Keeping focused to the same window no matter what happens

[Basil Chupin]

On 26/12/11 21:29, Johnny Rosenberg wrote:
> 2011/12/26 Basil Chupin<blchupin at iinet.net.au>:
>> On 26/12/11 20:40, Johnny Rosenberg wrote:
>>> Den 25 december 2011 22:55 skrev Conny Enström<uncurbed at swipnet.se>:
>>>> 2011-12-25 22:16, Johnny Rosenberg skrev:
>>>>
>>>>> Is this possible? How?
>>>>>
>>>>> Maybe I should try to explain what I'm actually asking for:
>>>>>
>>>>> In all operating systems I've tried so far in my life (Windows 98-XP,
>>>>> Ubuntu 7.04-11.10, Mandriva 2008.0-2009.0, Mint etc), there is one
>>>>> thing that annoys me a lot. Let's say that I just started up the
>>>>> operating system. Then I click a few icons to start a few applications
>>>>> that I usually need for the things I use to do. It's generally a web
>>>>> browser (Opera in my case), a spreadsheet application (LibreOffice
>>>>> Calc for instance) and maybe something more. Of course one of the
>>>>> applications, let's say Opera, are finished starting up before the
>>>>> others and I start to work with it. A few seconds later another
>>>>> application, let's say LibreOffice Calc, is ready to go. What happens
>>>>> then is that what I was typing in Opera is typed into LibreOffice Calc
>>>>> instead.
>>>>>
>>>>> Is there some way to prevent this from happening? I am supposed to be
>>>>> the one who decides which window should be in focus on my system, not
>>>>> the operating system or any of the applications. Is there a setting
>>>>> somewhere that I missed?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Kind regards
>>>>>
>>>>> Johnny Rosenberg
>>>>> ジョニー・ローゼンバーグ
>>>>>
>>>> kanske detta/ Maybe this:
>>>>
>>>> http://askubuntu.com/questions/20989/how-do-i-tell-a-start-up-program-to-start-minimized
>>> Maybe as a solution if nothing else works (nödlösning…), but I don't
>>> want it minimized, I just want it keeping behind the current window
>>> until I decide to use it.
>>> A really nice thing would be if I could start different applications
>>> on different virtual desktops, still keeping the focus at what I am
>>> currently doing.
>>>
>>> Actually I'm quite surprised that this isn't the standard behaviour as
>>> default (keeping focus on what the user is currently doing), because
>>> does really anyone want to be interrupted by a newly opened
>>> application?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Vänliga hälsningar
>>>
>>> Johnny Rosenberg
>>> ジョニー・ローゼンバーグ
>>
>>
>> I can  only guess that you are using either Unity or Gnome 3 or poor-man's
>> Gnome
> Ubuntu 10.10 at the moment, so yes, it's Gnome 2.
>
>> because I am using KDE and at them moment I have 6 desktops/workspaces
>> and each one contains a running application - eg, Thunderbird, Firefox, a
>> Game, LibreOffice, mc (Midnight Commander), and vlc (was watching Futurama a
>> few minutes ago on TV).
> Well, I have 16 workspaces (setup via Compiz-Fusion) and the most
> common is that I use 3 or 4 of those, maybe 1-3 different applications
> on each one, so it's not exactly the same as yours but fairly similar.
>
>> All running and none interfere with the other. I
>> simply switch between them as I want.
> I do that too. No problems at all.
>
>> Isn't this what you are wanting to do? If so then switch to KDE - simple.
> Yes, I do that all the time without any kinds of problems, EXCEPT the
> one that I described (or failed to describe?) earlier.
>
> Maybe you understand my problem very accurately, but to be sure, try
> the example below in your situation and tell me what happens:
>
> 1. Run everything that you usually run, just like always, except LibreOffice.
> 2. If you have an icon on your desktop for a LibreOffice document,
> spreadsheet or whatever, preferably a huge one, click (or double
> click, depending on your settings) it to open it with LibreOffice.
> 3. Since it takes a while to open LibreOffice from scratch, especially
> with a huge document, go back to one of your other windows and
> continue working there.
> 4. When LibreOffice is finally running and the document is loaded,
> does it not take focus from what you were doing?
>
> In my case it even opens on my current workspace even if I was on
> another workspace when clicking the icon.

Do you have a similar menu for each application in Gnome 2 which you are 
using?:

http://picpaste.com/snapshot1-8129WbEn.png

In KDE you can control how an application behaves, and the above menu is 
to found in the topmost lefthand corner of the application's "taskbar".

BC

-- 
There are actually three kinds of mind: one kind grasps things unaided, the second sees what another has grasped, the third grasps nothing and sees nothing.
              Niccolo Machiavelli