quickbar
A replacement for KDE 6+'s Global Menu widget.
A KDE Plasma 6 panel widget that moves application menu bars into your desktop panel, similar to how macOS menus work, with more appearance and behavior options than the default Global Menu widget.
Quickbar is a panel widget for the KDE Plasma 6 desktop on Linux. It replaces Plasma's built-in Global Menu widget. The Global Menu is the feature that moves an application's menu bar (the File, Edit, View strip) out of the application window and into the desktop panel at the top or bottom of the screen. This is similar to how macOS works, where menus always appear at the top of the screen regardless of which application is in focus. Quickbar does the same job but gives you more control over its appearance and behavior than the default widget provides.
The README is short and does not list which specific appearance or behavior options are extended. What it does make clear is that quickbar uses the same underlying system (the DBus app-menu protocol) as the official KDE widget, so it should be compatible with the same applications.
Installing on Arch Linux is straightforward through the AUR package manager using the package name plasma6-applets-quickbar. For Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE, the repository includes an install script that detects your distribution, installs the required build dependencies, and compiles the widget automatically. After installation you restart Plasma and add quickbar from the widget gallery under the Windows and Tasks category. A manual cmake build path is also documented for users who prefer to control the process step by step.
Plasma 6.0 or newer is required. The project is written in C++ and the author notes that binary packages for more distributions are planned.
Where it fits
- Replace Plasma's built-in Global Menu widget with one that gives you more control over how the menu bar looks and behaves in your panel.
- Install the widget on Arch Linux with a single AUR package manager command without compiling anything manually.
- Build and install the widget from source on Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, or openSUSE using the included install script that detects your distro and handles dependencies automatically.