The Desktop is the Most Underrated Favorites Manager, Right?

vbgunz · April 2, 2025, 3:37pm

Be honest, what’s “Favorites” mean to you? It’s the place where you send stuff to die. Not everything, just the important stuff that’s not needed at the moment. You’ll clean it up later just not right now.

I realized my “Favorites” over so many years are born and managed from one place and one place only. My Desktop.

If it’s on the Desktop, it’s the first thing seen on log in. If it’s on the Desktop, the shortcut Ctrl+D (the universal shortcut) will pull those “Favorites” up faster than any other shortcut known to man (or life throughout the universe).

It’s the perfect place to literally categorize not just webpages or apps but absolutely anything imaginable. If it can be reached from a computer, we can go through the Desktop. From webpages, applications, files, ssh-connections, etc, etc, etc. The Desktop is the most underrated “Favorites Manager” to ever exist.

The Desktop can literally be called “Favorites Manager” and it would make more sense (I’m not advocating for a name change). Think about the items on your Desktop, if it ain’t your favorite it’s high-priority otherwise it’s cleaned out. This infamous Favorites Manager is cleaner than any other.

I’m asking for some tips and tricks on how to achieve some slightly better (optional) management.

At the moment, from the Desktop, you can dig through folders without having to open a file manager. But, All text goes under the icon and that’s not good for long titles. It’s also not good for vertical spacing. Can we align text to the right of the icon and support even wider text? If there isn’t a setting for this, is there a widget or a configuration to edit?

The perfect Desktop (plugin or widget?) would support the following.

Listing behavior (4K and higher displays can hold maybe every favorite a user wants)
Grouping (folder) settings (should this folder already be open (expanded) or closed like normal?)
Grouping (folder) colors (red can mean higher priority, blue is project A, green is hobby B, etc)
Multi-select and Open/launch-All options

As always, thank you to all whom make KDE and Plasma possible and better today than it was yesterday.

Feedback?

skyfishgoo · April 2, 2025, 4:55pm

i mean you’re not wrong.

the desktop as a metaphor has been around a long time because it works, it’s natural, and it’s visual… like a real desktop.

so yes, everything important in your life (either currently or somedaymaybe) ends up on your DESK, in a stack or on the corner or under the phone as a paper weight.

the computer desktop is just an extension of your real life desk but for digital junk.

as for suggestions on how to improve the KDE desktop, i don’t think it needs much as i can do most everything i can do on my real desk like sorting and collating things for filing or organizing project scraps into a cohesive whole because it’s visual an (almost) tactile.

the one thing that i think would make a difference is being able to color code folders on the desktop and of course have that reflected in dolphin after they are filed away (just like real folders when they get put into the filing cabinet).

dzon · April 2, 2025, 5:46pm

Really. How about missing service/contextmenus? Maybe that stuff is ok nowadays in 6-ish, dunno.

Same file:

Uuum..

Naumi_Rich · September 10, 2025, 9:11am

Interesting perspective! I’ve also noticed that my Desktop slowly turned into the real ‘Favorites’ folder over the years. Quick access is key. I even came across an article that echoes this idea:

— worth a read if you’re into productivity tips

skyfishgoo · September 11, 2025, 11:18am

link?

there is no link

DeMus · September 11, 2025, 8:01pm

I always have my desktop completely empty, except for the KDE taskbar at the bottom, which hides itself, and a wallpaper of the “choice of the moment series”.

But what interests me is the theme(s) you are using, it looks amazing.
Het ziet er heel mooi uit.

dzon · September 12, 2025, 2:24pm

Themes? No such thing here. Lightly/Klassy and color schemes. Al de rest is homemade. Plasma, launchers, kvantum theme, login, gtk ..

So, unlike what the transparency would suggest, it’s not a kvantum theme. I did make a kvantum theme for stuff I like in dark, regardless (image viewers, mediaplayers…) which matches my dark scheme.

And all sorts of in-app settings, css and stuff..