If yesterday I spoke to you about one of my favorite desktop pluginstoday I’m going to do the same thing, but in a very different way, and that’s that Latte Dock remains in limbo applications, after its main developer announced that he was leaving it.
As with yesterday’s article, I don’t think large K desktop users need an introduction to Latte Dock, which I once called the Dock definitive for KDE Plasma: an additional application to the already configurable panels that raised customization to another levelwith the concept of Dock as an axis, although its versatility made it an all-in-one worthy of consideration.
It’s not that Latte Dock was a perfect application, but its use of KDE Plasma technologies and its possibilities made it the best option for those who like to use a Dock, instead of a classic panel. As is my case, which I use somehow docks for the band of years. Having Latte Dock, instead of third-party apps that don’t integrate as well with the desktop, or having to settle for native panels, was the best thing ever.
Note that I’m referring to Latte Dock in the past tense, because although it is, it’s still there, it remains to be seen how long it will. His last major release was Latte Docking Station 0.10, came out almost a year ago and did so by extending its support to GNOME and Xfce as well. However, it was among KDE Plasma users that the project enjoyed more than good acceptance, as is to be expected.
This version was slow to appear and for a long time throughout its development, its creator and practically the only maintainer, warned with the idea that it was the last to integrate new features as such. The plan was to ensure its compatibility and stability and nothing else. Still, the roadmap for its next release started to fill up with things to do…until its release. KDE Plasma 5.25finally the latest version of the desktop environment.
What happened? What KDE Plasma 5.25 broke Latte Dock in a rather ugly way: performance problems appeared when starting the application, random problems depending on the graphical session used, failures during the reorganization of the launchers, with contextual menus… Such was the disaster that its developer recommended to stop using the Dock, or compile the development version, where they would be polished. But not even.
Everything was in a “I will do what I can to solve everything as soon as possible”, until yesterday I published a farewell for lack of time, motivation and interest continue to support Latte Dock, the project which started six years ago and which until four days ago, was still active. Will anyone continue their work? That’s what remains to be seen.
For my part, a few weeks ago I went back to the old-school KDE Plasma tiles, given the impossibility of continuing to use Latte Dock normally (it works, it works, but the bugs make it difficult to support). Although he hoped the situation would be better resolved. It was not the case. Too bad, because the possibilities of Latte Dock were many and it does not give me the feeling that someone is going to step forward with the dedication of its creator. I’m wrong the same.
On another side, Plasma panels have improved a lot and they can almost be used in mode Dock decent, far from Latte Dock level. Now, given the choice, I’d rather the KDE developers focus on adding and refining functionality (rounded corners that fit well with the new floating panels introduced by KDE Plasma 5.25, spacing control that does not break the aesthetics, as it has already done with the task manager or the system tray…) that the panels must be replaced completely. But of course, that’s just my opinion.