Plasma is a versatile framework that provides the underlying infrastructure of the KDE desktop shell. It hosts several core parts of the user interface, including the panels, desktop icons, and launchers. Plasma's rich architecture encourages a clean separation between functionality and presentation. The presentation layer is resolution independent, which gives it an advantage on devices with unusual screen sizes. The individual desktop widgets that make up a Plasma-based environment are called plasmoids. They communicate with Plasma's data engine backend to retrieve information which is then displayed to the user. Plasmoids are placed in "containment" objects which control how plasmoids are organized on the screen. Users can have multiple Plasma "activities," which each have their own sets of containments and plasmoids. Plasma's modular approach is advantageous because it makes it much easier for developers to build a custom desktop experience without having to completely reinvent the wheel. The KDE netbook interface consists of custom Plasma containments and a special theme for KDE's KWin window manager. A slim panel at the very top of the screen provides access to the Plasma activity switcher and displays notification area icons. The environment has two activities: the Newspaper activity, which shows informational plasmoids, and the Applications activity, which serves as a launcher.