Some thoughts on Activity Manager

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

Every time I log in I get a segfault on kactivitymanagerd. I've
reported it to the Fedora Bugzilla and I assume it will be upstreamed
to the KDE BZ.

I created a completely new user, logged in, and it immediately happened
again. The current version is:

kactivitymanagerd-5.9.5-1.fc25.x86_64

but it's been happening for a while now.

I've never used the Activity Manager and don't understand what it's for
in a system that already supports multiple VTs (kind of - the
KDE/Plasma version doesn't work well for me), as well as multiple
desktops which I do use extensively, so why do we need another layer of
multiplexing?

Personally, I would like to get rid of it, but that doesn't seem to be
possible without removing Plasma.

How many people actually use multiple Activities? Is there anything you
do with them that you couldn't do just as easily with multiple
desktops, or even multiple VTs?

poc

[Luigi Toscano]

On Tuesday, 23 May 2017 12:30:58 CEST Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
>  Every time I log in I get a segfault on kactivitymanagerd. I've
>  reported it to the Fedora Bugzilla and I assume it will be upstreamed
>  to the KDE BZ.
>  
>  I created a completely new user, logged in, and it immediately happened
>  again. The current version is:
>  
>  kactivitymanagerd-5.9.5-1.fc25.x86_64
>  
>  but it's been happening for a while now.
>  
>  I've never used the Activity Manager and don't understand what it's for
>  in a system that already supports multiple VTs (kind of - the
>  KDE/Plasma version doesn't work well for me), as well as multiple
>  desktops which I do use extensively, so why do we need another layer of
>  multiplexing?
>  
>  Personally, I would like to get rid of it, but that doesn't seem to be
>  possible without removing Plasma. 
IIRC kactivitymanagerd takes care also of the recent files and documents in 
the application launcher menu. 
If my memory is correct, you don't want to remove it. The segfault should be 
solved instead.

-- 
Luigi

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Tue, 2017-05-23 at 12:38 +0200, Luigi Toscano wrote:
>  On Tuesday, 23 May 2017 12:30:58 CEST Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
>  > Every time I log in I get a segfault on kactivitymanagerd. I've
>  > reported it to the Fedora Bugzilla and I assume it will be upstreamed
>  > to the KDE BZ.
>  > 
>  > I created a completely new user, logged in, and it immediately happened
>  > again. The current version is:
>  > 
>  > kactivitymanagerd-5.9.5-1.fc25.x86_64
>  > 
>  > but it's been happening for a while now.
>  > 
>  > I've never used the Activity Manager and don't understand what it's for
>  > in a system that already supports multiple VTs (kind of - the
>  > KDE/Plasma version doesn't work well for me), as well as multiple
>  > desktops which I do use extensively, so why do we need another layer of
>  > multiplexing?
>  > 
>  > Personally, I would like to get rid of it, but that doesn't seem to be
>  > possible without removing Plasma.
>  
>  IIRC kactivitymanagerd takes care also of the recent files and documents in 
>  the application launcher menu. 
Perhaps, but I find it hard to believe this is its main focus. Other
desktops seem to manage the same thing equally well.

>  If my memory is correct, you don't want to remove it. The
> segfault should be 
>  solved instead. 
I would like to remove it but can't as it's a dependency of Plasma. In
my case losing the "recent stuff" function would be no great loss,
though other people might have a different view.

poc

[Peter Gueckel]

Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:

> > > I've never used the Activity Manager and don't
> understand  
what it's for
> > > in a system that already supports multiple VTs (kind of - 
the
> > > KDE/Plasma version doesn't work well for me), as well as
>  
multiple
> > > desktops which I do use extensively, so why do we need 
another layer of
> > > multiplexing? 
I haven't been plagued by crashes, but there has been a 
notification once or twice in the past few weeks? months? that 
an application crashed. Since I had only just logged in, had 
not even started any program and everything appeared to be 
working fine, I opted not to report.

Yes, I thought, right from the start, that activities were a 
major waste of effort that produced _no_ discernible advantage 
and were actually very confusing. I think they are supposed to 
set an environment and open all of the programs you use for 
that particular purpose automatically. I suppose if one has a 
complex environment that requires the use of a dozen or more 
programs at once that one is doing on a daily basis, but for a 
typical user who has 2-4 opened, perhaps for a few moments 
even a 5th... activities just don't offer any practical 
advantage.

Agreed: I could barely use the system without Virtual Desktops 
(or did you really mean Virtual Terminals?). Frequently, I 
need to have 3 or even 4 programs open at one time—perhaps the 
intended purpose of activities?—but I just open the programs 
as need and I close them all when I'm done. That's a tidy 
desktop. I don't leave desk drawers on a physical desk opened, 
either.

> > IIRC kactivitymanagerd takes care also of the recent files
> > and documents in the application launcher menu. 
Recent Files are ok, but not a necessity for me. Sure, when a 
list is offered, I click on it instead of seeking the file in 
my directory hierarchy, but it is just a piddling convenience 
that hardly warrants a major feature such as activities.

To me, activities were the useless invention of the past 
decade. Gnome introduced a similar version, but much simpler. 
It is almost impossible to use that desktop as a result. You 
have the one window for selecting the application and the 
other one for the opened application, but when you have more 
than one open at a time you can only see one and, I guess, you 
are supposed to flip back and forth by clicking on the task 
bar... it is a grievous restriction of the user's method of 
working that frustrates to distraction. I feel like I have 
discovered new continents when I come back to KDE and have 
Virtual Desktops.

[Rex Dieter]

Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:

>  Every time I log in I get a segfault on kactivitymanagerd. I've
>  reported it to the Fedora Bugzilla and I assume it will be upstreamed
>  to the KDE BZ. 
I wouldn't assume that.

I personally usually do not do that (upstream things) unless I can reproduce 
the problem myself

-- Rex