KDE users keen wanting to get a taste of GNOME Shell’s Activities Overview can now do so thanks to a new project.
qOverview is a dashboard “inspired by” GNOME’s Activities. It’s written in QML and has a Python backend, which means it should be able to run on pretty much any modern desktop environment, including KDE Plasma.
Writing on Reddit the project dev, Bharadwaj Raju, explains: “apparently quite a lot of people miss GNOME’s Activities overview in Plasma. I thought I could have a try at making a replacement.”
The Github page for the project says that “every feature of GNOME Activities is provided except drag-and-drop windows to workspaces [and] a more natural layout for the windows”.
A keyboard shortcut can be assigned to trigger qOverview, as can a screen ‘hot corner’, to further emulate the UX model of GNOME Shell.
Want to try it?
It’s still very much early days for the project. To try it out you’ll need to install a stack of dependencies and be comfortable running and configuring the app from the command line.
Regardless of whether you appreciate the intent or not qOverView is nonetheless a great demonstration of the versatility and adaptability of various open-source technologies and desktop environments.