Nearly 10 years after KDE Plasma 5.0, the launch of KDE Plasma 6.0 is approaching and a first "Megarelease - Alpha" is out now for testing. KDE Plasma is the desktop environment used on the Steam Deck's desktop mode, and my current favourite for my own desktop with Kubuntu.
This Alpha release includes KDE Plasma 6, lots of updates to all the KDE Gear applications (file explorers, music and video players etc), upgrades to KDE's Frameworks (for devs to build apps) and moving as much as possible over to Qt6, the framework upon which Plasma is built.
It's difficult to list everything that's going to be new and improved because there's just so much of it. Expect better Wayland support, better performance, an improved Discover software centre, the return of the Desktop Cube effect (pictured below), the Spectacle screenshot tool finally has an option to remove shadows, new and improved colour-blind accessibility options, various improvements to System Settings layout and the list just goes on and on. Reading Nate Graham's blog goes over a lot.
Pictured - The KDE Plasma 6 Desktop Cube Effect, credit: Nate Graham
This is the current roadmap:
- 8 November 2023: Alpha <-- you are here
- 29 November 2023: Beta 1
- 20 December 2023: Beta 2
- 10 January 2024: Release Candidate 1
- 31 January 2024: Release Candidate 2
- 21 February 2024: Private Tarball Release
- 28 February 2024: Public Release
See their full announcement here.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
slaapliedje Nov 8, 2023
One of the DEs should get on the VR HUD usage soonish. With things like what the Apple thing is, and some very rough support already for SteamVR, I'm expecting we're likely 10ish years away from basically having floating displays via small glasses. Can already sort of do it with the Xreal air glasses and a Mac, the software still kind of stinks, so it's only a matter of time.
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Quoting: slaapliedjeOne of the DEs should get on the VR HUD usage soonish. With things like what the Apple thing is, and some very rough support already for SteamVR, I'm expecting we're likely 10ish years away from basically having floating displays via small glasses. Can already sort of do it with the Xreal air glasses and a Mac, the software still kind of stinks, so it's only a matter of time.
With what we know about Deckard, this would certainly make sense. Still, there's a lot KDE could do to improve their handheld experience and I haven't really seen anything in that area unless Valve explicitly sponsored it, sadly.
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no_information_here Nov 9, 2023
Awesome! I look forward to using it a year or so after it hits public release (I no longer live on the leading edge). Thank-you to everyone who is fixing bugs!
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fenglengshun Nov 9, 2023
Looking forward to using it in Fedora 40. Hopefully David Edmundson's new input-module for Wayland is ready by then.
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Wayland experience with KDE is quite good already. What I'm waiting for is enabling Vulkan rendering for KWin.
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Quoting: slaapliedjeOne of the DEs should get on the VR HUD usage soonish. With things like what the Apple thing is, and some very rough support already for SteamVR, I'm expecting we're likely 10ish years away from basically having floating displays via small glasses. Can already sort of do it with the Xreal air glasses and a Mac, the software still kind of stinks, so it's only a matter of time.
xrdesktop has had integrations with KDE (and GNOME) for a while at this point, so the desktop use-case for AR/VR is already there - with some limitations of course.
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Quoting: no_information_hereAwesome! I look forward to using it a year or so after it hits public release (I no longer live on the leading edge). Thank-you to everyone who is fixing bugs!
Yeah. I just thought I'll see it with Debian trixie release in 25. :-D
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Quoting: kokoko3kI hope Xorg users will continue to get fixes.
I was under the impression that not only KDE on X, but especially Xorg itself does not get a lot of love anymore?
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oh man - that cube effect reminds me of my first time trying linux like 20 years ago hahaha! Things are so cyclical
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Quoting: EikeI thought at this point it's essentially unmaintained.Quoting: kokoko3kI hope Xorg users will continue to get fixes.
I was under the impression that not only KDE on X, but especially Xorg itself does not get a lot of love anymore?
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Quoting: kokoko3kI hope Xorg users will continue to get fixes.
I think over time they'll drop it altogether (supporting only XWayland case for what relies on X). So better start using Wayland sooner rather than later.
