On this page, we collect definitions of terms used in Plasma. Its main purpose is to get developers' terminology synchronized.

Workspace

The workspace is a generic term for all the software intended to provide the final UX for the global work environment, the minimal "fixed" running user interface that manages documents, applications and global system properties such as notifications or attached hardware devices. Everything which context stretches beyond the scope of a simple application is intended to be graphically represented as part of the workspace.

Shell

The shell, technically speaking, is the binary that will load and display the UI parts of the "Workspace". It doesn't provide its own UI, it may be tied to a particular formfactor.

Examples:

plasma-desktop
plasma-netbook
plasma-device

Current Implementation

The term shell does not include Plasmoids loaded into it, it's provides the implementation of the Corona and defines how the views are bound to it. These views hold containments, which then load applets.