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KDE Open Source Operating Systems Software

KDE Plasma 6 Released (kde.org) 35

"Today, the KDE Community is announcing a new major release of Plasma 6.0 and Gear 24.02," writes longtime Slashdot reader jrepin. "The new version brings new windows and desktop overview effects, improved color management, a cleaner theme, better overall performance, and much more." From the announcement: KDE Plasma is a modern, feature-rich desktop environment for Linux-based operating systems. Known for its sleek design, customizable interface, and extensive set of applications, it is also open source, devoid of ads, and makes protecting your privacy and personal data a priority.

With Plasma 6, the technology stack has undergone two major upgrades: a transition to the latest version of the application framework, Qt 6, and a migration to the modern Linux graphics platform, Wayland. We will continue providing support for the legacy X11 session for users who prefer to stick with it for now. [...] KDE Gear 24.02 brings many applications to Qt 6. In addition to the changes in Breeze, many applications adopted a more frameless look for their interface.

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KDE Plasma 6 Released

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  • Always have had a soft spot for KDE/plasma etc. I'm one of those weirdos that actually likes Gnome, though I've moved on to a tiling wm lately. But I used KDE back in its very early (1.x) versions and it always felt like I was running something from the future. The early 3.x releases were buggy as hell so I tried Gnome and stuck with it, but regularly would jump back over to play around. Glad to see it still going strong and still innovating!

    • I used KDE back in its very early (1.x) versions and it always felt like I was running something from the future.

      To me version 1.x of KDE felt like a smoother (more responsive) version of CDE [wikipedia.org].

    • by Teun ( 17872 )
      I've used KDE since the very early releases, first on Red Hat, later I moved via Debian to Kubuntu and have Neon as a dual boot option.
      Once in a while I try Gnome but compared to KDE it feels (and is) like being in a jail.
      Yes there have been times when Kubuntu/KDE had significant bugs yet it remained workable.
      Since several years I hardly ever have to search a solution for a problem, it just works.
      Now Wayland is another matter, when I last tried it about half a year ago a few essential applications would
      • I used KDE until v4.0 or was it 3.0, whatever disastrous super slow rewrite was. I had to kill all the pointless constant desktop indexing going on the background for it to be usable. Years of my kmail was corrupted in the upgrade. I went to Mint Mate. I'm never going back.

        • by jrepin ( 667425 )
          That was like loooong 20 years ago, Things have definitely changed since then and these days KDE Plasma is quite light and extremely efficient.
        • by Teun ( 17872 )
          That's one of the problems, in the day the indexing slowed down everything.
          Kmail has been (and is?) a problem.
          But I've always used Thunderbird and for me it's great.
        • Likewise, KDE 4 was my first foray into Linux and a DE on Linux, I didn't know what all the hate was about but those were my tinkering days. These days I'd be one of the biggest naysayers, kinda like going form Plasma 5 to Plasma 6 on my work PC (which itself was a PEBKAC blind upgrade to Neon).

    • KWin has tiling support.

  • I like the integration the Bergamot engine (Firefox translate) in the mail client. They were faster than Mozilla itself, since Thunderbird still does not have it (at least by default).

  • It looks nice! (Score:5, Informative)

    by TheSlashdotHunter ( 10317841 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2024 @06:47PM (#64277294)
    I'm always impressed by every release of KDE. Like only a few open source projects, this one has really taken off and is a credit to devotion of the developers.
  • by test321 ( 8891681 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2024 @07:11PM (#64277342)

    GamingOnLinux.com has its user statistics https://www.gamingonlinux.com/... [gamingonlinux.com] (
    * Distros: Arch-based 39.7, Ubuntu-based 31, Fedora 10.4, Debian 5.3, Suse 3.9, Gentoo 2.9%
    * DM: KDE 39.4, Gnome 28.9, simpler WMs 9, Cinnamon 7.8, XFCE 7.4, Mate 2.2%
    Gnome+Cinnamon+Mate 38.9%
    So right now, among gamers, Gnome-based vs. KDE seems even.

    The Trends https://www.gamingonlinux.com/... [gamingonlinux.com] show KDE on a constant increase since 2016, while Gnome reached a plateau in 2020.

    • Correct me if am wrong, but the Steam Deck uses KDE, right? This might be a Windows situation where the hardware comes with a certain software by default, inflating its number.
      I use KDE, myself. But I think the more interesting statistic would be who uses which DE by choice.

      • by jrepin ( 667425 )
        Yes, Steam Deck does use KDE Plasma in the desktop mode of their Arch-based SteamOS operating system. And if only this increases th numbers of KDE Plasma users, well it goes to show how much we need to fight computers being sold with pre-installed Windows :) Or even better fight for use of only libre/opensource software in schools.
  • I switched my laptop and its single 1080p60 screen to Wayland ages ago. My desktop needed non-blurry high DPI Xwayland apps as well as direct scanout and VRR support for Xwayland apps for gaming so I only switched it fairly recently.

    Wayland is well into hammering out the last few tricky edge cases.

    • Wayland is well into hammering out the last few tricky edge cases.

      The last time I tried using Wayland some months ago, it was an unmitigated hot mess of a clusterfuck that made other clusterfucks jealous. It drew buttons on screen, but put the clickable rectangles in random, unmarked places. With multiple monitors, the random places could be on any random monitor at any random location. And that was just the start. I'm not going to rehash the problems here, but I was impressed at just how bad it was compared to X11.

      It makes me wonder what other fundamental misadventures a

      • by caseih ( 160668 )

        Doesn't sound like you've used Wayland in a few years. Clickable rectangles in random, unmarked places?

        If users stick with Gnome or KDE and the default settings, there's no discernible difference in the experience between Wayland and X11, except that the wayland experience is a bit smoother with no tearing, and supports HDR and hidpi. Yes are still some issues, but it's been quite usable for 99% of users for the last five years or more. With Xwayland, X11 apps run seamlessly, and ssh -X still works like i

        • Doesn't sound like you've used Wayland in a few years.

          Reread my posting. This was a few MONTHS ago, and was with a fresh install of Kubuntu 22.04 LTS. It's entirely possible that the problem was fixed, so I'll have no choice but to revisit it at some point, but it was an absolutely wretched introduction to Wayland.

          • by caseih ( 160668 )

            Sorry to hear that. I hope you reported your bugs. Your experience is not common thankfully. Wayland has its warts but kde on Wayland is a pretty darn good experience and has been for sure a few years.

    • Not all of the edge cases are tricky and they're still not done. There's still no mechanism for windows to inform the compositior where they should be.

  • Kdenlive knows about updates without internet

    they say : "Kdenlive will automatically let you know when there is an update available without even requiring an internet connection."

    How does Kdenlive know there is an update?

  • I might try it on some live disk, but basically I'll wait for the FreeBSD port.

  • Some games running in WINE would only run when in the background. Never did find a fix, except XFCE

  • Glad they're continuing support for X11, as a Nvidia consumer who uses X11's multiuser support
  • Didn't really solve any of the issue I come across and it added a bunch of more annoyance.
  • FYI: an interesting video on How KDE Plasma 6 Was Made [kockatoo.org]

The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is the most likely to be correct. -- William of Occam

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