Linux: The Ultimate Guide

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Linux 
• Netbook: Plasma Netbook is the second workspace. It aims at net-
books (Netbooks are a category of small, lightweight, legacy-free, 
and inexpensive laptop computers) and may also be used on tablet 
PCs – the first stable release shipped with KDE SC 4.4.
• Plasma Active: It is not a workspace on its own and a service built 
on top of the frameworks that enable the creation of full-fledged 
workspaces using only QML files without the need to program in 
C++. Plasma Active serves as the base for touch screen-compatible 
workspaces. Active-compatible releases of the Kontact applica-
tions and a document viewer based on Calligra Suite are already 
available.
• Contour: Contour is the Plasma interface for tablet devices. Its 
development was initiated in April 2011 by basysKom. Replacing an 
earlier tablet prototype, Contour is now the main workspace and was 
shipped as part of Plasma Active 1.0, released in October 2011.
• Mobile: Plasma Mobiles were targeted as smartphones and small 
tablet devices mainly used via touch input. They were initially 
released in 2011 along with Plasma Active 1.0, but the development 
focus shifted toward Contour. Plasma Mobile, meanwhile, has been 
superseded by Plasma Active.
Features
• Plasma features essentially an applet that contains other applets. 
Two primary examples of containments are the desktop background 
and the taskbar. A containment is anything the developer wants: an 
image, animation, or even OpenGL. Images are commonly used, but 
with Plasma, the user could set any applet as the desktop background 
without losing the applet’s functionality. This also allows applets to 
be dragged between the desktop and the taskbar and different visu-
alization for the more confined taskbar – from KDE 4.0 to 4.2, the 
default theme such as Oxygen. It was characterized by dark tones. 
In KDE 4.3, the new Air theme is replaced, which predominates in 
transparency and white as the base color. New themes for Plasma 
can be chosen and installed through an authority.
• The Plasma widgets’ scalability allows them to be resized and rotated 
to any size, with only a brief pause to redraw themselves. The Kross 
scripting framework will enable developers to write widgets in a 

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KDE Plasma Desktop Environment 
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variety of programming languages in addition to C++. Widgets are 
their size and can be made to show more or fewer data depending on 
their size.
• Plasma can support other widgets. SuperKaramba is the widget 
engine used in the KDE 3 series that has been added for legacy 
reasons.
KWin – Window Manager
It is a manager for the X Window System. It is an integral part of the KDE 
Software Compilation, although it can be used independently or with 
other desktop environments.
There are various window decorations for KWin, including the default 
Oxygen, Microsoft Windows-like Redmond, and Keramik. IceWM 
themes can also be used, provided the kdeartwork package is installed. 
Currently available backends include XRender, OpenGL 1.x, OpenGL 2.x, 
and OpenGL ES 2.0. KDE 4.3 has the following effects built-in:
Accessibility
• Name
• Invert
• Looking glass
• Magnifier
• Sharpen
• Snap Helper
• Track mouse
• Zoom
Appearance
• Explosion
• Fade
• Fade desktop
• Fall apart

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30
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Linux 
• Highlight Windows
• Login
• Logout
• Magic Lamp
• Minimize animation
• Mouse mark
• Scale In
• Sheet
• Slide
• Sliding pop-ups
• Taskbar Thumbnails
• Thumbnail aside
• Translucency
• Wobbly windows