SUMMARY Th search results produced by the Application Launcher (Kickoff) should default to only results from the contents of the actual application menu. Using Plasma search / Krunner should be opt-in STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. In the Kickoff search bar, enter any search term, e.g. "system" 2. results produced come from Krunner, drawing from various plugins as chosen in Settings > Search > Plasma Search OBSERVED RESULT The above is the default experience using the Kickoff search EXPECTED RESULT I would argue that, while it's a more powerful search, it's more powerful than needed. It unnecessarily duplicates the functionality of a core part of Plasmashell (Krunner), which is just as readily available as the Kickoff search itself. I'm sure it's also unexpected. Besides, the many bugs of Krunner also affect it, which I could certainly do without. Applying the "simple by default, powerful when needed" credo here would mean to give users the option for this link, but make a simple app search the default. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Linux/KDE Plasma: Garuda Linux KDE Plasma Version: 6.2.5 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.10.0 Qt Version: 6.8.2 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION The Settings for Kickoff have a "Configure Search Plugins" button in the General tab. This could be deactivated by default, preceded by a check box saying "use Plasma Search" or sth., and be activated only when checking that.
Though I encourage some discussion on this, I think the current state is intentional. KRunner is not something most people trying out Plasma will know about or use frequently, and providing all plasma search functionalities on Kickoff allows them to find them where they would expect them to be. Other OSs like Windows and ChromeOS also offer similar features on the application search bar.
It's clearly intentional of course, my argument is just that the intention should be changed, as I feel it would align more with KDE's design philosophy (and as it happens, also my personal preference). You have a point though that expectations are formed by other OSs and opt-in could be the best choice here. BUT if so, I still think there should be a _choice here_ to have the app search be just an app search, possibly make it it "opt-out" if that seems strategically more desirable. I guess that would be rather straightforward to implement? Sadly I don't have the skills to contribute to the code myself.
(In reply to Niccolò Venerandi from comment #1) > Though I encourage some discussion on this, I think the current state is > intentional. KRunner is not something most people trying out Plasma will > know about or use frequently, and providing all plasma search > functionalities on Kickoff allows them to find them where they would expect > them to be. Other OSs like Windows and ChromeOS also offer similar features > on the application search bar. Should it maybe be filed as a feature request instead?
AFAIK this was in fact optional in the past, but we changed it to instead respect the systemwide KRunner plugin settings. Is there a reason why you can't turn off the plugins you don't care about on a systemwide basis?
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #4) > AFAIK this was in fact optional in the past, but we changed it to instead > respect the systemwide KRunner plugin settings. > > Is there a reason why you can't turn off the plugins you don't care about on > a systemwide basis? Not sure what you mean by system wide. Currently, if I want to turn off the Plugins for the Kickoff search, the only way to do that is on Plasma search/Krunner, i.e. system wide? That means of course foregoing the use of plugins also when using Krunner elsewhere. Would also like to understand the reason why we can't turn it off for Kickoff, while still using them in the actual Krunner search.
> Would also like to understand the reason why we can't turn it off for Kickoff, while still using them > in the actual Krunner search. Because we had a design goal to make all the KRunner-powered searches throughout the system (i.e. KRunner itself, Kickoff, Overview, Search widget, etc) behave identically so that the global settings were actually truly global, as opposed to "global but also not applying to everything" or "global but overridable locally in specific random cases. The current UX is much more coherent and easier to configure due to having one source of configuration that affects everything. As such, this is pretty much expected and intentional, sorry. If this state of affairs is causing you any specific problems, I'd recommend that you submit bug reports about the problems themselves so they can be evaluated and fixed. Thanks!