Today the KDE Community is announcing a new najor release of Plasma 6.0, and Gear 24.02. KDE Plasma is a modern, feature-rich desktop environment for Linux-based operating systems. Known for its sleek design, customizable interface, and extensive set of applications, it is also open source, devoid of ads, and makes protecting your privacy and personal data a priority.

With Plasma 6, the technology stack has undergone two major upgrades: a transition to the latest version of the application framework, Qt 6, and a migration to the modern Linux graphics platform, Wayland. They will continue providing support for the legacy X11 session for users who prefer to stick with it for now. The new version brings the new windows and desktop overview, improved colour management, a cleaner theme, more effects, better overall performance, and much more.

    • @[email protected]
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      41 year ago

      I think the Kubuntu folks are mostly working on polishing Plasma 5.27 for Kubuntu 24.04 right now, but I would bet that shortly after its release we’ll see 6.0 in the backports PPA.

      I doubt that’ll be available for 23.10 though, as it’ll mess up the upgrade to 24.04.

  • furzegulo1312
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    141 year ago

    i’ve been using rc2 for a couple of weeks and it’s really good improvement over 5.27, which was also a quite solid release.

    • @[email protected]
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      41 year ago

      i never had much issue with Nvidia on wayland, but KDE Plasma sadly has quite poor support for graphics switching out of the box. Then again, only Sys76 and Pop! ever got that down to what I’d call “seamless”

      • @[email protected]
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        21 year ago

        Prime works well anywhere tho. I guess you are asking for a GUI to switch between them and/or disable it on a per software basis? For me games via Steam “just work”, they use the Nvidia GPU by default and Lutris has a little switch to enable it. It’s only getting more complicated if you want your Nvidia GPU to fully turn off when not in use.

        • @[email protected]
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          21 year ago

          Yeah, I was amazed when I started gaming on Linux. The desktop and VA-API uses Intel iGPU and Steam games use the Nvidia GPU through offload, I never have to do anything. It works even better than it did on Windows.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 year ago

          It does, but the problem with laptops is that their external outputs (HDMI etc.) are often only connected to the dGPU.

          If you want to hook your laptop up to a TV or monitor you need to log out of your system, log back in with drivers and compositor reconfigured to use your dGPU. It’s part of why I moved from my 1650Ti gaming laptop to a notebook only using AMD’s integrated graphics - it just felt beyond janky

    • @[email protected]
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      61 year ago

      They just lifted the horrific Desktop management paradigm from MacOS.

      I’m amazed that people like this style of desktop switching. Linear? Why? It’s easier to picture my place “in a small grid” than in a “long line of desktops”. Since “forever” I’ve used a 3x3 grid of desktops that I navigate with ++. Turn off all of the stupid animations, effects, etc. and make it an instant desktop change. I assume KDE being KDE this will still be configurable as it is in Plasma 5 though.

      • @[email protected]
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        41 year ago

        I think this just comes down to differences between people, 3x3 grid is far more confusing for me than finding my place in line. Instant desktop change is also super jarring, but if it works for you then keep on doing your thing.

      • Jure RepincOP
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        91 year ago

        Yup it is configurable, There are many switchers to choose from

      • bitwolf
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        11 year ago

        The total opposite doesn’t really seem to have get the same attention either.

        The one thing I really want to bring from gnome is the dynamic workspaces. I don’t have to think about where and how to group applications I just take up space as I need to.

    • zkrzsz [he/him]
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      1 year ago

      Can always change whatever you don’t like, that’s the strong part of KDE, unlike Gnome where you have to rely on 3rd party extensions and hope they don’t break next update.

        • @[email protected]
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          1 year ago

          I’m not sure what he means either, but if he meant gnome he’d have said Gnome, and probably posted it on a submission about Gnome.

          And Gnome really doesn’t feel like MacOS at all. Beyond a black bar at the top with a few bits in it, they’re very, very different.

