Punchi Dock Remastered 0.9.7.61

Punchi Dock Remastered 0.9.7.61

Punchi Dock is a customizable launcher dock and native task manager for KDE
Plasma 6. It can run as a standalone floating dock or integrate into a Plasma
panel, using native Qt and KDE components on both Wayland and X11.

Punchi Dock also includes PunchiMenu, its own application launcher, in two
presentations: Normal, a floating menu that can open beside the dock or at
the center of the desktop; and Fullscreen, a responsive paginated grid for
browsing, organizing, and launching applications.

Both presentations take visual inspiration from “the fruit company” launchers,
reinterpreted through Plasma theming, KDE interaction patterns, and native
desktop services.

Version 0.9.7.61 consolidates the work completed after 0.9.7.52: deeper
native Plasma panel control, adaptive geometry, more reliable popups and task
anchors, managed external themes, smoother MPRIS transitions, cleaner build
assistants, and stricter isolated-test hygiene. It also expands the new Control
Center, which remains a preliminary, in-development feature rather than a
finished replacement for Plasma's system settings.

What changes from 0.9.7.52

Area	0.9.7.52	0.9.7.61
Native Plasma panel	Basic panel integration	Reactive controls for length, alignment, floating mode, visibility, thickness, and opacity, with adaptive sizing and input-region synchronization
Popup placement	Standard native placement with disconnected spacing controls	Reactive native spacing plus stable grouped-window and folder anchors that preserve launcher alignment
Window tasks	Standard grouped-window popup	Stable N→N−1 popup lifecycle, per-application row limits, and optional transformed window-count badges
Control Center	Not available	Preliminary fullscreen/floating surface for frequent Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, audio, display, Night Light, notification, media, and quick-app actions
External themes	Managed default library only	Optional external JSON theme directory, native folder selection, validation, and safe removal through KDE Trash
Panel audio spectrum	Separate replacement paths could overlap	One mutually exclusive Plasma/JSON background replacement surface
Build assistants	Distribution-aware scripts with standard command output	Coordinated single-line progress, terminal-aware rendering, retained failure diagnostics, and memory-aware concurrency
Test environment	Full suites could wait on blocked sandbox services and leave incidental caches	Early D-Bus/QML preflight, host fallback, owned temporary roots, and cleanup on success, failure, signals, and timeouts
Automated tests	67 CTest checks	95 active CTest checks in the release candidate
Translations	1,075 translated messages per catalog	Complete German, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese catalogs for the candidate source set

Highlights in 0.9.7.61

Native Plasma panel control and adaptive geometry

• Direct Panel Controls: Configure panel length, alignment, floating style,
  visibility mode, thickness, and native opacity directly from Punchi Dock.
• Reactive Synchronization: PanelLengthModeBridge keeps the Plasma panel
  and Punchi Dock preferences synchronized without restarting plasmashell.
• Adaptive Icon and Hover Sizing: A shared policy adjusts icon size and
  magnification for horizontal and vertical Plasma panels while preserving the
  separate behavior of JSON themes and floating docks.
• Input Region Repair: The panel's clickable input region follows the real
  window size after resize events, avoiding stale areas during startup or panel
  geometry changes.

Stable native popups and clearer window state

• Native Popup Distance: Folder, Trash, and application-action popups now
  consume their configured visual distance while Plasma keeps responsibility
  for screen edges and panel placement.
• Stable Dynamic Task Anchors: Grouped-window popups remain attached when a
  dynamic delegate is rebuilt as the group changes from multiple windows to one.
• Folder Center Preservation: Folder popups remain horizontally aligned with
  their launcher in grid, list, and detailed views, including safe clamping near
  screen edges.
• Window Row Limits and Badges: Per-application menu limits and optional
  window-count badges improve dense groups; badges move and scale with the icon.
• Interrupted Drag Cleanup: Pointer capture, hover state, and focus are
  released cleanly when a reorder gesture is cancelled or times out.

Preliminary Control Center

• Fullscreen and Floating Presentations: New instances default to the
  floating mode, while explicit fullscreen preferences remain available from
  the context menu.
• Frequent System Actions: Preliminary surfaces cover Wi-Fi, Bluetooth,
  audio devices and applications, brightness, Do Not Disturb, Light/Dark theme,
  Night Light, notifications, media, and quick application access.
• Cross-Version Compatibility: Wi-Fi and BlueDevil adapters detect modern
  and legacy Plasma 6 contracts and fall back safely when optional API members
  are unavailable.
• Responsive Content: Symmetric screen-relative margins and vertical
  scrolling keep the floating layout usable at reduced heights.
• Visible Future Slots: Three disabled “add application” placeholders show
  the planned direction but do not yet execute actions or enter keyboard focus.

The Control Center is still preliminary. Advanced configuration continues to
open the official KDE modules, and individual providers or placeholders may be
refined in future releases.

External themes, media, and panel spectrum

• External JSON Theme Folder: Choose an optional custom directory without
  moving personal theme files into the default managed library.
• Safe Theme Removal: Remove the selected theme or all managed themes using
  KDE Trash, with path, symlink, permission, and mount validation.
• Single Spectrum Surface: “Spectrum only” mode uses one background
  replacement for both Plasma and JSON panel themes, eliminating duplicated
  visualizers.
• Compact MPRIS Morph: The media item expands and collapses through one
  reversible progress value and becomes immediate when reduced motion is active.

