I’m always struggling with desktop space. Widgets like Folder View and the ability to use the multiple virtual desktops are very helpful for me. I found an article about the KDE Shelf widget which I would love to have as another organizational tool but I can’t seem to find it…
I am a bit of a newbie with KDE and with Linux in general but I have found and added many widgets with no problem. I have been using computers for about 16 years and I’m pretty tech savvy (but unfortunately my skills have all been learned through Windows and some with Mac in college).
When I go to Add Widgets and type “shelf” in the search withing openSUSE KDE I get no results. I also checked on kde-look.org and an overall Google search but I’m not having any luck.
If anyone knows how I can find and add this widgets I would greatly appreciate it.
On 02/09/2011 08:06 AM, robokops wrote:
> If anyone knows how I can find and add this widgets I would greatly
> appreciate it.
try
-right click on desk and pick unlock widgets
-right clich on desktop again and pick click add new widgets
-in the new pop-up click on the “Get New Widgets” button
-[follow your nose until the ‘getting’ process is finished, then]
-in add new dialogue scroll to the Shelf and double click it
-move it to where yo want it to be
-right click desktop and select lock widgets
ps: sorry your win skill set is sometimes a millstone around here…
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.0.11, nVidia
173.14.28 3D, Athlon 64 3000+]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11
In 11.3 with KDE45 or KDE46 “Shelf” is part of the package “plasma-addons”.
But I wonder, was it available for a standard KDE 4.4.4 as it ships with 11.3 at all? In any case, it is not in the “plasma-addons 4.4.4-1.3” package. It is also not available from “Get Hot New Stuff”.
First of all thank you to each of you that replied…sorry for the delay but I’ve been trying other ways to find this widget before replying…
On 02/09/2011 DenverD wrote:
I tried this method to find the Shelf widget before I originally posted to this forum. I’ve been playing around with KDE (and Gnome, XFCE, LXDE, etc) for a while now trying to find out what I like best and what works for my needs. So far, I’m loving openSUSE KDE best. I’m finding new things all the time that help me and enhance my computing life.
I’ve added several widgets sucessfully with this method but when I came across the above mentioned article about the Shelf widget it just never comes up in any search. Maybe I am doing something wrong but even though I am new to Linux I’m usually pretty good at doing searches and finding what I need.
When I go to Add Widgets/Get New Widgets/Download New Plasma Widgets I get the normal Get Hot New Stuff box. No matter if I search through the list under Newest, Rating, Most Downloaded, etc. it never pulls up a widget called Shelf. There is one called iBookshelf, BibShelf, and Cubes On Shelf but none of them is what I’m looking for. From what I can tell it pulls the widgets from opendesktop.org and I get the same results when I search that site.
On 02/09/2011 Lord_Emsworth wrote:
If I had to install it as a package of add-ons that would be fine too but as you said it doesn’t appear to be available anywhere for me. It’s just strange that the article shows that it was just posted on November 10th of last year and it says “KDE 4 offers an alternative to the traditional icons scattered all over the desktop with a Plasma widget called Shelf.” I take that as meaning that it should be available for all KDE 4 users.
I don’t care if I have to install it the normal way or if I have to do it manually through something like the “Install Widget From Local File” option. I just need to be able to find it so I can possibly download it. It shouldn’t be this difficult to find it. I was just hoping that someone with more KDE experience than me would be able to just say “hey, you can find that widget at the following site…www.shelfwidget.com” or something to that effect.
In KDE 4.5 it is part of the standard widget package. There was no need to download anything, I found it under “Others”, together with the ‘unit conversion’ and ‘leave a message’ widgets. It has the same icon shown in the link you provided.
Also the author’s site is Lancelot - next gen KDE4 menu, which may indicate it’s part of the lancelot menu add-ons in 4.4? If there is such a thing, mind you.
So from what I can tell the current version of openSUSE 11.3 KDE is 4.4.4 and I just need to wait for 11.4 to come out in less than a month and the Shelf widget will be standardly included…right? I have no problem with just waiting a bit. I checked Lancelot but I don’t see Shelf as an option.
Since it appears that KDE 4.6 is the version that is in current development is there a reason openSUSE doesn’t use version 4.5? Of course stability is extremely important but it is nice to have the most up to date OS and apps. Just curious.
It was worth for me mostly because of the (perceived) improvements in performance in kwin and bug fixes. But what tipped the scales was the easyness in setting different widgets/wallpapers for each desktop, something I really liked in KDE3.5. Of course, YMMV.
Thanks again for everyone’s responses and help with this. Once I get some more experience with Linux I’d like to help with the testing of the beta versions of upcoming releases. I just wish I would have given Linux a chance years ago. I only started messing with it recently because I’m sick of a lot of the bloatware that Microsoft has been putting into Windows slowing my systems down. I’m not a fan of Vista or 7. It’s been an adjustment period for me getting used to how to use Linux with the OS differences, apps, widgets, etc. Since I’m a bit of a computer junkie (my wife hates that) I’m like a kid in a candy store with all the free software. Some of the apps I’ve come across surprise me that someone’s not making money from them with the amount of obvious work people put into them. There are definitely a lot of talented programmers out there.
