be posting again come November with an updated look.
Also, since I forgot to show off Archey in this screenie...

               +                
               #                
              ###               OS: Arch Linux x86_64
             #####              Hostname: Desktop
             ######             Kernel Release: 3.0-ck
            ; #####;            Uptime: 4 days, 21:46
           +##.#####            WM: DWM
          +##########           Packages: 551
         #############;         RAM: 559 MB / 1505 MB
        ###############+        Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz
       #######   #######        $EDITOR: vim
     .######;     ;###;`".      Root: 4.5G / 20G (22%) (ext4)
    .#######;     ;#####.       Mnt: 233G / 347G (67%) (ext3)
    #########.   .########`     Songs in MPD database: 1473
   ######'           '######    Artists in MPD database: 33
  ;####                 ####;   Albums in MPD database: 118
  ##'                     '##    
 #'                         `#  

Last edited by iv597 (2011-10-11 23:45:44)


Currently running Arch on a Samsung Chromebook Pro (dual booted with ChromeOS), and various VPSes and Docker containers.

Dotfiles on Github

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#155 2011-10-12 01:06:16

nexus7
Member
From: brain dump
Registered: 2006-12-06
Posts: 285

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

@ mythus: Well, I can not imagine at all living without virtual desktops. -- But you can definitely share your wallpapers, if you don't mind! big_smile


we are Arch.
you will be assimilated!
resistance is futile!

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#156 2011-10-12 11:35:17

mythus
Member
From: MS Gulf Coast
Registered: 2008-05-15
Posts: 509
Website

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

nexus7 wrote:

@ mythus: Well, I can not imagine at all living without virtual desktops. -- But you can definitely share your wallpapers, if you don't mind! big_smile

Activity 1 wallpaper:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pizzabythe … 100055327/

Activity 2 wallpaper is simply a background supplied with the distro-generic steampunk kdm.

Activity 3 wallpaper:
http://ericpoulton.blogspot.com/search/ … tar%20wars

About the first part of your comment, neither could I! Activities is like virtual desktops x 2 almost, so it's all good. If you use KDe and haven't tried working with activities, you owe it to yourself to try for a day or so. If it works for you, awesome! If not, awesome anyways because you at least tried and you have that freedom of choice not to have to use activities or whatever. That goes as well to the ninjaaron, that is awesome because you have that freedom! While tilers aren't my thing, it is great it exists for those who prefer tilers!


Legends of Nor'Ova - role playing community devoted to quality forum-based and table-top role play, home of the Legends of Nor'Ova Core Rule Book and Legends of Nor'Ova: Saga of Ablution steam punk like forum based RPG

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#157 2011-10-12 15:49:55

ivoarch
Member
Registered: 2011-03-31
Posts: 436

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

Still DWM

Clean

tYXJ4MQ

Dirty

tYXJ4NA


I love GnuEmacs, GnuScreen, ratpoison, and conkeror.
Github )||( Weblog

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#158 2011-10-12 16:01:53

nnoell
Member
From: Spain
Registered: 2010-08-21
Posts: 99

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

Still Xmonad, but this time with more black colors and with clickable layout switcher. Credits goes to count-corrupt for sharing his xmonad setup.

Clean:
tYXJ3dw

Busy:
tYXJ4Ng

And here, my xmonad.hs

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#159 2011-10-12 18:26:41

jbritton
Member
Registered: 2011-03-15
Posts: 41

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

201110121424061280x800s.th.png

So after using dwm for a couple months, I decided that a tiling wm really is impractical for most of my uses.  So after not getting PekWM to do what I wanted I'm back to Openbox again.

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#160 2011-10-12 19:36:09

Paul-S
Member
From: Wales
Registered: 2008-02-04
Posts: 353

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

Nice desk nnoell, can you post the status bar scripts.

Cheers
Paul-S

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#161 2011-10-12 20:31:30

nxarmada
Member
Registered: 2010-10-17
Posts: 8

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

My XFCE Desktop

screen_thumb.png


Style (GTK): Zuckitwo-Dark
Icons: Faenza
Style (xfwm): Atolm-Squared
Conky: Reloj
Wallpaper: Calming (nebula)

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#162 2011-10-12 20:35:00

livinglifeback
Member
Registered: 2009-10-24
Posts: 29

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

nnoell can you post your xdefaults?

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#163 2011-10-12 20:37:44

Rasi
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2007-08-14
Posts: 1,914
Website

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

mythus wrote:

Unlike other programs Chromium doesn't open in only the internet activity, and I can't seem to find out how to make it do so. Note: I haven't yet tested other browsers to see if they give similar results, but KDE-Telepathy client, LibreOffice, Kate, for example stay in their activities.

alt+f3 -> advanced window settings


He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.