Cleaner build and test workflow

• Coordinated Progress Rendering: Developer and user assistants display a
  proportional single-line progress bar in interactive terminals while keeping
  complete plain output for pipes and logs.
• User Script Behavior Preserved: scripts-user keeps its existing menu,
  minimal build, installation, and restart flow; only its presentation theme is
  shared with the developer assistant.
• Sandbox Preflight: A short D-Bus/QML probe can stop an incompatible
  confined run before repeated environmental timeouts and repeat the authorized
  suite on the host.
• Automatic Residual Cleanup: Tests own exact temporary roots and clean
  caches and files after success, failure, signals, or timeouts. Explicitly
  retained diagnostics are removed after their information is extracted.

Features

• Floating dock and Plasma panel layouts with horizontal and vertical support.
• Launchers, dynamic tasks, configurable folders, notes, calendar, Trash,
  separators, compact MPRIS controls, and optional PipeWire visualization.
• PunchiMenu Normal and Fullscreen with search, favorites, named folders,
  selective hiding, category sections, session actions, and full keyboard use.
• Preliminary Control Center for frequent system actions, with official KDE
  modules retained for advanced configuration.
• Configurable themes, indicators, hover and click effects, labels, popups,
  window previews, spacing, and window behavior.
• Live window thumbnails on Wayland and through the dedicated X11 path when the
  compositor can provide them.
• Native KDE integration for tasks, KIO, application discovery, session
  actions, global shortcuts, MPRIS, and validated desktop launchers.

Compatibility

• Declared minimum: KDE Plasma 6.0, KDE Frameworks 6.0, and Qt 6.6 for builds.
• Primary interaction target: Plasma Wayland. X11 remains a supported secondary
  path with its dedicated thumbnail integration.
• Fedora 44 is the primary native release target. Debian 13 provides the
  official universal-build environment, while Kubuntu uses a native source
  build against its own coherent Qt/KF/Plasma stack.
• Native binaries are distribution-sensitive. A package built for one stack
  must not be relabeled as compatible with another without testing that exact
  artifact.
• Control Center providers depend on the APIs available in the active Plasma
  stack and may fall back to official KDE configuration modules.
• PipeWire is required only for the optional audio visualizer.

Performance and privacy

• Panel sizing uses bounded calculations and avoids feedback from previously
  computed geometry.
• Popup restoration waits for settled geometry and avoids continuous native
  reanchoring or close/reopen cycles.
• Control Center providers load according to visibility and delegate advanced
  configuration to KDE instead of introducing remote services.
• Punchi Dock includes no telemetry or tracking. Configuration, favorites,
  folders, hidden applications, themes, media metadata, and user data remain
  local.
• Development documentation, logs, tests, backups, source catalogs, caches, and
  SDK copies are excluded from the distributable package.

Upgrade note

Existing 0.9.7.52 configuration remains valid. New panel, popup, theme, and
Control Center preferences use safe defaults and synchronize reactively.

The Control Center remains preliminary and optional. Its advanced actions keep
using official KDE configuration modules where appropriate.

The Fedora 44 x86_64 package and the universal artifact are published
separately. The universal artifact was built on Debian 13 with...

Punchi Dock Remastered 0.9.7.50

Punchi Dock Remastered 0.9.7.50

Punchi Dock is a customizable launcher dock and native task manager for KDE
Plasma 6. It can run as a standalone floating dock or integrate into a Plasma
panel, using native Qt and KDE components on both Wayland and X11.

Punchi Dock also includes PunchiMenu, its own application launcher, now
available in three presentations: Normal, a floating menu that can open
beside the dock or at the center of the desktop; Fullscreen, a responsive
paginated grid; and Compact, a space-efficient launcher with cascading
application flyouts.

All three presentations take visual inspiration from “the fruit company”
launchers, reinterpreted through Plasma theming, KDE interaction patterns, and
native desktop services.

Version 0.9.7.50 is a cumulative update from the last KDE Store post,
0.9.7.38. It introduces PunchiMenu Compact, movable placement for open
applications, persistent dock reordering, direct launcher drops into folders,
safer popup geometry and blur regions, stronger runtime validation, and clearer
multi-distribution build tools.

What changes from 0.9.7.38

Area	0.9.7.38	0.9.7.50
PunchiMenu presentations	Normal and Fullscreen	Normal, Fullscreen, and the new Compact presentation with cascading flyouts
Application organization	Manual layout and category sections in Normal	Manual, alphabetical, or KDE category ordering, with shared favorites and hidden-app state across all presentations
Open applications	Dynamic TaskManager entries followed the dock's internal placement	A persistent Open applications marker can move the complete dynamic-task section without storing windows in configuration
Persistent dock items	Layout editing depended mainly on configuration and Plasma edit workflows	Press-and-hold and keyboard reordering with insertion feedback, lifecycle cleanup, and an explicit floating-mode opt-in
Folder workflows	Folder contents were managed through the existing editor and popup	Validated launcher drops from PunchiMenu, the desktop, or the editor, plus persistent grid, list, and detail views
Popup distance	Fixed pixel-oriented spacing behavior	Percentage-based controls with a true zero-gap result on every panel edge
Blur and modal geometry	Popup surfaces used their outer window or frame geometry	Shared reactive mapping keeps blur and modal backdrops within the effective Plasma-themed background
Fullscreen window behavior	Fullscreen interaction used the previous dialog flag set	KWin-managed flags provide more reliable focus, deactivation, and pointer handling on Wayland
First-run initialization	An empty initial KConfig notification could remove default items	Fresh instances preserve default items while an explicit empty list still means an intentionally empty dock
Validation and translations	38 CTest checks and 891 translated messages per catalog	67 CTest checks and 1,075 translated messages per catalog, with zero tracked qmllint warnings

