i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

It is now Tuesday, perhaps I shall call it "Try Again Tuesday" or something.

...

But, following Mucked up Monday I could not take it anymore & tried a new direction for desktop stability.

I don't care much about flash -- especially flash that doesn't work reliably. So, you might ask, "why don't you just stick with boring old kde 3.5?" There are, in fact, a couple of reasons. While I don't care for flash, I do care for anything that adds improved functionality. There are some kde programs that will give you a different version depending upon whether you launch from kicker or plasma, for instance.

The other problem is that kde 3.5 is going to hit "end of life" due to the difficulties in maintaining the code identified by the kde 4 proponents. In addition, 3.5 is probably not keeping the attention of too many programmers, since they would tend to go with the "latest."

Oh, yeah, I may as well mention that kde 4.2.1's network manager interface refused to connect to wireless again.

So, here's where I ended up.

1. Gnome login
2. IceWM windows manager, via compiz fusion-icon
3. kicker panels running top and left, with "Kima" for monitoring the cpu & battery.
4. gnome panel at bottom only. (Well, my "right side" panel insisted on being a "left side" panel, but I did get the bottom one to stick at the bottom. So, I moved the critical icons to the bottom panel and killed the other one. (BTW, some icons -- such as akregator -- will launch the kde 4.2 version from the gnome panel, but the 3.5 version from a kicker panel.) So, most of my icons are in the kicker panels, because I run kicker irrespective of whether I am running plasma or gnome. But, the ones that will run a 3.5 version if launched from kicker I put into plasma or gnome.
5. I added a gnome "drawer" widget in order to get more icons into my single panel.

Now, the thing I like(d) conceptually from plasma was the desktop widget concept, which seems to have been evolved from superkaramba. In fact, earlier versions appeared to be set up to incorporate superkaramba widgets into plasma, but that feature then disappeared.

But, in any event, "google gadgets" has come up with a lot more useful tools than plasma widget writers, or at least widgets I can find easily. Google gadgets have the added advantage that they are seemingly more stable than plasma widgets, especially if you pack a bunch of them on the desktop.

Additionally, they seem to run on a single desktop. This turns out to be useful, since the stack of gadgets I put on the desktop run my cpu at about 25%. But, I found that if I switch to another desktop (thereby leaving my desktop mostly blank -- but with the gadgets still active) the cpu usage drops to 2 - 5% or so. And then, when I want to use the gadgets, all I have to do is click on the pager to view the desktop where they are running. This is very useful, especially as I have things like dictionary, calculator, google maps, ip translator, weather, language translator, etc. So, all these very usable tools are available just by switching to desktop 2. But, by switching back to desktop one, I minimize the cpu usage.

I suppose my next post will detail whatever desktop disaster is going to emerge from this setup. But, at the moment it seems to be working -- and doing everything I need.

Thank you for visiting and have a pleasant tomorrow.