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Idea #20645: Make desktop more organised and productive

Written by sathishmanohar the 12 Jul 09 at 16:33. Related project: Gnome. Status: New
Rationale
Desktop is the area, often seen as just a visual space. There are hardly any productivity improvements in all operating systems.

It would be great if there is a smarter desktop.

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votes
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Solution #1: Grouping files and launchers
Written by sathishmanohar the 12 Jul 09 at 16:33.
Everybody is doing different things with their computers. Users are using certain set of programs, while doing a certain task. So, why not split the desktop into different set of launcher.

This will reduce the clutter in the desktop and allows user to store more things right in the desktop and will be more organised.

Again, This can be pushed further. Say If the programs are minimized, the programs are smartly grouped respective to their sets.

I've designed a little picture of how it may look.


9
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Solution #2: Create an app like "Fences"
Written by timmay1369 the 23 Jul 09 at 23:02.
There is a program for windows called fences, which almost does this same thing, however it does not do open program management like grouping active windows, but it does group icons on the desktop by catagory etc. and it is fully customizable, with titles, borders colors...
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Solution #3: Allow assigning icons to specific desktops
Written by SoftwareExplorer the 31 Jul 09 at 13:59.
Allow people to decide what desktops the icons appear on. By default, when a new icon was added to the desktop folder, it would appear on all of the desktops, to avoid confusing new users. More advanced users could uncheck a check box for the desktops they didn't want it to appear on. This would be especially good for people who use multiple desktops for different things, like work and play. If you don't like this solution please tell me why in the comments. Thanks!

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Comments
jaenz wrote on the 13 Jul 09 at 10:54
gnome shell is going to bring the improvements u want

Akerbos wrote on the 13 Jul 09 at 22:02
Does grouping have any effect besides the light box in your idea?

sathishmanohar wrote on the 14 Jul 09 at 04:45
If there is grouping, there is possibility to have many launchers in desktop than normal. So, May be the bottom panel can be completely removed.

Because, In Ubuntu we have two panels by default, which comes in the way of users, less screen space to work. So may be there can be a smart-group for currently opened programs, right on the desktop. Hence totally eliminating the need for the bottom panel. There is only workspace switcher and show desktop in it. Which can be moved to top.

Also,

1) There can be custom groups, Say I'm a web designer I want to have all my web design related apps in that groups, and if I'm a part time dj, I would have a seperate group.

2) There can be smart groups. Say If I'm a photographer I save lot of images, Then there can be smart groups, which means if certain file types such as jpeg, png were stored. Its instantly grouped under a custom smart group pictures.

jeypeyy wrote on the 14 Jul 09 at 21:39
I think you can do all that with plasma in KDE.

sathishmanohar wrote on the 24 Jul 09 at 16:03
Just checked out fence, Its is a very basic program, which just makes a background for different set of icons. But, the idea I proposed, is grouping icons and which makes one group visible at a time. So, If desktop can have 40 icons, by this system it can have 200 icons if there is 5 groups.

There could also be a scroll bar, so that there can be any number of icons under a group, But, I'm not sure, how many will like the scroll bar idea, But definitely It'll be a great useful thing for desktop junkie like me.

SoftwareExplorer wrote on the 31 Jul 09 at 17:15
My solution (#3) could be expanded to include grouping as a submenu of the different desktops. Just realize that solutions aren't mutually exclusive. If anyone has advice on how to improve my solution, I would consider revising it. Thanks.

sathishmanohar wrote on the 2 Aug 09 at 16:47
Solution #3 is Great too.

Here Solution #1 is about organizing launchers and files in one one desktop and Solution #3 is organizing among several desktops.


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