Running
without a restart.

KGoodStuff - Like a Super DragThing for Linux/KDE!

One of the first things you may have noticed in Linux desktop snapshots is the cool way that icons and applications can dock into a panel. Under the MacOS, we are fortunate to have many fine utilities like DragThing or even Apple's Launcher. While these hold folders or links to programs, in LinuxPPC, you can even have running applications with updating displays!

A sample of KGoodStuff is shown below. Notice on the right side of the panel that four of the icons are actually running applications: Weather, Moonphase, CPU usage, and a clock. The other applications also open documents when dragged onto their icons.

Get started by downloading KGoodStuff from KDE's server. (kgoodstuff-1.0.1.tar.gz).

Once it's on your drive, open a terminal and cd into the download directory and type:

tar xvfz kgoodstuff-1.0.1.tar.gz

At this point, the file has been unzipped and de-archived. You are left with a folder/directory called /kgoodstuff-1.0.1. Change directories into it. What you see in that directory is the source code. Don't let this intimidate you as it first did me.

I have found that 80% of the time, the source code compiles without effort. In every source directory is an INSTALL file. In your terminal type:

./configure

Watch the configure text race by, and when it's finished and you're back at the prompt type:

make

Watch some more interesting text whip by, and finally type:

make install

A few short lines go by and it appears nothing has happened, but if you under the KDE menu in the Utilities folder, you can launch KGoodStuff.

At first, you will be presented with a black square. Right-click and release on the square to bring up the contextual menu.

This is the only menu in the program and your only way to interact with the application.

Select Button Options to view the dialog that lets you assign a program .

The Global Options lets you determine placement, and orientation.

Be sure to save your changes, or you'll loose them.

Assigning an application to a button is straight forward. The Name appears under the icon, and the Command launches the program. In the example below, I want to run an application inside the dock (in Linux, this is called Swallowing). To do that, enter the command to launch the program in the Swallow box. Want to make a button act as a sub-folder? Check the Child Buttonbar and create the sub-buttons in the same manner as above.

Running applications in a dock is something you currently cannot do in the MacOS. Under LinuxPPC, I find to be a helpful space saver.

Hopefully, we will see this feature incorporated into the Unix based MacOS X.

The docking applications shown in here were downloaded from Everything Window Maker. Additional docks can be found at Doc App Warehouse.