ngraham added a comment.
To address the design and aesthetic angle, I see this as the natural next step in refining what "minimalism" means to KDE, which is a microcosm of a larger trend throughout the design world vis-a-vis minimalism: 1. People go crazy with decorations, frames, lines, colors, highlights, etc 2. There's a natural backlash against this excessive ornamentation 3. All of those things are removed in the name of minimalism 4. This goes too far and destroys the boundaries between dissimilar elements, creating an uncomfortably cold, stark, undifferentiated appearance 5. A process of refinement takes place where differentiating elements are re-added where appropriate, while preserving the overall minimalistic aesthetic This patch is in step 5. :) REPOSITORY R119 Plasma Desktop REVISION DETAIL https://phabricator.kde.org/D15011 To: ngraham, #plasma, #vdg, davidedmundson Cc: broulik, safaalfulaij, oysteins, anthonyfieroni, filipf, abetts, davidedmundson, michaeltunnell, plasma-devel, ragreen, Pitel, ZrenBot, lesliezhai, ali-mohamed, jensreuterberg, sebas, apol, mart