Last edited by Shmerl on 9 November 2023 at 3:49 pm UTC
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Plus there are already features in Plasma that aren't even supported on X at all. Like I use the esc key shortcut to put my monitors immediately to sleep when I leave my desk (I know I'll be gone for a while, no sense to waste electricity letting them put themselves to sleep) - that feature works great on wayland but not at all on x. There will just keep being more and more instances like this over time.
Plus plus x doesn't even support high hertz monitors at all, at least for me. Only using Wayland am I able to have my screen set to its native 144.
I have also had no bugs at all that I can attribute to using Wayland over X. So yeah ... it's time to make the switch.
Plus plus x doesn't even support high hertz monitors at all, at least for me. Only using Wayland am I able to have my screen set to its native 144.
I have also had no bugs at all that I can attribute to using Wayland over X. So yeah ... it's time to make the switch.
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slaapliedje Nov 9, 2023
Quoting: AnanaceThat's the one I was thinking of, thanks! Yeah, it's quite limited, somewhat usable. It's the closest thing we currently have to something like Minority Report, just need to figure out how to get the Nintendo Power Glove to interact with it. :PQuoting: slaapliedjeOne of the DEs should get on the VR HUD usage soonish. With things like what the Apple thing is, and some very rough support already for SteamVR, I'm expecting we're likely 10ish years away from basically having floating displays via small glasses. Can already sort of do it with the Xreal air glasses and a Mac, the software still kind of stinks, so it's only a matter of time.
xrdesktop has had integrations with KDE (and GNOME) for a while at this point, so the desktop use-case for AR/VR is already there - with some limitations of course.
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slaapliedje Nov 9, 2023
Quoting: iiariIt is still getting security patches. Wayland still has issues in several different set ups, not to mention only the two larger DEs have any support for Wayland so far.Quoting: EikeI thought at this point it's essentially unmaintained.Quoting: kokoko3kI hope Xorg users will continue to get fixes.
I was under the impression that not only KDE on X, but especially Xorg itself does not get a lot of love anymore?
1 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje Nov 9, 2023
Quoting: JarmerPlus there are already features in Plasma that aren't even supported on X at all. Like I use the esc key shortcut to put my monitors immediately to sleep when I leave my desk (I know I'll be gone for a while, no sense to waste electricity letting them put themselves to sleep) - that feature works great on wayland but not at all on x. There will just keep being more and more instances like this over time.Huh, Xorg has supported my 144 or 120hz monitors just fine for a long while. Guess it just depends on driver? I also have always had the screens turn off when they lock. Even as far back as XFree86, DPMS was supported.
Plus plus x doesn't even support high hertz monitors at all, at least for me. Only using Wayland am I able to have my screen set to its native 144.
I have also had no bugs at all that I can attribute to using Wayland over X. So yeah ... it's time to make the switch.
Curious what GPU you're using?
I have weird issues between Wayland and Xorg. One of which is Firefox not liking bringing up onscreen keyboard for my Yoga, Some gestures don't work right, and screen rotation (important for a tablet / fold PC) doesn't work out of the box on Wayland, but does on Xorg (I had to install a gnome plugin to get screen rotation to work on Wayland).
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I'm on an amd radeon 6800xt desktop gpu. I don't use any drivers at all, it's all baked into the kernel. I also don't do any of that laptop stuff (gestures, onscreen keyboard, rotation) so it's a very different experience I guess. Oh well!
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BlackBloodRum Nov 10, 2023
The cube! 
I hope it will also have wobbly windows and things, haha. I miss that old stuff!
I hope it will also have wobbly windows and things, haha. I miss that old stuff!
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Quoting: BlackBloodRumThe cube!
I hope it will also have wobbly windows and things, haha. I miss that old stuff!
Wobbly windows weren't dropped from Plasma 5, so they were there all along. Some effects like desktop cube were removed and are returning only now (they needed to switch to different design with QML and etc.).
Last edited by Shmerl on 10 November 2023 at 1:17 am UTC
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BlackBloodRum Nov 10, 2023
Quoting: ShmerlAre you serious? I thought they were long gone along with compiz, I never thought to check because of that.Quoting: BlackBloodRumThe cube!
I hope it will also have wobbly windows and things, haha. I miss that old stuff!
Wobbly windows weren't dropped from Plasma 5, so they were there all along. Some effects like desktop cube were removed and are returning only now (they needed to switch to different design with QML and etc.).
I'm going to have to check now!
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