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The KDE team announced "MegaRelease 6", a big upgrade that includes Plasma 6, Frameworks 6 and Gear 24.02 with tons of improvements to this popular desktop environment that's used on the Steam Deck for Desktop Mode. Hopefully we will see Valve give it an update in the next major SteamOS release.

Bringing the future to a desktop near you, the tech under the hood has gone through some major upgrades with updates to Qt and Wayland support (with Wayland also now the default). The developers say "We have done our best to ensure that these changes are as smooth and unnoticeable to the users as possible, so when you install this update, you will see the same familiar desktop environment that you know and love" and that the upgrades "benefit Plasma's security, efficiency, and performance, and improve support for modern hardware".

There's a lot of big stuff on top of Qt and Wayland upgrades including:

  • New Desktop Overview effect that combines the Overview and Desktop Grid.
  • Partial support for High Dynamic Range (HDR).
  • Refreshed Breeze theme.
  • Improved system settings app to make it more user friendly.
  • Improved fingerprint unlock from lockscreen.
  • Plasma Search now lets you customize the ordering of search results. Plus it's faster and performs better.
  • Lots of improvements to various apps like the popular video editor Kdenlive.

Oh and my favourite, the Cube has returned! All hail hypnocube!

Lots of smaller but still useful changes have made it in too, like the controversial single-click to open files and folders has been moved to a double-click which better matches Windows and other desktop environments.

Probably one of the most exciting Plasma updates I've ever seen, and I can't wait to get my Kubuntu install on my desktop upgraded. I'm really keen to see how much Wayland support has improved, and should hopefully properly make it my own default now too.

See the full release page for all the info. There's simply far too many goodies to list here.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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50 comments
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wolfyrion Feb 28
Lets see how many will end up with a black screen.
mZSq7Fq3qs Feb 28
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Arch Linux Extra is still on 5.27.10-1... sigh. What is takign so long?! /s
hardpenguin Feb 28
Gentlemen*, start your pacmans**!

* and everyone else
** or apt, dnf, nix-env, pkgtools, emerge etc.
pb Feb 28
Uh-oh, the next pacman -Syu is going to be very stressful.
sudo zypper ref --force
sudo zypper dup
Nothing to do.
sudo zypper ref --force
sudo zypper dup
Nothing to do.
sudo zypper ...

Where is it already!?


Last edited by Vortex_Acherontic on 28 February 2024 at 1:32 pm UTC
Raaben Feb 28
Oh, is that new overview enough to pull me off of Gnome? This release looks fantastic as expected, can't wait to mess with it later.
const Feb 28
I fear this will be me departing from plasma. My tests with wayland on my 980TI triple-screen system last year went horrible and I haven't even gotten the wayland session to start last time I tried a few weeks back. Will definatly try, but am also ready to move on since for some reason, triple-screen handling has become a bugfest even on plasmaX11 for a while.
CyborgZeta Feb 28
I'm on Kubuntu, so I won't be seeing Plasma 6 until later this year with Kubuntu 24.10 (or 24.04 with Kubuntu Backports). Which is fine by me, as that gives the KDE Team time for a point release or two.
Shmerl Feb 28
Quoting: hardpenguinGentlemen*, start your pacmans**!

* and everyone else
** or apt, dnf, nix-env, pkgtools, emerge etc.

Hopefully Debian maintainers will package it soon.
Quoting: Vortex_Acheronticsudo zypper ref --force
sudo zypper dup
Nothing to do.
sudo zypper ref --force
sudo zypper dup
Nothing to do.
sudo zypper ...

Where is it already!?

You need the KDE:Frameworks Repositorie: https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Frameworks/ and the QT6 Repositorie: https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Qt6/
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w00t! Party time!
whizse Feb 28
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The future:

KDE Plasma 6
• Flying car
• Robot butler

One down, two to go!
Shmerl Feb 28
Quoting: whizseThe future:

KDE Plasma 6
• Flying car
• Robot butler

One down, two to go!

Hoverboards too?
akselmo Feb 28
It's been A LOT of work. Hope you'll like it!

- One of the many many many KDE devs :)
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Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: whizseThe future:

KDE Plasma 6
• Flying car
• Robot butler

One down, two to go!

Hoverboards too?
We've already got those, don't you have one at home?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSheVhmcYLA
Pengling Feb 28
Quoting: whizseRobot butler
There was this fella back in 1985.
hardpenguin Feb 28
Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: hardpenguinGentlemen*, start your pacmans**!

* and everyone else
** or apt, dnf, nix-env, pkgtools, emerge etc.

Hopefully Debian maintainers will package it soon.
Eh I am not in a rush, my Debian Sid can stay on version 5 for as long as maintainers want to :P
Edgarins29 Feb 28
I already updated from Neon repo on my Linux Mint. No issues.
Luke_Nukem Feb 28
The biggest thing about KDE 6 for me is that nvidia outputs on a hybrid laptop are now really really smooth. I've been running KDE 6 for a month on fedora and I've only got positive things to say (so much that it got me off of gnome)
I'm hoping there's some way to have X11 as a backup as, while I always use Wayland, being able to log in with an X11 session really saved my ass after an update. Other than that, I'm stoked!
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