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Plasma 25th Anniversary Edition Beta

Thursday, 16 September 2021

empty laptop with an overlay
Plasma

This is the Beta release of Plasma - 25th Anniversary Edition. To make sure that end-users have the best possible experience with the next version of Plasma, KDE is releasing today this test version of the software. We encourage the more adventurous to test-run it and report problems so that developers may iron out the wrinkles before the final release scheduled for the 12th of October.

Plasma 25th Anniversary Edition is a leap forward in the quest for a more performant and usable desktop. We have improved the speed and stability of Plasma, while including changes that make it easier to use both on desktop and touch-enabled devices.

DISCLAIMER: This is beta software and is released for testing purposes. You are advised to NOT use Plasma 25th Anniversary Edition Beta in a production environment or as your daily desktop. If you do install Plasma 25th Anniversary Edition Beta, you must be prepared to encounter (and report to the creators) bugs that may interfere with your day-to-day use of your computer.

These are the most noteworthy changes coming in Plasma 25th Anniversary Edition Beta:

Breeze

We made several improvements to the Breeze theme to make Plasma even more pleasant to use:

  • Breeze now has redesigned buttons, menu items, checkboxes, radio buttons, sliders, scrollbar and spinboxes
  • Scrollbars and spinboxes are bigger and easier to use with touch
  • We added a gear loading spinner throughout Plasma and KDE apps
  • There is a highlight effect for when opened widgets touch the panel edge
  • Widgets on the desktop now have a blurred background

Kickoff

System monitor logo
Kickoff, our application launcher, includes many improvements this time around:

  • The code received a gigantic overhaul
  • A huge number of bugs were fixed
  • It has improved performance and accessibility
  • You can now choose whether to use a list or a grid for all apps view
  • Now you can make Kickoff stay on the screen with the new pin button
  • Pressing-and-holding with a finger now opens the context menu
  • You can now configure power/session action buttons

Other Widgets

details about the currently-connected network
  • Entering tablet mode makes System Tray icons bigger, making it easier to use Plasma on touch screens
  • You are now able to easily copy text on notifications with the Ctrl+C keyboard shortcut
  • The Global Menu applet got a more "menu-like" appearance
  • We added an easy way to switch power profiles. You can choose between "power-saver", "balanced" and "performance"
  • It is now possible to fine-tune the manual speed setting for wired Ethernet connections and to disable IPv6
  • Plasma now shows more details about the currently-connected network
  • System Monitor and sensor widgets can now display load averages
  • By default, the clipboard now remembers 20 items and ignores selections that you did not explicitly copy
  • The Audio Volume applet now distinguishes between applications that are currently playing or recording audio
  • It is now possible to delete selected items in the Clipboard applet’s popup by pressing the Delete key on the keyboard

System Settings

System Settings

System Settings also received many new additions and improvements:

  • Now you can override a color scheme's accent color in the Colors page
  • The Feedback page now shows you a history of data that you chose to send to KDE
  • You can set the status of your Bluetooth adapter on login. The options available are "on", "off" and "remember"
  • Login Screen page’s synchronization feature now syncs your screen arrangement
  • Display settings now shows a timer to revert possibly undesired changes
  • We sorted the screen refresh rates list
  • Night Color page now tells you when you’re about to undertake an action that will perform geolocation using a 3rd-party service
  • Now it is easier to find options in System Settings. We added many keywords to improve search.
override a color scheme's accent color

Discover

Discover
Discover, our app center, is faster and more transparent in this version:

  • Discover will now load faster
  • The app install button now tells you the name of the source

Wayland

In this release we made many improvements to the Wayland session:

  • There is a new screen rotation animation
  • The System Tray will notify you when something is recording the screen and will also let you cancel it
  • Using touchpad gestures will be more satisfying than ever. Now the animation of realtime gestures follows your fingers
  • It is now possible to middle-click-paste between native Wayland and XWayland apps
  • You can now drag-and-drop stuff between native Wayland and XWayland apps
  • In the Plasma Wayland session, it is now possible to adjust the Intel GPU driver’s Broadcast RGB settings
  • It is now possible to change the screen resolution when run in a virtual machine
  • Virtual desktops are now remembered on a per-activity basis
  • The Task Manager now shows feedback on app icons when you click on them to launch apps
  • The cursor now shows animated icon feedback when launching apps

Other

Media Player Applet
  • The "Present Windows" effect was rewritten
  • Multi-screen layouts are now retained across X11 and Wayland sessions
  • Numerous crash/hangs have been fixed
  • DrKonqi, our bug reporting application, warns you when an app is unmaintained
  • The question mark button in the titlebar is hidden by default for dialogs and System Settings
  • Windows no longer become transparent when moving or resizing them
  • Passwordless accounts without autologin now show a simple login button
  • The Media Player widget now always displays the album art and its blurred background at the same time
  • The Networks applet now supports additional authentication settings/protocols/requirements for OpenVPN connections

If you would like to learn more, check out the full changelog for Plasma 5.23 Beta.

Package Downloads

Distributions have created, or are in the process of creating, packages listed on our wiki page.

Note that packages of this release might not be available on all distributions at the time of this announcement.

Package download wiki page

Supporting KDE

KDE is a Free Software community that exists and grows only because of the help of many volunteers that donate their time and effort. KDE is always looking for new volunteers and contributions, whether it is help with coding, bug fixing or reporting, writing documentation, translations, promotion, money, etc. All contributions are gratefully appreciated and eagerly accepted. Please read through the Supporting KDE page for further information or become a KDE e.V. supporting member through our Join the Game initiative.

About KDE

KDE is an international technology team that creates free and open source software for desktop and portable computing. Among KDE's products are a modern desktop system for Linux and UNIX platforms, comprehensive office productivity and groupware suites and hundreds of software titles in many categories including Internet and web applications, multimedia, entertainment, educational, graphics and software development. KDE software is translated into more than 60 languages and is built with ease of use and modern accessibility principles in mind. KDE's full-featured applications run natively on Linux, BSD, Windows, Haiku, and macOS.


Trademark Notices.

KDE® and the K Desktop Environment® logo are registered trademarks of KDE e.V..
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.
All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are the property of their respective owners.


Press Contacts

For more information send us an email: press@kde.org