On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 1:27 AM, Mark Shuttleworth
<mark@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 08/08/10 20:49, Apoorva Sharma wrote:
> I like all these ideas, but why not do what KDE4 did, and present a
> desktop of files, a zeitgeist timeline, etc. as widgets, so you could
> have access to files and useful information?
framework out there today, though. Google's implementations have a lot
of rendering and usability problems, and the gadgets are not attractive.
Yahoo's is closed source. The others are marginal.
I was thinking more on the lines of desktop implementations, not web implemtation, like KDE4's Plasma.
Am I missing a good candidate?
I don't think you forgot to mention any specific candidate, but is it possible to create an implementation ourselves? It wouldn't need so many gadgets, just a clock, file view, and notes should be enough to start. However, if we had a good framework for developing more, I'm sure more will follow.
Also, something like this could possibly work:
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/07/plasmadashboard-equivalent-coming-to.html
If I may lead attention to SeedKit for a second:
http://live.gnome.org/SeedKit
In a nutshell it's a gtkWidget holding a (optionally) transparent webkit container, it ties strongly with the Seed _javascript_ Implementation, GObject Introspection and DBUS (all the sweet stuff everyones looking at right now).
I think by putting WebTechnology in the front row we'll have the highest possible developer base. Just imagine something like A Ubuntu Widget Website not unlike Android Market or the App Store ( or a tie in with the USC ) where people can upload new Widgets which provide them with capabilities like :
1. Easy to learn and get into ( any other guy could write a basic Widget within under a Day)
2. Are easily portable to other Mobile Devices, Websites and Distributions
3. Offers Devs of f.e. iPhone HTML5 Apps a very convenient way to bring their Apps to a new Audience in form of a Widget.
The sweet thing about it, it's already working and would only need the WM_CLASS treatment (meaning a window class for widgets of course).
One could even go as far as supplying the Widget with a pull and push function (Pull= a "real" GTKWindow, push=move back to widget space) and you could even "listen" to the window state via CSS Media Queries.
Proof of concept:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1890515/MiniPlayerPreview.ogv