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Maniphest T17391

Unify the Plasma experience
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Description

Description

Goal:

Ensure that most distributions choosing to deliver KDE Plasma do not modify its default settings, creating a unified experience provided by Plasma.

What do you want to improve/change?

Right now, various distributions add their own themes, alter panel layouts, and change icons, which leads to a fragmented user experience. For example, in Fedora, the Breeze Light theme used to be overwritten, so switching to it didn’t change the panel to white.

Why does it need to be done?

A consistent KDE Plasma experience across different distributions will provide a reliable and predictable user environment. This will enhance user satisfaction and ease of use.

How does it connect to KDE's vision of "A world in which everyone has control over their digital life and enjoys freedom and privacy"?

By maintaining a consistent default environment, users will have more control over their digital life, knowing that their experience will be the same regardless of the distribution they choose. This consistency also respects user freedom by allowing them to revert to a pure Plasma setup if they prefer it over the distribution’s customizations.

How would it affect different parts of KDE?

This change would primarily impact distribution maintainers and the KDE settings management. It might require additional documentation and tools for resetting to default settings. If most distributions use these default settings, they should be as user-friendly as possible. Additionally, we should strive to create a wide range of graphical configuration options to avoid the need for terminal use.

What it will take

  1. Propose the idea to the KDE community and gather feedback.
  2. Develop a "hard reset" button in the settings that restores KDE Plasma to its default state.
  3. Collaborate with distribution maintainers to encourage them to adopt the default settings or provide an easy way for users to reset to them.
  4. Ensure that the default settings are user-friendly and develop extensive graphical configuration options to minimize terminal usage.

Support needed:

  • Technical guidance and mentorship on KDE technologies.
  • Contributions from developers to implement the reset functionality.
  • Cooperation from distribution maintainers.

How we know we succeeded

  • A measurable decrease in the number of distributions that modify Plasma’s default settings.
  • Positive feedback from users appreciating the consistency.
  • An increase in user satisfaction and a smoother onboarding process for new users.

Relevant links

Champions

The team is:

  • Visionary: Kaea
  • Technical Lead: [Looking for a volunteer]
  • Promoter: [Looking for a volunteer]

I am willing to put work into this

  • Kaea

I am interested

  • Kaea
kaea created this task.Jun 8 2024, 5:47 PM
kaea triaged this task as Wishlist priority.
kaea updated the task description. (Show Details)
lydia updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 8 2024, 6:38 PM
redstrate raised the priority of this task from Wishlist to Needs Triage.Jul 6 2024, 6:11 PM
redstrate added a subscriber: redstrate.

(Raising to Needs Triage because of champion)

I'm not too convinced this is a good goal, however:

Right now, various distributions add their own themes, alter panel layouts, and change icons, which leads to a fragmented user experience. For example, in Fedora, the Breeze Light theme used to be overwritten, so switching to it didn’t change the panel to white.

Why not bring this up with Fedora?

A consistent KDE Plasma experience across different distributions will provide a reliable and predictable user environment. This will enhance user satisfaction and ease of use.

Distributions are free to customize their environment, though and we provide avenues for that and guides on what to do/don't. I don't see how much we can improve in this area apart from the general stuff we move towards.

This change would primarily impact distribution maintainers and the KDE settings management. It might require additional documentation and tools for resetting to default settings. If most distributions use these default settings, they should be as user-friendly as possible. Additionally, we should strive to create a wide range of graphical configuration options to avoid the need for terminal use.

Is that not what we're doing already?

Not saying this is a bad goal *idea*, but this is moslty stuff we're already working towards anyway or things that should be brought up against distributions and not us. We don't make distributions (except Neon I guess?)

frdbr added a subscriber: frdbr.Jul 29 2024, 3:53 PM
frdbr added a comment.Aug 12 2024, 7:02 PM

Hello,

Please note that the deadline is on Wednesday, just two days away, so you still have a bit of time to put the finishing touches on your proposal. Take a moment to polish, adjust, and refine your ideas to ensure they’re ready for voting.

If you need any help or have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.

lydia renamed this task from Unify the plasma experience to Unify the Plasma experience.Aug 15 2024, 8:57 AM
frdbr added a comment.Sep 2 2024, 12:28 PM

The voting process is over, the votes are being tallied and the chosen proposals will be announced at Akademy. In the meantime we would like to invite you all to join the KDE Goals matrix room to stay in the loop, get in touch with other people and team up on other proposals if yours doesn’t make it—or rally some support if it does.