I'm going to have to get used to it. Months ago, when I returned to Kubuntu, the bottom bar was very similar to what we have in Windows. I prefer a dock, but I made myself to it. Shortly after, I started using the «Icons only» option, where I could add the applications I used the most to the bar and everything worked like a dock: clicking on them launched them, went to them or minimized them, no matter what desktop was. This has changed with the release of plasma 5.16 that occurred less than 24 hours ago.
If before I was, for example, on desktop 2 and clicked on Firefox, which I have so that it always opens on 1, if I had the browser open, it would jump from desktop 2 to one. Now, if we use the "Only icons" option or have it set in the task manager, what it will do is open a new instance of Firefox. The second time we click on it, it jumps to the first desktop. Is this a bug or a concept flaw? I have my doubts. What is true is that desktops are managed differently in the latest version of Plasma.
Plasma 5.16 has arrived with some other bug
Desktops have gained independence in Plasma 5.16. To find out, we just have to activate them and open an app in each of them. Now on the bottom bar we will only see the applications open on each desktop. The funny thing is that this is something that I would have liked to have before, when I still did not use the "Only icons" option, but now I find it somewhat annoying because, if an app can open more than one instance, the first time Clicking on it will open another instance instead of going directly to the open window, as long as we have it open on another desktop. If you do not have it like me, an app always opens on a desktop, what it will do if we click on a fixed app is to open a new window on the desktop we are on.
In my opinion and as I have already said, I'm going to have to get used to it, unless it's a bug and "the jump" from desktop to desktop from the previous version will return in a future Plasma update. In my case, if I want to do it as before, now I have to remember on which desktop I have left each application and click on it. And as I write this I can only think that it is going to cost me. Well, that and I think it is a bug that will be fixed in the future. It must be made clear that this "jump" continues, but the second time we click on the application.
On the other hand, and this is clearly a bug, when right-clicking on the bar and choosing the option «show alternatives», most of the time nothing will happen. It is more than likely that this bug is related to the implementation of a new option when modifying the panel articles: «Show alternatives» is available when we choose «Configure panel». Here we could say that they have broken one thing by fixing another, but surely they will fix it in Plasma 5.16.1 or some later version.
What do you think about virtual desktops being more independent in Plasma 5.16?
