Plasma/Workspace Sprint/ActivitiesAndVirtualDesktops

Activities and virtual desktops

Introduction

Activities are a new goal-oriented way to associate opened applications, files, contacts.

Activities have the following advantages over virtual desktops:

• match closer to user goals
• persistency: activities can be stopped and resumed. When an activity is stopped, the workspace stores the state of the applications within this activity (using the same system used by X11 session management).

Relationship between activities and virtual desktops

Activities sit on top of virtual desktops. In many cases, activities can be used instead of virtual desktops. In some cases it makes sense to use virtual desktops inside an activity. For example when working on a small, single screen, virtual desktops can be used to provide extra screen space for an activity.

Here is an example of a user running three activities (Home, Work and Play) with two virtual desktops. The Work activity makes use of virtual desktops to provide an easy reach to a documentation application (Qt Assistant).

• Home
  • Virtual desktop 1
    • KMail
    • Konqueror
  • Virtual desktop 2
    • (empty)
• Work
  • Virtual desktop 1
    • KDevelop
    • Qt Designer
  • Virtual desktop 2
    • Qt Assistant
• Play
  • Virtual desktop 1
    • Sudoku
  • Virtual desktop 2
    • (empty)

Had the user been running on a dual-screen system, he could have placed the Qt Assistant window on the second screen of the first virtual desktop, eliminating the need for two virtual desktops.

Fallback

If a user prefers virtual desktops, he can easily ignore the activity concept by staying with the default activity and using virtual desktops within it.