Products · Product
KDE Plasma
Raised as a usability problem by 520 people on Hacker News over 19 years (2008–2026), in 357 threads.
- 1Settings scattered and hard to locateUnreviewed
- 1Settings scattered and hard to locateUnreviewed
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- 2Settings scattered and hard to locateUnreviewed
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- 13Permanent desktop widget can't be hiddenUnreviewed
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Display scaling hard to set right, fighting trackpad settingsUnreviewed
20082026- Display scaling is buggy on 4K monitors, and the UI feels rough2026-03-21
- Could not get display scaling right; had to fight trackpad settings and shortcuts2025-09-19
- Couldn't figure out settings for coherent HiDPI scaling, needed many config tweaks2024-02-29
Settings scattered and hard to locateUnreviewed
20082026- Couldn't find or adjust a simple setting; too many irrelevant settings2026-05-15
- Settings are organised poorly and icons, cursor and defaults feel off compared to Windows2026-03-21
- Hard to find the setting for the top-left corner2026-03-09
App names like Dolphin and Kate don't reveal their purposeUnreviewed
20082026- New users can't discover or guess what KDE app names like Dolphin or Okular do2026-09-08
- Confusing app names force subtitles, so new users can't tell what each app does2026-09-08
- Typing 'text' opens inconsistent apps, since app names like Kate are not obvious2023-05-13
Double-click required to open files is hard with joint issuesUnreviewed
20082026- Double-click to open files causes strain (RSI) for the user2024-03-16
- With single-click-to-open, selecting a file without opening it is awkward, requiring dragging a selection box around the icon2024-02-29
- Double-click required to open files is hard for people with joint issues2023-08-26
Shortcuts inconsistent across apps, unlike macOSUnreviewed
20082026- Keyboard shortcuts are not consistent across apps, unlike on macOS2020-10-14
- Ctrl-based shortcuts conflict with apps; Emacs-style text editing keys don't work in most apps2019-04-19
- Setting up keyboard mappings required tedious work per app, with inconsistent results2017-11-13
Spent hours trying to fix clock padding and gave upUnreviewed
20082026- Spent hours trying to fix clock padding, gave up2026-02-26
- Clock area has odd padding, flickers, and poor layout2020-10-14
- Digital clock shows incorrect time and user couldn't fix it2017-01-26
Text and icons inconsistently sized, some hard to readUnreviewed
20082026- Fonts too small on high-res screen; hard to find scaling option, installer unreadable2022-09-02
- Taskbar, icons and text layout break or look wrong under display scaling2019-11-03
- Scaling settings cause torn icons and text artefacts, and the fix is hard to remember2018-11-02
One-pixel low-contrast borders make windows hard to tell apartUnreviewed
20082026- Removed option for high-contrast window border colors, so it's hard to see which window has focus2026-01-12
- In dark mode, windows blend together and borders are hard to see2025-11-15
- One-pixel window borders with low contrast make it hard to tell windows apart, so the user clicks the wrong window2022-11-01
Tap to click off by default, so users must find and enable itUnreviewed
20082026- Tap-to-click setting enabled for user doesn't apply on login screen2025-09-18
- Tap to click is off by default, so users must find and enable it themselves2022-09-17
- Can't find the setting to switch to the mobile touch variant anymore2017-09-14
Mouse pointer too small and jumps sizes despite cursor settingUnreviewed
20082026- Window decoration themes don't draw properly with fractional scaling; GTK cursor draws at wrong size2024-02-15
- Mouse pointer is drawn too small on HiDPI displays, not at 200% scale2021-09-29
- Mouse pointer is too small on window controls and jumps between sizes despite setting cursor size2020-12-04
Cluttered with pointless chrome and lost useful window featuresUnreviewed
20082026- Cluttered with pointless chrome and has lost useful window features over versions2026-06-17
- Cluttered chrome and rarely used buttons steal screen space from work2025-07-24
- Too much chrome and too many UI elements, so it feels busy2022-10-21
Alt-Tab switches windows at every step, which is awkwardUnreviewed
20082026- Must use alt-tab to switch windows, which is cumbersome when tiling2025-11-14
- Alt-Tab accidentally opens windows of background apps the user wants hidden2022-11-16
- Keyboard Alt-Tab switching is awkward; switches windows at every step2019-08-12
Touch unusable because external screens count as laptop touch surfaceUnreviewed
20082026- Touch becomes unusable because KDE treats external screens as part of the laptop's touch surface2021-04-29
- KDE Plasma is hard to use on touch screens2014-01-15
- Configuring KDE multitouch to behave correctly is still a pain2012-03-20
Icon padding and text alignment make dialogs look misalignedUnreviewed
