---
author: einar
comments: true
date: 2008-12-29 14:22:29+00:00
layout: post
slug: why-plasma-is-the-best-thing-since-sliced-bread
title: Why Plasma is the best thing since sliced bread
wordpress_id: 477
categories:
- KDE
- Linux
tags:
- KDE
- Linux
- plasma
---

Today I was adjusting a bit the layouts of the Activities ([as defined in Plasma](http://userbase.kde.org/Glossary)) to better suit my workflows. To do so I was using the brand new Activity Bar which is present in KDE 4.2. It's very neat, but takes up space on the desktop, and while it's not a big deal on my main PC (1280x1024 resolution), it _is_ an issue on my recently-resuscitated EeePC (1024x600).

It was then that it occured to me that such applets are, in Plasma-speak, PopupApplets, which means they adjust their behavior depending if they are in a panel or "free". Also, I knew that Plasma had panel auto-hiding. 5 seconds later, I had a solution that fit my tastes, as this screenshot shows:


[![Auto-hide plus activity bar](http://www.dennogumi.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/plasma_activity.thumbnail.png)](http://www.dennogumi.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/plasma_activity.png)




I could have used auto-hide also for the lower panel, but I'm not that comfortable, as I'm used to keep an eye to the systray, taskbar, and so on. In the end, I'm very satisfied with Plasma, since with a few adjustments I made it right for my workflow. This is an example of what it can do, and I can't wait for context (as in semantic context) aware applications...
