Coming out of Tokamak, the Plasma team has been setting goals for 4.3, putting together Summer of Code ideas and writing code for 4.3 that generally kicks ass and takes names later. Expect noticeable improvements to extenders, theming, layout flexibility, performance and general I-can't-believe-it's-not-butter-ness.
A few big picture things we're also starting to focus on in a more serious fashion now that the 4.0->4.2 journey is firmly lodged in the year known as 2008 include (other than content creation tools, which I covered in my last blog entry) the educational desktop, a netbook/MID appropriate interface and a simple media center mode for the traditional desktop set up.
(Yes, we'll also be working on the stuff we've already shipped, working out bugs, performance issues and bugs as we go... but that's a "detail" item. ;)
To be honest, the development line up for the 4.3 and 4.4 releases in Plasma scare the hell out of me .. but in a good way. You see, if I'm feeling comfortable, we're not pushing hard enough. If I'm terrified, we're pushing the envelope too hard. But if I'm scared, then like Goldylocks on her third bowl of porridge, it's "just right". It means I know we could fail if we aren't brilliant, but that if we apply ourselves with enough determination we can make it.
"It's crazy enough that it just .. might .. work!" Words to live by.
(.. and I think this entry catches me up on my back-log of blog postings for the week! I still have more topics to cover though, including what the hell happened to my weekly video casts, things people looking for a project to join should keep in mind and the difficult tasks involved in letting Free software projects mature to a whole new level.)
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17 comments:
"A few big picture things we're also starting to focus on ... include ... a netbook/MID appropriate interface and a simple media center mode for the traditional desktop set up."
I'm quite excited about both of these items - glad to hear they are getting some focus :)
>>and a simple media center mode
Actually I'd love to see an integrated back end. Right now I'm using MediaTomb to send stuff to my PS3. It works but is missing the elegance. Something in Dolphin, a right click, "add to media server" option would be stellar. Something much less than LinuxMCE was/is proposing.
what they said! I see things like HP's Mini Mi or Elisa and think to myself "man, it seems like Plasma would be PERFECT for this!"
How about really flexing out the plasma-panels :)? IIRC right now you can't have two separate panels in the same edge of the screen (or can you? I'm not sure).
Also, I would like to have several hiding panels that cover the entire edge of the. User could have one panel in the top of the screen that unhides when the cursor is in top-left screen-edge, and there could be another panel on the top of the screen that unhides when user hits the top of the screen. Both panels would occupy same area (the top of the screen), but of course only one of them would be visible at the time.
This way the user could really start using the panels. I could see myself using the top of the screen as a menubar (like in MacOS), but I could also see myself putting a timeline-plasmoid (the one you mentioned in one of your vidcasts) in there as well.
Yes, I have filed a wish for this :).
@Janne: You can have two plasma planels on same screen edge.
You just need first to add one, resize it and then add other, resize it and then drag it to the same edge.
And if you want two autohide panels to same edge, that is possible too with small "tweak", but it is buggy, so no real "go".
Just resize both panels little smaller than the max widght. Then move panels to opposite corners, so first has 20px empty space on right side and second has 20px empty space on left side. Then set both to autohide. Bad thing seems to be that when mouse cursor actives the other panel "glow" the active panel gets autohided again.
I think that that autohide feature and glow effect needs little tweaking. The glow effect should be visible longer range than what it is currently. Now it is about 30-50px and you actully move the cursor to edge to check is there panel, instead hovering. That range should about 200-300px. better if there would be option to set it, because it is very cool feature, but currently not so usable because it needs so close contact.
Fri13: Hey, thanks for the info :). That might actually achieve what I'm wanting to do :). Of course, the bugs need to get ironed out first.
Aaron
A bit off topic but where does KDE4 stand on this trojan topic that re-emerged last week with regards to ".desktop" files? Is KDE4 subject to the same accusations?
Hi Aaron,
Can plasma take advantage of phonon for displaying videos on widgets? Background, etc?
Damiga: As for streaming to the PS3, I thought I read that Amarok was looking into UPNP support (one of the major features I think it currently lacks).
Aaron: Frankly there are many Windows 7/KDE 4 comparisons made all the time. In certain ways the UI is improved from Vista (despite still burying options in twelve layers of dialogs for no apparent reasons).