Highlights in 0.9.7.50

PunchiMenu Compact and application organization

• PunchiMenu now provides a third Compact presentation with search,
  categories, optional favorites, cascading application flyouts, context
  actions, and embedded settings.
• Fullscreen application order can be manual, alphabetical, or grouped by KDE
  application categories. Applications remain alphabetized within each
  category.
• Normal mode can show categorized sections, while hidden applications and
  favorites share one normalized state across all PunchiMenu presentations.
• Existing layouts remain editable: alphabetical and category projections do
  not overwrite the stored manual order.

Open applications and persistent dock reordering

• A persistent Open applications marker selects where dynamic TaskManager
  entries appear without storing windows in the dock configuration.
• The complete open-applications section can be moved from an application's
  context menu. A temporary visible control supports pointer and keyboard
  movement in horizontal, vertical, panel, and floating layouts.
• Persistent items can be reordered by press-and-hold in panel mode or with
  Ctrl+Shift plus an arrow key. Pointer reordering in floating mode remains an
  explicit opt-in so it does not replace Plasma's normal widget-edit gesture.
• Drag feedback freezes competing hover effects, dismisses pending previews,
  shows an insertion indicator, and cancels orphaned gestures through a bounded
  watchdog.

Folders, drag and drop, and first-run behavior

• Validated application launchers can be dropped into manual containers from
  PunchiMenu, the desktop, or the container editor, with duplicate and managed
  source protection.
• Folder popups can switch directly between grid, list, and detail views and
  persist the selected presentation transactionally.
• Fresh instances reliably receive the default dock items. An explicit empty
  list continues to represent an intentionally empty dock.

Popup geometry, blur, and window behavior

• PunchiMenu and folder surfaces map Plasma theme masks and insets through a
  shared reactive geometry helper, keeping blur and modal backdrops inside the
  effective themed background instead of the outer shadow.
• Popup distance controls are percentage based and preserve a true zero gap on
  every panel edge.
• PunchiMenu Compact flyouts anchor to the visible themed surface, and
  Fullscreen now uses KWin-managed window flags for reliable focus,
  deactivation, and pointer handling on Wayland.
• Opening and closing animations use bounded reveal and fade transitions, with
  reduced-motion behavior preserved.

Multi-distribution setup and documentation

• User-facing helpers live in scripts-user/; strict development, validation,
  and packaging tools live in scripts-dev/.
• Setup detects Fedora, Arch Linux, Debian, and Ubuntu families, isolates build
  directories by platform, resolves Qt 6 tools consistently, and reports exact
  missing dependencies.
• Build parallelism can be selected interactively or through --jobs /
  --parallel. Low-memory systems are throttled automatically to reduce
  out-of-memory failures.
• Fedora 44 remains the primary native release target. Debian 13 remains the
  official universal-package build host; Debian 14/sid and Ubuntu-family hosts
  use the compatible Debian build route and must build against their own
  coherent system stack.
• Main project documentation is available in English, Spanish, German, and
  Brazilian Portuguese.

Features

• Floating dock and Plasma panel modes with horizontal and vertical layouts.
• Native TaskManager integration, grouped windows, live previews, task
  overflow, window actions, and configurable active-window indicators.
• PunchiMenu Normal, Fullscreen, and Compact with search, favorites, folders,
  hidden applications, categories, session actions, keyboard navigation, and a
  global shortcut.
• Persistent launchers, configurable containers, notes, Trash, calendar/clock,
  separators, spacers, and compact MPRIS controls.
• Native KIO Trash operations, multi-partition Trash state, safe launcher and
  file drag-and-drop, and validated desktop shortcut creation.
• Optional PipeWire audio visualization and Plasma-themed popup, dock, and
  external JSON background customization.

Compatibility

• Declared minimum: KDE Plasma 6.0, KDE Frameworks 6.0, and Qt 6.6 for builds.
• Primary interaction target: Plasma on Wayland; X11 remains a secondary path.
• Primary native artifact target: Fedora 44 x86_64.
• Official universal build host: Debian 13 with the binary compatibility
  proxies stored under compat/.
• Arch Linux, Debian 14/sid, Ubuntu-family systems, Kubuntu, and other Plasma 6
  distributions must use a package built against a compatible host stack; a
  binary from another distribution must not be relabeled as compatible.
• PipeWire is required only for the optional audio visualizer.

