Name: Ubuntu Dock radii.
Age: Brand new(ish).
Appearance: Ever-so-slightly rounder.
What’s this about? When Ubuntu Dock is in dock mode (not full height/width), corner radii are out of whack with the corner radius used elsewhere. Yaru icon padding (and hover effect) is also inconsistent. A community designer noticed the issues, submitted a fix, and that fix ships in Ubuntu 25.10. *mic drop, exits stage, world left stunned*.
That’s… it? That’s it — drop the mock shock, though: you are reading OMG! Ubuntu, a site founded on covering minute changes in desktop Linux docks!
How rounder are corners now? Well, the CSS fix bumps the dock’s border radii up from * 1.5 to * 3, so they’re now 2x as round as they were before. If that in any way makes this change sound more consequential…
It doesn’t. Fair enough. The original issue is “technically unnoticeable” by most since the Ubuntu Dock is in panel mode out-of-the-box. Those who do uses floating mode may find this change similarly imperceptible, but adds subconscious “something feels right” vibes. That is good, right?
Hmm… Okay, let me put it this way: there’s nothing wrong with people paying obsessive attention to detail in Linux UIs. The eagle-eyed user who spotted this inconsistency? He has form. He noticed Ubuntu’s icons used optically incorrect proportions. Then as now, he didn’t simply point the issue out to whine, but get stuck in and fix it. Team work is dream work!
Any actual upside to this? You can finally use Ubuntu on your laptop in hipster coffee shops without fear of getting disapproving glares from Figma types, hunched over their MacBooks, who can sense your dock radii is off (assuming that actually ever happened, which it doesn’t).
Any likely downsides? The 3 people who noticed the discrepancy, and didn’t mind it, will have to adapt. There’s also a chance the YouTube drama industrial complex will machine-gun “Ubuntu Did WHAT?!” content, replete with shocked thumbnail faces, off the back of this change. Stay vigilant.
Focusing on pixel-perfection is a slippery slope. Next, you’ll rehash this laboured, chat-style article format to talk about how the radius of notifications is going to be consistent with the calendar dropdown. After that… Who knows. Where will this madness end?! Relax, that issue is still not fixed, and there are probably plenty of other tiny visual quirks no-one has yet noticed and won’t be fixed.
Something to look forward to in Ubuntu 26.04, then! Such snark.
Do say: “The visual consistency Ubuntu users unconsciously craved.”
Don’t say: “deSigNeRs sHouLd sPeNd mOrE TiMe fiXinG {$engineering_problem}.”