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.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
Quoting: BlackBloodRumQuoting: 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!
Just wanted to reactivate it myself and found I had already done that and just ignored it the whole time. The wobbling is quite subtile here and I use keyboard commands quite a lot.
Not sure about the Desktop cube. It always felt displaced on multi-monitor systems...
0 Likes
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.
As they always say - Patches / donations welcome!
0 Likes
BlackBloodRum Nov 10, 2023
Quoting: constYeah I found it too :DQuoting: BlackBloodRumQuoting: 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!
Just wanted to reactivate it myself and found I had already done that and just ignored it the whole time. The wobbling is quite subtile here and I use keyboard commands quite a lot.
Not sure about the Desktop cube. It always felt displaced on multi-monitor systems...
In regards to multi-monitors, if you get 6 monitors, you can build some kind of cube-like monitor holder rack so it holds them in the shape of a cube and then bolt the monitors to it, add it to some kind of axis and then physically move/rotate them in a cube like manner! :D
(I am of course joking!
)
3 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje Nov 10, 2023
Quoting: ronnocOne of these days I'll learn to code, and I'll show you all how it's done! Or royally fuck up something. HahaQuoting: 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.
As they always say - Patches / donations welcome!
2 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje Nov 10, 2023
Quoting: BlackBloodRumHaha, I'm already having a hard enough time driving two screens...Quoting: constYeah I found it too :DQuoting: BlackBloodRumQuoting: 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!
Just wanted to reactivate it myself and found I had already done that and just ignored it the whole time. The wobbling is quite subtile here and I use keyboard commands quite a lot.
Not sure about the Desktop cube. It always felt displaced on multi-monitor systems...
In regards to multi-monitors, if you get 6 monitors, you can build some kind of cube-like monitor holder rack so it holds them in the shape of a cube and then bolt the monitors to it, add it to some kind of axis and then physically move/rotate them in a cube like manner! :D
(I am of course joking!
Background to this; I have a gaming table that I am attempting to be set up a specific way. Previously I've tried a few different versions of this, I have a little mini computer with a AMD 6900HX driving a 4k monitor in front of me (a little portable one so that I can look over and see the players), and a projector overhead to display the map. I use two browser windows to drive FoundryVTT, one for GM use, one to show the Players what is going on.
My projectors have been swapped in / out a few times, the one I currently have claims to have 1080p native resolution and is definitely sharper/brighter than my previous one, but the browser still whines that the resolution is lower than FoundryVTT expects.
The other day I thought, "I have some 4k monitors just sitting around, let's see if I can set them up on the table..." I did so, but two 4k screens with FoundryVTT running in them CHOKED Gnome. I'm using Garuda Linux on the thing, and the mouse would just be jerky.
I reinstalled Garuda, but with KDE this time, and it definitely is much smoother in handling the two screens. This is before I add the third one... If this performs well enough, I'm going to order two Touch Screen adapter things for the 27" monitors so players can actually reach out and move their characters about like miniatures!
The real trick is getting the two extra screens merged... but I'm pretty sure KDE, if any DE, is the only one that'd actually allow two of three to be merged together...
0 Likes
slaapliedje Nov 10, 2023
Quoting: ShmerlIt used to be the one thing I missed in Gnome Shell, but found an extension to add it back in there too! :)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.).
1 Likes, Who?
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