This is #155150 ditto, for KDE5. Plasma 5 doesn't seem to allow different wallpapers and/or widgets for each desktop. Reproducible: Always
was a very problematic feature that cause a lot of bugs. it was removed as an explicit choice (and due to architectural changes can't really get back) for this behavior, there are activities
"was a very problematic feature that cause a lot of bugs." You almost sound like GNOME devs. Ugh, I really regret the 4- > 5 switch now. "for this behavior, there are activities" I think you're talking about ANOTHER behavior. It's not possible to assign a wallpaper per virtual desktop using activities. What activities give is a wallpaper per activity. I don't use activities, I actively hate activities. Argh.
I agree, I have always liked having different images with the desktops. I never really found a use for the activities, seemed a little redundant to have activities and desktops....
I emphatically agree with Dick Tracey's comment above, and iceruam. I want the Virtual Desktops with different Wallpapers, and in my view you can dump Activities, except I suppose you could keep them around for the other users who like that concept. What about this? "KDE - Experience Freedom!" http://kde.org/ Where is the "Freedom" in killing a feature that many of us want and refusing to allow us that choice? There are discussions at many Linux forums about this narrow-minded move.
What started my interest here was a request that individual panels be available for each virtual desktop. Now I find I won't be able to have different wallpaper on each desktop? HUGE regression! I use each wallpaper as a reminder of which desktop I'm on. I promise I'll stay with 4 as long as possible, then look for an alternative. Tried activities, doen't fit my wants. I can live with the panel being the same for all desktops, but wallpaper? No way!
> Tried activities, doen't fit my wants. Same here. It is indeed a very-very bad regression. That alone is enough for me (and I believe not only me) to consider migrating to another DE even though I've been loving KDE4 for years. It's very sad.
i agree too, this was a key feature for kde4 that is not supposed to be dropped, its like taking away the principle for what kde was standing for namely giving the user the possibility to adjust every aspect of the desktop. This is a no-go, and I hope there will be a retreat to this, since many users ( like me ) wont go this way of new restrictions. Anyhow plasma 5 was suposed to be getting better and not worse like it is now. Very sad.
*** Bug 346761 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I can live with switching to Activities instead though the concept does not fit my workflow nearly as well as VDesktops. But can we then wish for an "activity pager widget" that, like the VD Pager one, informs you how many Activities that are active and in which one you are at the moment?
(In reply to Orion from comment #9) > I can live with switching to Activities instead though the concept does not > fit my workflow nearly as well as VDesktops. But can we then wish for an > "activity pager widget" that, like the VD Pager one, informs you how many > Activities that are active and in which one you are at the moment? forget this comment, I found the widget. Not as elegant as "Pager" but it works
Wow this is disappointing.
Well, this feature regression is really a bad one. I enjoyed KDE4 for that superb feature that KDE3 did not have. No other desktop environment did have it except KDE4. In KDE4 I was using different virtual desktops that looked independent (different wallpapers, different widgets, folder view on the D1, desktop view on D2, widgets and apps links on D3, and then notebook view on D4. I did not find any need to use Activities feature. Apple OS X manages the feature Spaces that are independent virtual desktops (different wallpapers, dock icons and apps links icons). And Microsoft Windows 10 is about to have a copy-like of that feature. Why KDE5 WON'T EVER bring back that wonderful feature ? Under KDE4 I never had any bug related to virtual desktops with different widgets/icons/wallpapers... It was gorgeous ! Hopefully you guys will change your mind and bring that feature back, whatever technical methods you'd use. To me, merging the Activities feature with Virtual Desktops feature should make it. In my mind these 2 features were redundant ones in KDE4, and everyone is more used to virtual desktops notion than activities. General public will get used to it too with Apple and Microsoft feature. Why not keeping the features that rocks in KDE !!!!
I made a video to explain why Activities can not still replace the feature of different elements on each virtual desktop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOLG722muUQ
As I already said in another forum: this is a absolut show stopper for me. I just can quote Andy: agree too, this was a key feature for kde4 that is not supposed to be dropped, its like taking away the principle for what kde was standing for namely giving the user the possibility to adjust every aspect of the desktop. This is a no-go, and I hope there will be a retreat to this, since many users ( like me ) wont go this way of new restrictions. Anyhow plasma 5 was suposed to be getting better and not worse like it is now. Very sad.
