Objectives for Oneiric - Brainstorming

[Dean Sas]

On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 14:49, Kyle Nitzsche
<kyle.nitzsche at canonical.com> wrote:
> Since a single dedicated key may not exist yet, it may be sufficient to
> deduce which *single* desktop is being used. That is, the real-world use
> case is probably not users switching between desktops. The vast majority of
> users just have and use one. If the user installs multiple desktops, then
> yelp may not automatically display the right help content. This compromise
> may enable desktop deduction in the real-world end-user case.
>
> With this in mind, the current desktop may be deducible from extant keys.
>
> For example, if unity:
>  * This key exists:
> /apps/compizconfig-1/profiles/unity/general/screen0/options/active_plugins
>  * And it contains: 'unityshell'
>
> If unity-2d:
>  * This key directory exists: /desktop/unity-2d
>
> Perhaps if gnome-shell is being used, the first key I mentioned does not
> contain unityshell but instead contains gnomeshell?

It won't. gnome-shell doesn't use compiz. If you're trying to detect
which kind of desktop is in use and assume that the user isn't running
two simultaneous sessions you're probably better off using 'ps' or
equivalent.

The ideal thing to do is to talk to gnome-shell, unity, etc and ask
them to agree on a foolproof way.