this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2026
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So, one thing that Windows 11 did that I think was half good was moving the taskbar stuff to the middle.
I hated it at first (have to use it at work, and still some at home for specific things), but then I used Start11 for a little bit to try to get rid of the shitty start menu changes and noticed an option to keep the icons in the middle but move the start button itself back to the left. And honestly... I think that's perfect. Puts the programs that are open front and center while keeping the start button in a fixed location next to a corner border so it's easy to move the mouse to it without hardly even looking.
Anyway, while I didn't keep Start11 (I never do... Like the program but it's always been buggy as hell going back at least as far as Start), I did make my Cinnamon, and later my KDE Plasma, taskbar look like that.
Also moved the sys tray next to the start button instead of next to the clock, and with a couple other monitors on the clock side (CPU and memory usage), the taskbar on my system is pretty balanced.
Maybe not as flashy or interesting as what you're looking for, but it's a layout I've really come to like
(ETA: the centralizing of the taskbar in Windows I think was bad only because it made the one part that should be in a fixed and easy to hit location, the start button, move around based on how many programs are open... I think if they'd gone with centralized programs and left side start button, it would have been much better received overall... But, this is just my opinion so do with that what you will)
On top of @psilotop@lemmy.world's bit about monitors today being bigger, multi-monitor setups are also more common. I haven't used a single monitor system as one of my main PCs (work or personal) in at least a decade. Being able to "slam" down and left to hit Start is a big part of why the corner was originally chosen, but if that's just gonna get you to some random position on the bottom of an adjacent monitor, you're back to requiring mouse precision, and the button may as well be moved more toward the center to get average travel distance down.
I think I agree with you about the taskbar, but I would have to try it. I think because monitors are so much bigger than they were years ago, the center makes more sense most of the time. I'm definitely going to play around with moving the components to see where I really like them