Performance and privacy

• The dock does not include telemetry, analytics, or tracking.
• Configuration, layouts, favorites, hidden applications, themes, media
  metadata, and user data remain local.
• Dynamic windows stay in KDE's TaskManager model instead of being duplicated
  in persistent JSON.
• Build concurrency is bounded on low-memory systems, and popup animations stop
  when their lifecycle ends.
• Development documentation, tests, SDK copies, containers, logs, and local
  build artifacts remain excluded from the distributed .plasmoid.

Upgrade note

Existing 0.9.7 configurations remain valid. When active tasks are enabled in a
legacy configuration, Punchi Dock adds the persistent Open applications marker
without changing the existing item order. The marker can then be moved or have
its separator hidden without disabling its anchor.

Use the artifact built for your distribution and architecture. Do not reuse a
native package from a different Qt/KF/Plasma stack. The Fedora 44 x86_64
artifact has been built and structurally verified; installation and upgrade
validation in a real Plasma session remain tracked by the publication
checklist.

License

Punchi Dock Remastered is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later.

Release changelog

PunchiMenu Compact and application organization

• PunchiMenu Compact with categories, favorites, cascading flyouts, search,
  context actions, and embedded settings.
• Manual, alphabetical, and category-based application ordering.
• Shared favorites and hidden-application state across Normal, Fullscreen, and
  Compact presentations without overwriting the stored manual layout.

Open applications and persistent dock reordering

• Persistent Open applications placement and direct movement of the ...

Punchi Dock Remastered 0.9.7

Punchi Dock Remastered 0.9.7

Punchi Dock is a customizable launcher dock and native task manager for KDE
Plasma 6. It can run as a standalone floating dock or integrate into a Plasma
panel, using native Qt and KDE components on both Wayland and X11.

Punchi Dock also includes PunchiMenu, its own application launcher, in two
presentations: Normal, a floating menu that can open beside the dock or at
the center of the desktop; and Fullscreen, a responsive paginated grid for
browsing, organizing, and launching applications.

Both presentations take visual inspiration from “the fruit company” launchers,
reinterpreted through Plasma theming, KDE interaction patterns, and native
desktop services.

Version 0.9.7 focuses on direct organization and popup reliability. It adds
internal drag and drop to PunchiMenu, a safe launcher path from Normal mode to
the desktop and dock, redesigned window previews, rebuilt MPRIS replacement
cards, and consistent Plasma-themed popup surfaces. It also hardens dialog
geometry and surface coordination after real Wayland failures exposed races
between previews, media cards, and context menus.

What changes from 0.9.6

Area	0.9.6	0.9.7
PunchiMenu organization	Folder operations through explicit context actions	Direct drag to reorder applications and folders or group applications
Cross-window drag	No PunchiMenu launcher transport	Normal mode can safely drag one validated launcher to the dock or desktop
Dock insertion	Launchers added through existing actions	A spatial slot shows the exact insertion position between dock items
Window previews	Live thumbnails with standard card presentation	Rounded thumbnails, information modes, frame profiles, and independent opacity
Task popup routing	Preview and media paths could compete during retargeting	One guarded presentation path selects preview, media replacement, or overlay
MPRIS replacement cards	Existing card, full-cover, and overlay modes	Rebuilt card/full-cover path, Plasma-themed surface, independent opacity, and rounded artwork
Popup surfaces	Several local background and interaction treatments	More consistent Plasma surfaces and shared hover, focus, press, and selection semantics
Automated tests	25 CTest checks	30 CTest checks
Translations	816 translated messages per catalog	840 translated messages per catalog

Highlights in 0.9.7

Direct organization in PunchiMenu

• Applications can be repositioned directly in Normal and Fullscreen by
  dragging them to the insertion zone before or after another item.
• Dropping an application over the center of another application creates a new
  folder or adds it to an existing folder, while edge zones remain dedicated to
  reordering.
• Folders can be moved as complete nodes without accidentally treating them as
  applications to be merged.
• Fullscreen keeps drag targets inside the current page and exposes complete
  insertion slots at the outer columns instead of clipping them.
• Normal keeps vertical scrolling available during organization and preserves
  stable scroll-indicator geometry.
• Layout mutations use the existing bounded, versioned persistence document and
  return explicit success or failure instead of partially updating the view.

Safe drag from PunchiMenu Normal to the desktop and dock

• Dragging an independent application outside PunchiMenu Normal switches from
  the private in-menu drag to a native desktop drag compatible with Wayland.
• Only one local .desktop launcher resolved and authorized through KDE can be
  transported. Commands are not copied into the drag payload.
• Dropping on the desktop delegates creation to Plasma's native Folder View or
  containment behavior.
• Dropping on Punchi Dock pins a new launcher or moves an already pinned one to
  the selected position without creating duplicates.
• The dock shows a full insertion slot between items, with neighboring items
  moving aside to communicate that the launcher will become an independent dock
  item rather than content of the item under the pointer.
• Remote URLs, malformed batches, oversized launchers, invalid targets, and
  unauthorized desktop files remain rejected.

