KDE Plasma 6.4 Released

Longtime Slashdot reader jrepin writes: Plasma is a popular desktop (and mobile) environment for GNU/Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems. Among other things, it also powers the desktop mode of the Steam Deck gaming handheld. The KDE community today announced the latest release: Plasma 6.4. This fresh new release improves on nearly every front, with progress being made in accessibility, color rendering, tablet support, window management, and more.

Plasma already offered virtual desktops and customizable tiles to help organize your windows and activities, and now it lets you choose a different configuration of tiles on each virtual desktop. The Wayland session brings some new accessibility features: you can now move the pointer using your keyboard's number pad keys, or use a three-finger touchpad pinch gesture to zoom in or out.

Plasma file transfer notification now shows a speed graph, giving you a more visual idea of how fast the transfer is going and how long it will take to complete. When any applications are in full screen mode Plasma will now enter Do Not Disturb mode and only show urgent notifications. When you exit full-screen mode, you'll see a summary of any notifications you missed.

Now, when an application tries to access the microphone and finds it muted, a notification will pop up. A new feature in the Application Launcher widget will place a green New! tag next to newly installed apps, so you can easily find where something you just installed lives in the menu.

The Display and Monitor page in System Settings comes with a brand new HDR calibration wizard. Support for Extended Dynamic Range (a different kind of HDR) and P010 video color format has also been added. System Monitor now supports usage monitoring for AMD and Intel graphic cards -- it can even show the GPU usage on a per-process basis.

Spectacle, the built-in app for taking screenshots and screen recordings, has a much-improved design and more streamlined functionality. The background of the desktop or window now darkens when an authentication dialog shows up, helping you locate and focus on the window asking for your password.

There's a brand-new Animations page in System Settings that groups all the settings for purely visual animated effects into one place, making them easier to find and configure. Aurorae, a newly added SVG vector graphics theme engine, enhances KWin window decorations.

You can read more about these and many other other features in the Plasma 6.4 announcement and complete changelog.

17 Years!

[SlashbotAgent]

Plasma launched with KDE 4 in 2008. 17 years later, it still doesn't seem like a meaningful improvement over KDE 3.5.

Aaron Seigo, with Plasma, set KDE back years. Way too many years.

KDE 3.5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

Re:

[test321]

I don't understand what you want to say here. I read "no meaningful improvement" as "consistent user experience". Users who loved KDE 3.5 are still able to work the same way with recent Plasma. KDE could choose a different paradigm in hope of providing "meaningful improvement", but for people who are looking for something else, there are already alternatives.

Look at Windows, people have been very vocal that XP or 7 provided the best user experience and more recent versions broke something that worked well.

Re:

[Excelcia]

I don't understand what you want to say here. I read "no meaningful improvement" as "consistent user experience". Users who loved KDE 3.5 are still able to work the same way with recent Plasma

Yes, but along with that "consistent user experience" slash "no meaningful improvement" they give on the front end, they just told any LTS user to fuck off. So for those who want to enjoy that "consistent user experience" over the long term can't because KDE won't support something for longer than their attention span

Re:

[Mononymous]

My desktop has looked pretty much the same since Kubuntu Jaunty Jackalope. That's 16 years!
I'm using KDE Plasma on all 3 of my operating systems: FreeBSD, Manjaro Linux, and OpenBSD.
It's beautiful, powerful, and useful--and it's easy to make it run the way you want it to, unlike some other desktops.

Re: 17 Years!

[Big Hairy Gorilla]

Sticking to the plan for the community ... that continuity is something I thought was good to see ... they seem to have their own whole development sphere too, sounds dependent on Wayland , but its good for the brand, it's arguable but I thnk the stability is valuable ... it suggests it's feature complete and found like minded supporters...

I install it every so often to check on the experience because even in open source, there is pressure to change adapt, grow, improve ... those are noble ideas, but to end

Actually pretty good

[pz]

There's a brand-new Animations page in System Settings that groups all the settings for purely visual animated effects into one place, making them easier to find and configure. Aurorae, a newly added SVG vector graphics theme engine, enhances KWin window decorations.

Oh, good, that makes it easier to turn all of them frelling off.

Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoy using KDE. It has been remarkably rock solid for my use cases. There are some settings that are always hard to find, but it mostly just works. Given that I can ignore some of the features that they try to push and have had better solutions for years (like Activities, which is better managed by having just a fixed number of desktops with simple keyboard shortcuts, which I've been doing for, literally, 30 years now, or KDE Wallet, or Dolphin, or ...) and still have things work just fine, that says a lot. The idea of building a useful set of tools an not forcing one particular path through them ... that idea resonates deeply for me.

The one aspect of KDE that drives me nuts, however, is that when a process opens a new window, the default should be to open that window on the desktop that the process has been assigned to rather than the current desktop (who, in their right mind, thinks that latter behavior is the right choice?). That, and there's no setting for focus that matches what I want, and the descriptions, despite multiple revisions, remain opaque.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

>The one aspect of KDE that drives me nuts, however, is that when a process opens a new window, the default should be to open that window on the desktop that the process has been assigned to rather than the current desktop (who, in their right mind, thinks that latter behavior is the right choice?).

I haven't used KDE in forever, as Cinnamon has been sitting in the sweet spot of configurable AND simply straightforward for me, but unless you can assign applications to ONLY open on specific desktops ( which