KDE Applications 20.12.1 arrives with Neochat, improvements, fixes and more

The launch of cumulative update KDE Applications from January (21.12.1) developed by the KDE project and in this new edition we can find the integration of the new Neochat instant messaging application, the new version of KDevelop 5.6.1, in addition to the fact that a corrective version of the Plasma 5.20.5 desktop has recently been published, in the one in which accumulated errors have been eliminated.

In total in this new edition of KDE Applications 20.12.1 (January update), 224 program, library and plug-in releases were released.

For those who are still unfamiliar with KDE Applications, we can tell you that these are a set of compatible applications and libraries designed by the KDE community, which are mainly used in Linux-based operating systems, but mostly of these applications are cross-platform and are released on a common launcher.

KDE Applications 20.12.1 Key New Features

In this new version of KDE Applications 20.12.1, among the main novelties that stand out, we can find that the first significant launch of the Neochat 1.0 messaging program was carried out.

Neochat 1.0 stands out for supporting basic messaging operations, such as sending messages and files, private chats, displaying notifications, connecting to rooms, auto-filling usernames, inserting Emoji, sending and processing invitations.

Another novelty that is presented is the complement KIO Fuse 5.0.0, which allows any application to access files on external hosts.

KIO Fuse uses the FUSE mechanism to mirror external files to the local file system, which allows working with remote repositories not only from programs based on KDE frameworks, such as Kate and Dolphin, but also from applications based on other frameworks, for example, from LibreOffice.

Also, KDE Applications 20.12.1 presents the new releases and synchronization with health tracking apps MyGnuHealth, the gKGeoTag geotagging software, and the Kongress meeting scheduling system.

On the other hand, in the Dolphin file manager this crashes when the opening tabs are corrected, in addition to fixed a bug in Okular's document viewer which it prevented opening files in Markdown format.

As for Gwenview, it implements the correct saving of the image quality settings in JPEG format and in Konsole the problem of displaying colors for bold text in the terminal emulator was solved.

The Kaidan XMPP client received a grant to implement end-to-end encryption mode using the OMEMO protocol.

Also, we can find the new corrective version of the development environment KDevelop 5.6.1, that not only fixed a crash which in some cases was presented when trying to start an executable, but also added support for Python 3.9 and GDB 10, and fixes crashes.

Finally, in the ad mentioned about plans for KDE development in 2021 and the key areas that developers will focus on are:

  • Implement full support for Wayland-based KDE sessions.
  • Continuous development of the Plasma Mobile platform.
  • Support fingerprint authentication in SDDM, Screen Saver, KAuth, and Polkit.
  • Completion of the modernization of the Breeze theme.
  • Kickoff app menu replacement with a new implementation.
  • Provide text redistribution in Konsole when terminal is resized.

If you are interested in knowing more about it About this new KDE Applications 20.12.1 released update, you can check the full changelog in the original release. The link is this. 

Try KDE Applications 20.12.1

Finally, this new update will be arriving gradually to the different Linux distributions, so if it is not available for your distribution yet, you will need to have a little patience.

Although also, if you already want to test the changes of this update different components can be tested separately with the help of the technology of Flatpak packages.

In this page Information about the availability of Live-assembly with new versions of applications can be found.


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