Tuesday 9 September 2014

More about Applications as Desktop Wallpaper

Since I wrote about setting a video as wallpaper for Linux with KDE and mentioned it was possible to use other programs, not just videos, I have been asked about using Web Pages, and whether it affects the use of the browser for normal tasks.

Others have asked why anyone would bother setting a browser as a wallpaper.

Here are my thoughts.

I used to develop web sites and later, blogs as a business.  Now that I am retired from active duty, I still mess with that side of computing, but simply to get my mind working because I am unable to complete a normal work load.

So sometimes I want to see the results of what I did, but unobtrusively.  Other people might just want to use a news feed, a blog or even their Facebook Page as wallpaper.

The first and most obvious thing is - yes, it will interfere with use of your browser, if you set it as wallpaper.  But this is Linux.  You can install a low overhead browser like Qupzilla, and set it as your wallpaper.

Simply open the page you want, set it as your home page, then:
Right click the title bar
Choose More Actions > Keep below Others
Choose More Actions >  Fullscreen

REMEMBER - to get out of this, you need to hold ALT and press F3 to bring up the same menu you used to set the wallpaper.  Then More Actions and turn Fullscreen OFF.

By using something like Qupzilla, you still retain full use of your main browser without interference.

You do need to remember though, that you lose the right click desktop menu on that workspace.  To access it, use your pager to move to a different workspace, or use ALT +F3 and leave fullscreen mode for a while.

Here's what Mint 17 KDE looks like runnign Qupzilla as wallpaper:

Here's the same thing with Firefox over the top of it.

Here's Firefox translucent to show the wallpaper through it.