More reliable task popups

• Window previews and MPRIS replacement cards now share a single presentation
  surface that selects exactly one main content profile at a time.
• Popup preparation validates both implicit and real dimensions before Plasma
  maps the dialog, preventing empty or zero-width windows.
• Geometry reaches its complete hidden state before the opening animation
  starts, while close animations still finish before visibility is removed.
• Retargeting between applications preserves the latest request and no longer
  lets a stale thumbnail response replace a selected media card.
• Pinned applications retain a valid window snapshot when a later strict
  identity lookup returns no rows.
• These changes address the empty-dialog and invalid-geometry paths that could
  restart plasmashell under Wayland.

Refined window previews and context actions

• Live thumbnails use a scale-aware rounded mask whose radius follows the
  preview dimensions while remaining bounded by Kirigami metrics.
• Information can be shown as full title and subtitle, as a compact icon, or be
  hidden completely.
• A dedicated background-opacity control ranges from 50% to 100% and changes
  only the preview surface, not the live image, controls, or text plate.
• Thin, medium, and wide frame profiles adjust the themed space around the
  preview without changing the configured thumbnail scale.
• Text shadows are disabled by default for the refreshed presentation but
  remain available for existing configurations and unusual themes.
• Window controls and contextual actions share responsive themed rows, clearer
  hover/focus feedback, bounded menu height, and reliable outside-click closing.

Rebuilt MPRIS replacement cards

• card and fullCard replace the window preview through a dedicated state
  path; overlay remains the compact media card below enabled thumbnails.
• The replacement path no longer depends on thumbnail availability, so media
  cards can open when window previews are disabled.
• Card geometry is decided by the selected profile rather than by asynchronous
  artwork loading, avoiding size jumps after opening.
• The outer card uses Plasma's themed widgets/background surface and keeps
  artwork, text, icons, and controls fully opaque.
• Card and full-cover backgrounds have their own 50%–100% opacity preference,
  separate from window-preview opacity and applied reactively with Apply.
• Full-cover artwork uses a packaged antialiased rounded-image shader, with a
  software-rendering fallback and no runtime Shader Tools dependency.

Consistent Plasma surfaces and interaction states

• PunchiMenu folders, context menus, notes, previews, and media cards use a more
  coherent set of Plasma theme surfaces without redundant blur or nested card
  backgrounds.
• Application, favorite, and folder highlights share the same themed fill,
  border, corner radius, and reduced-motion-aware scale behavior in Normal and
  Fullscreen.
• Hover means pointer presence, focus remains a keyboard/accessibility state,
  press remains interruptible, and persistent selection is represented
  independently.
• Menus reserve complete action rows and scroll when needed instead of showing
  a misleading partial final row.
• Folder dialogs preserve their modal input layer while limiting the visible
  veil to the effective themed background rather than its outer shadow.

Features

• Floating dock and Plasma panel layouts with horizontal and vertical support.
• Launchers, dynamic tasks, configurable folders, notes, calendar, trash,
  separators, compact MPRIS controls, and optional PipeWire visualization.
• PunchiMenu Normal and Fullscreen with search, favorites, named folders,
  selective hiding, internal organization, session actions, and keyboard use.
• Configurable themes, indicators, hover and click effects, labels, popups,
  window previews, spacing, and window behavior.
• Live window thumbnails on Wayland and through the dedicated X11 path when the
  compositor can provide them.
• Native KDE integration for tasks, KIO, application discovery, session
  actions, global shortcuts, MPRIS, and validated desktop launchers.

Compatibility

• Declared minimum: KDE Plasma 6.0, KDE Frameworks 6.0, and Qt 6.6 for builds.
• Primary interaction target: Plasma Wayland. X11 remains a supported secondary
  path with its dedicated thumbnail integration.
• Fedora 44 is the primary native release target. Debian 13 provides the
  official universal-build environment, while Kubuntu uses a native source
  build against its own coherent Qt/KF/Plasma stack.
• Native binaries are distribution-sensitive. A package built for one stack
  must not be relabeled as compatible with another without testing that exact
  artifact.
• PipeWire is required only for the optional audio visualizer.

Performance and privacy

• Drag operations move compact application identities and validate native
  launcher files again at the receiving boundary.
• Popup state uses a single owner and cancels stale asynchronous decisions,
  reducing competing surfaces and unnecessary remapping.
• The rounded artwork shader performs one texture sample in its GPU path and
  keeps a software fallback for compatible rendering.
• Punchi Dock includes no telemetry or tracking. Configuration, favorites,
  folders, hidden applications, themes, media metadata, and user data remain
  local.
• Development documentation, logs, tests, backups, source catalogs, and SDK
  copies are excluded from the distributable packa...

Punchi Dock Remastered v0.9.5

Punchi Dock 0.9.5

Punchi Dock is a highly customizable launcher dock and task manager for KDE Plasma 6. Built to operate smoothly as a standalone floating dock or embedded within a Plasma panel, it provides universal compatibility across both Wayland and X11 sessions with native Qt/KDE integration.

Version 0.9.5 expands distribution support with an Enhanced Universal Plasmoid Package for Punchi Dock. Leveraging compiled C binary proxy shared libraries ($ORIGIN/compat) with dlopen() constructors and Qt 6 forward ABI compatibility (built on Debian 13 / Qt 6.7 baseline), a single .plasmoid package can now be installed and executed seamlessly across multiple Linux distributions (Fedora, Arch Linux, Kubuntu, Debian) without needing host-side compilation.

