Plasma/Netbooks

Full KDE on Small Screens (e.g. Netbooks)

KDE's Plasma Netbook is a workspace made specifically for small, lightweight netbook devices.

Features

• Search and run applications easily

• Rich Internet experience

• Organizing your space more efficient

Requirements

Plasma Netbook requires 3D acceleration to function properly. It is therefor not advisable to try it in a non-compositing environment. In human language, this means: you need a 3D capable system with the right configuration. Most modern systems (including pretty much all netbooks) comply to this, but some 3D video cards, especially those depending on proprietary drivers (ATI, NVIDIA) sometimes do not.

How to enable it

To enable the Netbook interface, go to System settings, choose Desktop, choose workspace and under Form Factor choose Netbook.

Tips and Tricks

Сhanging tasks

Windows will be fully maximized, without taskbar(s) or window decoration (window title & buttons to close/minimize etc) visible.

To change tasks you can do two things:

• use the probably familiar Alt + Tab shortcut

• go to the top-left of the screen with your mouse and bump into the corner. All windows will show up, scaled, on your screen. Choose one with the mouse or type (part of) a name and hit enter.

Taskbar or panel

There is a hidden panel on the top of your screen. If you bump your mouse against the top of your screen, it will become visible.

Closing or changing windows

On the right of the top panel is a close button which will close your current window. If you click on the field to the left of it showing the icon and name of the currently displayed application (or "X running tasks" if the current window is the start page), you will see all running tasks scaled on the screen (like when you push with your mouse in the top-left corner of the screen).

System Tray

Left to the button showing the current application is the system tray with icons showing network connection and battery life.

Launching apps

Next to the system tray, to the left of the panel, are buttons to go to the application launcher or to the pages you have defined. Click on the launcher and you can start applications by clicking the categories or using the search.

Pages

Next to the app launcher you have your first 'page'. Each page has one or more rows of widgets, small applications. These can be used to quickly show you news, view upcoming appointments, control your music player or even browse a webpage.

Add widgets

Click on the Plasma logo on the bottom of the page. A configuration bar will pop up. Unlock the desktop, and you will be able to add widgets (click add widgets and drag and drop the widgets to the desired location) or add more pages. You can also configure a page, give it a proper name, a new background etcetera.

Add a page

Click on the Plasma logo on the bottom of the page. A configuration bar will pop up. Unlock the desktop, and you will be able to add a page.

Configure the page

Click on the Plasma logo on the bottom of the page. A configuration bar will pop up. Unlock the desktop, and you will be able to configure the page. You can now give it a background, a name, and more.