SUMMARY In Plasma 5.23 Kickoff buttons were moved to the bottom. While it might be a good solution for default panel placement, it was convenient to use when Kickoff is opened sticked to the top. Now instead of making less movement you need to make more. I suggest to either swap switchers when Kickoff at the top or make it configurable. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Open Kickoff at the top left corner OBSERVED RESULT Observe layout inconvenient to use in this position EXPECTED RESULT Layout more useful in this position SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Operating System: Arch Linux KDE Plasma Version: 5.23.0 KDE Frameworks Version: 5.87.0 Qt Version: 5.15.2 Kernel Version: 5.14.12-arch1-1 (64-bit) Graphics Platform: X11
We considered doing this, but we had complaints about the reversed layout, and ultimately we couldn't reverse *everything*; un-reversed search results were important for example. And hacing the header" at the bottom did look a bit weird. In the end we decided to do away with the dynamism and just use the same layout in all cases for simplicity's sake.
It really sucks. While I don't use power/session controls very often, I use application/places switcher quite a lot. Given that user indicator is completely useless compared to that switcher this change is very distracting and makes me irrationally angry.
I'm sorry you feel that way. Hopefully you can get used to it over time.
Nope, I don't think so. New Kickoff was good because it was usable when you place it on top. Old version was painful to use in a same way it's now. Most common task that I use Kickoff for is to open "Places" and jump into commonly used directories. And now again it requires to move mouse to the bottom after several months of great launcher experience. Please, make it possible to at least swap username and application/places switcher using configuration menu. User avatar and name is non functional in any meaningful way compared to that switcher. Searchbar location doesn't matter at all because you can start typing and it's as fast as it was to access search results. It can be left where it is for all I care.
Yeah, excessive difficulty to reach recents is a valid complaint. That's being tracked in Bug 442981; let's continue there. We may end up reconsidering this.
*** Bug 444424 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***