[e-users] Idea - Window Management - Taskbar, Groups and Desktops

[novo m. <nov...@gm...>]

This idea describes how to handle desktop management in desktop
environment. Whole idea is made as an animated GIF image which can be
found here:

[url]http://novomente-activities.blogspot.com/2012/04/desktop-environment-taskbar-groups-and.html[/url]

If you feel the animation is slow, please be patient to see it all,
because it really worth to see it.

For those who like the idea and are interested in more ideas, I
recommend to join the FluiDE group here:

[url]http://gnome-look.org/groups/?id=590[/url]

novomente



Some Features:
-----------------------
The "Group" is in fact equivalent to the "desktop" in today desktop
understanding. Making a Group from 2 or more application creates new
desktop in today desktop understanding. Adding or removing application
to/from the Group (desktop in today understanding), as well as moving
them among multiple Groups (desktops in today understanding), is very
easy.

The one of advantages of this idea is, when you need to show single
application in a Group (desktop in today understanding), you only
click on its button in a taskbar and the application will show up in
the current Group (desktop in today understanding), so you need not to
move the single application to the appropriate desktop in today
understanding. Handling this is by me better than using a window
"stick" button, which shows the single application in all desktops (in
today understanding).

So the primary purpose of the Group feature is to handle desktops in
today desktops understanding.

Another feature is to SAVE Group (desktop in today understanding) with
all windows layout and positions. The feature is very effective, when
you often work on something what needs more than one applications to
be used. Lets say that you need some workspace, where you need more
applications, where every window has its own position, size and all
windows have some layout. You don't want to change this often, because
the workspace is exactly what you need. In today Window Management,
you would always need to recreate the workspace (window layout, window
sizes and positions) from the ground, i.e. open all applications one
by one, set their sizes and positions, and recreate the window layout.
With the idea I propose you only need to open a saved Group (desktop
in today meaning) from the main menu = 2 clicks. And all is already
set up. You can always change the workspace (edit it) and save it
again, when you need a change. You can have more workspaces saved. You
can open multiple saved workspaces and quickly switch among them with
one click.

More over, when you need to switch to application from another desktop
(which is the Group in the idea), all you need is to click on its icon
in the taskbar. Doing it will - show the appropriate desktop (Group),
set the application to the front and make it active. In today popular
Desktop Environments, you have to - switch to desktop view (Gnome
Shell, Cinnamon), search the application which desktop it is on (KDE,
Gnome Shell, Cinnamon), choose the desktop where the application is
placed, click on the application window to make it going in front of
others and to make it active. The equation is obvious "1 click vs. 3
or more clicks + search".

Third feature is desktop (Groups) management. Is it possible in Gnome
Shell, Cinnamon or KDE to merge 2 desktops? I guess NO. In the idea
this is possible. It is possible very easily to merge more than 2
desktops in today understanding. All you need is - to drag one desktop
(Group) over another and you have one desktop (Group) with all
applications from both previous desktops. How you would do it in Gnome
Shell or Cinnamon or KDE? You have to drag all applications one by one
from one desktop to another. I think that advantage of the previous
solution is again obvious.

There are more ideas and features you can do with the idea I propose.
All you need to do is only imagine you already have it in your desktop
environment and imagine the work and play with it.

I understand that some people won't like it. It is just that working
with computer is very individual. And I welcome another ideas you can
have to make this idea better.

Note: The "Group" (in the idea) can be renamed to "Desktop" and the
"Desktop" (in the idea) can be renamed to "Workspace".


novomente