KDE 4.1 - ZUI demo

A small screencast showing how the Zooming User Interface (ZUI) works. The last part shows activity switching using shortcuts.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• kde4
• plasma

[marmorstn]

And how is this supposed to be usefull? I.e. improve my workflow?

[cswegger]

Because you can set up activities for different things. Unlike X11 virtual ones, the "desktops" are completely independent. I use 3 different activities for working already, each one with a different set of plasmoids. In the future you may even have different "types" of desktops as activity.

[marmorstn]

What can this do that the pager/multiple desktops could/can not?

[cswegger]

Virtual desktops are at the moment tied together. They are not truly independent, like the ZUI.

[duSooS]

how did you switch between activities? is it somehow tied with kwin?

[cswegger]

With ctrl-shift-N and ctrl-shift-P. Kwin isn't yet completely aware of Plasma, but more integration is probably upcoming in 4.2 and later.

[grumbel45]

Hm, doesn't really look much like a real ZUI. Just virtual desktops that are zoomed out a bit, i.e. not much different then Apples Expose. Anything I am missing?

[italianesport]

Yes, the wallpaper is the default one.

[thecursedfly]

it would be better if there would simply be a setting to make virtual desktop really independent (like one with all my app links, one with all links to my documents etc)

[DavidMTRutten]

Unless you're actually gaining functionality or information when zooming in and out it's not a ZUI.

[paxcoder]

afaics, not zui

[downhillgames]

Great, I just lost my regular plasma config while messing with this. Just wonderful. I'm a pretty die-hard fan of KDE 4, but this just seems ridiculous. Replace the desktop with a sort of panel? Alright, that's graspable. Use an entirely new paradigm to navigate that new paradigm? Insanity. I can EASILY see why Kubuntu disabled this by default. IT'S CONFUSING AS HELL! I'll just stick with virtual desktops. I'm sure there's a practical use for this, but you won't find everyone using it in 5yrs..

[MoonOvIce]

With compiz is MUCH better...for some reason KDE are trying to implement 3D effects into their desktop enviroment but they're not that good, for that we use Compiz-fusion.

[marmorstn]

In KDE3 the only limitation is that kicker and kdesktop run on all desktops. But this is not a real limitation. File management on the desktop can be disabled and be replaced by a real file manager or multiple instances thereof.

For applications KWin let's me choose if I prefer them on all desktops (e.g. xosview) or only on a specific desktop.

And Kicker does not get in the way either, because one can put applications on top or fullscreen.

[archerlinux]

ZUI is a great idea. People may not be getting it yet, but once you use it, it seems quite handy !!