Plasma 6, is the next and most important release of KDE that is expected in this 2023
nate graham, responsible for quality control in the KDE project, has shared a new report on progress in preparation for the expected launch of KDE Plasma 6, which according to plans and no problem arises, would be arriving on February 28.
Nate Graham mentions that along with bug fixes, KDE 6 has been refining its user interface in the last week, since for example, A noticeable improvement has been made to the sliders panel volume and configurator, both of which now implement incremental scrolling.
In addition, disabled the ability to move applications and windows from the task manager area to other parts of the panel with the mouse, to avoid accidentally creating launcher widgets.
Another change that stands out is the work on Wayland based sessionsWell now it is possible enable screen mirroring via a visible switch in the configurator, eliminating the need to drag one screen over another. Additionally, the preview of cursor images in the configurator has been improved.
In terms of performance, Several significant optimizations have been made, since the speed of searching for configuration files used in typical KDE applications has increased by 35% to 40%.
As well Improved responsiveness and performance of the configurator interface (System Settings), as well as the startup time of the Discover application manager has been reduced. Besides, Improvements have been made to compatibility between GPU and KWin renderers, especially when it comes to screencasting, screen sharing and window thumbnail generation.
Other changes mentioned are that The development of new features for versions 6.1 has continued of KDE Plasma and KDE Gears, which are being developed in parallel in a separate repository. For example, in KCalc (Calculator), now, next to the calculation result, the associated expression previously entered by the user is displayed, making it easier to understand the calculation process.
At Spectacle (the screenshot tool), Spectacle's screenshot interface has been enhanced with the ability to scan QR codes and open the links encoded in them, providing additional and convenient functionality.
At weather forecast widget, The weather forecast widget has been improved to now support snowfall warnings, providing users with more detailed and relevant information about weather conditions.
At configurator, On the graphics tablet settings page, the ability to change tablet parameters and stylus buttons has been added to use them as modifiers instead of triggering actions directly, increasing flexibility and customization for users who use graphics tablets with KDE Plasma.
Of the Other fixes and improvements that stand out:
- Slightly improved the performance and responsiveness of the System Settings app GUI everywhere
- Discover launch time slightly improved
- 4 very high priority Plasma bugs and 150 bugs of all types were fixed in KDE
- The preview of available cursor sizes now displays correctly when using a scaling factor greater than 100%.
- Now, when you change the name, icon, command, etc., of an app marked as a favorite in Kickoff, the changes are immediately reflected in the corresponding item. Plasma no longer needs to be restarted for settings to take effect.
- Fixed a bug that caused panels set to “Auto Hide” or in the new “Windows Dodge” mode to display incorrectly and get stuck in a non-hidden state when changing display settings in certain ways.
- Fixed several keyboard shortcut issues involving numeric keys on the numeric keypad in X11 and Wayland sessions.
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