(In reply to Fraser_Bell from comment #4) > I emphatically agree with Dick Tracey's comment above, and iceruam. > > I want the Virtual Desktops with different Wallpapers, and in my view you > can dump Activities, except I suppose you could keep them around for the > other users who like that concept. > > What about this? > > "KDE - Experience Freedom!" http://kde.org/ > > Where is the "Freedom" in killing a feature that many of us want and > refusing to allow us that choice? There are discussions at many Linux > forums about this narrow-minded move. Thank you. These were the words, I was looking for....
I think the only way to make activities a real drop-in replacement for virtual desktops would be doing the following: 1) Make it possible to switch activities with keyboard shortcuts as easy as one can switch virtual desktops. Currently it only seems possible to bring in the panel with activities via keyboard shortcut, next one needs to choose some activity to make it the "current" one. 2) Make it possible to see all activities at once in the grid as one can see all virtual desktops and drag-and-drop widgets here and there between them. 3) Cosmetic issue but still: make it possible to select the animation for switching activities. The current animation for switching activities is ok but I believe a lot of users would miss the virtual desktops cube or whatever other virtual desktops switching animation they got used to. Feel free to add to this list. Note that it seems already possible to show tasks from all activities at once in the task bar and there's a widget like virtual desktop pager for switching between activities. Maybe activities just need some polishing before one can use them instead of virtual desktops.
(In reply to Dmitry Ivanov from comment #16) > I think the only way to make activities a real drop-in replacement for > virtual desktops would be doing the following: > 1) Make it possible to switch activities with keyboard shortcuts as easy as > one can switch virtual desktops. Currently it only seems possible to bring > in the panel with activities via keyboard shortcut, next one needs to choose > some activity to make it the "current" one. > 2) Make it possible to see all activities at once in the grid as one can see > all virtual desktops and drag-and-drop widgets here and there between them. > 3) Cosmetic issue but still: make it possible to select the animation for > switching activities. The current animation for switching activities is ok > but I believe a lot of users would miss the virtual desktops cube or > whatever other virtual desktops switching animation they got used to. > > Feel free to add to this list. Note that it seems already possible to show > tasks from all activities at once in the task bar and there's a widget like > virtual desktop pager for switching between activities. Maybe activities > just need some polishing before one can use them instead of virtual desktops. In Plasma 5.3 you can change Activities using Meta+Tab and Meta+Shift+Tab, in 5.2.2 that did not work. The "pager" panel widget is very rudimentary still
That's good news, thanks, will test when I have time. However, is it possible to not just switch back and forth between activities but also switch to certain activity via just one single shortcut, like Ctrl+F# with virtual desktops? Or is it planned to make it possible eventually?
Activities are still no alternative (for me). So "Hello KDE4/Plasma4". Good bye "KDE5/PLasma5". let's hope for the future, that there will be a fork of Plasma.
(In reply to Dmitry Ivanov from comment #18) > That's good news, thanks, will test when I have time. However, is it > possible to not just switch back and forth between activities but also > switch to certain activity via just one single shortcut, like Ctrl+F# with > virtual desktops? Or is it planned to make it possible eventually? yes it is but takes a bit of work. There is a setting for Activity shortcuts but by default they are not defined (at least in Kubuntu). I set Meta+A to first activity and so on and it works
(In reply to Orion from comment #20) > (In reply to Dmitry Ivanov from comment #18) > > That's good news, thanks, will test when I have time. However, is it > > possible to not just switch back and forth between activities but also > > switch to certain activity via just one single shortcut, like Ctrl+F# with > > virtual desktops? Or is it planned to make it possible eventually? > > yes it is but takes a bit of work. There is a setting for Activity shortcuts > but by default they are not defined (at least in Kubuntu). I set Meta+A to > first activity and so on and it works Played around with it a bit. First of all you have to activate Activities shortcuts somewhere in system settings. Then under "Global Shortcuts" you can set eg Meta+F1 to one activity and so on. But it is not set by default in other words
accidentaly, and while beeing frustrated about this wallpaper bug and that the launcher also is not possible to resize as it was in kde4, i installed lancelot launcher, which brought back all the old desktop as known from kde4. Now I can resize the launcher have different desktop cube wallpapers and everything is smooth so far.
