Anybody know how to "minimize all"?

[masinger53]

Hello, all:

Not really a total newb, but I found this site when I was a complete newbie and still really appreciate the non-flamatory environment.

Question: Anyone know how to minimize all open windows and get to the desktop? Either by keyboard shortcut or applet or launcher in the panel. I'm running Gnome under sawfish and I don't see a listing for this action in the key bindings section of the window configuration tool. In Windoze, there's that funny little blotter-looking icon on the taskbar-- not really much use there since having more than 3 or 4 apps running pretty much buys trouble. But in a stable OS like Linux, I seem to have many things going on and it's a pain to have to minimize all the windows to get to the desktop.

Suggestions?

[Jomboni]

I don't know of a way to do this, but you can have multiple desktops and just switch to one that's not being used.

[masinger53]

Actually, that did occur to me, but I'm not sure where the files that show up on those alternate desktops live in the file system. For example, I do a lot of research on the 'Net and download code snippets and other goodies. I'm in the habit of putting these things 'on my desktop' so that they are in my face and can be dealt with properly and moved to a more permanent home, even if that is the garbage can. Do you know where the other desktop files live? For example, .Gnome_desktop/file.name, or some other such path.

Thanks,

Mary Anna

[smokybobo]

I haven't yet heard of a program that handles 'real' multiple desktops in that each desktop is completely and totally a separate entity. The most I've seen is being able to have different backgrounds in different desktops. Any icons/links/files you have on your desktop are the same ones across multiple desktops. The term 'multiple desktop' really is more for windows than the icons.

And not only can you use multiple desktops, you can also 'shade' windows (depending on which window manager you use of course) where the window content is removed and only the title bar is visible. Using both effectively will reduce the need for a 'minimize all' function.

But to answer the question, I haven't seen anything like that in any of the DE/WM I've tried (sawfish, metacity, kde2, kde3, fluxbox, blackbox, openbox, enlightenment, waimea), though I'm a little iffy with enlightenment since you can do almost anything to any windows in that wm (especially through its shell interface 'eesh').

[trilarian]

May want to play with the sticky/unsticky settings in enlightment. Sticky makes it visable in all desktops, unsticky is only in that one.

[IronGeek]

I cannot comment on behalf of GNOME and sawfish but KDE has the functionality you are requesting built into it's Kpanel...there's a "special button" called Desktop Access that minimizes all open windows immediately, clearing the desktop for root window/desktop access.

[masinger53]

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks. Now that I know my files will stick, switching desktops is going to work just fine. I did notice the desktop icon in KDE3, but have found KDE to be less stable overall than Gnome under heavy usage (although there are a number of K-apps that I prefer to their Redhat counterparts, most notably kppp).

If I didn't need windoze for MMRPG and some work-related stuff, I would repartition it right off my hard drive. I'm an old Unix fan and getting a 'Nix-ish OS on a PC is a real treat.

Thanks again, everyone.

[guitargeek]

Try "Ctrl+Alt+D"

Not delete, just "D"


Works for me, running Gnome 2.

[knute]

In the sawfish bindings it's labeled iconify workspace windows.
I just set it up, and it works just fine. :)

[pmrphs2002]

Ctrl+Alt+D works for KDE too


So does Alt+F4 :D

[rbrimhall]

You can add a "Show Desktop" button to the Gnome Panel that minimizes all and maximizes all when pressed again.