Description: This desktop is the product of 2.5 years of experimenting with KDE. Originally, I tried KDE-3.0 with an objective unbiased attitude. I had hoped that I could continue to avoid "bloated" desktop environments. What I learned, was that although KDE is bloated by default, it can be trimmed down. Eventually I recognized BeOS R5 as the "right direction" of the ideals of simplicity, elegance, and productivity. I feel that at the rate KDE is going, it will surely surpass the BeOS. (aesthetically, architecturally, and technologically)
Minor, visible Barriers to this:
1. Video applications need to somehow share video overlay, so that one can play multiple videos at once.
2. Won't somebody please fix the Taskbar. One should be able to disable its "reserve x amount of space". (might be fixed in 3.4)
3. We need little green bars next any Device icons, to show how much space is used up. We also need cleaned up df -h output for mouse hover over devices.
4. Insanely responsive multithreaded apps.
5. God's Gift to Programmers--I haven't done any KDE programming, but I have heard that it makes more sense and is more enjoyable to code for BeOS.
Comments:
The window decoration is called "B II". It's most AMAZING feature is support for traditional "Sliding Tabs". This is very, VERY hard to find anywhere other then Pre-Dano BeOS. Now if only it had Classic BeOS buttons... A mere bagatelle, but it would be a nice touch. When I have the chance, maybe I'll make a "B III"
Use the program "albumart" to semi-automatically label whole albums with cover art.
A transparent kicker feels less claustrophobic at 1024x768. Liquid_Weather++ takes up too much desktop space, but it's better then Kweather. It is even more wasteful of pixels, in a wide kicker like this. If I could, I'd code an applet that looked like this:
Clicking on [o], which is the icon for the rain, sun, etc, would open up a window with would display information in a similar way to the default Liquid-Weather++ view.Last changelog:
2004-11-20 (0.5) Initial release
2004-11-29 (0.6) *replaced old screenshot *added a second screenshot. *changed font *changed layout *changed text in konsole
"1. Video applications need to somehow share video overlay, so that one can play multiple videos at once."
Just out of curiosity, why would you want to play multiple videos at once? Yes, it was a cool feature of the pervasive threads in BeOS, but cool only for demo purposes--i.e., no one watches more than one video at a time, at least no sane person I know.
"2. Won't somebody please fix the Taskbar. One should be able to disable its "reserve x amount of space"."
Aaron Seigo is currently optimizing and de-crufting kicker; maybe that includes the taskbar. In any case, check out bugs.kde.org for a similar report; vote it up if you find one, otherwise, create a new one.
"3. We need a System Tray clock, and a way to make sure that it is always the first app started."
Well, I don't know if need is the appropriate word, but as I recently discovered, coding Python systray applets is a lot of fun and pretty easy. Do you have a screenshot that shows what you have in mind?
"4. We need little green bars next any Device icons, to show how much space is used up."
I seem to recall this being a wishlist item on bugs.kde.org. Too lazy to look for it though, but if it's important, you can vote it up.
As for the weather applet, try modifying LiquidWeather. Hacking in Python is dead simple, even if you don't really understand Python. Besides, it's very easy to learn, and very rewarding, too.
I know they're low barriers--key word is "realistic". There's a better chance of them getting coded/accepted, if they're not hard to do. This is also kde-look, so all these things are looks/user-experience related.
1. This is useful for video editing. Ever try to find a particular scene amongst 10 or so hours of footage? The trick is to watch four quarter-size vids at once. A "normal" user might find this handy for making a screencap, or finding a quote.
2. This will be fixed in KDE-3.3.2
3. The reason this is nice, is because it saves ~20px of screenspace.
4. I can't find this on bugs.kde.org. I'm not going to post a report until I have a reasonable idea what it effects--if the scope is too big, I'll have to deal with this complexity or else leave the idea alone.
Here are low-res screenshots of old, and newer BeOS at:
http://www.masuseki.com/be/shot_BeOS.html
A modern screenshot which demonstrates video, and the little green bars is here:
http://www.yellowtab.com/products/screens/video/hi/zeta_tv.png
Ratings & Comments
2 Comments
"1. Video applications need to somehow share video overlay, so that one can play multiple videos at once." Just out of curiosity, why would you want to play multiple videos at once? Yes, it was a cool feature of the pervasive threads in BeOS, but cool only for demo purposes--i.e., no one watches more than one video at a time, at least no sane person I know. "2. Won't somebody please fix the Taskbar. One should be able to disable its "reserve x amount of space"." Aaron Seigo is currently optimizing and de-crufting kicker; maybe that includes the taskbar. In any case, check out bugs.kde.org for a similar report; vote it up if you find one, otherwise, create a new one. "3. We need a System Tray clock, and a way to make sure that it is always the first app started." Well, I don't know if need is the appropriate word, but as I recently discovered, coding Python systray applets is a lot of fun and pretty easy. Do you have a screenshot that shows what you have in mind? "4. We need little green bars next any Device icons, to show how much space is used up." I seem to recall this being a wishlist item on bugs.kde.org. Too lazy to look for it though, but if it's important, you can vote it up. As for the weather applet, try modifying LiquidWeather. Hacking in Python is dead simple, even if you don't really understand Python. Besides, it's very easy to learn, and very rewarding, too.
I know they're low barriers--key word is "realistic". There's a better chance of them getting coded/accepted, if they're not hard to do. This is also kde-look, so all these things are looks/user-experience related. 1. This is useful for video editing. Ever try to find a particular scene amongst 10 or so hours of footage? The trick is to watch four quarter-size vids at once. A "normal" user might find this handy for making a screencap, or finding a quote. 2. This will be fixed in KDE-3.3.2 3. The reason this is nice, is because it saves ~20px of screenspace. 4. I can't find this on bugs.kde.org. I'm not going to post a report until I have a reasonable idea what it effects--if the scope is too big, I'll have to deal with this complexity or else leave the idea alone. Here are low-res screenshots of old, and newer BeOS at: http://www.masuseki.com/be/shot_BeOS.html A modern screenshot which demonstrates video, and the little green bars is here: http://www.yellowtab.com/products/screens/video/hi/zeta_tv.png