Am Dienstag, 7. November 2017, 13:56:42 schrieb Tom Hardy:
But is it *completely* irrelevant,
Yes. It doesn't allow you to switch your keyboard layout by itself, nor does it display any icon, and it doesn't require ibus installed or running at all either. The library (libibus) just allows an application (or the deskop) to interface with ibus if it's running. That's similar to libpulse that's required by many things, but you can still disable or uninstall pulseaudio itself and stick to plain ALSA if you prefer. And there are other examples as well... AFAIK, the only thing in Plasma that needs/uses libibus is the "kimpanel" (aka "A generic input method panel"), a plasmoid that allows to configure and use IMs like ibus, i.e. simply put it's a KDE frontend to ibus (and other IMs) that's shipped with Plasma. But that's nothing new at all, and not mandatory either.
e.g., it would be nice to know in a technical sense if KDE keyboard layouts and ibus were using the same library behind the scenes.
KDE's keyboard layout switcher does not use libibus. It only interfaces with X itself.
Well, I like to be able to adjust my keyboard layouts, so which one should I use?
Whichever you prefer, and there's also fcitx... ;-) . (I use neither of them) If you only want to switch the keyboard layout, KDE/Plasma's standard switcher should be good enough. But ibus is much more than a simple keyboard layout switcher. AIUI, it's main purpose is allowing to enter foreign (e.g. Asiatic) characters. Actually I don't even know the details myself as I never used it, but see here for a better explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Input_Bus To summarize: if you like ibus (and its features), use it. If you prefer the KDE switcher, just uninstall ibus (and lock it that it doesn't get installed again). In the end it's your choice though. Kind Regards, Wolfgang -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org