Douglas Adams

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#164 2011-10-12 21:06:41

nexus7
Member
From: brain dump
Registered: 2006-12-06
Posts: 285

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

@mythus: thanks mate! smile


we are Arch.
you will be assimilated!
resistance is futile!

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#165 2011-10-12 22:45:49

keenerd
Package Maintainer (PM)
Registered: 2007-02-22
Posts: 647
Website

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

Four screenshots using ScrotWM, yay!  None with verbose_layout enabled, boo.

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#166 2011-10-12 23:47:12

nnoell
Member
From: Spain
Registered: 2010-08-21
Posts: 99

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

Paul-S wrote:

Nice desk nnoell, can you post the status bar scripts.

Cheers
Paul-S

topstatusbar.sh
bottomstatusbar.sh
conkyrc

livinglifeback wrote:

nnoell can you post your xdefaults?

Xdefaults

Enjoy!

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#167 2011-10-13 07:49:16

enzzzy
Member
Registered: 2010-10-09
Posts: 13

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

jbritton,
What task manager are you running ?

Last edited by enzzzy (2011-10-13 07:50:37)

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#168 2011-10-13 08:34:06

mythus
Member
From: MS Gulf Coast
Registered: 2008-05-15
Posts: 509
Website

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

Rasi wrote:
mythus wrote:

Unlike other programs Chromium doesn't open in only the internet activity, and I can't seem to find out how to make it do so. Note: I haven't yet tested other browsers to see if they give similar results, but KDE-Telepathy client, LibreOffice, Kate, for example stay in their activities.

alt+f3 -> advanced window settings

Thanks for that! I had totally forgotten that hot-key.


Legends of Nor'Ova - role playing community devoted to quality forum-based and table-top role play, home of the Legends of Nor'Ova Core Rule Book and Legends of Nor'Ova: Saga of Ablution steam punk like forum based RPG

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#169 2011-10-13 09:25:13

motorbreath
Member
Registered: 2008-12-14
Posts: 4

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

Unia wrote:

Still Compiz standalone with tint2. Very pleased with this set up!

http://ompldr.org/tYWx2Yw

http://ompldr.org/tYWx2Yg

Looks great! What's that menu showing applications?

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#170 2011-10-13 15:06:23

kyla
Member
From: Arlington, VA
Registered: 2011-03-12
Posts: 112
Website

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

tYXNlZw

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#171 2011-10-13 16:02:57

Unia
Member
From: Stockholm, Sweden
Registered: 2010-03-30
Posts: 2,486
Website

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

motorbreath wrote:
Unia wrote:

Still Compiz standalone with tint2. Very pleased with this set up!

http://ompldr.org/tYWx2Yw

http://ompldr.org/tYWx2Yg

Looks great! What's that menu showing applications?

It's Slingshot


If you can't sit by a cozy fire with your code in hand enjoying its simplicity and clarity, it needs more work. --Carlos Torres

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#172 2011-10-13 21:34:39

moetunes
Member
From: A comfortable couch
Registered: 2010-10-09
Posts: 1,033

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

Still playing with my light tiler
tYXNuYw

Cheers


You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me.

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#173 2011-10-14 13:06:30

MrCode
Member
Registered: 2010-02-06
Posts: 373

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

I didn't post screenies of my desktop before because I didn't figure there was much point, but I'm bored, so here goes: tongue

Clean:
2iswidd.jpg

Desktop apps:

2l9431e.jpg

Internet apps:

29qbjtg.jpg

Programming (yes, it's my Mandelbrot thing again; new and improved so that it doesn't constantly take 100% CPU time! tongue):

2mqka9t.jpg

Yeah, I definitely go for consistency. big_smile

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#174 2011-10-14 16:02:55

toketin
Member
From: Belluno (Italy)
Registered: 2007-04-17
Posts: 326

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

na12 wrote:
toketin wrote:
na12 wrote:

No

Ok thanks but there isn't it in repo or aur right?

It is in AUR as dockbarx.

Hi, sorry but how do you use dockbarx, it needs gnome-panel or awn to work doens't it?

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#175 2011-10-14 17:35:39

Doomcide
Member
Registered: 2011-08-22
Posts: 221

Re: October 2011 Screenshots

Playing around with dminiwm, runs very stable so far and the option to resize the top stack window is cool.
tYXQ0dQ

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