KDE Plasma moves to Windows-like icon taskbar

KDE Plasma developers are working on displaying only application icons on the taskbar by default. Some applications are pinned to the taskbar by default, just like Windows 10.

The developers of KDE Plasma, the desktop environment for Linux, have been discussing proposals for the default display of an icon-only taskbar in recent months. A proposal to display the taskbar vertically by default did not succeed, partly because of problems that this would cause with the display of the clock.

There was also the question of whether the taskbar should be thicker, as planned. The proposal was to make it 46 pixels high, partly because of the benefits for touch-sensitive control, but some developers objected, advocating a lower bar. Ultimately, a height of 46 pixels was chosen.

So far, the KDE Plasma taskbar shows open applications by default with fairly wide buttons. Users could already adjust that display themselves, including to the icon display. Moving to the standard icon view also includes grouping several windows under a single icon, just like Windows. The change comes with the release of KDE Plasma 5.20. Version 5.19 was released last week, including new avatars and a rewritten system monitoring widget.