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Apparently, though unproven, at 01:08 on Tuesday 28 December 2010, Alex |
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Schuster did opine thusly: |
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|
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> Alan McKinnon wrote: |
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> > Apparently, though unproven, at 18:35 on Tuesday 30 November 2010, Alex |
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> > |
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> > Schuster did opine thusly: |
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> > > Alan McKinnon writes: |
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> > > > Activities. wtf are those? |
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> > > |
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> > > I tink they are really cool, although I don't use them, and probably |
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> > > never will. But I'm not the average user. I have six virtual desktops |
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> > > (current screenshots are at |
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> > > http://www.wonkology.org/comp/desktop/2010-11-11/ ), each one has its |
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> > > purpose. For each window you can define the desktop it will run on. |
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> > > You change the desktop, and you get new windows displayed, while the |
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> > > plasmoids stay the same. |
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> > > |
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> > > With activities it's the other way around. You switch the activity, and |
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> > > the windows stay the same, but you get different plasmoids. |
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> > |
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> > That's a decent explanation, thanks a lot. I can see how some folks would |
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> > like that and why it's been coded. |
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> |
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> In case you're still interested, this blog entry has some more information |
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> on activities: |
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> |
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> http://chani.wordpress.com/2010/12/26/activity-oriented-vs-application-orie |
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> nted-workspaces/ |
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> |
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> It also covers differences in Gnome's and KDE's approach to this activity |
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> stuff. |
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|
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Good find, it does answer some questions! (especially in the comments). |
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I tend to agree with the long post by user Fri13; to a casual observer my life |
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and desktop looks nicely organized and everything one-to-one mapped to |
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something else. In reality, it's just like everyone else - a mish-mash |
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collection of stuffs that somehow makes sense in my head. |
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|
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So I looked long and hard at this, and found that my desktop is *taskbar- |
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centric* - it's my primary way of organizing things. Apps are spread across 6 |
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virtual desktops in a very ad-hoc style - amarok is on desktop 6 (where it's |
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out of the way), kontact on desktop 2 (where it can be full screen), konsole |
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sticky on the right hand side of all desktops (where I can see it everywhere), |
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and all browsers usually end up on desktop 1 with large numbers of tabs each. |
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Note there's no common method to this madness :-) |
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|
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Like most people, my work is never nicely categorized by Activity - it's too |
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fluid and changeable and too subject to my mood and how I feel today. I also |
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don't like abstracting away the specific app used for a function, I do care |
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whether it's gwenview, okular or digiKam that's loaded an image. They are not |
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mere apps, they are tools, and I'm always aware of what tool I'm using. |
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There's a parallel in the real world - to cut a piece of steel in my workshop |
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I can use any one of several tools and they are NOT interchangeable; to cut a |
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2" square tube to length I *do* want the angle grinder and not the hacksaw, so |
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I chose the tool myself and do not have it handed to me by some magic |
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selector. Apps are similar, they have their strengths and weaknesses and I |
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usually know which one I want. |
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So now I do understand Activities better. It can be a good idea and I'd like |
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to see some usage experts survey it extensively to make it more obvious how it |
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works. One function that comes to mind which I would use is to return the |
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desktop to a prior state. I often work from home and then want my apps |
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arranged the same way I have them at work. |
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But for now I think I'll just continue the way I always have with a good old |
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Unix virtual desktop setup and KDE session manager. |
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-- |
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alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com |