Plasma

Plasma is the component of the KDE project that actually displays the desktop (i.e. wallpapers, panels, etc) using 'containments'. The containments are capable of containing other widgets called plasmoids.

Get new plasmoids

You can get new plasmoids from kde-look.org.

There are a large amount of plasmoids in the AUR, including kde-extragear-plasmoids-meta which collects popular plasmoids from kde-look.org and places them in a single package.

Tips & tricks

Decoupling the Dashboard from the Desktop - the plasma way

click on top right cashew - zoom out - (new screen, look at new menu top left) configure plasma - use a separate dashboard

Adding an OSX style or so-called "fancy" panel

Right click on the desktop - add panel - fancy panel

Warning: At the time of writing it is possible to edit a fancy panel extensively but it won't remember any settings.

Having different wallpapers for each side of your cube

click on top right cashew - zoom out - (new screen, look at new menu top left) configure plasma - different activity for each desktop

Mixing desktop and folder view activities in one cube

click on top right cashew - zoom out - (new screen, look at new menu top left) configure plasma - different activity for each desktop