This bug is part of an ongoing effort to rethink the options available in System Settings. The end goal is to consolidate some obscure options to make Plasma feel simpler to use and improve the user experience. I was advised to make individual bug reports with my suggestions. More details with all the suggestions and talking points can be seen in this shared document: https://collaborate.kde.org/s/oEkdeYerKqaZNyC -------------------- The entire Launch Feedback KCM could be removed. Its options are very niche and cosmetic only, and the alternative animations aren’t very well polished: Static is pointless from an eye-candy standpoint, and blinking doesn’t blink the icon itself, it makes a dark square around the icon that fades to white at a very low frame-rate. There's also no point in having a setting to control how long the feedback should be. The amount of time should be set to a nice default instead of leaving it up to the user to decide. It’s not worth moving all of those options to the Mouse KCM or reworking the animations. I propose removing this KCM entirely. I also thought about adding a single toggle to the mouse KCM to enable/disable the animation, but I believe it's better to investigate why some people would want to disable the animation and fix whatever causes that need instead. This is probably out of the scope of this bug though. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Operating System: KDE neon Unstable Edition KDE Plasma Version: 5.24.80 KDE Frameworks Version: 5.91.0 Qt Version: 5.15.3 Kernel Version: 5.13.0-28-generic (64-bit) Graphics Platform: Wayland Processors: 6 × Intel® Core™ i5-9400F CPU @ 2.90GHz Memory: 7,6 GiB of RAM Graphics Processor: Radeon RX 570 Series
This is progress already with the options moving into the Cursors KCM. See https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/merge_requests/531 and https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/979.
> I believe it's better to investigate why some people would want to disable the animation and fix whatever causes that need instead. As one of those people, I simply find it unaesthetic, annoying and distracting. I don't want stuff hanging around, blinking or sillily bouncing around on my desktop. Especially considering that, as opposed to dialog windows or the like that need my reaction, the launch feedback is something the user neither needs to nor even can act on, it's just sitting there with no way to get it out of the way. While I don't doubt the possibility that some may find it useful, I myself actually did not even understand what it is and what it does until I accidentally came across it while digging though the system settings. The only way to properly "fix" for those who have the resons I gave is the option to turn this off altogether, so I would like to advocate in favor in favor of not just eliminating the option to disable this.
(In reply to Natalie Clarius from comment #2) > > I believe it's better to investigate why some people would want to disable the animation and fix whatever causes that need instead. > > As one of those people, I simply find it unaesthetic, annoying and > distracting. I don't want stuff hanging around, blinking or sillily bouncing > around on my desktop. Especially considering that, as opposed to dialog > windows or the like that need my reaction, the launch feedback is something > the user neither needs to nor even can act on, it's just sitting there with > no way to get it out of the way. > > While I don't doubt the possibility that some may find it useful, I myself > actually did not even understand what it is and what it does until I > accidentally came across it while digging though the system settings. > > The only way to properly "fix" for those who have the resons I gave is the > option to turn this off altogether, so I would like to advocate in favor in > favor of not just eliminating the option to disable this. The animation has the functional purpose of giving feedback to the user that the app is being loaded in the background, the same way a loading bar tells the user operations are still happening. Without it, if the user clicks on something and it doesn't open right away, they won Would a more common busy cursor spinner be a better option in your opinion? (You can see what it would look like in System Settings > Appearance > Cursors > Second cursor from the ones shown) A toggle to disable the animation is not ideal since it allows the user to remove important feedback about the state of the system, making the UX worse. However, if the current animation is not ideal, then it can be included temporarily until that issue is resolved.
>Without it, if the user clicks on > something and it doesn't open right away, they won't... ...know if they misclicked or if it's just taking too long to load.
(In reply to guimarcalsilva from comment #3) > (In reply to Natalie Clarius from comment #2) > > > I believe it's better to investigate why some people would want to disable the animation and fix whatever causes that need instead. > > > > As one of those people, I simply find it unaesthetic, annoying and > > distracting. I don't want stuff hanging around, blinking or sillily bouncing > > around on my desktop. Especially considering that, as opposed to dialog > > windows or the like that need my reaction, the launch feedback is something > > the user neither needs to nor even can act on, it's just sitting there with > > no way to get it out of the way. > > > > While I don't doubt the possibility that some may find it useful, I myself > > actually did not even understand what it is and what it does until I > > accidentally came across it while digging though the system settings. > > > > The only way to properly "fix" for those who have the resons I gave is the > > option to turn this off altogether, so I would like to advocate in favor in > > favor of not just eliminating the option to disable this. > > The animation has the functional purpose of giving feedback to the user that > the app is being loaded in the background, the same way a loading bar tells > the user operations are still happening. Without it, if the user clicks on > something and it doesn't open right away, they won't know if they misclicked or if it's just taking too long to load. That's what I pieced together when I learnt it was a "launch feedback", but I could actually not make sense of it just from the animation, and still never found it particularly useful. > Would a more common busy > cursor spinner be a better option in your opinion? (You can see what it > would look like in System Settings > Appearance > Cursors > Second cursor > from the ones shown) Yes, I think that would alleviate both points: It would probably convey more clearly what it means, and be a bit less obtrusive visually.
https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/2466 technically solved this. The options still exist but don't take an entire KCM anymore, so this bug can be considered fixed. The discussion about removing some of those options can be seen at https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/61 , so that should be tracked there.