mozilla desktop
By basd on May 25, 2009 | In cloud computing
My experiment with Mozilla Prism having failed (and I even tried loading the version available from OpenSuse Build service), I found this other bit of useful programing.
Follow up:
Desktop is a Firefox add-in that creates drag'n'drop thumbnails, including additional folders of thumbnails, that are actually bookmarks. Like so:

I've made a separate Firefox profile for this set of bookmarks, which launches from an icon. And, I run it full screen in a separate kde "Desktop" (rotated via the pager or ctrl f keys). So, what I've got is the appearance of a Firefox desktop running my various web-based applications.
Good:
*Switches very quickly -- easy access.
*Allows several applications to run in a single Firefox "session" without the issues I noted in my last post.
Needs Improvement:
*Subfolders need separate backgrounds. In my screen capture above, you can see that the "subfolder" thumbnail has the "floating leaves" wallpaper from KDE. But, when you click on the subfolder, you actually get the background I'm using for the main "desktop", which is the KDE "gears" background.
*There is no way to launch the application in a separate window (that I could find.) So, when I'm finished using the application, I have to go "back" to "desktop" (or retrieve it via bookmark).
*The thumbnails do not autorefresh, though there is a refresh button. But, for applications such as gmail or whatever, it would be useful to have autorefresh so we could see at a glance if new email has arrived.
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On my Firefox "desktop," you can see from the screenshot that I have added my document management system, a link to my eyeOS desktop, a subfolder, this blog and google search.
The Desktop addon creates a subfolder in Bookmarks that contains links to everything placed on the desktop. I added a bookmark to the desktop itself. I then changed its name to be "z-Desktop" instead of "Desktop". The reason is that for hotkey purposes, the Desktop link comes after the "Desktop" folder link.
So, I can return to the desktop by alt bz from wherever I'm at in my application hierarchy. And, of course, I can split out something linked in an application by shift left click if I don't want to lose my place in the application when I go back to the desktop.
Not perfect, but interesting workarounds that add utility to my overall setup workstation.
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Well, also, the Desktop addon sets "open new tab" to open Desktop. So, if you want to split out applications in tabs, it just takes a ctrl T, and you have a new tab for starting appliations. If you set the homepage as the Desktop, then ctrl N will open a new browser window with the Desktop.
(Since my Desktop is running in a completely separate Firefox profile, none of this takes away from my normal browser setup.)
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