Feature request to get an option to use "activate on hover" for the bottom panel. Kickoff defaults to "click to activate" for the bottom panel. There should be an option to toggle "hover to activate" for the bottom panel.
I don't think we're going to do this, sorry. Tabs elsewhere don't switch on hover, so this would make the UI in Kickoff inconsistent.
That's why the request is for having the "option" to do this. Not to change the default or only allow hovering the bottom panel.
We're generally trying to move away from hyper-specific user-facing options to change the functioning of standard components in specific contexts. Ultimately they contribute to a disjointed and inconsistent UI, and produce subtle bugs that are hard to isolate. So I'm afraid a user-facing option for this is not under consideration either.
It creates more needless mouse-clicking. Even the applications and categories operate as "activate on hover". So does "Computer", "History", and "Recently Used". The bottom tabs don't compete with anything, nor do they necessitate a "triangle mouse filter". Right now we have "Applications" and "Places", and later there may even be a third panel (such as a sole "History" section.) There's no way to "swing and go". Always the extra click... even when you're keeping your mouse on the bottom panel, which does not overlap or compete with other menus. If anything is inconsistent, it how the menu behaves currently. Some parts activate on hover, other parts do not.
I still don't understand the justification. Since all other elements activate on hover, I keep finding myself having to mentally switch between "clicking" and "hovering". A good launcher should not make you *think* about its usage. Nate. An *option*. Just an *option* to allow activate-on-hover. Just as had been the case with previous versions of KDE, where the user is empowered with options to make the desktop work for *them*, rather than having to adapt to the developer's ideals.
Interestingly we've gotten many many requests to make it possible to disable hover for the list items. List items don't typically use the activate-on-hover paradigm, so that's a reasonable request. If we to end up implementing that in the form of a user-facing option, we might be able to call it something like "Switch on hover for sidebar items" which could be interpreted to mean the tabs below the list items too. In that case, you'd effectively have the setting you're looking for. If we ever implement that, I'll keep it in mind.