20082026- Visible icon padding and text alignment are inconsistent, making dialogs look misaligned2025-08-16
- Icons and text spacing in fields and panes look mistaken and are hard to parse2023-08-26
- Icons with two-line subtext are misaligned above single-line ones, looking unfinished2020-10-13
Defaults need hours of configuration before usableUnreviewed
20082026- System Settings is horribly laid out and crashes often, especially on network changes2021-09-22
- Default settings are ugly and overwhelming, requiring hours of configuration2014-10-27
- Defaults are unusable, requiring 1-2 hours of configuration after every installation2014-10-27
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Clicking to move the cursor only works in Bash, not Fish shell2026-10-27
- Installing apps means juggling many inconsistent formats and package managers2026-10-16
- Options are buried in deep hamburger menus, hard to find2026-09-24
- Desktop UI stutters and jank when interacting, and crashes2026-09-24
- DNS-blocking flag set in KDE with no checkbox to change it; must use nmcli2026-09-22
- Add-connection wizard doesn't set correct settings, forcing manual nmcli fixes2026-09-22
- Constant design inconsistencies and misaligned elements make it hard to concentrate2026-09-08
- New users can't discover or guess what KDE app names like Dolphin or Okular do2026-09-08
- Too many options, conflicting text hierarchy, icons and spacing make apps overwhelming2026-09-08
- Confusing app names force subtitles, so new users can't tell what each app does2026-09-08
- Bold vibrant paren colours make Lisp code unreadable, so the user had to disable highlighting2026-08-31
- Default desktop keybindings feel poorly designed for keyboard navigation, adding friction2026-08-28
- Each taskbar keeps its own pinned apps, so reordering one means manually changing the others2026-07-24
- Plasma's UI redesigns are considered bad, making it harder to use2026-06-28
- Rounded, detached taskbar makes the start button and clock harder to reach2026-06-18
- Virtual desktops were shared across screens, forcing constant dragging of pager windows to workflow2026-06-17
- Commenter couldn't understand how to use the Plasma desktop out of the box2026-06-17
- Spacer widget hidden in a submenu, took days to find2026-06-17
- Cluttered with pointless chrome and has lost useful window features over versions2026-06-17
- Cluttered defaults: multiple toolbars and dozens of irrelevant context menu options2026-06-17
- Indicator animates slowly and shows the wrong view during the transition2026-06-13
- GUI menus cannot expose millions of option combinations, so they become unusable2026-06-06
- Moving windows by the titlebar is backwards and hurts productivity, and Chrome and Firefox hide the real titlebar2026-06-04
- Making a window pinned and picture-in-picture needs a long sequence of manual steps2026-06-03
- Lock screen makes users wait about five seconds after a wrong password2026-06-03
- Moving a browser window with 20+ tabs open is very laggy or awkward2026-06-03
- Windows and apps don't restore to their saved positions or virtual desktops under Wayland2026-06-02
- Couldn't figure out how to make windows open at a chosen position2026-06-02
- Plasma default install only offers Wayland session, so it won't launch for X11 setup2026-06-02
- Too many options and papercuts made the user feel lost2026-06-01
- Mouse cursor and desktop animations lag badly on NVIDIA card2026-05-16
- Couldn't find or adjust a simple setting; too many irrelevant settings2026-05-15
- Audio interface not detected without reinserting USB cable; asymmetric volume at 50%2026-05-12
- Settings UI hides what a mouse acceleration change actually does2026-05-03
- Peek at desktop feature is annoying; minimize-all requires scripting to enable2026-04-10
- Taskbar crashes regularly and windows appear in a random order users can't control2026-04-09
- Window previews take one to two seconds to appear after pressing alt-tab2026-03-22
- Settings are organised poorly and icons, cursor and defaults feel off compared to Windows2026-03-21
- Display scaling is buggy on 4K monitors, and the UI feels rough2026-03-21
- Alt-tab lags for seconds during large file copies, causing stuttering2026-03-20
- Hard to find the setting for the top-left corner2026-03-09
- Opening WiFi or sound applets from the system tray takes up to 1.5 seconds2026-03-07
- Overwhelming amount of configuration makes it hard for average users to navigate2026-03-07
- Default settings are cluttered with annoying gimmicks and on-hover effects, making them useless2026-03-07
- File menu nested in a hamburger menu under More, with duplicated options elsewhere2026-03-07
- File explorer is clunky, and windows resize incorrectly after restore2026-03-07
- Screenshot feature is confusing, cluttered with switches and modes, takes days to figure out2026-03-07
- Feels random, unintuitive and unfamiliar to use2026-03-02
- Settings scattered randomly and navigation inconsistent between pages, popups and tabs2026-02-26
- Spent hours trying to fix clock padding, gave up2026-02-26