This was the reasoning.

Assumptions:

• Screen space is very valuable and expensive. The information/widgets which needs the space the most should use it.
• Defaults should be tailored to the majority.

Konqueror, the Home and the KMail button is available in the kicker because the majority of users need the functionality, on a daily basis. The user does not need help on a daily basis, nor to configure KDE. The same reasoning goes for the konsole button - the majority of users does not know bash. Less information on screen, less buttons, more space for kicker.

The key to the logic behind reasoning is that konsole users (such as myself) are a minority, and that gap will become bigger as KDE's userbase grows.

Help is away one click further, konsole one click away+one menu; and KControl, Hm.. it is supposed to be in the top level. That should also have been committed.. I'll fix.

This was agreed on, on kde-core-devel/kde-usability but committing the patches was forgotten. The (loong) discussion can be found in the archives under "Kicker bar maiming".

I hate it. In fact, I am rather confident that khelpcenter is used more often than kmail. After 10 years of working for the ISP industry, I have seen the trend that a very large percentage of users use webmail, not local email clients. However, I often get requests from people for more help in KDE, which means that people are definitely using the help.

Discussion conversation(Usability);

while (conversation.ongoing())
{
  if (dynamic_cast<UsabilityProfessional>(person))
  {
    person.bitch(AboutSimplicity, NoRegardForReality);
  }
  else if (dynamic_cast<Developer>(person))
  {
    person.bitch(AboutExposingAllFeatures, NoRegardForReality);
  }
  else if (person.name() == "aseigo")
  {
    person.hands(person.head()) && person.cry();
  }
}

;-)