KDE Neon Experimental Lets You Run Plasma 6 With KF6 Apps Today

[grung]

The screenshot is heavily customized. If you download Neon Unstable you'll see it looks exactly like Plasma 5.

This is why and how libadwaita was born.

[mrg666]

Since you perfectly know how it can be done, please tell me which Plasma add-ons/extensions/packs need to be installed to make systray and status icons colorful.

You were the first to make this claim, please put your money where your mouth is.

You said anyone can do that, right? That means I don't have to patch KDE.

Yeah, you don't need to patch KDE. Just use XFCE. KDE does not need your appreciation to be good. Get it? Things you don't like can still be okay. I really don't care what you are trying to achieve, just get lost.

[Kver]

I'm an anal person, you know, so, please show me what I can do in KDE 5 to make systray/status icons colorful.

I've now spent an hour in KDE Neon 5.27 (the latest stable version) and I just couldn't achieve that.

I've installed ten different icon sets, six Plasma theme packs - status icons are still shades of grey.

So much for configurability.

I'm glad I'm on XFCE which is not infected with this brain damaged design language.

Plasma 6 will be using standard icons system-wide. Previously those icons were tied to the Plasma theme, so I guess for Plasma 5 the answer would be: Depends on the theme. I think most plasma themes went the monochrome direction which explains your luck. The historic reason for this is because there wasn't support for dynamically coloured icons, so Plasma themes had to provide their own to follow the trends of the time, which carried over from Plasma 4 to Plasma 5.

That said out-of-the-gate I'm not sure how many icon packs will offer the relevant icons, or if existing colourful icon sets will be compatible. If they aren't compatible they'll probably fall back to Breeze (especially at launch); but Plasma 6 will behave more like other desktops. See https://www.phoronix.com/news/KDE-Plasma-6-Removals "Icons in Plasma styles are being removed."

[geearf]

Plasma 6 will be using standard icons system-wide. Previously those icons were tied to the Plasma theme, so I guess for Plasma 5 the answer would be: Depends on the theme. I think most plasma themes went the monochrome direction which explains your luck. The historic reason for this is because there wasn't support for dynamically coloured icons, so Plasma themes had to provide their own to follow the trends of the time, which carried over from Plasma 4 to Plasma 5.

That said out-of-the-gate I'm not sure how many icon packs will offer the relevant icons, or if existing colourful icon sets will be compatible. If they aren't compatible they'll probably fall back to Breeze (especially at launch); but Plasma 6 will behave more like other desktops. See https://www.phoronix.com/news/KDE-Plasma-6-Removals "Icons in Plasma styles are being removed."

I appreciate that this answer is detailed and not just sarcastic, I personally never thought of the grey icon being an issue, but I think birdie is correct it'd be much nicer to have them all colored (even if all KDE colors were to be same/similar). Now I want them colored too, maybe I should switch theme. Any breezish theme suggestion? Thanks!

[avis]

Plasma 6 will be using standard icons system-wide. Previously those icons were tied to the Plasma theme, so I guess for Plasma 5 the answer would be: Depends on the theme. I think most plasma themes went the monochrome direction which explains your luck. The historic reason for this is because there wasn't support for dynamically coloured icons, so Plasma themes had to provide their own to follow the trends of the time, which carried over from Plasma 4 to Plasma 5.

That said out-of-the-gate I'm not sure how many icon packs will offer the relevant icons, or if existing colourful icon sets will be compatible. If they aren't compatible they'll probably fall back to Breeze (especially at launch); but Plasma 6 will behave more like other desktops. See https://www.phoronix.com/news/KDE-Plasma-6-Removals "Icons in Plasma styles are being removed."

We'll see about that. I've tried KDE Neon's Development edition and I also couldn't change systray/status icons.

Yeah, you don't need to patch KDE. Just use XFCE. KDE does not need your appreciation to be good. Get it? Things you don't like can still be okay. I really don't care what you are trying to achieve, just get lost.

The OP said systray/status icons can be easily changed, you made it personal and attacked me. Why?

[woddy]

I understand it is experimental and I hope it could be better. That's why I'm downloading a new iso and installing it to a vm, to test it myself instead of just look at the screenshot.

It's not that maybe it will be better, it will definitely be better, especially in the details. This is only a preview in strong development therefore subject to instability but also to changes.

[partcyborg]

I've not used KDE since version ~4.10 but even back then I vividly remember that only the default Plasma theme was usable. All other non-default themes were broken one way or another.

So sensible defaults matter and these defaults, with as little contrast as possible, no colors, all icons looking alike is a the worst UX experience you could imagine.

100% not true these days. I have been using a 3rd party theme (sweet) for years and I have 0 theme related issues

[avis]

100% not true these days. I have been using a 3rd party theme (sweet) for years and I have 0 theme related issues

That's good to hear, I appreciate your input.

Does KDE5 allow to separately theme its own systray/status icons though? Someone made a claim earlier in the discussion and so far there's been just a confirmation that it's only theoretically possible in the upcoming KDE6.

[szymon_g]

man, there is a lot with plasma one could complain about, but complaing about something you can easily tweak from the main and only needed settings application is just silly.

yeah, defaults don't matter!!!111

complaining about sorry ass state of an alpha phase software doesn't make that much sense, neither is giving user the crap out-of-the-box and expecting them to make it somehow usable.

[Quackdoc]

yeah, defaults don't matter!!!111

complaining about sorry ass state of an alpha phase software doesn't make that much sense, neither is giving user the crap out-of-the-box and expecting them to make it somehow usable.

why does anyone assume this will be out of box experience? it's a bloody tech preview, this is why tech launches have embargos, and here I thought the linux community was smarter then the broad tech community, serves me right I suppose