Created attachment 93374 [details] plasma 5 accidentally redirected to kde4 desktop by installing lancelot with a happy ending
Created attachment 93375 [details] with the launcher resizable again : - )
(In reply to andy from comment #22) > accidentaly, and while beeing frustrated about this wallpaper bug and that > the launcher also > is not possible to resize as it was in kde4, > i installed lancelot launcher, which brought back all > the old desktop as known from kde4. Now I can resize the launcher have > different desktop cube > wallpapers and everything is smooth so far. How did you install Lancelot? It is my favourite but I know it is not ported to Plasma5
> How did you install Lancelot? It is my favourite but I know it is not ported > to Plasma5 hi, using manjaro kde 8.13 alpha, octopi had the dependencies to lancelot, so it installed lancelot along a reversion to kde4 i guess. things look better now, but since its a goback not satisfying, it would be better plasma5 would improove to the real good level kde4 was before.
While to some degree you can emulate the old multiple virtual desktops with activities, the absence of a pager, a grid and all the eyecandy (cube, switch animation, etc..) is really annoying and penalizing for the producivity. Also, I cannot see the point of having multiple virtual desktops at all if they look the same and have the same widgets. I really hope the architectural changes you mentioned aren't so immutable and you consider fixing this. Until then, i'm back to 4 too
I never wanted Activities, nor needed them. All I needed to organize my work, were 6 different Desktops that were clearly marked through different wallpapers and the widgets I need for that "activity" (for example the contacts Widgets and kmail). If you want to promote activities, don't try to force me to use them, make them as good as the "old" behaviour. But they are far away from that. So I stay as long as possible with kde4 and after that I switch to another Desktop Environment. Kde5s new features are a real "nobody needs / wants them" except the developers. Good bye Microsoft, hello Microsoft Second Edition. And good bye KDE.
WHAT......THE......ACTUAL.....*BEEEEEEEEEEEEP* So, I upgrade to KDE5 finally today (on debian), right?.. Finally, there is a plain option (check-box) to finally turn off that damn cashew thing!.. I always knew aaron was full of crap and that there actually was no need for it.. Every thing was going smoothly....that is, until............ ..To my horror, I find that there is no option to have seperate widgets and wallpapers for each desktop!!... I came here, and find out it is marked as "Won't ever fix".......WTAF This is like 1 step forward (option to remove cashew) and 9 steps back (can no longer have different wallpapers).. I thought that the new plasma5 engine and stuff was supposed to allow KDE to do more stuff and remove the cruft from plasma4 that limited new abilities, but that they couldn't change because they didn't want to break compatibility.. So now we have the new and improved plasma5 engine.....And you are trying to tell me it is beyond its ability to have seperate wallpapers?? Hell, bring back plasma4 then, and you guys need to keep working on plasma5.. Don't release it again until it has this ability.. My god, what were the developers thinking making some thing so rigid that it can't even handle showing more than 1 same wallpaper on all of the desktops?? And you DO know that KDE lets you have up to TWENTY desktops, right?.. I know most people don't use 20, but in the hypothetical situation where some one does use 20, who in their right mind would want 20 of the same wallpapers???.. How are they supposed to orient their selves to know which desktop they are on if they all look identical? Even with the exact same widgets?.. I only need my weather widgets on 1 desktop, not on all of them.. And telling people to just use activities instead sounds like a cop-out answer.. You KNOW that that isn't as good, and you know that activities were never made for the purpose of having seperate wallpapers.. It is like trying to kill a fly with a bazooka.. People have to configure shortcuts, and set-up activies and figure out how to do all that stuff for every KDE computer they use, all just so they can try to restore basic functionality that KDE used to have in a now-obsolete version.. Even microsoft windows is to have this function.. Hell, for all we know, they could have stolen that idea from KDE.. I am not a super programmer, although I've made a few crappy android games in java before.. But I fail to see how this is so impossible to implement.. How can plasma not be able to handle painting the background pixels differently depending on which desktop number it is currently on?.. if desktop.current.number == 4 then desktop.wallpaper = /home/bob/hotgirl.jpg I mean, plasma has to draw the pixels of the background any way no matter what, right?.. So why is it forced to draw it the exact same way on all of the desktops?.. I just can't wrap my tiny little brain around that.. For any one else reading this, I wouldn't give in by letting them force you to use full-blown multiple activities for this simple operation.. We never used to need to do that before.. Why start having to do that now in the year 2015?.. This needs to be changed to "Must fix".. I don't want to have to wait for KDE6 to be able to change my damn wallpapers..