I know some feel that no FOSS project should ever take a cue from Redmond, and that people who develop Windows-esque themes are often flamed for doing so, but if someone comes up with a good idea, shouldn't you acknowledge that?
Do you feel it is a sin to take any inspiration from what they're doing, and would you consider implementing some of their ideas? For instance, the new taskbar, jumplists and Aero peek?
Enderandrew:
"I thought I read that Amarok was looking into UPNP support (one of the major features I think it currently lacks)"
That'll be good for music, but how about video and pictures? There's been a lot of discussion about a standard SQL back end for KDE. I'm looking forward to one day having something that will take care of Aconadi, Amarok, Digikam, Krecipes (waiting for a new KDE4 release), UPnP, and whatever else anyone thinks of.
@Janne: making panels even more flexible is something we'll eventually get to. things like the educational layout or a media center view will end up helping a lot more people, though, and something we've wanted to do for a while. but, yeah, all in good time. sooner if someone submits patches ;)
@Ian: we already have fixes for it; discussion is on kde-core-devel at kde.org and the patch set is either already in or about to go in.
@Diego Viola: yes, we already have a video widget that uses phonon for this.
@Enderandrew: since many of their changes were actually done first in Plasma/KWin (or elsewhere, as in their new taskbar thing), it doesn't really concern me much.
we are *always* compared to a new version of Windows. it's just the nature of the beast.
and no, it's not wrong to take good ideas from others. it is wrong to just copy anything new, though. sometimes things seem like a good (or cool) idea only because they are different and new. i'm not overly convinced about the Peek thing, for instance; but we'll see. if it turns out to be a really great idea and it its with the rest of our overall design, i'm sure we'll borrow it.
we have enough new and original ideas to keep us interesting and unique. well, except that often our ideas end up being borrowed by others as well ;)
@Seigo
Keep doing mental masturbation about themes and extenders when simple things like error dialogs are not yet working.
And if someone were to point these out, keep deleting their post.
Good work.
@I Love: i have been deleting yours, and others (unless it's just you with multiple accounts), trollish comments on this blog entry for the last few days. why?
because:
a) they are innacurate bullshit
b) they are phrased in a rather depressingly rude manner that isn't productive at all
this matters to me. if you can't muster common decency and respect, you don't deserve to talk to me: be civil or go away.
you have, for the last several days, shown yourself to be unwilling to do that. and i've quietly removed your crap from my blog in return.
as for the error dialog you refer to in the comment i'm replying to here, it's not part of plasma. it's part of kwin. and squishing a dialog down so that you can't read the message is also a bit of a cheat.
so not only is your premise dubious, it's completely irrelevant to the topic of "what we're working on in plasma".
the things we are working on in plasma are not without value, and we *are* working on improving what already exists in addition. i said so in the blog entry, in fact.
we have a full year of release track record behind us now to show that we do in fact know what we're doing.
so yes, you can take your rudely presented bullshit somewhere else. this ought to be common sense, but evidently you choose not to employ such reasoning. until you do, i will continue to remove your comments from my blog.
of course, please feel free to go set up your own soapbox somewhere else from which to whinge from day and night. but i won't share mine with your sort.
enjoy, aseigo.
ah, and i should point out, I Love, that if you continue to feel that it's useful for some bizarre reason to continue your little troll tirade here, i will simply shut off comments to my blog until you go away.
you just aren't worth that much of my time.
I am reading a blog on new changes they are adding to Windows 7 RC, and I found this one particularly interesting.
"13. Multi-touch right-click
People who are rely on touch give us mixed feelings towards tap and hold to bring up a context menu. This approach works, but it also involves a slight delay. We now have a fast new multi-touch gesture for right-click. Simply touch an item with one finger and use another finger to tap and summon a context menu."
I know the issue of not having a right-click in a touch interface in Plasma has come up before. I was curious what you thought about this ideas.
Hey Aaron,
Don't listen to the trolls, they are morons. I been using KDE 4.2 and it's been amazing.
Keep up the great work.
>a netbook/MID appropriate interface
Please do.
As much as I love KDE4.2 on the desktop, the netbook is a different story.
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