MEPIS Community Forum

I wasn't sure where to post this so I am posting in KDE. I am confused about "widgets"...those little applications that sit on the desktop and give you weather, time, etc. There appear to be a wide range of such applications with various names such as...widgets, applets, plasmoids?, gadgets, dashboard?, etc. that I understand work with KDE. So to be more specific, here are some question I have...

What are the main types of these applications?
What are the differences between them?
Does each type have their own scripting? engines that need to be loaded to work?
Do some work better than others?

Oh, I am using Mepis 8.5, but, of course, will move to Mepis 11 when it is released.

janthree

janthree, this is a post of Links I looked up last year when acesabe was contemplating similar things. Hope you find them helpful. >
Post # 254113
Post
Wikipedia definitions>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_extension
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extension_%28computing%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_app
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Gadgets

Good Luck !

@ janthree

If you unlock the panel you will get a small icon in the shape of Cashew in the lower right corner of panel, click on it and you will get the panel settings, one of the settings is add widgets, click on add widgets and you will see a drop down where you can sort the widgets to different categories, in the synaptic file manager you maybe able to add more widgets by searching for 'plasma widget'. As far as applets go, I don't think they are used in KDE4.

Common widgets are Show Desktop, Trash Can, Quicklaunch and the YAWP Weather widget, but every aspect of your panel is a widget.


Going from Mepis 8.5 to Mepis 11.0 you will see some big changes in KDE Systemsettings and the Panel.

I haven't tried Google gadgets or SuperKaramba widgets but I have played around with plasmoid widgets. There is the standard set that comes with KDE 4.x and then you can look for more at http://kde-look.org/index.php?xcontentmode=70x77x78

On this screen there are 11 plasma widgets not including the ones attached to the standard panels on the bottom of the screen http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19142735/m11desktop3.png

Thanks everyone for the responses...

@JBoman
Thanks for the links...I have been looking at the different types and plan to experiment a little.

@Jimmy Johnson
I have been messing around with the "cashew" widgets...that is what got me thinking about all the different types of apps that I read about on the forum.

@sdbingm
I like your? desktop. I have a somewhat different setup. I have been using the desktop as my documents folder but when Mepis 11 is released, I am going to try using it as a "dashboard" like you have set up.

janthree