I couldn't agree more, I don't understand the reasoning behind this decision. As for me, I'm not going to use activities to try to replicate the desktop behavior - it just doesn't fit or work the same way. Honestly, I don't know anyone that uses activities but everyone I know uses different wallpapers on different desktops. It's such a fundamental part of working with multiple desktops I don't see what they were thinking when they removed this. I've always loved KDE and will continue to use it but this is a really bad decision and makes no sense. They aren't forcing people to do things a new way, they are only taking away functionality that was already there. I wish some of the developers would give us a better answer than the one provided above.
Also me can live with switching to Activities instead though the concept does not fit my workflow nearly as well as VDesktops. But can we then wish for an "activity pager widget" that, like the VD Pager one, informs you how many Activities that are active and in which one you are at the moment? And also the possibility to have a grid of activities.. :-) :-)
(In reply to pier andre from comment #31) > Also me can live with switching to Activities instead though the concept > does not > fit my workflow nearly as well as VDesktops. But can we then wish for an > "activity pager widget" that, like the VD Pager one, informs you how many > Activities that are active and in which one you are at the moment? > And also the possibility to have a grid of activities.. :-) :-) I could live with that (activity pager widget) then I could once again tell where I am working when I switch. I don't use activities because it requires me to change my workflow for no additional benefit (to me) I would prefer bothactivities and virt desktops with individual wallpapers, but RESOLVED WONTFIX pretty much says it all :-(
In #341143 the issue has been reopened. Since, between different threads, we're actually not so few, I'd suggest to converge all to one thread, either this or #341143 (but change the title to include the widgets). I link other threads talking about this: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=348493 https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=349486 https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=341143 https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=155150 (it is quite peculiar that the very same issue happened in KDE3 -> KDE4 migration)
I intended to comment on #341143 (which has the advantage of being reopened) but, following loop.rw's suggestions, here seems to be a better place. Many things have already been said in the reports listed by loop.rw and I concur with most of them. Basically, I think the key word here is "regression" (or "drop"). The word itself does not appear in so many comments, but this is clearly what we have here: people have been able to set a different wallpaper on each virtual desktop for years (at least 11 years as far as I can say, possibly more). Like many options, not everybody use it for the same reasons: some like the resulting aesthetics in grid/cube view, some like it to quickly switch to a wallpaper that fits their mood, some use it to recognize on which desktop they are and feel completely lost without it, etc: it is hard to put everybody in simple, nifty user cases/scenarios. One thing is sure here: it is now considered a basic feature for a desktop environment. Some desktop environments chose not to implement it, sometimes to remain lightweight, sometimes to promote an "everybody-should-live-this-way" approach, sometimes because of lazyness or ineptitude. On the other hand, KDE has always been praised for its lot of features and options, i.e. for its ability to let end users configure and organize their desktop environment the way they like it, not the way some UX guru decided things should be. From that perspective, KDE activities are neither the culprit nor the solution. Some people love KDE activities, and it is good as it means they have not been implemented for nothing. On the other hand, some people do not recognize them as a proper replacement to per-desktop wallpapers/widgets, and their voices ought to be heard. A few other things to consider: On the technical feasibility of the feature: I have read the regression is "due to architectural changes" and that because of this, KDE "can't really get back". Let's be completely honest on the matter: the feature itself has been possible for years, so there is no way KDE can make the world believe it is not possible anymore. Of course, we can understand the re-implementation would be particularly painful because of the new underlying software architecture. But, again, coming from the team who chose to start two major rewrites in the last decade, this sounds phony. Over the years, the KDE