ttuuxxx wrote:<snip>...the only 2 displays needed is the amount of memory and swap remaining...<snip>...This one shows how much memory/swap you have and how much is used. click and run.<snip>
So I started writing an uncharacteristically constructive reply with Geany. As the day wore on and the rain wouldn't seem to let up, I decided to take a nap. Whilst I was unconscious:
prehistoric wrote:<snip>With both blinky and conky, I can't see justification for another internet display on the bar.<snip>
...which dovetails nicely with what I had started writing about before falling into the arms of Morpheus. But first remember the key words in ttuuxxx's and prehistoric's posts are
needed and
justification, respectively.
I've been happily married to Puppy v2.12 for just shy of 18-months -- a veritable eon in the world that is Puppy Linux. In that time, my desktop has gone through a number of changes. And being a faithful adherent of JWM suggests spartan leanings. JWM does what I need with a minimum of system overhead, does so better with some personal tweaks, and has remained my WM of choice. I've tried half a dozen other WMs and always come
running back to JWM.
I don't sit down at the computer to be dazzled to orgasm by desktop themes or such eye candy. I'm either surfing the Internet, doing some email, writing an editorial or article, managing my website, or fiddling with some configuration settings. Please note the verbs in that last sentence. They are
action verbs. The computer is a tool to accomplish, and hopefully expedite,
tasks.
Work. The
jobs at hand. The computer -- this
tool -- should make the tasks/work/jobs easier to accomplish than by using its non-electronic and analog counterparts.
But I don't give a rat's ass about a hammer with a decorative handle or a screwdriver that audibly announces how many rotations and in which direction I've turned a screw.
Oh, we can fit all manner of fanciful functions
electronically into the computer
tool. With SMT (surface mount technology) and LSI (large scale integration), the size of the home computer
tool has gone from a suitcase size box down to the diminutive dimensions of the
Mac Mini.
Putting widesreen LCDs aside for a moment, what has
generally remained constant in size, though, are desktop monitors. With nimble Linux operating systems and enough RAM, our computer
tools are multitasking monsters from which we feed all the video output to a single monitor screen with a finite amount of real estate.
Virtual desktops "spread out" the work by "virtually" providing more desktop space. However, the taskbar is the constant, and there's just so much room to stuff information on said taskbar. Other than the remaining space for active app panes, here's what's crammed into the
stock v2.12 taskbar (from left to right): menu button, show/hide desktop button, two virtual desktop panes, blinky's active network traffic icons, freememapplet's memory amount display, mini-volume.tcl's speaker icon, xload's active CPU graph, and minixcal's clock digital display. Whew! Talk about a
blivet!
My own taskbar is quite simple. Since assigning a hotkey for the menu function, I've been able to remove the menu button from the taskbar. I found little use for the show/hide desktop button, so it was also removed. And since adding Conky, I've removed blinky, freememapplet and xload from the taskbar. These changes leave my virtual desktop panes, the mini-volume speaker icon, minixcal's clock -- and more room for active app panes.
Before someone jumps up and screams, "but you can't see the Conky display when you're running an app full screen," I'll admit that's true. However, one has to ask oneself
just how important is it to see "Blinky" or "freememapplet" or "xload" in the taskbar 100% of the time?
In that I have five virtual window panes, which works well for my computing tasks, there's usually one free virtual window that makes access to Conky's display a simple hotkey away.
There's a tipping point where the desktop stops being a utilitarian workplace that is pleasing to the eye and turns into some sort of ostentatious cluster of clutter. Know where the tipping point is and design accordingly.