Distribution Artifact Options

Punchi Dock 0.9.5 provides two packaging options on KDE Store:

1. Fedora Native Artifact (punchi-dock-remastered-0.9.5-fedora44-x86_64.plasmoid): Tailored for cutting-edge Linux stacks running Qt 6.11+ / KF6 libraries.
2. Universal Artifact (punchi-dock-remastered-0.9.5-universal.plasmoid): Built on a forward-compatible base for seamless execution on Arch Linux, Debian, Kubuntu, and other Plasma 6 distros.

Architecture Consolidation and Stability

A comprehensive compatibility patch has been introduced to achieve seamless universal execution across both Wayland and X11 sessions on various Linux distributions. I remain fully committed to continuously optimizing performance, visual quality, security, and project components.

Version 0.9.5 focuses on consolidating universal plasmoid management, unifying dynamic library redirection, addressing minor bug fixes, and continuously enhancing overall code stability across KDE Plasma 6.

Key Highlights of 0.9.5

Enhanced Universal Packaging & C Binary Proxy Libraries

• Expanded Multi-Distro Compatibility: Universal .plasmoid package ready for seamless execution on Fedora 44, Arch Linux, Debian 13/14, and Kubuntu 26.04+.
• $ORIGIN/compat C Proxy Libraries: Real compiled C shared libraries (.so) with dlopen() constructors bridge system library naming discrepancies (libPlasma.so.6 ↔ libPlasma.so.7 ↔ libKF6Plasma.so.6) at load time, ensuring KDE Plasma's GUI installer (KZip) preserves them intact (symlinks are stripped by KZip for security).
• Debian 13 (Qt 6.7) Compilation Baseline: Universal packages are built on the lowest supported Qt 6 version for forward ABI compatibility across all distributions.

PunchiMenu Improvements & Configuration

• Reactive Hot Refresh: Configuration edits (such as menu dimensions) take effect immediately upon clicking "Apply" by invalidating the in-memory dialog instance, requiring no plasmashell restart.
• Expanded Size Range (30% - 90%): PunchiMenu Normal width and height sliders now range from 30% to 90% screen size (in 5% increments), allowing compact or spacious menus for any resolution.
• Normal Mode as Default: Normal mode (polished popup window) is now the default factory setting when adding PunchiMenu.
• Accessible Action ToolTips: Added descriptive tooltips to top action buttons (Log Out, Restart, Shut Down, Close), visible both on mouse hover and keyboard focus.

Accessibility, Localization & Polish

• Updated Translations: 100% refreshed localization catalogs for German (de.po), Spanish (es.po), and Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR.po).
• Directional Keyboard Navigation: Refined arrow key, Tab, Enter, and global shortcut navigation.
• Zero Telemetry: Fully open and private code; native compositor-integrated rendering in Plasma 6.

Distribution Family Compatibility

• Red Hat / Fedora Family: Fedora 44 (x86_64, primary physical host) — [✓] Confirmed OK
• Arch Linux Family: Arch Linux (x86_64, virtual machine) — [✓] Confirmed OK
• Debian / Ubuntu Family: Debian 13, Debian 14 Testing, Kubuntu 26.04 (x86_64, VMs) — [✓] Confirmed OK
• SUSE / openSUSE Family: openSUSE Tumbleweed / Leap — [ ] Pending Report
• Other Plasma 6 Families: KDE Neon, Solus, Gentoo, etc. — [ ] Pending Report

Features

• Floating and Plasma panel layouts, with horizontal and vertical support.
• Launchers, tasks, folders, quick notes, calendar, trash, separators, and compact MPRIS media item.
• Themes, indicators, hover/click effects, tooltips, popups, spacing, and window behavior options.
• Native integration with KDE applications, tasks, session management, global shortcuts, KIO, and MPRIS.

Compatibility & Validated Environments

• Plasma 6.0+: Compatible with KDE Plasma 6 on both Wayland (recommended primary session) and X11.
• PipeWire: Required only when enabling the optional audio visualizer.

Upgrade Note

Existing configurations are preserved. Install version 0.9.5 via the Plasma UI ("Get New Widgets") or by updating the .plasmoid package. If Plasma does not immediately reflect a visual change, restart Plasma Shell once.

License

Punchi Dock Remastered is released under GPL-3.0-or-later.

Release changelog

• Expanded multi-distribution support with compiled C binary proxy shared libraries ($ORIGIN/compat) using dlopen() constructors for Fedora, Arch Linux, Debian, and Kubuntu.
• Made configuration changes (such as PunchiMenu dimensions) take effect reactively on "Apply" without restarting plasmashell.
• Expanded PunchiMenu width and height sliders to 30%–90% range in 5% increments.
• Set Normal mode as the default factory setting when adding PunchiMenu.
• Added accessible action tooltips to PunchiMenu top buttons (Log Out, Restart, Shut Down, Close) for both hover and keyboard focus.
• Updated German (de.po), Spanish (es.po), and Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR.po) translation catalogs.
• Improved arrow key navigation, Tab, Enter, and global shortcut handling.

