I tried the new scrollbars for Plasma 4.9 and think they need tweaked further. With the traditional scrollbars there were arrows on which you could click to scroll slowly. Now to scroll slowly you have to click on a smaller and less intuitive hidden white area outside the main scrollbar. Arrows were also more intuitive for novice users to indicate the function of the bar. To correct this I think you should show the scroll arrows on mouse over, just like you show the area representing what is hidden only on mouse over. This keeps the less cluttered new look, except with the same original functionality.
You can configure which buttons you want to have a scroll bars in System Settings → Application Style → "Configure" next to the "Breeze" dropdown → Scroll bars. (or just run "breeze-settings5" app)
(In reply to Kai Uwe Broulik from comment #1) > You can configure which buttons you want Yes, I know you can configure the scroll bar, but as a default it doesn't make sense to hide the arrow. The defaults should also be suitable for novices and most of my relatives (who have used computers for years) read webpages by repeatedly clicking the arrow.
Don't you have a mouse wheel or scroll gesture on your touchpad?
(In reply to Kai Uwe Broulik from comment #3) > Don't you have a mouse wheel or scroll gesture on your touchpad? Yes I do but those aren't always precise (especially touchpad scroll gestures). The arrows are useful for scrolling small distances, or for scrolling lazily whereby you just keep the arrow pressed down. I know you don't *have* to click the arrow itself to scroll, but I think they add some visual clarity, especially for novices, that the function is for moving up and down. The arrows also distinguish a scroll bar from other UI elements used in breeze e.g. in Dolphin there is a disk space indicator which looks almost visually identical to a scroll bar. Hide the arrow when the mouse is not over and you still get the elegant clean clutter-free design you are striving for.
You can also use the keyboard's up/down arrow keys, for more precision/control.
(In reply to John Salatas from comment #5) > You can also use the keyboard's up/down arrow keys, for more > precision/control. You could, but sometimes the mouse is simply more convenient than the keyboard. There are also some situations where you do not know where has the focus for keyboard input, and in those situations it is better to use the mouse.
Created attachment 103416 [details] An illustration of how less precise scrolling using the bar can be vs. clicking the area formerly occupied by the scroll arrow. It makes no sense to remove/hide this tried-and-tested feature for precise scrolling!
Can you please stop arguing about this. The design change happened in conjunction with our usability team and you can still enable the arrows if you want to. Having them enabled by default clashes with the auto-hiding scroll bar background as you then wouldn't be able to tell the scroll bar is all the way at the top because there would be a gab where the arrows should be. Also, such scroll bars are prevalent on all mobile platforms which are usually used by more novice users than desktop computers are nowadays so you can't tell me people wouldn't be able to recognize them as such.