How do you use your desktop?
Imagine a computer system that was semantic. For those unaffiliated with this concept, this is similar to having your computer understand you as a human would. This is often easier to explain through examples. For example, when you click that spot on the screen, that’s because you want to achieve something. The computer understands what you are trying to achieve and thus will do it for you. What we have now is “this is how I work – use me”.
There are many ways in which people are trying to achieve this symantic desktop. Two examples off the top of my head are 1) Nepomuk and Strigi and 2) The 3D desktop.
Let’s first look at nepomuk and strigi. These are two technologies used by the K Desktop Environment (excuse any technical misunderstandings), which from what I understand are meant to store a wealth of “meta-info” about all your stored data. Be it your email, contact lists, favourites, essays, presentations, music, images, etc. It will turn them from being stored as data into being stored as information. I’m then meant to be able to find/sort/store them much easier than before. Must be heaven when trying to find that centuries old self-note I wrote.
The second example is the 3D desktop. A concept that I myself am trying to spread is that your desktop is…well, a desktop. You keep what you’ve been recently working on and what you’re currently working on…on your desktop. Your desktop is where you dump your stuff in-between sorting them, and where you leave stuff piled after a long days’ work. It is where it is both easy to access stuff and dispose of stuff.
Oh really.
I don’t think it’s working so far. Nepomuk/Strigi has never once shown me anything useful. I store my own files the way I want to. Microsoft and Apple both categorise things for you (well, Microsoft tries) in their own structures, whilst the Linux filesystem is…organised chaos.
KDE was meant to have revolutionised the desktop. I might not know the advance of the system’s backend of plasma and the such, but whatever happened, i’m just not quite seeing it. The concept of plasmoids on the desktop itself (yes, on panels they are very useful) might be good, but utterly impractical. The main reasons I find for this are:
They are inaccessible.
Even with show-desktop/show-plasma-dashboard, they are still very limited in function. The folder view plasmoid just shows a folder, then allows me to open files in the folder or open subdirectories in Dolphin. I can’t do my actual file sorting with the plasmoid. The quicklaunch plasmoid is heaps better, but very small.
They replicate functionality.
We have the folder view, and dolphin (not to mention konqueror). All browse files. We have the calculator plasmoid, but what use is that when I have my nifty alt-f2 calculator embedded in krunner? The media player plasmoid – which is easier, tapping a shortcut or showing my desktop then pausing/playing/etc? Analog clock? I have my good ‘ol digital clock in the bottom right corner. Web browser plasmoid? Seriously. Blue marble, ball, binary clock, conway’s game of life? Useful? I think not.
So, the question is, how do you use your desktop? (if in KDE, this includes plasma – if not, then just in terms of file organisation?)
(in unrelated news, my blog now uses Slimbox for displaying images, so there is increased sexiness when you click on them!)
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gregor says: (11 May 2009)
mihau says: (11 May 2009)
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