community has been able to implement many programs with a tremendous amount of features and options (my personal favorite being KIO/slaves) and suddenly, what has been possible for years is not possible anymore? That simply won't do. On the anger one can feel when reading some comments: Well, I assume KDE developers are used to angry users depicting a particular bug as the new apocalypse that will strike the whole world of Free Software from the universe. However, it seems to me it is very easy to relate to the anger of those users: most of them discovered the issue right after discovering that the jump from 4 to 5 would have them reconfiguring Plasma entirely (a particularly user-unfriendly policy). Some discovered it after having painfully solved the switch from X.org + kdm to wayland + sddm. Most discovered it was the worst regression but not the only one. Most discovered this while hoping the KDE team would have learned something from the rather painful KDE3 -> KDE 4 migrations: software are expected to evolve, gaining features and stability as time goes on. Having to reconfigure something feels particularly wrong in 2015, but not being able to reconfigure it the way it was before the upgrade is one of the most frustrating things for end users so, naturally, anger ensues. This being said, and as #341143 has been reopened, I feel like this topic needs technical clarification in order to progress: would it be possible to detail the exact, technical constraints that make it so hard to bring this feature back? What makes Plasma so strict regarding wallpapers and widgets? Could the feature be delegated to an external application/process/plugin? Many thanks in advance.
There's little value in resisting bringing back a feature that most users want. There may be a lot of difficult technical issues, but the 'WONTFIX' decision flies in the face of having a community.
(In reply to Marco Martin from comment #1) > was a very problematic feature that cause a lot of bugs. > it was removed as an explicit choice (and due to architectural changes can't > really get back) > for this behavior, there are activities The problematic claim was made way back in KDE4, and they said it couldn't possibly be returned, and then, magically this capability returned. So you can port this code directly out of 4.14. As you've been advised, activities are no substitute, and historically it is Activities that are the cause of all the bug reports, not multiple wall papers. Please return multiple wall papers, because the community wants them.
Can someone please either change this to REOPENED or RESOLVED DUPLICATE (341143) ?
The amount of people wanting this feature back is a perfect example of the state of KDE. Developers ignore the end user. "I'm the developer, I know best". http://linuxfonts.narod.ru/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.the.desktop.current.html "Activities were ment to do that better.." People hate activities! You force something on peoples brains no one gets -> kill THAT. I can easily be convinced of "feature B does that better, use it". I used activites for 60 seconds found the first bug ( You can't ORDER them, seriously ?) of this so called "way more refined way to do things" Linux based desktops used to openly boast ( me too!) of the super simple and cool system of virtual desktops. You could easily "impress" people of a Linux desktop with that feature. Windows for example neglected that completely. Now, in the same year that MS finally copies that feature in W10, you wizards of KDE take the first shot at it. Yes, of course it's still there. But read closely above, people will not switch to plasma 5 for simple stuff like this. Going back to 4 again ( this is the third time for me ...) until you guys figure out an answer to the question "why do we develop software in the first place"
Just wish to add my dissatisfaction with the decision to prevent unique wallpapers on Virtual Desktops. I have been using KDE 4 up to this point, today I upgraded my machine, stronger better faster and brought down the latest Mine with KDE 5. Was setting up my new world which included a different wallpaper, it was the envy of my workplace. We work directly with Microsoft and I would rub their faces in our cool GUI environment. The cube, the different images the clarity made things pop. So as I was configuring I spent significant time trying to find the option. The "activities" are an interesting feature but usually I start off my day clean and work across the Virtual Desktops. If I may suggest maybe disabling multiple activities with a warning, if one chooses different wallpaper on VD's and vice versa. On KDE 4 I did not have any issues with this, over the years that I used it. Eh, see the WONTFIX resolution, not a good choice. Otherwise thanks guys for a great UI.....
