Bug 431946 - After upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.20.5, unexpectedly new apps are pinned to Task Manager
Summary: After upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.20.5, unexpectedly new apps are pinned to Task ...
Status: RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Task Manager and Icons-Only Task Manager widgets (show other bugs)
Version: 5.20.5
Platform: Gentoo Packages Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Eike Hein
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2021-01-22 18:13 UTC by i.Dark_Templar
Modified: 2021-01-25 19:34 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
taskbar.png (8.48 KB, image/png)
2021-01-22 18:13 UTC, i.Dark_Templar
Details

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Description i.Dark_Templar 2021-01-22 18:13:29 UTC
Created attachment 135065 [details]
taskbar.png

SUMMARY
After upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.20.5, new items are added without user's input.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Have KDE Plasma 5.19.5 installed
2. Following items are at the start of main panel: menu, removable devices, konsole, browser, taskbar, tray, clock
3. Upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.20.5

OBSERVED RESULT
After browser new items are added to main panel: system settings, discover and browser. But there is even no discover installed.

EXPECTED RESULT
No new icons on main panel.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: 5.4.80-gentoo-r1
(available in About System)
KDE Applications Version: 20.08.3
KDE Plasma Version: 5.20.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.77.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Not sure if bug component is correctly selected. Please reassign if it's wrong.

I think it's a regression from 86329ca1ae (https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/commit/86329ca1ae): KDE shouldn't silently corrupt user's configuration by such changes. It's ok to change default configuration, but it should at least ask before modifying user's settings, if touch it at all.

Attached is a cropped image with additional added items. Browser is hidden since it's running, file manager too.
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2021-01-22 18:50:16 UTC
Hmm, it was definitely not intentional to add these to people's existing panels--just new ones. I'm not even sure how it could have happened, based on how the panel code works.

Did you reset your panel to the default settings, or remove it and re-add it? Or had you never ever pinned any apps to your Task Manager in the first place?
Comment 2 i.Dark_Templar 2021-01-22 19:07:00 UTC
I didn't reset my settings before, during or after upgrade. I didn't remove or add/readd panels. But I had no pinned applications since I prefer traditional task panel icons which don't disappear when an instance of application is started.
Comment 3 Nate Graham 2021-01-25 16:28:03 UTC
Ah yes, the old issue where changing the defaults only affects people who had not changed anything in the past. :/

Unfortunately we don't have a generic way to say "this change should affect everyone" or "this change should only affect new users".

However in this case, it was intentional: we wanted people to get new pinned icons if they previously had not customized anything. I understand that you might disagree, but there's no way to change it back at this point since it's already happened. :)
Comment 4 i.Dark_Templar 2021-01-25 16:58:06 UTC
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #3)
> Ah yes, the old issue where changing the defaults only affects people who
> had not changed anything in the past. :/
> 
> Unfortunately we don't have a generic way to say "this change should affect
> everyone" or "this change should only affect new users".
> 

My bug is exactly about this: next time something like this is implemented it'd be good to have some way to separate those two cases, and for existing users at least ask them. Like, "we have this new shiny feature. Want to try it out?".

> However in this case, it was intentional: we wanted people to get new pinned
> icons if they previously had not customized anything. I understand that you
> might disagree, but there's no way to change it back at this point since
> it's already happened. :)

Of course, I didn't intend to wait for next KDE release to remove components unneeded for me, and do it for me specifically :) I did it on my own after reporting bug.
Comment 5 Nate Graham 2021-01-25 19:34:32 UTC
Yes, I agree. It's something we need to improve in a central, deliberate way. Right now it's super ad-hoc: some things get automatically applied for people who haven't changed their own defaults, and some things don't, and we don't have a painless way of choosing what will happen--it's up to the underlying implementation.

Resolving this with a sort of "here's what changed; do you want to use the new thing now?" dialog would be nice, I agree.