A New Beginning
When Apple unleashed the Macintosh in 1984 the desktop as we know it became mainstream. Two decades later and we still have essentially the same desktop concepts: file and applications icons on the desktop, a separate bar for menus and launchers. Incremental improvements have been made to these metaphors, such as the addition of the taskbar in the 1990s. But very little has actually changed.
During this same period of time the Internet has become an integral part of business and even many people's personal lives. Computing is network-centric and multimedia is no longer a buzzword, it's the norm. Movies, music, instant messaging, workgroup collaboration and dazzling graphics all make up the modern computing experience.
And yet our desktop icons still sit there much as they did back in 1984. Our desktop panels remain essentially unchanged since the 1990s. More and more users are abandoning the desktop as a place to put icons as our needs outstrip what they can provide.
It is time that the desktop caught up with modern computing practices and once again made our lives easier and more interesting when sitting in front of the computer. Just like those icons did for people back in 1984.
Development of KDE4 has just begun, and it is during these major release cycles that we have the opportunity to retool and rethink our applications and environment at the fundamental level. The fact that the current desktop concepts have lasted this long is a testament to their effectivity, and we should not simply abandon all sense of the familiar and the useful. Yet we can not stay where we are either.
This, then, is the goal and mandate of Plasma: to take the desktop as we know it and make it relevant again. Breathtaking beauty, workflow driven design and fresh ideas are key ingredients and this web site is your portal onto its birth.
Beauty and Design
People want gorgeous interfaces built upon sophisticated graphic design. This may sound obvious, but expectations have risen dramatically even just within the last five years.
Inspired by the way industrial design brought elegance to the consumer electronics market, the Plasma artists and developers are working hard to bring sophisticated elegance to your desktop. We have the benefit of new, modern graphics capabilities emerging at every level of the technology stack and if you've seen SuperKaramba widgets before, then you've seen just the beginning of what is possible.
Plasma will deliver new looks for most traditional panel elements, an extensions system designed for beautiful results and graphic treatments that will firmly cement it as the desktop by which others are measured.
Usability
Looks aside, Plasma must offer the average KDE user efficient and ergonomic access to their desktop first and foremost. So an emphasis is being placed on clarity and workflow sensitive design in the interface. Configuration will be kept simple and default settings will be carefully chosen to provide a compelling experience by default while still providing a customizable and extensible environment.
Several of the fundamental components associated with the desktop are being reviewed and redesigned. This includes the K Menu application launcher, the Run Command dialog and taskbar interaction. With several years of user experience to draw upon, it has become evident which aspects of the desktop and panels could be better served with new ideas.
Consistency is another key factor. By offering the same applets and icons for both the desktop and the panel, including seamless drag and drop between them, Plasma will break the barrier between the these two desktop elements. If the user wants to move the clock from a panel to the desktop, they should be able to. Anything that works on the desktop should work the same on the panels, and vice versa.
Of course, respecting the past experiences of a user is important. While creating this exciting new set of interfaces, the project is aware that it should not deviate too far afield from the status quo desktop design so that new users will not feel as if they've stepped into a completely alien landscape when they install and use KDE.
Innovation
It's probably quite apparent that meeting these various goals requires a good dose of innovation. Meeting the goals of usability and beauty is already pushing the limits of our imaginations and experience. Project based collections, network aware widgets for collaboration, interfaces that you can zoom in on to examine details and zoom out of to gain overiew and free-form layout of add-ons are all being experimented with. And this is just the start of it.
Plasma will support writing add-ons, or "applets", in a number of programming languages. At the entry level, if you can design a web page and sling a little Javascript, you'll be able to write a Plasma applet. Python, Java, Ruby and C++ developers will also be able to select to use their favorite language to create additions.
Applets written in one of the dynamic languages, such as Javascript or Java, will be able to be distributed as single files that users can quickly add to their Plasma desktop. In fact, these can be distributed over the Internet or local network using Get Hot New Stuff. A few clicks and a user can have your applet running on their desktop regardless of the operating system they are using. No compiling, no manually downloading, no complicated installation procedures.
Once running, applets can be placed (and later moved) on the desktop, any desktop panel or even set to "float" above other windows. The desktop itself will be able to be called forward with a handy key combination, and floating applets can be stowed away or retrieved in similar fashion.
Most impressively, this is all Free / Open Source software and will run on any hardware and operating system platform KDE itself runs on.
The End Result
The Plasma team is spending a lot of time thinking and working on these new desktop components. The result will be a system that you don't have to spend a lot of time thinking about or struggling with to make it work the way you want it to. In fact, our job will be done when the average user hardly notices the mechanisms at work and just simply enjoys the beauty and sense of Plasma.
