Global menu support, similar to that offered on the Ubuntu Unity desktop, is making its way back to the KDE Plasma desktop.
KDE Plasma developer Sebastian Kügler mentions the feature in a blog post summary of a recent KDE developer meeting, writing:
“Missing is support for a global menu similar to how MacOS displays application menus outside of the app’s window (for example at the top of the screen).
“We’re currently working on bringing this feature, which was well-supported in Plasma 4 back in Plasma 5, modernized and updated to current standards.”
Kügler says the feature could land as soon as the upcoming Plasma 5.9 release, adding that the return of the window bar menu is “a sign of the global menu returning to Plasma”.
This menu button, pictured upper-right, condenses the horizontal menu that would straddles the top of an app window into a vertical list accessible via one discrete button.
Other tantalising tidbits from the meeting including plans for better locale support, effort to refine and improve the Breeze GTK, Qt and icon themes, and the possibility of moving from 4 yearly releases to 3 in 2017 and 2018.
KDE users among you: would you like to see support for a global menu return?