Today I’m in a posting spree…This clip shows how to resize and move Plasma panels around.
Following up on my previous post, here is another screencast showing off how to create a sidebar panel and add a few plasmoids to it. As usual, the version on Youtube has annotations.
Those of you that follow my Linux-related posts know that I work (along with others) on a FAQ trying to explain some magic behind KDE 4.x’s Plasma. Now, especially since the rise of ill-informed comments on the Internet, there is the need to spread correct information (most of the naysayers are not quite informed).
So, if you want to help KDE, please spread the word on the Plasma FAQ! If people have questions on Plasma, just direct them to
http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Plasma/FAQ
so that the developers can at least save their (precious) time by avoiding to answer to the same questions over and over. This will also hopefully limit the spread of disinformation, or even FUD.
If you want to help KDE, at least a little, this is a good place to start!
Now even the (once respected) Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is jumping on the bandwagon of Plasma haters. With a rather uninformed and rant-ish entry that just advocates a fork, like some other people said on the kde-devel mailinglist a week or two ago.
The entry is rather dismissive of everything in KDE 4 save Plasma (and a mention on Dolphin’s single click icon), and also gets some facts and links wrong (yes, the Plasma web site is outdated, but since the developers are busy coding, someone else should step up and help). I wanted to point out a link to the Plasma FAQ, but apparently I can’t (I assume it’s because of my ISP, as usual).
In any case, I didn’t find mention of specific problems, save the fact that apparently SJVN doesn’t like Plasma. But why? Why didn’t he point out the specific problems? My question is, was he really interested in having problems fixed, or he just wanted to advocate a fork for the sake of some unspecified reason? I think the latter.
I’m no developer, but I’m liking where Plasma is doing. I already set up three different activities on my computer here at home, which uses nightly Kubuntu packages. I switch between general, writing and coding activities, which have different plasmoids loaded. The difference in layout and the like are the bigger advantage over traditional virtual desktops.
Fork talks like the aforementioned blog entry are no good, they only want to kindle more flames, just as the behavior of trolls on the Dot reached the point of no return. Not a good sign.