Punchi Dock Remastered 0.9.4

Punchi Dock 0.9.4

Punchi Dock is a customizable launcher dock and task interface for KDE Plasma
6. It can run as a floating dock or inside a Plasma panel, with Wayland as the
primary target and native Qt/KDE integration.

Version 0.9.4 introduces the first public preview of PunchiMenu. The Normal
mode is the most polished option in this release; Full Screen remains an early
preview, and Compact mode is reserved for a future version.

Choose the package that matches your system

Punchi Dock contains a native Qt/KDE module. Packages built for different
distributions or CPU architectures are not interchangeable.

Highlights in 0.9.4

PunchiMenu preview

• Add PunchiMenu as a dedicated dock item and choose Normal or Full Screen
  mode from its settings.
• Use search, category navigation, a fixed application grid, persistent
  favorites, and complete directional keyboard navigation in Normal mode.
• Add or remove favorites from an application's context menu.
• Configure the Normal menu dimensions within safe percentage ranges, its
  application icon scale, its dock icon, and its dedicated global shortcut.
• Access log out, restart, and shut down actions beside the search field.
• Full Screen provides the carousel experience as an early preview. It is less
  mature than Normal mode and may receive substantial refinement.

Dock interaction and appearance

• Axis Zoom is now the default hover animation, with configurable intensity
  and motion speed as a lighter alternative to Wave.
• PunchiMenu closes correctly on a second click and no longer expands the
  containing Plasma panel representation when activated by keyboard.
• Normal-mode placement follows the dock item's screen edge and panel or
  floating geometry more consistently.
• Blur uses a lightweight transparent fallback when the compositor effect is
  unavailable.
• Separator configuration includes additional shapes and a dedicated Space
  item while keeping the add-item view compact.

Reliability, accessibility, and localization

• Preserve visible focus and full keyboard operation across search,
  categories, applications, favorites, and session actions.
• Improve multi-instance task geometry ownership and panel-space handling.
• Add explicit loading, empty, and error states to application discovery.
• Repair the German, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese catalogs and add a
  semantic guard against source text being embedded in translations.
• Expand the automated suite to 16 tests.

Features

• Floating and Plasma-panel layouts with horizontal and vertical support.
• Launchers, task entries, folders, notes, calendar, trash, separators, and a
  compact MPRIS media item.
• Configurable themes, indicators, hover and click effects, labels, popups,
  spacing, and window behavior.
• Native KDE application, task, session, shortcut, KIO, and MPRIS integration.

Compatibility

• KDE Plasma 6 or later is declared in package metadata; Plasma 6.0 remains the
  minimum declaration.
• Wayland is the primary supported session.
• Fedora 44+ x86_64 is the primary prebuilt package target for this release.
• Debian and Kubuntu require separately built native artifacts; do not reuse
  the Fedora package on another distribution.
• PipeWire is required only for the optional audio visualizer.

Performance and privacy

Punchi Dock does not add telemetry. PunchiMenu uses KDE's local application
catalog and stores its configuration and favorites locally. Its backdrop uses
native compositor blur when available and falls back to a lightweight themed
transparency rather than an additional wallpaper-processing pipeline.

Upgrade note

Existing dock configuration is preserved. PunchiMenu is not added to existing
docks automatically; add it from the Elements page if desired. If Plasma does
not refresh the updated plasmoid immediately, restart Plasma Shell once or log
out and back in.

License

Punchi Dock Remastered is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later.

Release changelog

• Added the first PunchiMenu preview with Normal and Full Screen modes.
• Added Normal-mode search, categories, application grid, favorites, keyboard
  navigation, session actions, configurable icon, dimensions, and shortcut.
• Made Axis Zoom the default lightweight hover effect and expanded separator
  shapes and spacing options.
• Improved menu toggling, panel expansion control, anchoring, multi-instance
  task geometry, loading states, and blur fallback behavior.
• Repaired translation catalogs and expanded automated coverage to 16 tests.

Punchi Dock 0.9.3

Punchi Dock 0.9.3

Punchi Dock is a customizable launcher dock and task interface for KDE Plasma 6. It can run as a floating dock or inside a Plasma panel, with Wayland as the primary target and native Qt/KDE integration.

Version 0.9.3 focuses on a more coherent configuration experience, a compact MPRIS dock item, safer application interactions, and better adaptation to vertical panels.

Choose the package that matches your system

Punchi Dock contains a native Qt/KDE module. Packages built for different distributions or CPU architectures are not interchangeable. Do not rename or install an artifact built for another system.

Highlights in 0.9.3

Compact MPRIS dock item

• Add a dedicated media item to the dock with album artwork, artist, title, duration, and previous/play/next controls.
• Select the default multimedia application from KDE-discovered applications, while retaining automatic active-player selection.
• Open the configured application from its artwork when it is closed.
• When Play is pressed while the selected application is closed, launch it and send the MPRIS Play command after its service reports CanPlay.
• Optionally open the selected player minimized.
• Use application artwork and icon fallbacks that remain readable with the active Plasma theme.
• Choose automatic, always-visible, or hidden track information. Vertical narrow layouts remove the hidden metadata row completely so the controls remain inside the item.

