Bug 491266

Summary:	"Background Services" should not be visible to the end-user
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	EpicTux123 <EpicTux123>
Component:	Startup process	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Severity:	major	CC:	kde, nate
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	6.1.3
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Fedora RPMs
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description EpicTux123 2024-08-04 18:08:50 UTC

There's a thing on KDE called "Background Services". Before, it was integrated in the System Settings app.
Now, it's an standalone application, with the same settings (you have to search the app name in the start menu to find it).

As I see it, it's confusing for the end-user and should probably be hidden. I believe that many users will think this is like Microsoft Windows "services.msc", when in reality it is not. Relevant services are managed by systemd through terminal instead of "Background Services" from KDE.

"Background Services" from KDE provide some basic toggles for things like Bluetooth, Print Manager and other services, but as I see it, there's no benefit of exposing this for the end-user, because he or she could go and disable services thinking that will help start-up times or something, when in reality the services are very "minor" and do not impact system usage (as far as I know).

I would suggest getting rid of this "Background Services" thing and resetting its options so users that have modified it in the past now have its services enabled again because as I understand it they should not be disabled by the average user, and should instead be hidden through some terminal command.

One example I personally have is that I had disabled Touchpad service and Touchpad still works even with it disabled.
And I also believe disabling those services may be buggy or may interefere with system operations in some areas.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: Fedora Linux 40
KDE Plasma Version: 6.1.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.4.0
Qt Version: 6.7.2

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2024-08-05 18:05:25 UTC

The Background Services KCM is in fact not exposed to the end user; that's why we removed it from System Settings. This makes it much harder to find, so our idea was that now you'd only find it if you knew what it was and were actively looking for it. The hope was that people with this knowledge and desire would know what they're doing and avoid blowing up their systems. If that don't, that sucks, but ultimately there's only a limited amount we can do to protect the system from the user actively sabotaging it without reducing the ability to customize it for legitimate reasons.

For 6.2 we've also added a banner to the top of the window telling people that these probably aren't the droids they're looking for. Hopefully that helps.