KDE Plasma 4
KDE Plasma 4 is the fourth generation of the KDE workspace environments. It consists of three workspaces, each targeting a certain platform: Plasma Desktop for traditional desktop PCs and notebooks, Plasma Netbook for netbooks, and Plasma Active for tablet PCs and similar devices.
KDE Plasma 4 was released as part of KDE Software Compilation 4 and replaced Kicker, KDesktop, and SuperKaramba, which formed the Desktop in earlier KDE releases. They are bundled as the default environment with a number of free software operating systems, such as Chakra, Kubuntu, Mageia, openSUSE, or TrueOS.
With the release of KDE SC 4.11 on 14 August 2013, KDE Plasma 4 was placed into a feature freeze and turned into a long-term stable package until August 2015. On 15 July 2014 KDE Plasma 4's successor, KDE Plasma 5, was released.
Features
Plasma features containments, which are essentially applets that contain other applets. Two examples of containments are the desktop background and the taskbar. A containment can be anything the developer wants: an image, animation, or even OpenGL. Images are most commonly used, but with Plasma the user could set any applet as the desktop background without losing functionality of the applet. This also allows for applets to be dragged between the desktop and the taskbar, and have a separate visualization for the more confined taskbar.Plasma separates components into "data engine" and their visualization counterparts. This is intended to reduce the total programming effort when there are multiple possible visualizations of given data; and to make it easier for the data engine and the workspaces to be written independently.
The scalable nature of the Plasma widgets allows for them to be resized and rotated to any size, with only a brief pause to redraw themselves. The Kross scripting framework allows developers to write widgets in a variety of programming languages in addition to C++.
KRunner is a versatile tool for several functions. It replaces the dialog box "Run Command" from K Desktop Environment 3, and also inherits from the application launcher feature, expanding the possibilities through a modular plug. KRunner stores previously entered commands and searches, accessible via an auto-complete feature. KRunner can be shown on the desktop via the keyboard combination or by selecting "Run Command..." in the desktop menu.
These functions are handled by the plugin:
- Application launcher: Type at least three letters of the desired name or description. KRunner shows applications associated with the terms of the search and allows the selection of the desired one.
- Calculator: Simply enter the desired operation to show the result. It also supports sophisticated expressions.
- Contacts can search for entries in KDE's address book allowing users to directly open, for example, KMail to write an e-mail. The address of the recipient of your choice is automatically added to the message.
- Unit Converter converts values between different units of measure.
- Web history: Search history of recently visited sites in Konqueror.
- Recent documents: Search for recently opened files.
Available ''Plasma Workspaces''
Desktop
Plasma Desktop was a standard desktop interface. It was declared mature with the release of KDE SC 4.2. It is designed for desktop PCs and larger laptops. In its default configuration it resembles K Desktop Environment 3 and Microsoft Windows XP but extensive configurability allows radical departures from the default layout.Its technology is a fundamental rewrite of several desktop interaction programs included in previous KDE desktop environments for Unix-like systems, focusing on eye candy and special graphical effects. The Desktop Workspace replaces the previous KDesktop shell, Kicker taskbar and SuperKaramba widget engine used in the K Desktop Environment 3 series with a unified system of widgets that can be configured and replaced with alternative designs.
From KDE 4.0 to KDE 4.2, the default theme Oxygen was characterized by dark tones. In KDE 4.3, replaced by the new Air theme, which predominates in transparency and white as base color. New themes for Plasma can be chosen and installed through software like Discover or online at store.kde.org.
Supported widgets
This is a list of widgets that the current release version of Plasma supports. Not all widgets are supported by default in all Linux distributions; some may require different packages, or even a recompilation of Plasma.- First generation native widgets
- Second generation native widgets written in QML.
- Apple Dashboard widgets
- SuperKaramba widgets – used in KDE 3.
- Web widgets
Google Gadgets were also supported. After Google announced to discontinue its two services that utilize Gadgets – Google Desktop and iGoogle – KDE removed support for this widget engine in early 2013.