KDE Plasma 5

The others all seem to insist I have one taskbar or even a dock for all 3 screens which is just not how I've worked all the way back to Gnome 2.

People will make jokes in the future about current D.E being useful for everything except being a desktop environment, just like the well known jokes about emacs being a great OS, but only so so text editor.

The next rotation of the same wheel will probably be "doing everything in web browser"

currently I mostly use the "vim" of desktops rather than an "emacs" of desktops, I switched from awesome to xmonad a year or two ago, don't remember why.

I have some mythtv front ends that use ratpoison as a WM because at least in the olden days mythtv wouldn't run even in fullscreen unless it was on top of something providing window management, weirdly enough.

My point was that the DE development and user community has greatly enriched the ecosystem in general, and continues to do so. I'd like it if people who aren't fond of DE UIs (which, again, is fine by me) would acknowledge that more, instead of disparaging DEs as they often do. It shows a lack of understanding of how things work and flow in the greater community. The reality is that your experience outside the DEs would be far poorer today if the DEs didn't exist, because it's been and continues to be the DEs that drive many platform-y developments that enhance applications. Know whose work you rely on and what motivates them.

But of course, I can provide some concrete examples of shared global state popping up in my own workflows:

* The KDE platform has a framework to manage user search engines. You can manage them in System Settings, Plasma's control center application. Many KDE Applications will alow you to select text and hand it off to a search engine from the context menu (along with providing an entry point into the management UI, which can also run outside of System Settings; this takes care of making it work outside Plasma). The Plasma Desktop shell does the same, though, with its Run Command box, which is one keyboard shortcut away, also being aware of search engines and being able to start searches.

* The shell similary exposes things like favorite file system locations, which also pop up in file dialogs and file managers, in Run Command, the launcher, and other places.

* The KDE platform has the best support for international calender systems and calendering data like holiday information available in free software today, and the clock/calendar thingie you can stuff in a Plasma panel reflects those abilities, as do the applications built on the same platform.

And many other little examples broadly in the same vain. As you can see, the pattern is: The platform can do a lot, and there's some benefits to the shell being built on the same platform as the applications, at least for me. That doesn't need to be the same for you; you may interact with your computer in different patterns. You still get to enjoy the applications.

A: Expert programmers who need nothing more than a browser, a text editor, and a bunch of terminals. They can do everything with the keyboard. They barely even touch the mouse unless it's absolutely necessary. They usually don't care what their DE is, as long as it stays out of their way. Judging from the reaction in this thread, a lot of HNers fall into this category.

B: Power users who spend a lot of time in WYSIWYG applications (graphics, video editing, Excel, etc.), multitask a lot, and make heavy use of the mouse. They know some keyboard shortcuts, but the nature of their work makes the mouse, not the keyboard, their primary method of interacting with the computer. Remember the gal/dude who did all the web design for your last project? Or the team who made that promotional video for you? They probably belong in this group.

C: Casual users who use nothing more than a browser and a music app. Maybe they also use a word processor from time to time, you know, to make garage sale flyers and birthday party invitations. Comic Sans is their best friend, Command Prompt is their worst enemy. They tend to use the mouse more than the keyboard, but both can be easily replaced with a touchscreen. You can usually catch them trying to buy computing devices in the local Wal-Mart.

What's interesting about the situation is that A and C share a lot of preferences despite being at opposite ends of the computer literacy scale. Both groups use only a few apps, so it doesn't really matter how those apps are launched. Both groups can live without a mouse for the most part. Neither group spends much time wandering through menus and settings, A because they don't need to, and C because they don't know how to. This leaves B in the awkward position of heavily depending on the traditional desktop metaphor (icons, menus, toolbars, and most of all, mice).

Unfortunately, A are the ones who make all the DEs, and since C are the largest group, they are the default target users of such DEs. It's easy to target both A and C. You just make a simple, touchscreen-friendly DE where all the advanced functions are hidden behind keyboard shortcuts and/or menually editable configuration files. But while the rest of us fantasize about a "universal" DE that can scale seamlessly from 4" phone to 40" TV, B are stuck in the middle, holding tight to their precious mice and 27" monitor, surrounded by DEs that are so utterly unoptimized for their hardware and daily work.

HUD? Seriously? You want me to take my hand off my lovely plastic rodent and type the name of the menu item that I want to use? Once you imagine yourself in B's shoes, all the backlash against Unity, GNOME 3, and Windows 8 makes perfect sense.

KDE is blasting away any other "user interface shell".

If looks didnt matter, stop shaving and getting haircuts, and other pruning activities. KDE is best looking user interface which exists today. And it has just gotten better.

Looking at something like Windows 7 or 8, is vomit inducing.