Currently, there's a redundancy in KDE Panels offering. There are many features both offered by Plasma Panels and Latte, but since they are different projects, they are offered in a inconsistent way. Furthermore, something Latte could benefit from being more integrated with Plasma (e.g.: super key working by default) and it could offer many features currently missing in normal panels such as dynamic spacers.
It would be necessary to discuss how the two could be unified, and what features / things are missing from one or another.
Currently, Latte offers the following features over Plasma panels:
- Dynamic spacers
- Multiple visibility mode (Dodge Active, Dodge Fullscreen, Dodge Windows, Auto Hide, Always Visible, Windows Go Below)
- Multiple layouts simultaneously and download community layouts
- Smart Dynamic Background based on windows and background
- Smart colors based on background
- Dock color can change based on active window
- Selection of new ‘Running Indicator’ styles, including Unity
- Shortcut badges
- Customizable actions, delay, appearance
- Simple/Advanced mode
- A simple way to add a Dock
- New features every release, very active developer
On the other hand, Plasma Panels offer the following over Latte:
- Shipped by default
- Possibly less RAM usage than Latte (hard to measure exactly, but booting with just latte gives me ~50Mib more than just Plasma panels, and opening the Latte settings is another ~70Mib at least)
- More stable, fewer reported crashes
- Configuration menu is more user-friendly and consistent with Plasma style
- Way more performant on low-end machines