(In reply to scotter59 from comment #39) > Just wish to add my dissatisfaction with the decision to prevent unique > wallpapers on Virtual Desktops. > > I have been using KDE 4 up to this point, today I upgraded my machine, > stronger better faster and brought down the latest Mine with KDE 5. Was > setting up my new world which included a different wallpaper, it was the > envy of my workplace. We work directly with Microsoft and I would rub their > faces in our cool GUI environment. The cube, the different images the > clarity made things pop. So as I was configuring I spent significant time > trying to find the option. > > The "activities" are an interesting feature but usually I start off my day > clean and work across the Virtual Desktops. If I may suggest maybe > disabling multiple activities with a warning, if one chooses different > wallpaper on VD's and vice versa. On KDE 4 I did not have any issues with > this, over the years that I used it. > > Eh, see the WONTFIX resolution, not a good choice. > Otherwise thanks guys for a great UI..... This feature is coming back. This is main bug report (and read this comment): https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=341143#c167
Created attachment 96946 [details] attachment-14396-0.html Thank you guys, do like the KDE interface. :) Scott M On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 2:15 PM, Nikola Schnelle via KDE Bugzilla < bugzilla_noreply@kde.org> wrote: > https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=343246 > > --- Comment #40 from Nikola Schnelle <n.schnelle@gmail.com> --- > (In reply to scotter59 from comment #39) > > Just wish to add my dissatisfaction with the decision to prevent unique > > wallpapers on Virtual Desktops. > > > > I have been using KDE 4 up to this point, today I upgraded my machine, > > stronger better faster and brought down the latest Mine with KDE 5. Was > > setting up my new world which included a different wallpaper, it was the > > envy of my workplace. We work directly with Microsoft and I would rub > their > > faces in our cool GUI environment. The cube, the different images the > > clarity made things pop. So as I was configuring I spent significant > time > > trying to find the option. > > > > The "activities" are an interesting feature but usually I start off my > day > > clean and work across the Virtual Desktops. If I may suggest maybe > > disabling multiple activities with a warning, if one chooses different > > wallpaper on VD's and vice versa. On KDE 4 I did not have any issues > with > > this, over the years that I used it. > > > > Eh, see the WONTFIX resolution, not a good choice. > > Otherwise thanks guys for a great UI..... > > This feature is coming back. > This is main bug report (and read this comment): > https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=341143#c167 > > -- > You are receiving this mail because: > You are on the CC list for the bug. >
Regarding wallpapers, I get that there might be architectural limitations for allowing to set a wallpaper per virtual desktop. How about this alternative solution: make it possible to set a huge wallpaper that covers the background behind virtual desktops. Basically, there is only a single image to be configured, and that image is then panned when switching virtual desktops. The wallpaper option could be called "stretch across all virtual desktops". Would that be easier to implement ?
So far, I really like Plasma 5, however the wallpaper issue is disappointing. I utilize multiple activities with multiple desktops to manage huge numbers of konsole sessions, browsers, etc. and would rely on the different wallpapers as an indicator as to which I'm on for what. Additionally having the single wallpaper, is well, boring. Please reconsider re-adding this feature, or provide some altnerative to it. Could a full screen widget with image background control provide a work around here? I've noticed that I can't seem to find widgets per activity / wigets per page.
It's being worked on! See https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=341143#c167
I may have a lponger memory than most, or may just be older, but we had the same issue in going form the beautiful kde3 to the initially non-functional kde4: devs also then attempted to force users to use activities and did not have different wallpapers / desktop. So I did not upgrade from Kubuntu 8.04 until 12.04, when kde4 finally reached feature parity with kde3. So now I am on kubuntu 14.04, and obviously will be staying with it at least to end of life and possibly longer. I use 3 screens, 6 virtual desktops (obviously of 3 screens earch) and on three of the virtual desktops I have a dual screen virtual machine, each with 4 virtual desktops.
pls delete comment 45 - got put in accidentally while I was learning to use this. it is irrelevant.
The tax authority of lower saxonay is actually using KDE3.5 on 12.000 client computers and considers to switch to KDE5. In early years we used CDE and virtual desktops are quite popular. As the new plama5-workspace doesn´t provide different desktop-background images per virtual workspace as offerd in KDE4, the decision to migrate to plasma5 will be quite easy: Use KDE3.5 as far as offered on Leap 42.2 or switch to trinity.