Since version 4.12 (or 4.11), KNotes's system tray icon appears with a number in foreground. After an initial incomprehension, I figured out that this must be the number of notes I have, which I verified.

I see that displaying this number is an option. The feature was requested in tickets 82416 and 238574. I understand that there is a valid use case if someone uses KNotes to store TODO items and nothing else (although it seems KOrganizer should be a much better choice for task management). I am not asking to remove that feature, but to disable it by default. The impact it has on the usability has been underestimated. Displaying this number is a distraction for the vast majority of users who are not in the case described above, and makes distinguishing KNotes from other applications in the systray less easy.

By the way, it seems disabling the preference is broken. You have to disable it twice before the number disappears (although it shows as already disabled the second time you enter the screen).

By the way, version 4.14 is not offered in the field.