KDE project developers activate by default an alternative taskbar layout that is displayed at the bottom of the screen and provides navigation through open windows and running applications. Instead of traditional buttons with the name of the program switch to displaying only large square icons (46px), implemented similarly to the Windows panel. This option has been optionally supported in the panel for a long time, but now they want to enable it by default, and turn the classic layout into the category of options.
Moreover, instead of separate buttons for different windows, they plan to enable grouping by applications, i.e. all windows of one application will be represented by only one drop-down button (for example, when opening several Firefox windows, only one button with the Firefox logo will be shown in the panel, and only after clicking on this button will individual window buttons be shown, i.e. to switch between windows instead of one click, it will take two and an extra cursor movement). This behavior can be disabled in the settings.
Of the changes, it is also noted that some popular applications are fixed to the shortcut bar by default and the ability to display the panel vertically. The panel has been left at the bottom for now, but the developers intend to discuss the advisability of moving the default panel to the left side of the screen.
Source: opennet.ru