With the past of this desk in our memories, one does not know whether to rejoice or run scared. I personally don't remember if the "minefield" that made me run away from the KDE desktop years ago was Plasma v5 or the previous one (I think the previous one), but the truth is that right now the experience is good. In a few days the next version of Plasma will arrive, and already next summer they will release Plasma 5.27, which, in theory, will be the last of the 5 series.
The next one will already be Plasma 6.0, and it is that zero-point, along with other early versions, that is a bit scary. During the Akademy 2023, which has taken place in Barcelona, it was talked a lot of Qt 6 and KDE Frameworks 6, and the only thing left to go up to 5.99 would be the desktop, Plasma. Frameworks is currently at 5.100 (it was released just yesterday), and the next version will be XNUMX. Everything invites the launch of Plasma 6.0, but it would come in the summer of 2023, or later if they decide it's not ripe enough.
Plasma 5.27 will arrive in early 2023
KDE is currently working on making that KWin works fine in Qt 6, and we all hope they succeed and don't rush into a major release like Plasma 6.0. The six of Plasma and Frameworks are put because they are built on top of the one of Qt, and that is the most delicate work.
In the latest versions of Plasma and Frameworks, KDE has focused on improving many things, and among them we have had support for Wayland. In Plasma 5.25.5, the composer works pretty well in KDE software, not quite perfect, but still usable. It is almost certain that Plasma 6.0 will follow this trend, although ugly bugs are not ruled out.
As to whether it will be worth climbing or not, only time will tell. Those who will receive it yes or yes due to its philosophy will be the users of Arch Linux, but other distributions, even if they are based on the same Arch, could delay its arrival to ensure that it does not arrive with serious problems. It's something that Manjaro already did with Plasma 5.25 or GNOME 40 (more with GNOME 40), so they will surely do it with Plasma 6.0. And, although impatience pushes, it is appreciated.
We can also be optimistic and think that we will have more advanced software and that everything will be fine, but the past makes us skeptical. Cross our fingers.