          E: I think they’re referring to the new overview menu that’s essentially a clone of Gnome’s Activities view. But that’s not really how it is on MacOS either.

          And I’m not sure why you immediately downvoted lol. Have I done something to upset you?

  • Palacegalleryratio [he/him]
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    21 year ago

    Always been more of a gnome guy, but 6.0 is making me look over the fence with a little envy! Kongratulations to the KDE team and community. Fantastic work.

  • @[email protected]
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    341 year ago

    I love KDE. Been using it for 10 years

    One question i’ve always had though… Does anyone actually use the default KDE software like konqueror, kmail, kontacts, etc? Why not just focus on the desktop environment?

    • Jure RepincOP
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      91 year ago

      Yeah I use a lot of KDE software, main reason because it fits so nicely with the desktop and it also integrates functions with Plasma so usage is even smoother. One of the main applications I do not use from KDE are browser, I use LibreWolf (the desktop integration package+plugin does quite a nice job for integration here), and LibreOffice,

      • @[email protected]
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        51 year ago

        I’d argue GNOME has a better native app ecosystem. they have the resources to maintain a massive selection of “official” apps

        • @[email protected]
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          51 year ago

          I don’t know, I used gnome for a while and I just felt like I was using toy apps. But I think that comes down to personal preference. KDE definitly has the bigger apps like Kdenlive and Krita.

    • @[email protected]
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      341 year ago

      That software played a much bigger role back in the day (i.e Konqueror’s. KHTML was forked by both Apple and later Google for Safari and Chrome), so it’s kind of a proud legacy. Konqueror is deprecated though. The other apps are useful for KDE mobile.

      But the real reason people work on them is “cause they wanna”

    • @[email protected]
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      161 year ago

      A bunch of them: Kate, Konsole, Dolphin, KCalc, Kdenlive, Okular, Gwenview, Ark, Spectacle, KDEconnect, Elisa and probably a couple more I missed.

    • @[email protected]
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      11 year ago

      The default software was one of the main reasons KDE was created. The original creator didn’t like that every app on their system seemed to use a different UI toolkit, and wanted a consistent appearance across everything.

    • @[email protected]
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      231 year ago

      KDE’s weakness to GNOME is definitely the range and quality of its homegrown apps, but the ‘core’ apps like Kate, Kalculator, Konsole are really solid.

  • @[email protected]
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    21 year ago

    is plasma any good yet? I last used it in like 2019 and it was too buggy. I’ve heard it’s gotten better, but I haven’t had the chance to test it

    • kabuma
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      91 year ago

      2019! yes you have been living under a rock … it’s really good if you have a fairly new machine …

      • TwinTusks
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        11 year ago

        Well my machine is over 10 years old at this point, so I’ll stay with gnome.

      • @[email protected]
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        31 year ago

        it’s really good if you have a fairly new machine

        It’s running well on my 2013 laptop as well.

      • Jure RepincOP
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        101 year ago

        Well it does not even have to be fairly new, at least I do not consider my 8 years old PC as fairly new at all and it still is really good. As that is also one of the areas where Plasma has improved a lot during the years, they really have made it quite lightweight. Especially when considering how powerful and feature-full and configurable it is.

    • @[email protected]
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      1 year ago

      I tried it couple days ago as a (relatively) happy gnome user. Cannot install Chinese input method via gui, I also don’t think there is gui for fingerprint registration either.

      Just jumped back to gnome.

      Personally, I enjoy gnome workflow, like GUI, hate system maintenance, and like to keep everything as vanilla as possible. And I think KDE is probably not for people like me.

    • @[email protected]
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      11 year ago

      Played with it a while ago. Nice looking but feels bloated in general. Mind you. I lean on pretty light Distros, KDEconnect and a few of their other apps are top tier, though.

  • Random Dent
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    171 year ago

    I look forward to the havoc this will cause with all my themes and widgets in the coming weeks lol.