Steffi's Nest

Well since Joel, brought it up, I was thinking that I ought to brag a bit about the new KDE desktop (4.x) for Linux.  I use kubuntu and although I’ve heard some gripping about the bugs (see this post)  in the first release of KDE (4.0) it truly looks amazing now!

Joel’s post was about looking for programs to clean up your desktop.  However I’m not convinced that a program that moves your files is the best way to go.  If you must keep all those files, then organize them (which is what Joel’s program does at least in part), but most desktop files are temporary or at least, should be temporary.  Most people maintain that you shouldn’t have any files on your desktop because it slows things down.  I agree, but still have my desktop as my default browser download directory.  That way I’m forced to delete files I don’t need any more (moving them out of sight does NOT solve the problem, Joel ).  That being said, it’s really annoying when a the desktop gets crowded.

Enter Plasma Dashboard!  The Plasma Dashboard in KDE 4.x gets around this problem of cluttered desktops by not requiring it in the first place.  Here, your desktop is absolutely clean (no files) until you add Plasmoids/Widgets to it.  After that you can make it as cluttered or barren as you like.  You can see in mine that I have a clock, a lunar calendar, my rss feeds, my desktop files and a weather widget.  The files widget can show files from any folder and you can set it to be as big or small as you like!  That way if you have lots of files in it, it just starts scrolling!

Gnome Do popping up

While I’m on the subject I’ll point out another desktop utility that make things nice Gnome Do.  This is a Gnome utility (duh!) that, in conjunction with Docky, allows me to have a bar a the bottom of my screen that scolls in a Mac-like manner and is usage-smart (meaning it keeps track of what you use most and what’s open).  I know that having both a bar at the top AND Gnome Do, is probably a bit of overkill, but I haven’t decided which one I like best yet.  This way of using Gnome Do isn’t even hitting it’s full potential since it’s primarily an as-you-type application launcher.  I suggest you check out their site for the complete picture.

So… Take THAT, all you non-linux users who insist that anything Open-Source looks amaturish or unfinished!  And if you’re still not convinced, I invite you to check out Compiz, Mozilla products, Gimp, OpenOffice, Zotero, WordPress, etc., etc., etc.!