New open source projects have been launched by KDE developers aimed at bringing a consistent user interface across a varied of touch screen interfaces like tablets and entertainment devices and take data integration to a new level. The new Plasma Active and Contour projects were developed to offer a new user experience for tablets, smartphones and set top boxes.
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Member since:
2010-05-14
Member since:2008-04-18
Why do they have to make a browser for it? Installing a third party browser is a matter of a few clicks. Opera is a very good browser. Also, Konqueror now with webkit is a good browser. I think they should focus on the core, and let the others to work on components that run on top of it.
Member since:2010-05-14
Member since:2006-07-14
Member since:2010-05-14
Member since:2006-12-05
Member since:2006-07-14
So the project that was forked by Apple to create a web their own web browser ... was not designed to be a web browser?
There is a difference between not being designed for something, and simply not being very good at something. Sometimes they are correlated, sometimes not. If A hammer breaks while trying to pound in a nail, you don't point at the nail remover on the other side and claim it wasn't designed to be a hammer.
Member since:2010-05-14
Member since:2006-07-14
Its a kde app, it can be configured to look however you want. The up button is removable ( in five clicks of the mouse ) . Is there anything else that you would remove or change to its interface so that it would be more "designed to be a web browser" and less "designed to be a file manager" ?
Sort of reminds me how a 3.5 mm audio male/male plug in the ipod/iphone secion costs $16.00, but in the general av section its $5.00.
Member since:2005-11-14
Member since:2010-05-14
Member since:2005-07-06
The simple explanation is perhaps because of all the crappy websites, or simply the basic nature of the linked web. In any case the up button is a great usability feature, and it's rather puzzling other browsers do not copy it.
It's the feature i miss the most when using other browsers. Obviously I can get to the front-page of any site by selecting and deleting everything but the base URL in the address-bar, but two quick taps on the up button is both much easier and faster.
Member since:
2005-07-06
I'm being negative, I know, but did they test this thing with real users, or is it just some developer's dream vision? This UI looks finicky, it's got tons of hidden control points (e.g. flicking with a small gesture outside of the primary icon area, slow dragging from an invisible area on the right side of the screen, dragging an arrow-shaped thingy to the left to open groups) and confusing multiple ways of representing things (cover-flow/stack view vs. icon group window view thingy). Very skeptical.... Sorry.
Member since:2006-07-23
Invisible? Isn't there a handle? I actually think a not-so-intrusive handle is a good design on small form factor touch screens.
Isn't this kinda norm these days? Look at how many "confusing" ways any reasonable file manager has.
Plus this project is in its infancy. Yet it shows interesting possibilities with the current KDE plasma framework.
Member since:2006-06-12
Most KDE apps use MVC, so it is possible to create new views for most of them without major refactor. The future of Linux is on mobile (Android alone apparently...) so laying some work to be able to survive at some point in the future seem to be a good idea. Its like knowing an asteroid is coming to earth and just waiting until you can see it without a telescope to act. I don't think Plasma will gain that much traction on mobile until there is an Android UI based on it, but still good to know that they think about it right now.
Member since:2005-09-27
Member since:2006-06-12
Member since:2008-10-30
Member since:2010-03-08
How could the future of Linux be on mobile while there's currently only few open mobile devices to install it on, and mostly through hacks that won't work with the next generation of each handset ?
An android that's not rooted is not much better than iOS as far as openness is concerned. I wouldn't expect major system modifications like the installation of KDE to work without root access...
Member since:2005-11-14
Untrue. With Android, you don't need root to install apps from other vendors, you can duplicate core functionality, and you can make modified versions of existing apps, etc. Having said that, I don't think anyone has bothered with porting KDE to Android so far, and I don't see much point in it.
Member since:2006-06-12
Member since:2007-05-31
Member since:2005-11-17
Just to reassure everybody on this: we have actual user interaction designers doing actual user testing working on the project
so, I expect the UI of this first prototype to be significantly different in the first actual release
Member since:
2005-09-27
Another flaw I see is that they are just a buntch of Qt experts, not Linux expert (no, is not the same by far).
When Google started Android one of the first things it did was to hire real Linux experts like Rover Love (a former Novell employee, http://rlove.org/).
But all I see in this project are a bunch of Qt experts not even usability folks.
There a lot of challenges in implementeing a Tablet experience, like installation of software, security, etc.
So I wonder, who is going to implement this part of the Tablet experience?, They will say "Hey, here is the Shell, you do the rest", if that is the case then I don't find it quite attractive.
Another problem is the schedule, they won't be able to do mutch in so litle time.
I personally don't think these project will take off or get enought (if any), sponsors, Not when Android is around.
Member since:2005-09-27
OKOKOK.
This blogspost answer some of my questions:
http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2011/04/plasma-active-operating-systems....
Member since:
2007-06-02