Clearer configuration controls

• Replace large rounded color swatches with circular color buttons beside a Plasma color / Custom color combo box.
• Add configurable spacing between dock icons.
• Use px for physical measures such as indicator thickness and % for visual scales and opacity, making accessibility-related choices easier to understand.
• Keep calendar, folder, popup, menu, and appearance controls aligned with shared Kirigami metrics.

Safer application and folder interactions

• Add folder-aware unpin actions alongside application unpinning.
• Support validated file drag-and-drop onto pinned applications, including foreground-window activation feedback.
• Move dragged files to Trash through KDE's asynchronous KIO::trash job after local URL and batch validation, with refresh and error feedback.
• Bound URLs, batches, and persisted dock data before handing them to KDE services.
• Preserve native KIO/KService discovery and avoid shell command construction for application launching.

Accessibility and visual refinement

• Preserve accessible names, descriptions, keyboard focus, tooltips, and reduced-motion behavior for the new controls.
• Keep artwork corners rounded and prevent compact vertical media controls from being clipped.
• Stabilize the MPRIS marquee so changing elapsed time does not restart track movement every second.
• Extend and refresh the German, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese catalogs.

Compatibility

• KDE Plasma 6 or later is declared in package metadata; Plasma 6.0 remains the minimum declaration.
• Wayland is the primary supported session.
• Fedora 44+ x86_64 is the primary prebuilt package target.
• Debian 13 and Debian 14/testing use separate native artifacts. Kubuntu has a separate native Plasma 6 build profile.
• PipeWire is required only for the optional audio visualizer.

Native QML module binaries link against the Qt and KDE libraries of the system where they are built. A Fedora, Debian, or Kubuntu .plasmoid must not be reused on another distribution.

Performance and privacy

Punchi Dock does not add telemetry or modify Plasma's global configuration files. File drag-and-drop validation is bounded before launch, and MPRIS metadata remains subject to length and artwork safety limits. The optional audio visualizer processes short-lived spectrum levels in memory and does not store or transmit audio samples.

Upgrade note

Existing dock configuration is preserved. If Plasma does not refresh the updated plasmoid immediately, restart Plasma Shell once or log out and back in.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later

Release changelog

Version 0.9.3

• Added the configurable compact MPRIS dock item with player selection, artwork fallback, track-information modes, optional minimized launch, and launch-then-Play behavior.
• Added circular color controls with Plasma/custom source selection.
• Added configurable icon spacing and clearer physical/relative size presentation.
• Added folder-aware unpinning and bounded application file drag-and-drop.
• Added safe asynchronous file dragging to Trash through KIO::trash, with local URL validation, refresh, and error reporting.
• Fixed compact vertical MPRIS geometry, artwork clipping, marquee resets, player fallback icons, and application-list selection.
• Updated translations, accessibility descriptions, and validation coverage.

Punchi Dock 0.9.2

Highlights

• Native floating and Plasma-panel support across horizontal and vertical
  orientations, including screen-interior popup placement and orientation-aware
  hover animations.
• External JSON dock themes with safe managed storage, bounded folder import,
  vertical gradient adaptation, and an optional demo-theme catalogue in the
  repository.
• Complete initial German (de) and Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR) interface
  catalogs included alongside Spanish. Native-speaker review remains welcome
  before these translations are considered maintained.
• Safer MPRIS artwork handling and bounded dock-configuration persistence.

Compatibility

• KDE Plasma 6+; Wayland is the primary supported session.
• This release asset was built for Fedora 44+ x86_64. Native .plasmoid
  binaries are distribution- and architecture-specific.

Validation

• QML diagnostics remain within the recorded baseline.
• All 12 CTest tests pass.
• The package includes German, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese MO catalogs.

SHA-256 (punchi-dock-remastered-0.9.2-fedora44-x86_64.plasmoid):
08c13c7acca60412465a87393a6ae2b424bfe7f0279c4bf0d34a986209ae1e3c

Punchi Dock Remastered 0.9.1

Punchi Dock Remastered 0.9.1 improves popup readability, customization, and placement while continuing the internal modularization of the Plasma 6 applet.

Highlights

• Independent text-shadow controls for dock labels, window previews, popups, and menus.
• Separate animation style, speed, and intensity settings for general popups, menus, and window previews.
• Configurable folder-popup distance for grid, list, and detailed layouts.
• Dedicated configuration, geometry, item, and context-action controllers extracted from main.qml.

Fixes

• Floating popups now anchor to the DockItem that opened them.
• Popup direction is resolved from the originating item's real screen position, fixing incorrect downward placement and lost spacing for bottom floating docks.
• Appearance tabs retain the correct content after splitting animation settings.
• Folder popup typography remains consistent across grid, list, and detailed layouts.

Validation

• Fedora 44, KDE Plasma 6.7.3, Qt 6.11.1.
• Release build and KPackage assembly completed successfully.
• 12/12 CTest tests passed.
• QML validation remained within the known baseline at 725 warnings.
• Floating popup direction and distance were confirmed manually in a real Plasma Wayland session.

Package

• punchi-dock-remastered-0.9.1-fedora44-x86_64.plasmoid
• SHA-256: 82aad3cf35eb7c752432ddf23466f23a1dfbd7b683e797111906ff09efafc27c

The attached binary package targets Fedora 44 x86_64. GitHub-generated source archives remain distribution-independent source snapshots.